Hausa << HOW sah >> are a Black people of west Africa. The approximately 7 million Hausa make up an important cultural and political group in northern Nigeria and southern Niger. Most of them are Muslims.
The first Hausa settlements were probably built during the 1000’s or 1100’s. By the 1300’s, many Hausa city-states had developed, including Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, and Zaria. These city-states became important trade centers.
The Songhai Empire controlled the Hausa states for much of the 1500’s. The states then became independent again and, in the 1600’s and 1700’s, engaged heavily in trading enslaved people and gold.
In the early 1800’s, local Fulani people who were Muslims led a revolt against the traditional leaders of the city-states. The Fulani and Muslim Hausa rebels conquered many of the city-states and established a Hausa-Fulani empire (see Fulani). The British colonized Nigeria in the late 1800’s, but the Hausa-Fulani areas remained largely self-governing. Nigeria gained independence in 1960, and the Hausa have since played a major role in Nigerian politics.
