The market cycle and the handshake

Salamone describes a layered system. Village markets meet on a three- or four-day cycle; towns hold daily markets; and these link to a large central market in the regional capital. Officials, male and female, keep order, collect dues and settle disputes, and they follow the same ranked hierarchy as the rest of Hausa society.

Much business is sealed with a handshake and one’s word rather than a written contract. Trust is organized through kinship, clientship and shared origin, which is why Hausa traders in distant cities, from Ibadan to Kumasi, have traditionally lived in close-knit quarters and helped newcomers from home.

• Patron and client. A wealthy man is expected to support clients, who give loyalty and service in return; wealth brings responsibility.
• Specialists. Weavers, dyers, tailors, butchers, blacksmiths, praise-singers and others often pass their craft from father to son.
• Work by gender. In Muslim Hausa households, men handle farming and marketing, while women cook, raise children, pursue crafts and often trade through young daughters or other intermediaries.

These descriptions come from late 20th-century fieldwork; today many women trade directly, and phone-based trade is changing the rhythms of the old markets.