Peoples & Societies
Hausa
With a total population of over twenty-two million, the Hausa live primarily in northwestern Nigeria and throughout West Africa, including Niger, Cameroon, and Ghana. Hausa artists create work in a variety of media, including leather, metal, ceramics, and fiber, in which African and Islamic characteristics are often combined. Hausa men both weave and embroider the voluminous prestige gowns that have become the masculine national dress in Nigeria.
Excerpt from
Roslyn A. Walker, The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), 302.
Web Resources
- University of Iowa Museum of Art, Art & Life in Africa
Learn more about the Hausa peoples. - Smart History
Read an overview of the peoples and cultures in Africa.