| Hausa People |
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|group=Hausa |image= |poptime= 30-35 million (Newman 2000, Schuh 2001) |popplace= Nigeria , Niger , Cameroon , Benin , Ghana |rels= Sunni Islam |langs= Hausa |related= }} The Hausa are a people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger . There are also significant numbers found in northern Benin , northern Ghana , Cameroon and in smaller communities scattered throughout West Africa . They speak the Hausa Language which belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language group. Culture Kano is considered the center of Hausa trade and culture. Religion Hausa have an ancient culture that had an extensive coverage area, and long ties to the Arabs . Islam has been present in Hausaland since the 14th Century but it was largely restricted to the region's rulers and their courts. Rural areas generally retained their Animist beliefs and their urban leaders thus drew on both Islamic and African traditions to legitimise their rule. Muslim scholars of the early nineteenth century disapproved of the hybrid religion practised in royal courts, and a desire for reform was a major motive behind the formation of the Sokoto Caliphate . It was after the formation of this state that Islam became firmly entrenched in rural areas. The Hausa people have been an important vector for the spread of Islam in West Africa through economic contact, diaspora trading communities, and Jihad s. History From the sixteenth to start of the nineteenth century the Hausa Federation , a loose union of City-state s were an important regional power. They were defeated in 1810 by Usman Dan Fodio and incorporated into the Fulani Empire . The History of the Hausa people is recorded in the Kano Chronicle . See also Notes # Note|robinson141}}Robinson, David, Muslim Societies in African History (Cambridge, 2004), p141 |