Predominantly Hausa-speaking communities are scattered throughout West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route north and east traversing the Sahara , with an especially large population in and around the town of Agadez. The Hausa traditionally live in small villages as well as in precolonial towns and cities where they grow crops, raise livestock including cattle as well as engage in trade, both local and long distance across Africa.
They speak the Hausa language , an Afro-Asiatic language of the Chadic group. The Hausa aristocracy had historically developed an equestrian based culture. The town predates all the other major Hausa towns in tradition and culture.
The Hausa have, in the last years, criss-crossed the vast landscape of Africa in all its four corners for varieties of reasons ranging from military service, [ 23 ] [ 24 ] long-distance trade, hunting, performance of hajj , fleeing from oppressive Hausa feudal kings as well as spreading Islam. Because the vast majority of Hausas and Hausa speakers are Muslims, many attempted to embark on the Hajj pilgrimage, a requirement of all Muslims who are able.
On the way to or back from the Hijaz region, many settled, often indigenizing to some degree. However, Hausa people are found throughout Africa and Western Asia. Cambridge scholar Charles Henry Robinson wrote in the s that "Settlements of Hausa-speaking people are to be found in Alexandria, Tripoli, [and] Tunis.
The table below shows Hausa ethnic population distribution by country of indigenization , outside of Nigeria and Niger: [ 26 ] [ 27 ]. Daura , in northern Nigeria , is the oldest city of Hausaland.
