Muslims and Maguzawa In North Central State, Nigeria: An Ethnographic Comparison

Abstract

This paper attempts to compare briefly two subcultures in North Central State, Nigeria. The are a linguistic group numbering perhaps fifteen million, distributed mainly in the Northern States of Nigeria but with important concentrations in Southern Niger and, to a lesser extent, Ghana. ' The extent of ethnographic variation among Hausa-speaking groups precludes our use of the term Hausa culture: civilization, implying as it does both unity and diversity, is the more appropriate expression. In Nigeria, it is useful to speak of civilization in terms of three parallel hierarchies: depth of Islamic influence, amount of status and power, and degree of urbanization. At the top of all three hierarchies are the Hausa-ized Fulani rulers of most of Hausaland, the descendants of the conquerors of the 19th century. These ruling aristocrats are (or at least were, until quite recently) the most powerful and prestigious segment of the population, the most serious and learned Muslims, and the most urbanized of all Hausa. As one moves down the ladder, one simultaneously moves to more rural areas, to people who are less strict and less learned in Islam and lower and lower in prestige. (Bakauye or villager in is a term of abuse and contempt.) At the bottom of all three scales are the Maguzawa. Maguzawa is a term reserved, ih North Central State, Nigeria, for nonMuslim Hausa. 2 The Maguzawa do not pray, are totally rural, and rank very low in the prestige system. This paper attempts to compare ethnographically the Maguzawa living on the outskirts of a small Muslim village under the Zaria Local Authority (N. C. State) with the villagers themselves, and to explain the mutual misperceptions of these two groups. At no point is any claim made that the following details of social process and ethnographic description are necessarily valid for and/or