Traditional Hausa Beliefs
From Hausa Superstitions and Customs: An Introduction to the Folk-Lore and the Folk by Arthur Tremearne, 1913.
From: Unknown To: 1913 C.E.
Location: West Africa
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Hausa Superstitions and Customs: An Introduction to the Folk-Lore and the Folk by Arthur Tremearne, 1913.
It is evident from these stories, and from the account of bori, given later, that various gods or spirits of some kind were worshipped at one time, for a King of the Thicket and a King of the Heavens are mentioned (64), as well as Dodo, and spirits are said to live in the baobab and tamarind trees. Iblis and the Aljannu have been borrowed from the Arabs, and they sometimes take the place of one of the local spirits; and since witches, too, often play similar parts, it is very difficult to obtain a clear idea of what the beliefs really were. In Story 90 the three beings which assume human shape are known alternately as demons (or jinns, aljannu), or devils (iblisi), and Death and a witch are also interchangeable, as is mentioned later, while in another story (F.-L. 49)
Iblis is a female, the wife of a devil, and she sells charms to enable the holders to transform themselves into animals, &c. The demons are not always evil,for they may do a good turn to a well-behaved girl (89), though they will punish one who is forward; they have cloven feet "like the hoof of a horse." The aljannu live in families as do human beings, they work, and suffer hunger and thirst. The prevalence of the Daura legend (see page 124) in districts unconnected with each other (it existed in Songhay), has made one writer think that at some former time fetish worship extended much farther to the north than it does at present. But the Hausas themselves had no fetishes; except for the posts set up in the fields, they worshipped the spirits themselves which lived in the wells or trees.
It is only natural that there should be a belief in evil spirits in a country where every tribe is the enemy of its neighbours, for stragglers near the boundaries often disappear, and since they are probably sacrificed or eaten in secret they are heard of no more. But under conditions of increasing peace and enlightenment, these rites grow more rare, and the boundaries become more safe and defined, with the result that such disappearances can be sheeted home, usually, to some particular set of human beings, or even to individuals. These foreign spirits then retire (though those of ancestors may still remain, of course), and aid and redress are sought in the European court-house rather than in the mud-hut of the medicine-man.
At present, the vast majority of the people calling themselves Hausas are Mohammedans, but there are some communities which have remained pagan, and which keep up their pagan rites, though often much influenced by Islam, so that they now have what is “in fact, though not in name, a crude monotheism with some local spirit in the place of Allah.”
Gods and Spirits
The Magazawa (Sing., Ba-Maguje), as the Hausas are called who are still pagans, sacrifice to certain spirits, but they do not make images or fetishes of any kind. Some of these spirits are:
Kuri, a male corresponding to Pan, another name being Rago (96); he barks like a dog, and wears a goat-skin. Possibly the baboon is responsible for this idea, as he barks; or Kuri may have come from Kure, a male hyaena. The proper sacrifice to him is a young red he-goat, but he eats human beings (96).
Uwardowa, a female, the goddess of hunting, the name signifying "Forest-Mother." The appropriate offering is a red she-goat, or a red cock.
Uwargona, "Farm-Mother," or Uwardawa, "Corn-Mother," also a female, goddess of agriculture. She prefers white-coloured victims. The spirit of corn is incarnate in a bull, and at the first of the New Year a man will put on a horned mask, and dance, so as to promote a good crop.
Sa(r)rikin Rafi (or Kogi) is a water spirit, perhaps the same as Dodo, who is mentioned later. It would appear that a virgin was sacrificed to him at one time.
Ayu is a spirit living in the water, which drags people down. This name is also given to the manatee.
Uwayara is a spirit which kills the mother and her new-born child.
The echo is attributed to a supernatural agency, in fact it is sometimes called Iblis, devil, or Kurua, meaning soul, spirit, shadow.
Fatalua and Magiro are evil beings of some kind, though I could not discover the exact meaning of the words. Canon Robinson (Dictionary) gives "ghost, hobgoblin, spectre" for the former, and "ghost, evil spirit" for the latter. Kaura is said to be an evil spirit which makes men fight.
Gajjimare is the god of rain and storms, which has the shape of a snake, and is double-gendered, the male part being red, the female blue. It lives in the storm-clouds (same name), but is supposed to come out at night, and it is also said to inhabit wells, and in fact all watering-places, so a pot is kept full in every house. Gajjimare (rainbow) may be represented by the water-serpent killed in the legend of Daura before referred to, but sometimes it is said to be the husband of Uwardowa, and the father of Kuri. Other names of the rainbow are Masharua, "water drinker,” and Bakkan gizzo, "spider's bow."
Nature Myths
I thought at first that the story of the Fufunda (page 129) must have been imported because the ending has a Mohammedan flavour and Canon Robinson agreed with me, but it may not be altogether foreign, for the idea that the sun comes out of a great gate which the Heaven opens for it is known elsewhere in West Africa. At any rate, the variant to Story 95 seems to be a sun-myth, of genuine Hausa origin. There the youth and the spider pass beyond the world, and meet a witch, who tries to kill them, but her scheme is frustrated first by the crowing of a cock, then by the watchfulness of the spider. Witches or other man-eating monsters appear elsewhere as being connected with night, so the idea is not strange in the case of the Hausas.
The witch is able to kill the travellers only during the night, apparently, and although married to the youth in another version (95) she does not sleep with him, and he will not allow her even to enter his hut. The spider and the youth set out at daylight, the cock having announced the dawn, and cross a river of fire, which is probably the first flush of dawn; a river of cold water, possibly the mists; and a river of hot water, which might symbolize the warmth, and they are safe only after having done this. The razors on the horse may have been introduced merely to ''adorn the tale," or the tail may represent the bright fleeting clouds at dawn, pierced by the sun-rays.
But the night monster need not always be a female, even in Hausa tales, for in another (L.T.H., ii, 77) a princess is married to a husband who is nothing but a ball of hair, and has eaten three previous wives. She takes a number of garments with her, and when left alone with him at night, she throws some in the fire each time that " he swells up and is going to eat her." He, not to be outdone, plucks some hair out, and burns that, and just before daylight, as she destroys her last garment, he pulls off his skin all the hair having gone already and "then the girl beheld a youth, red, red (white) was he; and he was shivering with the cold." She gave him clothes to put on (apparently quite ignoring the fact that they were all burnt), and then daylight appeared, and she was safe.
In other stories, too, there seems to be a sun-myth element, e.g., where the girl is swallowed, and comes up again as shining metal (55 variant), and where the fiery Dodo catches the father and the boy, and they get out of the bag and escape (32), particularly as in the last case a witch is substituted for Dodo in a variant.
The stars are supposed to visit each other and talk (M.H. 25). The morning-star in harvest time (which Canon Robinson thinks to be the a in Aquila) is known as the eagle-star. A constellation which appears at the commencement of the rains is known as Kaza Maiyaya, the Hen with Chickens.
Some myths of the sun and moon have been mentioned already, but there are many others. In the story of the hyæna and the bitch (F.-L. 22), for instance, the latter agrees to provide meals with all her six puppies, on the former promising to give her six cubs later, but mistrusting the hyæna, the bitch kills the cubs first and hides her puppies in a tree, giving them a rope-ladder to let down for her when necessary. The hyæna, of course, tries to get at the puppies, but is not so successful as she is in the case of the girl in Story 84, and she chases the bitch until turned into wood. Another version is that the hyaena sank into the earth and was buried.
This reminds one of a Malayan story noticed by Professor Tylor, which is to the effect that both the sun and moon are women, both having stars as children. Each agreed to eat up her children, and the sun's stars perished, but the moon hid hers, and when the sun found this out she chased the moon to kill her. The chase is still going on, the sun sometimes biting the moon (an eclipse), while the sun still eats her own children (at dawn, when they fade), but the moon brings hers out only at night, when the sun is far away. I suggest that the Hausa story has a similar meaning, for as Sir Edward Tylor shows tribes far apart do have similar stories, and even Europeans preserve them. The savage regards stars as being alive, or combines groups of them into mythical creatures, and even the modern astronomer finds the myths useful in mapping his celestial globe.
The following story (M.H. 33) would not seem to support the above suggestion, but it is impossible to say if the ideas were those originally possessed by the Hausas or not. "Some men say that the moon and the sun did not quarrel before the sun gave birth. Then the sun called the moon and asked him to hold her daughter while she went and washed herself. The moon took the sun's daughter, but was not able to hold it, for it burnt him, and he let it go, and it fell to earth that is why men feel hot on earth. When the sun returned, she asked the moon where her daughter was, and the moon replied "Your daughter was burning me so I let her go, and she fell to earth." Because of that the sun pursues the moon.
"But others say that the moon's path is full of thorns, while that of the sun is sandy, and on that account the moon cannot travel quickly, as does the sun. So when the moon can proceed no farther, he gets on to the sun's path, and the sun catches him. When the sun has caught him the people take their drums" and ask the sun to spare the moon.
Judging by Indian analogies, Story 65 might refer either to the eclipse, or to the birth of the New Year, for both in the worship of Rahu and at the Holi festival, a tribal priest walks through the fire, but sufficient proof is not forthcoming.
There is some virtue in being swallowed, for an ugly girl can be brought up again in a beautiful form, "half silver and half gold" (F.-L. 48). But if animals (M. 8) or insects (87) act the part of Jack the Giant Killer, they usually seem to kill their adversaries by cutting their way out of their hosts, as does the knife sent by God to the terrified bride (75). The swallowing of the victim, and his cutting his way out are well-known incidents in eclipse stories.
Once the sun and the wind had a quarrel about which was the more powerful, and they agreed to test their powers by trying to seize by force the tobe of a traveller. The wind first caught him, and blew off his tobe, but he caught the arms and folded it up, and stooping down, avoided all further danger. Then the sun beat upon the man, and soon he was so hot that he would have thrown away his tobe, there was no escape from the heat, for he was far away from any shelter. Thus it was that the man said that the sun was the more powerful, and his opinion was accepted by the contestants.
The Next World
Dunia (world) is often used, as with us, to denote the evil principle of this life. The next world is evidently a replica of this, since the families are together (85), and live in houses, and souls there have the same anxiety about what is to be left to them as do mortals here. It is above, probably (64), but there is a heavenly night and day (85). Animals go to it too, and the inhabitants die a second time.
Souls may transmigrate from one human body to another, especially in the case of members of the same family, but they cannot enter animals. Some (Garubawa) believe that souls are good or bad, the latter being condemned to wander about, the former returning to the womb of a woman of the family, and reappearing, usually, in a grandchild of the deceased. Others (Babban Dammo) think that the souls will come to kill the living people if not placated or prevented, and so they place thorns on the corpse to prevent the soul escaping.
Tremearne, Arthur J. N. Hausa Superstitions and Customs: An Introduction to the Folk-Lore and the Folk. John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, 1913.
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