HIBAF 2023 - Third Edition

Since the fourteenth century, many categories of people had left Hausaland and ventured into various parts of West Africa, some returned, some settled. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hausa diasporas were scattered across continents in their Zangos – settlements. Appearing as 'Afnu,' 'Husa,' 'Housa,' 'Houssa,' 'Ussa,' 'Haussa,' 'Aoussa,' or 'Kashna' in European language sources of the time.

The theme explored how the Hausa people managed to establish themselves so firmly in foreign lands thousands of kilometers away from their homes; what gave the Hausa language the ability to adopt and adapt in every nook and cranny even without political control; why do migrant traders throughout West Africa whether of Hausa origin or not use Hausa as a language.

It drove participants to take a look at culture and identity among Hausa-speaking communities from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean; from the Caribbeans to the Americas; from the Guinea Coast to Europe; across the African continent – from Sierra Leone to Sudan, Chad and Cameroon – but also in the Maghreb and the Muslim world from Tunis and Tripoli to Cairo, Jerusalem, and Makkah. It interrogated the practice of migrating – kaura – and settling in non-Hausaphone areas that has been a major feature of the Hausa people for centuries. It explored how the core of 'Hausaness' seems to have been shaped by movement and mobility.