The Impact of British Imperialism on the Landscape of Female Slavery in the Kano Palace, Northern Nigeria Author(S): Heidi J
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
International African Institute The Impact of British Imperialism on the Landscape of Female Slavery in the Kano Palace, Northern Nigeria Author(s): Heidi J. Nast Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 64, No. 1 (1994), pp. 34-73 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1161094 . Accessed: 25/10/2013 22:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press and International African Institute are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:54:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Africa 64 (1), 1994 THE IMPACT OF BRITISH IMPERIALISM ON THE LANDSCAPE OF FEMALE SLAVERY IN THE KANO PALACE, NORTHERN NIGERIA Heidi J. Nast INTRODUCTION State slavery was historically central to the stability and growth of individual emirates in the Sokoto caliphate of northern Nigeria, an area overlapping much of the linguistic sub-region known as Hausaland (Fig. 1). Male slaves, who formed the backbone of state (or emirate) military organisation and were vital to state administration, inhabited 'public' areas of state households (or palaces) whereas female slaves largely engaged in state- household reproductive activities in palace interiors. Both groups worked in tandem to ensure the stable expansion and development of the emirate. The most sophisticated and extensive slave bureaucracy was located in Kano emirate, the commercial centre of the caliphate. Following the British conquest of Kano in 1903 a series of proclamations were issued that collectively made slave trading and raiding illegal, abolished the legal status of slavery, made all children of slaves free, prohibited all transactions in slaves and ruled that compensatory payments to slave owners for slaves freed in British-sanctioned courts were unnecessary (Hill, 1977: 200; Lovejoy and Hogendorn, 1993). These proclamations had particu- larly severe repercussions at the state level, given the central role of slaves in the functioning of state households. The impact of the proclamations at the state-household level is nonetheless typically given short shrift in works dealing with the British conquest, or the impact of the proclamations is dealt with only in terms of those male slaves who had the highest state-related responsibilities, women being largely ignored (see Ubah, 1985; Fika, 1978; Paden, 1973; Backwell, 1969; Muffett, 1964). The variable rate at which slavery was eroded across gendered time and place outside the palace has also never been examined. Furthermore, works dealing exclusively with the Kano palace (Ahmed, 1988; Rufa'i, 1987) offer useful descriptive infor- mation about the present-day spatial and social organisation of the palace but do not examine how the palace landscape was produced and gendered and how it changed over time, especially following the British conquest. Some of these biases may derive partly from preconceptions that the most important players in emirate administration formed a free-born male aristoc- racy, or that it was to these persons that the proclamations were addressed and it was they who would negotiate them. Similarly, the concentration in some works mainly on palace slave men seems to stem from a sense that the state was 'male' and 'public' and therefore detached from the supporting reproductive activities in the state-household interior carried out by women. Male academics would also have had little access to palace women or their spaces, given local Islamic spatial proscriptions. Moreover, in all the works there is a degree of theoretical insensitivity to the spatial specificity of history and the importance of gender and power relations in shaping 'space'. This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:54:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 35 L The Sokoto Caliphate FIG. 1 Present-day Niger and Nigeria, showing the approximate extent of Hausalandand the Sokoto caliphate.(Compiled with modificationsfrom maps in Muffet,1971; Johnston, 1967; Last, 1967) This article addresses these biases through a spatial analysis of palace slave women's changing positions and powers in the gendered spatial division of slave labour following the British conquest.1 The first part of the article contextualises these changes through exploring the patriarchal character of pre-colonial spatial divisions in the palace and especially how these divisions shaped and reflected traditional social divisions in the secluded female domain. There follows a discussion of the impact of colonial directives on this traditional order and particularly of how the directives worked through and restructured the gendered spatial divisions in ways that furthered This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:54:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 36 PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO patriarchal gender relations. The status of female slavery in post-colonial Kano, especially concubinage, is also explored. Most of the spatial data presented in the article were collected during a two-year field study of the Kano palace (1988-90), a high-walled village- like compound in the south-eastern part of Kano city (Fig. 2). At present the palace accommodates well over 1,200 persons (Rufa'i, 1987) and measures about 540 m in length and 280 m in width. The data were obtained using a variety of methods. These included analysis of aerial photographs and settlement patterns, mapping the floor topographies of palace build- ings, field identification of palace features visible in archival photographs, field mapping of historical and present-day sites with palace community members, historical and linguistic analysis of slave titles and places and the culling of spatial data from secondary sources and archival materials. Field data were then interplayed with each other and with ethnographic field data to derive the changing orientation and layout of the palace during the period under study (Nast, 1992). Co-operants (informants) played a central part in the field research. Several people accompanied and assisted me in mapping the palace, while FIG.2 The Kano palacec. 1900,located in the south-easternportion of the walled city nearthe centralmosque and market.The palacemeasures about 540m in length. The formercity walls date to betweenthe twelfth and fourteenthcenturies. The outermostwall is piercedby city gates and was built in the seventeenthcentury. (Adaptedfrom maps in Barkindo,1983: 1, 22; Ubah, 1985:88) This content downloaded from 129.128.216.34 on Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:54:39 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 37 others helped to identify historical features in archival photographs and in the field. In addition, interviews and discussions (individually and in groups) with many persons in the palace community helped me to establish historical and contemporary slave roles and titles. Sorting the 'facts' from the 'fiction', however, was a complicated and lengthy process involving numer- ous interpretive conversations with co-operants, friends and colleagues. This is because the gender, 'class' and age of co-operants textured their experiences and narratives, aspects that I have tried to employ critically throughout the text. One 'author' is cited, however, where the latter demon- strated that s/he had particularly personal experiences surrounding an event or place.2 THE PRE-COLONIAL SPACES OF SLAVE WOMEN Prior to colonial rule there were three main palace slave realms, delineated spatially by a gendered division of labour (Fig. 3). Male slaves, many of whom wielded substantial state authority, inhabited northern and southern slave areas. Those in the north were largely involved in state adminis- tration, while those in the south safeguarded the emir3 and governed the collection and distribution of foodstuffs from the 'outside' to those inside the palace.4 Female slaves (and, to a much less extent, eunuchs) served the emir and/or his freeborn secluded female family members and pre-pubescent children in the secluded palace interior, known as the cikin gida (lit. inside of the house). Two main categories of female slaves inhabited the cikin gida, each of which carried out different kinds of work within the overall female slave division of labour. Concubines, or sadaku, formed the first category and were awarded relatively large living areas in the cikin gida. The second group . - ..i1 ^ ^^^^ .i -. ... ... NORTHERN :: THE HOU:'SEHOLD.::IN:SI DE " C::': : I-I:^ T*^ 1:C K:1 ^ DMI r"::::f: i::C: :::if:::::: ::::: :t:::: :f::: f ::: t: :-:::: -: : SOUTHERN "MALE ' ' - 4 --t0 -' -SL/AVE SLAVE REALM . .... LABYRIN 1 X ^ a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.....- N. LABYRINTH l - : i :: : - . .. ... .. -.-.- L . .. , . : FIG.3 Plan of the Kano palace c. 1900, showingthe threemain slave realmsthat define the genderedspatial division