1 Kirki and the life cycle
Salamone describes kirki, usually translated “docility”, as a cultural value and sets out an “emically derived” life cycle for boys and girls. The terms include jariri (infant), karamin yaro (small boy), saurayi (young unmarried man) and budurwa (young unmarried woman), followed after marriage by ango and amarya.
2 Preparing for marriage
A saurayi learns a trade and may work ten or fifteen years to save enough for marriage; rich men marry younger. A budurwa follows her mother, learns to select material, make cloth and cook, and prepares to become an uwar gida. The bride’s kayan daki (dowry of household goods) is part of marriage for typical Hausa and comes in units of six.
3 The household
Extended or joint fraternal families often share a compound under the mai-gida. Cousin marriage is preferred, and marriage to a patrilateral parallel cousin has the most prestige. Each Hausa man may have up to four wives, ranked in the order of marriage. Among the elite, wife seclusion (kulle) is a sign of status and an ethnic boundary marker.
4 Divorce
Salamone calls divorce a common fact of life among the Hausa and notes that, in some accounts, unmarried women have a less restricted life than married ones. He cites a scholar who explains the high divorce rate by women’s easy access to the market and ability to compete with men. This is one explanation among others, and it describes a past period.
5 Mixed marriages in Yauri
In Yauri, Salamone reports that any Muslim man could marry a non-Muslim woman, but a Muslim woman could not marry a traditionalist. He counted Hausa fathers married to Gungawa (11), Kamberi (7) and Fulani (6) women among 121 parents of schoolchildren. These are local findings from the 1970s.
Key terms
- Kirki
- Docility; calm, respectful conduct.
- Saurayi
- Young unmarried man.
- Budurwa
- Young unmarried woman.
- Amarya
- Bride, young wife.
- Ango
- Bridegroom, young husband.
- Uwar gida
- “Mother of the house”.
- Mai-gida
- Male head of the compound.
- Kayan daki
- The bride’s household goods, a dowry.
- Kulle
- Seclusion of wives; “locking up”.
Questions for discussion
- How does a value such as kirki shape the way young people are expected to behave?
- Why might a family prepare goods in fixed units such as sixes?
- What are the arguments for and against seclusion as a sign of status?
- What do small local samples like Yauri’s allow us to say, and what not?