Hausa
/ˈhaʊsə
/noun (plural same or Hausas)
1A member of a people of northern Nigeria and adjacent regions.The Hausas dominate Nigeria's north, the Yorubas the southwest....
- The Africans began to see themselves not as Hausas, Igbos, or Yorubas, but as Nigerians in a common struggle against their colonial rulers.
- Ethnic competition among its major ethnic groups, namely, Hausas, Ibos, and Yorubas, as well as between the major groups and the increasingly restive minorities, remain intractable problems.
2 [mass noun] The Chadic language of the Hausa, spoken by some 30 million people, mainly in Nigeria and Niger, and used as a lingua franca in parts of West Africa.In West Africa, Hausa is often the language of choice....
- Over half the population of Niger speak Hausa while an even greater number exist in the northern states of Nigeria.
- In northern Nigeria many people who are not ethnic Hausas speak both Hausa and their own tribal language.
adjective
Relating to the Hausa or their language.Ibrahim broke with tradition again when she chose a White person - or bature, in the Hausa language - as her second husband....
- In the Hausa language, for instance, there is no word for a woman who has reached adulthood but has never been married.
- I came away with a pocketful of Hausa crosses¹ and some heavy old copper ankle bracelets which I hoped dated back to the time when copper formed the coinage of bartering.
Origin
The name in Hausa.