Mobility in the Hausa language

Abstract

This article looks at how mobility is expressed in the Hausa language. The Hausa are a sedentary people in West Africa but mobility nonetheless still has an important place in their culture. The article begins with a description of figurative terms, whereby it is argued that such terms show how a sedentary culture regards various kinds of mobility. Following this, two regular forms of the Hausa verb are described that indicate direction to or from the speaker; this part is completed by a historical description of the verbs “come”, “go” and so on in Hausa and related languages, indicating that the latter or their “ancestors” may not have explicitly shown direction in the distant past. The question is raised as to whether, in the past, other verbs (for instance, verbs relating to migration) may also not have indicated direction; a possible cultural explanation is suggested. The final part of the article starts with a description of Hausa-speaking migrants in Hamburg and looks at various words used to refer to mobility, focusing on migration. This section concludes by showing that words and phrases referring to mobility can be literal (or lexical), implicit or figurative.