Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T20:37:14.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Matan Bariki, ‘Women of the Barracks’ Muslim Hausa Women in an Urban Neighbourhood in Northern Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Katja Werthmann
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Muslim Hausa-speaking women in the city of Kano in northern Nigeria form a heterogeneous population, differentiated by many social, economic and individual characteristics. New concepts of community and identity beyond the level of kinship, descent and marriage have developed among women in specific urban neighbourhoods, as on a modern housing estate (bariki) for civil servants in the old city of Kano. Although the term matan bariki, ‘women of the barracks’, is synonymous with ‘prostitutes’ for most Hausa-speakers, the secluded wives of policemen living on this housing estate use it as a self-designation that signifies membership of an urban middle class. The article explores the ambivalent meanings of the term bariki as a symbol of modernity and ‘Westernisation’ as well as the relation between seclusion as a religiously defined institution and its significance as a mark of socio-economic status. By redefining the term matan bariki the women of the barracks use a strategy of distinction in order to differentiate themselves from other groups and milieux of women in Kano.

Résumé

Les femmes musulmanes de langue haoussa de la ville de Kano dans le Nord du Nigeria forment une population hétérogène, différenciée par de nombreuses caractéristiques sociales, économiques et individuelles. De nouveaux concepts de communauté et d'identité autres que le niveau de parenté, de descendance et de mariage se sont développés chez les femmes de certains quartiers urbains, comme dans une cité d'habitation moderne (bariki) de fonctionnaires dans la vieille ville de Kano. Bien que le terme matan bariki, “femmes des baraques”, soit synonyme de “prostituées” pour la plupart des personnes de langue haoussa, les épouses de policiers qui vivent retirées dans cette cité l'utilisent sous la forme d'une auto-proclamation qui signifie appartenir à une classe moyenne urbaine. L'article explore les significations ambivalentes du terme bariki en tant que symbole de modernité et d'“occidentalisation”, ainsi que la relation entre l'isolement en tant qu'institution définie religieusement et son importance en tant que marque de statut socio-économique. En redéfinissant le terme matan bariki, les femmes des baraques emploient une stratégie de différenciation afin de se distinguer des autres groupes et milieux de femmes de Kano.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , February 2002 , pp. 112 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abba, I. A. 1980. ‘Kulle (purdah) among the Muslims in the northern states of Nigeria: some clarifications’, Kano Studies 2 (1), 42–50.Google Scholar
Barkindo, B. M. 1993. ‘Growing Islamism in Kano City since 1970: causes, forms and implications’, in Louis Brenner, (ed.), Muslim Identity and Social Change in sub-Saharan Africa pp. 91–105. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Bourguignon, E. (ed.). 1980. A World of Women: anthropological studies of women in the societies of the world. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Callaway, B. J. 1987. Muslim Hausa Women in Nigeria: tradition and change. New York: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Coles, C. M. 1983. ‘Muslim Women in Town: social change among the Hausa of northern Nigeria’. Ph.D. thesis, Madison WI: University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Coles, C. M. 1991. ‘Hausa women's work in a declining urban economy: Kaduna, Nigeria, 1980–85’, in Catherine Coles, and Beverly Mack, (eds), Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century pp. 163-91. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Coles, C and Mack, , B. (eds). 1991. Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, B. 1997. Marriage in Maradi: gender and culture in a Hausa society in Niger, 1900 –89. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann; Oxford: Currey.Google Scholar
Frishman, A. 1991. ‘Hausa women in the urban economy of Kano’, in Catherine Coles, and Beverly Mack, (eds), Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century pp. 192–203. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Gaudio, R. P. 1996. ‘Men who Talk like Women: language, gender and sexuality in Hausa Muslim society’. Ph.D. Dissertation, Stanford CA: Stanford University.Google Scholar
Hill, P. 1969. ‘Hidden trade in Hausaland’, Man 4 (3), 392–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, P. 1977. Population, Prosperity and Poverty: rural Kano, 1900 and 1972. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hutson, A. 1997. ‘“We are Many”: women Sufis and Islamic scholars in twentieth-century Kano, Nigeria’. Ph.D. thesis, Bloomington IN: Indiana University.Google Scholar
Imam, A. M. 1993. ‘“If You won't do these Things for Me, I won't do Seclusion for You”: local and regional constructions of seclusion ideologies and practices in Kano, northern Nigeria’. Ph.D. thesis, Brighton: University of Sussex.Google Scholar
Jefferey, P. 1991 (1979). Frogs in a Well: Indian women in Purdah. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Knipp, M. M. 1987. ‘Women, Western Education and Change: a case study of the Hausa-Fulani of Northern Nigeria’. Ph.D. thesis. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Krings, M. 1997. Geister des Feuers. Zur Imagination des Fremden im Bori-Kult der Hausa. Mainzer Beiträge zur Afrika-Forschung 4. Hamburg: Lit.Google Scholar
Mack, B. 1981. ‘Waioiin Mata: Hausa women's oral poetry’. Ph.D. dissertation, Madison WI: University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Mandelbaum, D. G. 1988. Women's Seclusion andMen's Honor: sex roles in north India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Tucson AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Memissi, F. 1991. Geschlecht, Ideologie, Islam. Munich: Kunstmann.Google Scholar
Nast, H. 1992. ‘Space, History and Power: stories of spatial and social change in the palace of Kano, northern Nigeria, c. 1500-1990.’ Ph.D. thesis, Montreal QU: Department of Geography, McGill University.Google Scholar
Ogden, J. 1996. ‘Producing “respect”: the “proper woman” in postcolonial Kampala’, in Richard Werbner, and Terence Ranger, (eds), Postcolonial Identities in Africa pp. 165–92. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Olofson, H. 1976. ‘Yawon Dandi: a Hausa category of migration’, Africa 46 (1): 66–79.Google Scholar
Olofson, H. 1981. ‘Hausa kinship and diaspora’, Ethnos 46 (1–2), 80.Google Scholar
Papanek, H. 1973. ‘Purdah: separate worlds and symbolic shelter’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 15 (3), 289–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papanek, H. 1979. ‘Family status production: the “work” and “non-work” of women’,Signs 4 (4), 775–81.Google Scholar
Pellow, D. 1987. ‘Solidarity among Muslim women in Accra, Ghana’, Anthropos 82, 489–506.Google Scholar
Pellow, D. 1988. ‘What housing does: changes in an Accra community’, Architecture and Behaviour 4 (3), 213–28.Google Scholar
Pellow, D. 1991. ‘From Accra to Kano: one woman's experience’, in Catherine Coles, and Beverly Mack, (eds), Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century, pp. 50-68. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Pittin, R. 1979. ‘Marriage and Alternative Strategies: career patterns of Hausa women in Katsina city’. Ph.D. thesis, London: University of London.Google Scholar
Raynaut, C. 1972. Structures normatives et relations électives: études d'une communauté villageoise haoussa. Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
Schildkrout, E. 1979. ‘Women's work and children's work: variations among Moslems in Kano’, in Sandra Wallman, (ed.), The Social Anthropology of Work pp. 69-85. ASA Monograph 17. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Schildkrout, E. 1982. ‘Dependence and autonomy: the economic activities of secluded Hausa women in Kano, Nigeria’, in Edna Bay, (ed.), Women and Work in Africa pp. 55-83. Boulder CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Smith, M. F. 1981 (1954). Baba of Karo: a woman of the Muslim Hausa. New Haven CT and London: Faber.Google Scholar
Smith, M. G. 1959. ‘The Hausa system of social status’, Africa 29 (3), 239–51.Google Scholar
Smith, M. G. 1981. ‘Introduction’ to M. F. Smith, Baba of Karo: a woman of the Muslim Hausa. New Haven CT and London: Faber.Google Scholar
Starratt, P. and Sule, , B. 1991. ‘Islamic leadership positions for women in contemporary Kano society’, in Catherine Coles, and Beverly Mack, (eds), Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century, pp. 29–49. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Trevor, J. 1975. ‘Western education and Muslim Fulani/Hausa women in Sokoto, northern Nigeria’, in , G. N.Brown, and , M.Hiskett, (eds), Conflict and Harmony in Tropical Africa pp. 247-70. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Werthmann, K. 1995a. ‘Eingeschlossene Frauen? Seklusion in Nordnigeria. Ideologie und Alltagspraxis’, in Axel Fleisch, and Dirk Otten, (eds), Sprachkulturelle und historische Forschungen in Afrika pp. 327-34. Beiträge zum 11. Afrikanistentag. Cologne: Köppe.Google Scholar
Werthmann, K. 1995b. ‘Die Frauen der Barracks. Identitätsmanagement in einer nordnigerianischen Großstadt’, Sociologus 45 (2), 169–80.Google Scholar
Werthmann, K. 1997. Nachbarinnen. Das Alltagsleben muslimischer Frauen in einer nigerianischen Großstadt. Frankfurt am Main: Brandes & Apsel.Google Scholar
Werthmann, K. 2000. ‘“Seek for knowledge, even if it is in China!” Muslim women and secular education in northern Nigeria’, in Thomas Salter, and Kenneth King, (eds), Africa, Islam and Development: Islam and development in Africa—African Islam, African Development pp. 253–2. Centre of African Studies 70. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Yusuf, B. 1991. ‘Hausa-Fulani women: the state of the struggle’, in Catherine Coles, and Beverly Mack, (eds), Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century pp. 90–106. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar