POWER, AUTHORITY, IDENTITY AND PROBLEM SOLVING IN HAUSA CULTURE

For this assignment, you will not be writing an essay as such. You will be doing two things. First, you will write short answers to the four questions posed here, illustrating your answers with references to the readings. Then, you will read the hypothetical "trouble case" and write a sentence or two to analyze the ten parts of the case. You do not need to cite authorities here, but it would be useful to cite cultural norms, roles, statuses and behaviors in analyzing and explaining the case.

PART I

Answer each of these questions with a brief paragraph of analysis:

1) What is the most important thing about being Hausa from a Hausa point of view?

2) What are the bases of power and authority for a Hausa sarki?

3) What qualities are important for a person to be perceived to have in order to merit leadership and influence in Hausa society?

4) How have the Power and Authority of the Hausa chiefs (sarki) and headman (maigari) been affected by "westernization" and "modernization?"

PART II

TROUBLE CASE: Musa and the "Vacant" Land

Explain what is going on in each section in terms of how Hausas think about power and authority relationships (where possible distinguish between power and authority); how Hausas try to develop power and authority, and what strategies they use in trying to get a problem resolved as a function of their understanding of their political world.

Section 1: Musa, the head of a large household was walking out in the bush one day and noticed that a large field which had not been cultivated for a long time seemed to be very fertile. His family was so large that he needed another field, and he was determined to get it.

Section 2: Musa decided that he and his brothers and sons would simply go out to the field the next day and clear and plant it. That's what they did. But as they were working Iliya came up and asked Musa why he and his family were working on Iliya's family field. Musa and his sons got so angry at Iliya that they beat him, and he retreated.

Section 3: Iliya went straight to Sarki, who had been his father's ubangida (patron), pleading with him that he affirm Iliya's right to the field, and to make Musa stop his farming. Sarki said that he would consider the issue.

Section 4: Meanwhile, Musa who held the title of President of the local section of the dominant political party, and whose son worked as an agricultural agent for the government, went to the village headman (maigari) with his problem. He took maigari a present of a horse, and he offered to send his sons out to cultivate maigari's peanut field. Then he asked maigari to settle the dispute in his favor.

Section 5: Maigari agreed to hold a hearing ( a moot) that very afternoon. At the hearing he announced that since Iliya's family had left the field uncultivated for so long, the land had reverted back to maigari's family, since it was his family that had founded the village. As the "owner" of the land, he could give it to whomever he pleased, and so he gave it to Malam Musa.

Section 6: Illiya, still very unhappy, refused to accept Maigari's decision and went again to see sarki. He spent an hour talking about how sarki had been a good "father" to his father, and how that made Illiya sarki's son. Sarki responded that there was nothing that he could do, and he told Illiya that if he wanted to, he could go to the Sous-Prefet (the representative of the national government who had administrative responsibility for the area)

Section 7: Meanwhile, Musa went to the District town. He stopped at the office of his son who worked for the government Agricultural Service. Then he went to talk to both the President of the Party in the District and to the head of the Agricultural Service about his problem. He asked both to help. Both agreed to support his case.

Section 8: The next day Illya came to the District town as well, and asked to see the Sous-Prefet about the land dispute. The Sous-Prefet kept him waiting for several hours and eventually refused to see him. After a while a guard came out and told Illiya that he would have to deal with sarki before he could see the Sous-Prefet.

Section 9: Frustrated and angry, Illiya returned home and grumbled a lot in the village about how corrupt Maigari, Sarki, and the Sous-Prefet were, and how unfair it was to take away his family's land.

Section 10: The next day Illiya went to a man known to be a sorcerer, and asked him to give him "medicine" that would make Malam Musa's new field barren.