Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / A. Haour and B. Rossi -- 1. Hausa Identity: Language, History And Religion / Anne Haour and Benedetta Rossi -- 2. The Role Of Comparative/Historical Linguistics In Reconstructing The Past: What Borrowed And Inherited Words Tell Us About The Early History Of Hausa / Philip J. Jaggar -- 3. Ancient Labels And Categories: Exploring The ‘Onomastics’ Of Kano / Murray Last -- 4. More Rural Than Urban? The Religious Content And Functions Of Hausa Proverbs And Hausa Verbal Compounds / Joseph McIntyre -- 5. Being And Becoming Hausa In Ader / Benedetta Rossi -- 6. Kufan Kanawa, Niger: The Former Kano? / Anne Haour -- 7. Kirfi, Bauchi: An Archaeological Investigation Of The Hausa Landscape / Abubakar Sule Sani -- 8. The Hausa Textile Industry: Origins And Development In The Precolonial Period / Marisa Candotti -- 9. Clothing And Identity: How Can Museum Collections Of Hausa Textiles Contribute To Understanding The Notion Of Hausa Identity? / Sarah Worden -- 10. God Made Me A Rapper: Young Men, Islam, And Survival In An Age Of Austerity / Adeline Masquelier -- 11. Engendering A Hausa Vernacular Christian Practice / Barbara Cooper -- 12. Hausa As A Process In Time And Space / John E.G. Sutton -- Index / A. Haour and B. Rossi.

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Hausa society in West Africa has attracted researchers’ attention for decades, and has featured in the historical record for at least 500 years. Yet, no clear picture is available of the historical trajectories that underpin Hausa ethnogenesis. This book addresses this gap, deploying interdisciplinary approaches to revisit questions to which single disciplines have given partial answers, often due to the paucity of written sources for early periods of Hausa history. Contributors draw from the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, economic history, and archaeology to enquire into how a ‘Hausa’ identity took shape and what have been its changing material and cultural manifestations. The result is a compelling overview of one of the most iconic groups of modern West Africa.