The Maguzawa: Hausa who kept the older religion

The Maguzawa are Hausa-speaking communities who did not convert to Islam and who follow a religion centred on spirits and ancestors. Salamone and others regard them as kin of the early Hausa rulers. They are mainly farmers, live in small villages of related families and traditionally let women move more freely and take part in public life than elite Muslim Hausa women do.

Over the last century many Maguzawa have become Muslims or Christians, so the group is smaller than it once was. Their existence also reminds us that “Hausa” has never meant “Muslim” in every case.