Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century

Chapter 9: Hausa Women's Work in a Declining Urban Economy: Kaduna, Nigeria, 1980-1985

9 Catherine Coles Rausa Women's Work in a Declining Urban Economy: Kaduna, Nigeria, 1980-1985 This essay presents findings from research conducted in 1981 and 1985 on changes in Muslim Hausa women's income-earning activities in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna. During July and August of 1985 while in Kaduna my attention was drawn to the substantial contributions women were making to basic subsistence and household maintenance for their families. These contributions appeared to have increased markedly from levels I had observed in 1980-81. Although Hausa women have long carried out income-earning occupations (M. G. Smith 1955; Hill 1969; Simmons 1975,1976; Remy 1975; Jackson 1978; Pittin 1979a, 1984a; Schildkrout 1979, 1983; Mary Smith 1981), Muslim Hausa normative expectations associated with marriage continue to place the burden of providing food, clothing, and shelter for the family directly with the husband. In 1985, however, Kaduna Hausa women freely admitted providing cash regularly to their spouses, and their activities were a crucial source of income for the support of families. Such changes in women's behavior were necessitated by severe economic dislocation which affected Nigeria in the aftermath of the 1970s oil boom. In 1980,96 percent of Nigeria's export earnings were linked to oil production, as Funding for fieldwork and subsequent data analysis and writing were provided by the University of Wisconsin; the Department of Anthropology Goodman Fund, Dartmouth College; and Dartmouth College faculty fellowship and research funds. 163 164 Part 3. Women in the Changing Economy were 84 percent of federal revenues. Urban residents felt the effects of these increased revenues through government-sponsored development programs which improved and expanded transportation, communications, and energy systems, built new port facilities, stimulated and invested in new industries, and initiated universal primary education (Nigeria 1982; Bienen 1985:25-35; Watts 1987:9, 14-15). But this development and the distribution of revenues and incomes were highly uneven, and the boom had many negative consequences for urban dwellers (ILO 1982; Watts and Lubeck 1983; Bienen 1985: ch. 3). As Michael Watts notes: The meteoric growth of cities such as Kano, Warri, Lagos, and Port Harcourt-over 10 percent per annum during the 1970s-is astonishing in relation to the conspicuous neglect of basic urban services, low-income housing, spatial planning, and transportation . The gravitational pull of the construction boom drew thousands of migrants into sprawling and underequipped cities, with the result that by 1980 two thirds of all urban residents lived in single-room residences. The appalling condition of urban waste disposal has created an epidemiological nightmare in some cities (such as Lagos), which contain levels of general anarchy and crime almost unrivaled anywhere. (Watts 1987:61) In 1982 the international oil crisis led to an immediate cut in Nigerian oil production and a severe decline in oil revenues (from $27.4 billion in 1980 to $11 billion in 1983 [Watts 1987:59]). The civilian government of Shehu Shagari, as well as subsequent military governments, found it necessary to slash budgets, implement austerity plans, curtail imports, and drastically devalue the naira (Olayiwola 1987:126-34). In Kaduna such changes were felt by the Hausa community in increased levels of male unemployment, frozen wages for those who remained employed, late or nonpayment of salaries for teachers, rapid inflation in prices of basic foodstuffs and commodities, and frequent scarcity of many items. At various times in 1983-84 powdered laundry soap was unavailable. In 1985, 50 pound bags of rice had risen from 30-35 naira to 200 naira so that many could afford only locally made noodles in place of rice. Adult women, carrying infants and young children, went from house to house begging for food, soap and clothing. For Hausa urban dwellers in Kaduna, with limited access to land or agricultural produce that might have been obtained from kin in rural areas, maintaining a cash income was essential to basic subsistence. Hausa women's efforts to increase their income were not unwelcome to their husbands under these circumstances. Hausa women's occupational activities (indeed, their lives) in Kaduna are not necessarily representative of those of Hausa women elsewhere. Kaduna women are members of a community which originated when Hausa traders left the old city of Kano and brought their families to settle in this new location in the mid-1920s. Unlike migrant communities throughout west and north COLEslHausa Women's Work in a Declining Urban Economy...