Who are the Hausa? The Hausa comprise the largest ethnic group in West Africa and the fourth largest Muslim block in the world.[1] They live primarily in Nigeria and the Republic of Niger, but they can also be found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Congo, Eritrea, Germany, Ghana, Sudan and Togo. They exist in great numbers in several of these countries, and Hausa is even used as a trade language in the northern parts of Ghana and Benin in addition to northern Nigeria and Niger where it is an official language.[2] In 1991, SIL reported 18,525,000 Hausas in Nigeria alone and a total population of 24,162,000 in all countries.[3] Some sources report current Hausa populations as being almost 30,000,000[4] – a figure that is not at all unreasonable.

            Hausas have a long history of survival and even abundance in the African Sahel, just south of the Sahara desert. They are known for their historical, walled cities and their trade in all kinds of goods. According to one source, these agriculturalists migrated south from the Air Mountains and densely settled the areas of modern day northern Nigeria, where water was more readily available. Walled cities such as Kano, Katsina and Zaria were formed for the protection of the rulers, called sarkin or sarki, and an aristocracy formed around them. Thus, wealthy Hausas controlled the land around the cities and peasants produced crops and goods. This peasant society allowed the Hausa to produce surplus goods to be traded in other regions. By the fifteenth or sixteenth century, Hausas were traveling long distances to trade their goods and buy others such as Kola nuts, which were very important in gift giving as well as making oaths.[5]

            Interregional trade and contact with merchants from the Middle East introduced Islam to the Hausa. In fact, several African leaders were embracing Islam from as early as the ninth century. Many of these did so for business or political reasons, and the Hausa rulers were no exception. Animistic practices were not done away with, but Islam was allowed to enter.[6] The laxity of the Hausa leaders in regard to their Muslim faith caused them to be a target of the Islamic purist, Uthman dan Fodio, as he waged several jihads in West Africa at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Fulani reformer eventually conquered the Hausa states one-by-one and placed Fulani rulers called emirs over each. The most powerful emir was the Sultan of Sokoto, with whom power remained until British rule at the end of the century.[7] While many missionaries did come to Nigeria along with British occupation, most of these settled in the South, leaving Islam to flourish in the North. Emirates still exist to day as the British largely left them in tact, even ruling through the already existing system.

            At the point of European dominance, Hausa history becomes somewhat more difficult to reconstruct. Nigeria and Niger are the two primary countries where Hausas are found. The British colonized Nigeria, while the French occupied Niger. This alone causes the history of Nigerian Hausas to be different from that of Nigerien Hausas. Overall, Hausas have been a thriving, industrious people in one of the harshest areas on earth. They have been developers and traders operating in an ever-changing socio-political environment.

            Concerning religion, the Hausa were traditionally animists until their leaders adopted Islam. Finally, after the jihads of Uthman dan Fodio, Islam became their primary religion. However, as one author has noted, “It is sometimes hard to disentangle indigenous religions and mainstream world religions, because many Africans do not practice one religion exclusively[8]…” It is impossible to say exactly where any given Hausa person falls on the scale of adherence to either Islamic, animistic or Christian practices and beliefs. As a general classification, one might deem the majority of Hausas as Folk Muslims. It is difficult to discern from afar or to say as a whole which worldview (animistic or Islamic) exerts more influence over the individual.

Status of the Hausa Church

            The Holy Spirit has drawn some Hausas to faith in Christ. Nigeria, where the majority of Hausas are located, has a long history of missionary work and one missions organization reports that there are 36,000 believers among the almost thirty million Hausas.[9] If that statistic is accurate, it amounts only to slightly more than a tenth of one percent of the total Hausa population that are Christians. Lest we consider this larger than it is, we must consider the following: 36,000 Hausa believers is slightly less than one Hausa Christian for every Southern Baptist church in the United States. This should help us keep in perspective the amount of access that Hausas have to the Gospel compared to those in America.

This author is aware of Christian meetings taking place with large numbers of Hausas present, and efforts are being made to equip and challenge them to the end of reaching their own people with the gospel (certainly many of them share this passion and vision). However, the task looms large, as there are many areas in Hausaland where little or no Christian witness exists, let alone strategic efforts in evangelism or church planting. Please, if you are a follower of Christ, consider it worth your time to pray for the Hausa. Pray for a true and mighty harvest among them. Pray for those who have boldly followed Christ at risk to their own wellbeing. Pray for those who are laboring to see the kingdom of God advanced in this area of the world.