International African Institute

The Impact of British on the Landscape of Female Slavery in the Palace, Northern 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

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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 of northern Nigeria, an area overlapping much of the linguistic sub- 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'.

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L The Sokoto Caliphate

FIG. 1 Present-day 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 - like compound in the south-eastern part of Kano (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 , 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 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

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FIG.3 Plan of the Kano palace c. 1900, showingthe threemain slave realmsthat define the genderedspatial division of labour, two peripheral'male' realmsand a central'female' realm (the cikingida). See Fig. 4 for a detailedreconstruction.

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 38 PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO comprised domestic slaves made up ofjakadu or guardswomen-messengers, and kuyangi or menial labourers. The living and working places of these women are discussed in detail below.

Sadaku Approximately fifty sadaku, or concubines, lived in the palace at the turn of the twentieth century.5 The ownership of such a large number of concubines reflected the emir's political strength and personal virility.6 Moreover the emir could also give one of his domestic female slaves into concubinage in order to cement political ties between the emir and his noblemen.7 During pre-colonial times, concubines were obtained through war or as gifts from wealthy or powerful men. The could also choose concubines from among the unmarried female slave population of the extended royal house- hold. In all cases the girl had to be a slave, that is, a prisoner of war8 or a matrilateral descendant of a slave. Unlike other slave girls, however, those chosen as concubines were secluded in the cikin gida. In fact the spatial organisation of the cikin gida primarily structured and was structured by the social organisation of concubines. The majority of sadaku in the Kano palace lived in eight densely populated 'wards' or unguwoyi (sing. unguwa) consisting of separate and largely unwalled 'places' or wajeje (sing. waje) of co-resident concubines. These included Yelwa (lit. abundance), Unguwar Uku (lit. ward of the three), Unguwar Bare-bari (lit. the ward of the Bornoans), Dutsen Babba (lit. the big hill), Kacako, Ka-iya (lit. you can do it), Nassarawa (lit. victories), and Garko (Fig. 4).9 The names of the last four wards may refer to of the same name that were conquered during and after the religious war (jihad) at the start of the nineteenth century, some of the female captives presumably being made into royal concubines. A special sub-group of concubines called 'yan soro (lit. children of the [emir's]room) lived in small rooms (taskoki) inside the emir's personal quar- ters known as Babban soro (lit. the big soro) and Soron malam to the south (lit. the room of the Islamic scholar). 'Yan soro oversaw the maintenance and upkeep of the emir's rooms and also summoned concubines on behalf of the emir (Fig. 4). The 'yan soro were the least experienced and typically the youngest concubines. In many ways their stay inside the emir's quarters served as an intensive training period. Under the tutelage of one of the leading title-holding concubines, Mai-soron baki (below), they learned the intricacies of palace protocol, how to administer tausa (traditional massages given to the emir) and how to maintain the emir's personal belongings. When these women bore the emir's children, however, they typically requested to be allowed to enter one of the concubine wards so that they could attend to their families better and become integrated into more 'adult' concubine activities. In this way, newly trained concubines, released from training, provided space for new recruits. Other concubines, who had originally arrived as companions and menial labourers (kuyangi) of a new wife, as gifts from her father, stayed in the waje (lit. place) of their mistress as her domestic servants. The four wajeje (pl.) of wives were Bayan dan soro (lit. behind the son of the soro), Sararin garke (lit. field of the cattle herd), Sokoto and UnguwarFulanin Uwargida.l?

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 IEEIMO g iaked. SHEKAR YAMH A , concubkine . wive *mi.

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his third wife died her e was made into an ungua or ward for concubines, at which time it was presuaby also renamed Sararin garke. Abbashis third never wife remarried,died her waje probably was made owing into in anpart unguwa, to a large or ward influx for of concubines,concubinespalacse tintoat which he time itthat was increased presumably the alsodensity renamed of populatio Sararin ingarke. he women's domain. The compound of 'Yar Fanisau also dates from the time of Abbas and is discussed in the text.

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Royal concubines were organised into a complex hierarchy that was collec- tively responsible for the administration and reproduction of the royal household (Fig. 5). Most administrative matters in the cikin gida were over- seen by three senior title-holding concubines, Uwar soro, Mai-soron baki and Mai-kudandan (below; see also Rufa'i 1987). A special group of concubine delegates, iyayen wajeje (lit. women of the places), one selected from each unguwa and waje, made up a lower cadre of administrators or managers. Most of the heavier kinds of labour were carried out by slave women. Wives were generally treated as a leisure class and engaged in none of the communal labour, except for the rotational cooking of the emir's food, which is prescribed by Islamic law. Uwar soro (lit. woman of the [emir's] room) was the most powerful title- holding concubine and was ultimately responsible for all concubines, includ- ing other title-holders.1 Uwar soro also served as a kind of personal secretary to the emir. Every day she met him on a formal basis in a special room within his quarters called Soron baki (lit. the room of the mouth). There, after formally greeting him, she relayed news and messages from the female inhabitants (including births and deaths). Any replies, instructions or news from the emir to the cikin gida inhabitants would then be relayed only through her. It was also her duty to divvy up gifts and meats sent to the women on behalf of the emir (and other persons), the goods being distrib- uted to the royal 'wards' and 'places' through the 'women of the places'. She also counselled the emir on matters of state and was in charge of cooking for (and thereby impressing) important guests of the emir.12 The second senior concubine held the title Mai-soron baki (lit. master of Soron baki), which derived from the fact that she lived inside Soron baki.13 The latter was a round room that formed part of the emir's large personal compound known as Babban soro, for which she was entirely responsible (Fig. 4). Her responsibilities in and related to Babban soro were many. She saw that his quarters were kept clean, for example, and that the emir was well served, especially while inside Soron baki, the main audience chamber for women. Every Friday, under the guidance of Mai-soron baki, all royal women formally proceeded to the audience chamber to pay homage to the king, iyayen wajeje leading royal wives and concubines from their places and wards in order of their respective social rank (Hajiyya 'yar Mai-tilas and Gogon Kahu, 25 August 1989). Perhaps the most important and 'pub- lic' work of Mai-soron baki was requesting audiences with the emir on behalf of women and then formally escorting them to Soron baki upon the emir's consent.14 In all her duties she was assisted by 'yan soro, whom she trained and administered (above; Fig. 5). Moreover she and the 'yan soro were those sent to retrieve some of the more important armaments stored in the upper storey of one portion of the emir's chambers during time of war. The third senior concubine supervised grain distribution and held the title Mai-kudandan(lit. master of kudandan).According to female palace inform- ants, kudandantypically refers to a kind of mud hut in which grain is stored and which rests upon large stones to protect the contents from the encroach- ments of insects. Mai-kudandanin fact controlled the grain contents of such a structure known explicitly as kudandan,sited near the central palace kitchen (Soron tuwo) in Yelwa (Figs 4 and 5; Nast, 1992; Rufa'i, 1987).

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 concubines * * * domestic slave men domestic slave women ? probable hierarchical relation

UWARKUYANGI SARKINHATSI * MAI-KUDANDAN MAI-SHANU BABBAN JAKA- MAI-SORONBAKI > heavy labour grain procurement grain distribution pastoral duties DIYA upkeep of emir's M I i | I security, courrier personal o __ GALADIMA+? I *-- ^ I = = ! chambers RUMBU IYAYENWAJEJE I KUYANGI . administrators, untitled aassistants ?. especially food ' J A KAOU 'YAN SORO SARKIN TSANI distribulton z 0I

FIG. 5 The slave labour hierarchy under the head concubine, Uwar soro. (Adapted with substantial modification from Rufa'i, 1987: 119).

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Mai-kudandanworked closely with Sarkin hatsi (lit. king of the grains), a title-holding slave from the southern male slave community. He, along with titled male slave assistants, received and organised grain taxes and grain from royal estates that arrived at the palace in unthreshed bundles (dami) and which was stored in granaries in the northern periphery of the cikin gida (Fig. 4). King of the Grains (through his assistants) daily distributed grain bundles to slave women who threshed the grains in the western fields of the cikin gida. Concubines paid some of these women for their services, which suggests that concubines may have had income independent of the emir. Afterwards, the grain was brought to Mai-kudandan in the central concubine ward of Yelwa, who distributed them to cikin gida inhabitants through iyayen wajeje, one sent from each ward and place. Grain allocations were carefully measured out, using three different sizes of calabash. Wives, upon receiving the flour portions, would direct resident concubines as to what to cook for those in their section (Mai-daki and Hajiyya Abba, 5 September 1989, 24 October 1989). Slave women and iyayen wajeje were also responsible for collecting and distributing milk each morning from the title-holding male slave, Mai-shanu (lit. master of the cattle) and his untitled male slave assistants, who daily milked over 100 royal cattle in the easternmost palace fields (Shekar gabas; Fig. 5). The cattle daily arrived from the House of Victories (Gidan Nassarawa), a nearby pastoral slave estate set up to serve palace needs. The cattle were typically tethered at night inside concubine wards in the eastern part of the cikin gida and after milking in the early morning were led southward through the southern cikin gida, back to the House of Victories (Gogo Madaki, Gogon Ita, Gogo, Kahu 23, 27 August 1989). Most flour and milk were used inside the communal palace kitchen, Hall of Porridge (Soron tuwo), located in the central concubine ward of Yelwa, the hub of palace food production and distribution (Fig. 4). Four special classes of food were cooked: that of the malamai (Islamic teachers), 'yan Fulani (including royal children and elderly or divorced women of royalty who chose to reside in the palace cikin gida), male and female slaves; and guests of the emir. The food for each group of people was of different quality and prepared by different categories of women. Only wives and concubines prepared food for the emir's special guests, concubines cooked for the 'yan Fulani, slave women and concubines prepared the food of slaves, and slave women cooked for the malams. The foods were made in twelve large clay pots which were differentiated on the basis of which 'class' of person the food belonged to. Thus the food of the emir's children (part of the 'yan Fulani) was cooked separately from that of the magina (traditional slave builders living outside the palace), whose food was separate from that of stable slaves, eunuchs, malamai, slave women, and so on. At the turn of the century the concubines and kuyangi were probably cooking for well over 1,000 persons every day. Besides being the site of the palace kitchen, Yelwa was the political centre of the cikin gida. Uwar soro and Mai-kudandanlived there and Mai-soron baki had a second home near by, abutting Yelwa to the south for her children. Yelwa may also have been a religious centre in that it contained special quarters for female palace spirits, though it is unclear whether or

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 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 43 not these spirits were Islamic (aljannu; Rufa'i, 1987) or pre-Islamic (iskoki; Nast, 1992). To enter the ward one had to pass through an entrance hall that additionally served as a formal checkpoint guarded over and lived in by the administrative head of all palace slave women, Mother of Slave Women (Uwar kuyangi). Near by was the compound of the governess of guardswomen, the Senior Guardswoman (Babban Jakadiya), undoubtedly enhancing security in the area (Fig. 4). In the next two sections we discuss the different roles played by the kuyangi and jakadu and their 'spaces' within the cikin gida.

Kuyangi Kuyangi were mostly daughters of slaves already owned by the emir or royal women, or were female prisoners of war (first-generationslaves) who had not been chosen by the emir as concubines. There were probably not more than sixty or seventy kuyangi inside the cikin gida just prior to the British conquest, all of whom were under the jurisdiction of Uwar kuyangi. Kuyangi formed the lowest-ranking labour group, who were assigned the most strenuous and the most spatially extensive labour tasks. They threshed palace grain in the western open fields of the cikin gida, for example, and they ground grain used by concubines in food production, an activity typically done in the open courtyards of residences belonging to wives and con- cubines. Washing clothes, a labour-intensive task accomplished in open areas, was also done by them. Moreover, kuyangi (and jakadu; see below) were the ones sent outside the cikin gida to relay messages to persons in other parts of the palace, city, emirate and so on, and to run market- and other errands. The official duties of kuyangi and jakadu allowed them access to all palace areas except the personal quarters of the emir. The ability of these slave women to go 'outside' was part of a general status hierarchy partly reflected in spatial terms, the size of a realm being inversely related to status. Wives, having the greatest formal status, for example, were awarded the least spatial freedom, each being restricted to the walled confines of her personal compound. Concubines, the next highest status group, lived communally and were allowed to move anywhere within the residential areas of the cikin gida, while female slave women had no formal residence of their own and were allowed to go 'outside'. The different spatial prerogatives of these three female 'classes' were tied in part to safeguarding the royal paternity of the emir's children (see Nast, 1993b). Most kuyangi were probably young girls who were strong enough to thresh and grind and old enough to know their way around the palace and city.15As domestic slave women they would have married slave men in either of the male slave realms in the palace or from other royal slave estates. Marriage- related duties would have necessitated that kuyangi should live (at least on a part-time basis) with their husbands and families outside the cikin gida. At other times they would have slept and eaten in entrance halls or rooms of the concubines or wives whom they attended. They were also awarded small farm plots in the western palace fields (Shekar yamma), the entrance to which was guarded by jakadu, discussed below ('yar Kutisa, 1 September 1989).

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Jakadu Jakadu (f. sing. jakadiya), administered by Babbanjakadiya, were probably no more than twenty-five in number at the turn of the century (Fig. 5). Jakadu were generally older women who had formerly served as kuyangi and who were members of well-established slave families, that is, they were at least second-generation slaves. Most had experienced marriage and had had children, traditional prerequisites of adulthood. Their age and experi- ence signalled a kind of maturity, discipline and toughness which was required of them in their duties. The relative lack of external domestic demands also made it more possible for them to dedicate their lives to their work. Such dedication was necessary because they lived in the passageways they guarded, meeting demands on their time and space that would have overwhelmed younger women with small children. Jakadu generally worked alone and guarded different kinds of areas in and near the cikin gida. One guardswoman was posted to the entrance hall of each place (waje) and ward (unguwa), running errands and carrying messages for the royal inhabitants therein (Rufa'i, 1987). They would also have guarded against illicit entry by men. Two other guardswomen policed passageways leading into at least two backyard-like areas bordering the cikin gida to the east and west known as Field of the West (Shekar Yamma) and Field of the East (Shekar Gabas). The two areas were accessible only through these passageways, for different and strategic reasons. The guardswoman assigned to Shekar Yamma monitored the moods of spirits believed to inhabit the fields, in order to safeguard the well-being of kuyangi who farmed there. Each kuyanga in fact had to request permission from the guardswoman to enter her plot ('yar Kutisa, 1 October 1989). The eastern passageway, on the other hand, provided exclusive access to the concubine wards of Garko and Unguwar Bare-bari from the emir's personal quarters. The jakadiya guarding this passageway delivered messages to nearby con- cubines on behalf of the emir and escorted concubines to the emir's personal quarters. Both peripherally placed women would also have guarded against illegal movements made by palace women leaving the cikin gida or outside men attempting to enter. These guardswomen lived and slept in their passageways, known as sorayenjakadu (halls of the guardswomen). Other jakadu watched over several clusters of granaries in the northern part of the cikin gida, which contained grain levies and grain grown on royal slave estates (above). The grain received included millet, guinea corn, rice and wheat, each type stored separately (Mai-daki, Gogon Ita Dambatta, Gogo Gandi, 1 September 1989). A north-easterly cluster of granaries had no retaining wall and the guardswoman slept on the ground. The openness of the facilities perhaps aided the surveillance of the area by other women in the cikin gida, as a means of ensuring that grain was not stolen or hidden. In contrast, one cluster of granaries in the north-west was surrounded by a high retaining wall with an entrance hall known as the Hall of Grain (Soron hatsi), where a guardswoman lived. There is some evidence that these granaries were managed by mallams who distributed their contents to the poor on a discretionary basis. A second granary cluster close by to the east was guarded by jakadu who lived in small huts nearby. Lastly, guardswomen were posted to six passageway checkpoints in two

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 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 45 labyrinths bordering the cikin gida to the north and south (Figs. 3 and 4). The labyrinths, made up of the guarded passageways, walled courtyards, open spaces and buildings, were strategic realms associated with the state and leisure activities of free royal men. Large royal stables were located here, along with places used by the emir for Qur'anic study, a dining room for royal male children and , and several court chambers used both as courts of Islamic law and for state council meetings with and slave men. Any man or woman visiting these 'male' areas or the cikin gida had first to greet and pass the inspection of each of these jakadu before going on, a process that typically entailed giving them some kind of tribute. The checkpoints thereby helped maintain the security of 'male' areas of state and the hidden female domain. The jakadu also ensured that important protocol was observed, such as keeping persons out of the Qur'anic study hall or court chambers when the emir was present, and making certain that those passing through the area removed their shoes, a sign of respect to the emir. Their presence presumably also deterred royal wives and concubines from slipping out of the royal secluded domain. Lastly, at least two of these women's chambers served state functions. The second northernmost cham- ber doubled as a waiting hall for nobility attending the daily court of the emir, leading to its popular designation, Soron hakimai (Hall of nobility), while the second floor of the northernmost jakadiya's chambers doubled as a small arsenal (cf. Rufa'i, 1987;Ahmed, 1988). Eachjakadiya nightly secured and locked the gates leading into and out of her labyrinth passageway. Portals leading into and out of labyrinth passageways were monumental in size, allowing the emir, princes and nobility to enter and leave the various 'male' areas of state (the court, study, stable, etc.) on a regular basis without dismounting. The portals of guardswomen's chambers in the secluded female domain were, by contrast, scaled down to allow only human passage, reflec- ting the fact that royal women were not expected to have a high degree of mobility or independent access to the stables or the outside. The living quar- ters of guardswomen in the labyrinth were also more private than those in the cikin gida, consisting of recessed rooms attached to, and forming part of, the passageway they guarded. The need for privacy was presumably greater for these women, given their location in a high-traffic 'public' sphere. It is surmised that the public profile and state-related functions of these women and their places gave them heightened prestige and economic and political power.

THE IMPACTOF BRITISHIMPERIALISM ON THE 'SPACES'OF THE ROYALSLAVE WOMEN Following the conquest of Kano, the social fabric and spatial organisation of palace slavery underwent a striking transformation. This transformation resulted from the working out of colonial directives affecting slavery within the personal terrain of the emir. There were, however, striking dissimilarities between the changes effected in female versus male slave realms. The erosion of slave women's places occurred much later than that of men's and for different reasons, particularly during and after the reign of Emir Usman (1919-26). These disparities derived from the patriarchal structure of both traditional and colonial rule and are discussed more fully below.

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The palace take-over and the erosion of male slave institutions and 'spaces', 1903-19 The conquest of Kano city in 1903 was decisive in establishing British colonial rule in northern Nigeria and was finalised with the take-over of the Kano palace. According to Colonel Morland, who led the attack, he and his troops entered the city through a cannon-made breach in a south- westerly city wall (Kofar Kabuga), whereupon they proceeded through the largely uninhabited portion of the city to the palace. Thereafter: Afterforming up nearthe inhabitedportion, no furtheropposition being met with, I marchedand occupiedthe King's palace, which is a large series of buildings covering50 acres, and surroundedby a high wall, and is in itself a stronghold. [In Muffet,1964: 92] At the time Emir Aliyu (1894-1903) was returning to Kano from Sokoto, where he had gone to greet the new caliph or Sarkin Musulmi (King of Muslims), a close relative and friend. Co-operant data indicate that the British-officeredWest African Frontier Force (WAFF), made up of Hausa mounted infantry and foot soldiers, attacked the palace from the north-east, from where they eventually entered and made their way into the cikin gida. Near the northern edge of the cikin gida there was a 'last stand' in which all the emir's forces left behind to the defend the palace were killed (cf. Fika, 1978).16 The soldiers then went on a mild rampage. Prayer mats were burned, the large clay cooking pots and calabashes of the women's sections were shattered or broken, a number of the massive hand-carved wooden doors were removed and carried away, and many compounds were burned or vandalised (Mai-daki, April 1989). Upon hearing the news that Kano had fallen, Emir Aliyu, who had been en route to Kano city, abandoned the returning army. He was later captured and handed over to the British, whereupon he was exiled, along with members of his royal household, to Yola and, later, Lokoja.7 Meanwhile the palace was made the temporary headquarters of the British, presumably because it was the most easily defensible area within the city and because of its symbolic importance, both to the population at large and to the British. The palace also provided a convenient place to quarter the WAFF soldiers, to keep them from causing any disturbances in the city. In Colonel Morland's words, 'All soldiers and carriersbeing quartered inside the King's palace, I am able to prevent them getting loose in the . No town taken by assault has ever been less looted and injured' (in Muffett, 1964: 92). Sir Frederick Lugard (who arrived shortly after the conquest) set up his office in one of the rooms of Babban soro, formerly the personal quarters of the emir (Fig. 4 and Plate 2). Abbas, the brother of Emir Aliyu, who had surrenderedwith his followers outside the city walls, was seen to be more conciliatory towards the British and was therefore made emir.18 Abbas was compelled to swear formal allegiance to the King of England and was given a staff of office in a British- ritual of installation enacted in the southern labyrinth, formerly a political and military stronghold of the palace.19 The location of the ceremony signalled the comprehensiveness of the British conquest and the related right of Britain to enter and control the political and military

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PLATE1 The cikin gida from Shekar yamma in 1903. The wall in the foreground is the wall that separatesYelwa from Shekaryamma; the second row of buildingsis inside Yelwa;the third row is part of the emir's personalquarters called Babban soro. The view appearsgreatly foreshortened by the cameraas comparedwith the actualdistances involved. The thatchedroofs weretypical of the period;during the reignof AbdullahiBayero all roofs were rebuiltin mud. (By courtesyof the Royal GeographicalSociety, London) realms. Abbas was allowed to take up residence in the palace with his house- hold and to head a colonially appointed hierarchy of 'native' officials, the Native Authority. Both of these moves made it seem to the populace at large and in Britain that tradition and traditional rulers were being honoured.

PLATE2 Lugardat work in his officeinside the palace.(By courtesyof the Royal GeographicalSociety, London)

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Under this veil of apparent continuity, key slave institutions and powers in the palace were eroded. In large part this resulted from the 'incomplete- ness' of the slave proclamations issued in 1901, 1904 and 1907, which collec- tively never formally prohibited slavery (Hill, 1977; Ubah, 1985; Lovejoy and Hogendorn, 1993). There were also too few British to enforce such measures, and slaves formed a large and important part of Hausa life. Removing slavery all at once would therefore have destabilised the state. Moreover the British needed the aristocracy, first to justify and legitimate their presence in the region and secondly as 'indirect Rulers' or administrators/ negotiators of imperial policies. Without palace slavery they knew there could be no aristocracy, or at least not one which would be effective for their purposes. Therefore they used various institutions of royal slavery for their own ends. The first institutions which they used and which were subsequently eroded were those involving slave men. The royal slave army was dissolved by dismissing many resident slave soldiers from the palace and confiscating the munitions stored in the cikin gida arsenal. The personal bodyguard of the emir was also disbanded.21Then, in 1908, the British seized the political opportunity presented by the considerable state power wielded by certain male slaves to undermine the authority of the aristocracy. The important state power wielded by two of the most influential male slaves in the north- ern male slave realm had been increased during the British-enforced reloca- tion of the (male) nobility to the countryside. The authority of the emir was also weakened by making one of these slaves (dan Rimi, a high-ranking and titled official) Waziri, the chief adviser to the emir, a position traditionally filled by a freeman and chosen by the emir. The pre-empting of the emir's authority and the consequent rise in dan Rimi's power (especially among slaves) led to high political tensions inside the palace. Dan Rimi soon moved out of his extensive premises inside the palace (see Fig. 4, in north-western corner) to a large house within the city. This entailed the evacuation of at least 150 people from the area, including his large extended family and male 'client' slaves and their wives. Other measures enacted by the British transformed the power of other men in male slave realms. The palace allegiance and responsibilities of Mai-shanu (lit. master of the cattle), for example, were decreased in 1908 when he was renamed Mai-unguwa(lit. master of the ward) and placed under the jurisdic- tion of an official charged with administering city affairs (Giginyu, 1981). His primary role was now to settle disputes in GandunNassarawa (which he had once 'ruled') and to administer male slaves in the palace on behalf of the colonial government. His co-optation into the British-created system of city ward administration also undermined the authority of the most power- ful slave overseer in the palace, under whose jurisdiction he had once lived, Shamaki. Shamaki was particularly vulnerable in the colonial order of things because one of his main functions had been to prepare the emir and his armies for war, a prerogative no longer exercised by traditional auth- orities. Shamaki also managed male slavery, an institution that was now dying out. Even more vulnerable to colonial changes were the approximately thirty eunuchs who lived in both male slave realms. During the nineteenth century

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 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 49 eunuchs carried out either military and informal state advisory activities or domestic duties. Moreover arms production facilities near the palace were managed by eunuchs. These men represented a centuries-old institution but, with the outlawing of slavery, they were the last of their kind. Unlike the male children of female slaves, who might inherit male slave status and roles in the palace, eunuchs had no progeny to carry on their tasks or to preserve their tradition.

Declining grain tax revenue and the growth in concubinenumbers, 1903-19 In contrast to the direct involvement of male slaves in many of the political changes occurring in their domains, slave women were largely peripheral to the political process. They had little power to confront or negotiate colonial directives directly and, as such, were marginalised from what were largely male-wrought colonial changes negotiated by both British and Hausa men. In 1904, for example, the British colonial government claimed a quarter of local taxes (paid in grain and cowries) as their own, increasing the percentage in 1906 to 50 per cent. The amount of grain entering the palace grain treasury consequently decreased. Then, in 1906, the British decreed that taxes, which were levied only on men, were to be paid in sterling only. Because most people had little access to British currency, it was agreed that the emir could temporarily collect his own portion of taxes in cowries and grain (NAK/ SNP7-8/1538/1908; Bello, 1982). Nonetheless, under British administrative pressure, and as a result of other political and economic changes, especially the 1909 formation of a Native Treasury for 'Native' cash revenues (below), payments in grain gradually ceased. Granaries in the cikin gida consequently fell into disuse and the traditional grain-related duties of King of the Grain and Mai-Kudandan were eroded. Initially, grain taxes were supplemented with grain purchased from the central city market. By the end of Abbas's reign (1903-19), about 100 taiki of guinea corn were purchased every Friday and brought to Yelwa by King of the Grain and his men (Mai-daki 24, 25 October 1989).22 Other changes in the cikin gida resulted from a doubling of concubine numbers during the reign of Abbas, a phenomenon that undoubtedly occurred for a number of reasons (Malam D'au, December 1989). First, the years immediately following the conquest were politically and economically unsettling, causing difficulties which palace slaves may have sought to mitigate in part by giving their daughters to the king as concubines. Con- cubinage was prestigious and was also a form of social security; concubines were part of the , reflecting favourably on slave parents and relatives, and their sons had the same chance as those of freeborn wives to become emir. Second, the emir had many country palaces in the rural areas, at least some of which had resident concubines. The confusion and uncertainty surrounding the aristocracy for the first few years would probably have led the emir to consolidate concubine holdings within the main palace of Kano. This was in part the case with concubines resident in the palace of nearby Fanisau. There concubines apparently 'misbehaved' and were punished by Abbas by being brought back to the palace. They were then dispersed throughout the other concubine wards-except for the leading concubine

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(Uwar soro) of that palace, 'yar Fanisau (lit. the daughter of Fanisau). She was set apart from the concubines in an unwalled compound near the ward of Kacako (Fig. 4).23 Thirdly, childless concubines of the deposed Emir Aliyu, who fled after the British occupation, could, according to Isla- mic juridical precedents, return to the palace to become royal concubines.24 According to several female informants who were present during the conquest and/or during Abbas's reign, the socio-spatial organisation of concubines remained largely unchanged, despite their relatively large numerical increase. The accommodation of 'new' concubines without consequent changes in the political structure of female slavery (i.e. more women rather 'passively' added into a socio-spatial status quo) points to the peripheralisation of women within the processes of political negotiation and accommodation.

The decline of slave powers and places, 1919-26 Throughout the male-based political negotiations of 1903-19 the majority of palace slave men continued to reside in the palace, where they remained loyal to Emir Abbas. This was so because royal slaves still benefited from the system of royal patronage whereby they were entitled to, among other things, homes, farming tools, clothing, food and, for those most powerful, horses. They also shared in the prestige and power associated with royalty. The political advantages to be gained by using the emir as an 'Indirect Ruler' and the relatively good rapport that eventually developed between Emir Abbas and British officials meant that royal slave men were preferen- tially chosen to fill a limited number of waged posts. Some slaves served as horse attendants to British officers (Giginyu, 1981: 150) for example, while others were conscripted to form parts of a colonially created 'native' bureaucracy, the Native Authority. Examples of the latter include the enlist- ment of some of the emir's bodyguards (dogarai) into a Native Authority police force (Ubah, 1985: 91) as well as the employment of title-holding royal builders as contractors for or supervisors of slave and free-born labour used on colonial public work projects.25 Only male slaves, however, were drafted on to these projects. The residential stability of the slave population began to change radically in the last years of Abbas's rule. The main problem stemmed from the fact, that soon after he took office, 50 per cent of state revenue was appropriated by and for the British colonial government. This situation seems to have been tolerable until about 1909, when the British created a Native Treasury as the official state repository of Native tax revenues. In contrast to earlier years, when the emir had direct access to tax revenues, revenues were now ear- marked and controlled in particularly Western ways: the emir and so-called and Village Heads were placed on a salary along with religious officials in charge of newly instituted rural and city courts and various male slaves employed in the Native administration. Other monies were spent on land surveys (used to determine taxation levels with greater precision) and 'public works' projects, such as education, clinics and 'charity and entertain- ment'. According to Bello (1982: 127), by 1910, 'out of a total of ?69,460 in the treasury, ?41,460 was paid as salaries to the Native Authority officials. A total of ?16,027 was also paid for capital projects. There was thus a reserve of

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?12,027.' By 1912 reserves were being invested in Britain through Agents, beginning a process 'whereby money capital was removed from the and invested in Britain' (Bello, 1982: 127; see also Shenton, 1986; Ubah, 1985). The end result of these changes was a dramatic decline in the means by which the emir and other nobility were able to dispense patronage to royal clients. Male slave support was effective in delaying or buffering the financial and labour constraints that Abbas may have faced, for the most part because political and economic changes affecting the emirate at large were in their infancy. There were still substantial benefits to be gained as royal slaves, such as palace residence, food and clothing. Male slaves also continued to hold relatively substantial administrative powers, which further secured slave allegiance. British officials in fact felt that male slave loyalties and power were too great, a sentiment fuelled by the rude and insubordinate behaviour of slave men towards them. These abuses were tolerated by Resident Temple in order to maintain harmonious relations with the emir, something that had been jeopardised earlier in Abbas's reign as a result of the dan Rimi affair (above; see also Ubah, 1985: 67-70). Consequently, most slave men remained loyal to Emir Abbas.26 In contrast, Abbas's next two successors reigned during times in which British policies indirectly and directly eroding palace slavery came strongly into play. Emir Usman (1919-25) was particularly weak politically and was also chronically ill, making it impossible for him to play a more con- structive role in colonial negotiations involving palace slavery. It was in fact the intersection of these strong 'external' forces and 'internal' weak- nesses that led to the demise of palace slavery during Usman's rule and immediately thereafter. The period of this rule therefore roughly demarcates an important time of transition.

The exile and exodus of slaves and changing tax structures, 1919-26 After Abbas's death his elder and ailing brother Usman, Wambai of Kano, was installed as emir. Because the British insisted that title-holding nobility must live in the they represented, Usman had lived out his earlier political career in the rural district of Ringim. He consequently became so estranged from the cultural manners of his urban counterparts that, by the time of his installation as emir, neither he nor his household knew much about palace protocol or rituals. His concubines, for example, were suppos- edly confused with all the titles and were ignorant about cikin gida adminis- tration and ceremony. In consequence, he and his family were derided by palace and city inhabitants alike (Hajiyya Abba and Mai-daki, 24 October 1989.27 But there was more. Usman was generally not liked. Besides being regarded as a villager, he was seen as an unforgiving and insecure person, who demanded a large show of obeisance and who was practically inept, owing to illness. His physical weaknesses were the object of special scorn on the part of several palace co-operants. It was explained rather sarcasti- cally, for example, that Usman was not strong enough to ride a horse and that eventually he became so weak that he had to be carried to his throne to meet council members (Sallama, 27 October 1989). He was also seen as

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 52 PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO a miser, a reputation undoubtedly tied to decreases in the amounts of tax revenue available to him, compounded by the fact that, unlike Abbas, Usman had few informal political or economic resources at his disposal. As a result of his weaknesses the three traditionally most powerful slave men of state (Sallama, dan Rimi and Shamaki) were effectively depended upon to administer the emirate. The increase in slave authority strength- ened the bonds of dependence between royal master and servant, an out- come antithetical to the decentralised form of political and economic control being forged through colonialism. Palace slaves became insouciant beyond what was customarily accepted.28 If the three main state slaves disagreed with the directives of the emir, for example, they refused to have them carried out (Mai-daki 24, 16 October 1989). Such behaviour led to resentment by the emir and British officials alike. As Ubah (1985: 72) notes, British fears mounted 'that slaves were literally trying to seize power'. In 1920 colonial officials conducted a study of the palace slave system to determine its organisational structure, and bemoaned the fact that slaves of state had not been dismissed following Abbas's death. In 1921 Acting Lieutenant Governor Palmer and Governor Clifford lobbied to outlaw palace slavery as soon as possible (Ubah, 1985: 73). Finally, in 1925, Pal- mer, mindful that Usman's ill health and unpopularity made him politi- cally weak, on behalf of the Governor of Nigeria, Sir Hugh Clifford, demanded that the most powerful titled slave officials should be removed from positions of state influence and exiled to royal slave estates (gandaye) in the countryside (Ubah, 1985: 74). Sallama was sent to Gandun Gogel, dan Rimi to GandunZuri, Shamaki to GandunTakai and Ciroman Shamaki (a subordinate of Shamaki) to Gandun Fanisau. Hundreds of slaves accompanied them (Mai-daki, 24 October 1989; Sallama, 28 October 1989). The effects of this exiling were compounded by a general exodus of palace slaves who had never liked the emir and/or who no longer had confidence in his ability to provide. The palace slave population dwindled, a decline which almost all elderly co-operants recalled clearly (see also Nast, 1992). The event was the first to register forcefully within the cikin gida, where most kuyangi left to follow husbands, fathers or uncles who had been exiled. The farm plots of kuyangi in the western palace fields and the female-guarded passageway leading to them consequently became deserted. There were now almost no kuyangi left to thresh and grind grain or carry out menial tasks. The social and spatial impact of these measures was compounded following Usman's death in late 1925, when the British insisted that all palace slaves should be freed. This affected slaves born prior to the British conquest, hitherto unaffected by colonial slavery proclamations, as well as children of slaves born after the conquest who, although technically free according to British law, had chosen to stay and fill slave roles and functions on a voluntary basis. Manumission was to be achieved through the newly established colonial Native Authority court system by which the freed person was to be issued with an official 'certificate of freedom'. Hence the telegraph message from Lieutenant Governor Palmer to the Resident Kano. following Emir

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Usman's death: please convey my regretsto the emir's family and council ... also please have complete list of all emir's slaves made with view to complete manumission. [NAK/KANPROF4164] Not only was Usman's successor, Emir Bayero (1926-53), obliged to manumit palace slaves, he was also obliged to abolish all slave titles (Ubah, 1985; Sarkin Kano, 23 January 1990). This latter order was crucial, because the binomial structure and content of slave titles were the linguistic means through which the positioning, roles and personal identities of slaves were defined. Typically, the first term of a title connoted the rank of the bearer and the second term the labour component. Without the nominal- practical definitions of slave obligations, the palace division of slave labour and the linguisticand political ties that structuredmaster-slave relationswould fade.29 The numbers of slave women declined further as a result of a new colonial tax structure instituted in 1926 requiring all men over the age of sixteen to pay tax, including palace slave men, who had formerly been exempt from taxation. In order to meet these new requirements, the emir handed over land on the nearby former slave estate, Gandun Nassarawa (Estate of Victories), to slave men, making them responsible for their own taxes (see Giginyu, 1981). Crops for household consumption were grown along with crops for cash, mostly groundnuts. Cash was necessary, given that the taxes had to be paid in sterling. The former slave estate lands thus allowed at least some male slaves of the palace to become liable for their own subsistence and taxes. The general exodus of 1925, in conjunction with the initiation of the head tax and related disbursement of emirate lands to slave men, probably accounts for the fact that little grain entered the palace at this time. The granaries were gradually abandoned, further eroding the traditional realms of the guardswomen and several of the main working places of Sarkin hatsi and his men. The shortage of female labour that ensued in the cikin gida as a result of the slave exodus was solved in a variety of ways. Concubines and wives began to assume a heavier work load, as is evident today. In addition, women seeking waged work during the traditional period of cin rani (lit. eating the dry season) were hired to thresh and grind grain in Yelwa. Abdullahi was also allowed to conscript male labour from the large prison adjacent to the palace, built during the reign of Abbas, to perform menial tasks, such as washing clothes in Shekar yamma, stable upkeep and building mainten- ance. No wages were required, only food was to be supplied (Malam D'au, December 1989). But there was another, quite unexpected solution, the voluntary return to the palace of people of slave status. The reasons for this phenomenon and its impact on aristocratic life opened a new chapter in the history of the palace and slavery.

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE LANDSCAPE OF FEMALE SLAVERY, 1926 AND BEYOND 'Voluntaryslavery' and the matrilaterality of slave status A watershed event in the memories of elderly palace informants, though of less dramatic proportions than the slave exodus, was the voluntary return

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 54 PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO of many people of matrilateral slave descent, henceforth referredto as slaves. I have chosen to use the word 'slave', despite the fact that slavery had been formally abolished by various British proclamations and the fact that many of these persons were wage labourers tied to non-traditional work forms and contracts, to emphasise the traditional legitimacy of slavery in the eyes of those now seeking its benefits. Their actions rejected British notions of freedom.30 The voluntary return of palace slaves probably occurred early in Abdullahi's reign (1926-53), for a combination of reasons. First, like Abbas, Abdullahi seems to have had tremendous informal political and economic resources at his disposal. He was conciliatory towards and there- fore well liked by the British, and he had many personal friends in British administrative circles.31 These officials were sympathetic to the dilemmas posed by his lack of slave labour and by the restrictions he faced as a result of his fixed salary. It was now difficult for the emir to maintain the image and practices of the old order within the political and economic confines of the new, something British colonial personnel were intent on sustaining. More- over, new kinds of infrastructures and services had been instituted that required Western forms of skilled labour and materials, and payment in foreign currency. It was because of these dilemmas that the colonial government suggested and allowed prison labour to be used. British officials also lobbied for increases in Abdullahi's salary. Upon Abdullahi's accession in 1926 the emir's salary was increased from ?4,800 in total to ?5,000 and, in 1930, to ?6,000 (NAK/KANPROF 4164; Ubah, 1985: 182). In addition, increasing numbers of male slaves (technically manumitted) were recruited as wage labourers, especially to carry out Native Authority-funded building projects in the city and palace (see Nast, 1992). The emir was also given access to an 'establishment charge' of ?1,000, instituted in 1924 and increased in 1930 to ?2,500 (NAK/KANPROF 4164). The charge, originally endorsed by Acting Governor D. C. Cameron and Secretary of State J. H. Thomas, was sup- posed to help defray palace overhead expenses which, in the case of Abdullahi, included the purchase and upkeep of an automobile and the maintenance of the royal stables (NAK/KANPROF 1744). The charge had also been used to establish a royal tradition, the durbar, created initially for an elite gathering on the Race Course in the British Government Residen- tal Area of Kano on the occasion of the 1925 visit of the Prince of Wales. The durbar was imported from colonial India and featured ceremonial horse charges by the emir's sons and nobility, as well as a parade of traditional leaders past a stand of important colonial officers (NAK/KAN/LA/140; KANPROF 1926). Significantly, during the reign of Abdullahi the durbar was transformed into an annual event held in front of both palace slave domains and tied to religious festivities following the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Although traditionally leaders had been spontaneously saluted by ceremonial charges during times of celebration, the durbar formalised such salutations and recast them into public religious spectacles. Lastly, Emir Abdullahi was invited to go (at the expense of the Native Treasury) with the of Sokoto, the Emir of Gwandu and a small entourage, on a visit to England, where they were granted an audience

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 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 55 with King George V. They also visited the Zoological Gardens, the Royal Mint, Barclays Bank, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, the Imperial Science Museum and Institute, Oxford Middle School and various fac- tories, most notably Port Sunlight, founded by Lord Leverhulme, who held substantial interests in oilseed production in Kano and West Africa (NAK/KANPROF 1081/vll; Shenton, 1986: 83-92). Upon his return Abdullahi was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by King George on the occasion of Abdullahi's birthday; a telegram of 5 June 1934 from Lieutenant Governor Brown congratulated the emir on his 'birthday honour'. Then, in 1946, Abdullahi was made CMG (Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George) in a public ceremony held on the open ground north of the palace (NAF/15/1939; NAK/KANONA 152). All these privileges, activities and connections lent a strength and progressiveness to Abdullahi's reign, leading him to exude all the traditional qualities of a good patron. Abdullahi came across to the public at large as a 'real' and strong leader, despite his primary role as head administrator of British policies in the emirate. There seem to have been two major groups of persons who responded to this strength. First, there were wealthy and powerful persons (Hausa and those in the European settlements outside the city walls) who needed the emir for political patronage and who, in traditional fashion, would have bestowed gifts upon him in proportion to their appreciation of and allegiance to him. Secondly, there were the poor or dispossessed, who would need his patronage for economic reasons. One undoubtedly (and literally) fed the other. The latter probably included slaves dispossessed in 1925 and 1926 who would have suffered a series of economic setbacks in the late 1920s, when revenues from groundnut and other cash-crop production plummeted as a result of the global recession (Shenton, 1986). Many would have been unable to make it on the 'outside'. But there was another event that affected the non-resident royal slave community more directly. In 1935 the British ordered the burning down of the homes of the emir's slaves living and farm- ing on nearby GandunNassarawa so as to forcefully expropriate and 'cleanse' the area. It was their intention to incorporate the land into the 'Government Reserved Areas' (Giginyu, 1981). The large number of people who returned to the palace during Abdullahi's reign would have derived from both these disadvantaged groups. Royal patronage, considerably weakened under Usman, was now revitalised, making it less difficult to find palace labour to help reproduce aristocratic life. Not just anyone, however, could return to the palace as a slave. A person had to demonstrate that his or her mother had been born into slavery, a demonstration promoted by aristocracy and slaves alike. This was because slave status was carried matrilaterally: according to traditional status rules, children of non-concubine slave women were slaves, regardless of the status of the father. This palace homecoming of slaves might have led to a sub- versive reproduction of palace slave life had not there been an opposing social force within the slave community: the rise of male slave marriages with 'outside' non-slave women, which, given the matrilaterality of slave descent, led to growing numbers of non-slave children in the palace. These

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 56 PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO mixed marriages signalled the fact that, despite the short-term benefits of slave status in securing patronage during difficult economic times, in the long run slave men felt their children had more to gain from 'outside' waged employment.32 Over the years the number of intermarriages increased, such that the forces promoting traditional forms of slave reproduction (related to the desire for patronage) were largely outweighed. The resultant gradual demise of traditionalslavery, that is, matrilateral slavery defined and marked by slaves themselves, was particularly evident in the landscape of female slavery in the cikin gida.

The shrinking 'spaces' of domestic slave women As a result of the return of 'volunteer slaves' and the concomitant resurgence of the matrilateral marking of slave status, the female slave categories of kuyangi and jakadu (along with the titled positions of leadership, Uwar kuyangi and Babbanjakadiya) were reconstituted. Unlike male slaves drawn into waged bureaucratic positions financed by the Native Authority, however, these women appear to have been (and to be) remunerated in

PLATE3 One of the guardedpassageways into the northernlabyrinth.

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PLATE4 One of the jakadu of the southernlabyrinth. Note the large-scaledoor, formedof hand-workediron strips. traditional fashion, in the form of informal benefits and privileges (above; Fig. 5).33 Owing to intermarriage and the large number of slave men exiled or engaged in outside employment, there were fewer of the slave women. 'Out- side' female wage labour and prison labour were still needed to supplement work formerly done only by domestic slave women. Moreover, a number of the duties and places of domestic slave women were now obsolete. The granaries, for example, remained abandoned, with consequently no need for guardswomen to guard them, and new kuyangi did not reclaim farm plots in Shekar yamma.34 Grain was also purchased in sacks so that the threshing of grain bundles by slave women was no longer required. The easternmost guardswoman's quarters were abandoned, probably some time in the late 1930s or '40s, when the concubines living in the wards that she served died out and were not replaced (see below). The guardswoman posted to the southernmost passageway in the labyrinth was, moreover, replaced by a man during Abdullahi's reign, when the surrounding area

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PLATE5 The last unguardedsouthern passageway leading directly into the cikingida calledsoron ban sarki. Note the magnificentadobe architectureand the scale of the doorwaysof all the passageways. was appropriated as a 'public', 'male' venue of state (Nast, 1992). Even more striking changes occurred in the realm of the concubines, whose numbers dropped from about fifty at the turn of the century (and 100 during the time of Abbas) to about fifteen today.35

The waning of concubinageand the disappearanceof concubine wards, 1919-90 The dramatic rise in palace concubine numbers during the reign of Abbas was reversed during the reign of Usman. The decrease may be explained in part by the massive departure of palace slaves, a departure that undoubtedly depleted the pool of female slave labour from which new concubines were customarily chosen.36 Given Usman's unpopularity, advanced age, ill health and apparent ineptitude as a leader or patron, it may also be surmised that few slave men offered him their daughters as concubines, seeing few material or social benefits to be gained. The decrease in concubine numbers, ironically, did not significantly abate during the rule of Abdullahi, who, as mentioned above, was considered a good and strong patron. The overriding factor seems to have been the growing prevalence of intermarriagewith free- born women, which removed female children of returning slaves from the pool of potential concubines. As Mai-daki notes in Mack (1988: 55), When the Europeansoutlawed slavery, the male slaves of the Emirmarried the [freeborn] children of men from out there,from the bush, and of the town, and they broughtthem here. So it was that we could not secludevery many because therewere no second-generationslaves.

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The decline of the concubine population registered strongly within the cikin gida, a realm that concubines had dominated socially and spatially in pre-colonial times. Some wards were broken up into more than one area while others were demolished, razed, amalgamated or converted into other and 'new' kinds of places. And many buildings were abandoned. The first ward to be affected was Yelwa. During the reign of Abdullahi, Yelwa split in two: a large southern portion remained the realm of con- cubines; a smaller northern portion was utilised by outside female wage labourers who came from nearby villages during the dry season. These women, known as 'yan Gindin turmi (lit. children at the mortar base), were hired largely to grind grain into flour, a task formerly accomplished by kuyangi. The area for female waged labourers was made into a separate unguwa and was given the name Mil tara (lit. nine miles) in reference to its seemingly long distance from the centre of Yelwa (Fig. 6).37 This break-up was in large part related to the fact that food was cooked for smaller numbers of people, slaves being made increasingly responsible for procuring and cooking their own food. Food was also no longer cooked communally inside Yelwa but in separate cooking areas in each ward and place. Subsequently, over the next few decades, the palace kitchen

-I.i

S...... (aobandoned) (abandoned)

FIG.6 The cikingida of the palacec. 1990.Closely stippled areas are domains of'yan Fulani. Cross-hatchedareas were not field-checkedand are based upon data in Ahmed(1988) and aerialphotographs. See the key to Fig. 4 for othersymbols. Note that two wajejeof wives are located in formerportions of the emir'squarters (the coarsely stippledarea) built during Abdullahi'sreign (1926-53); and that one of the wivesvacated her wajein 1990and moved to that of the firstwife upon the latter's death. Similarlyan 'yar Fulanilives in the northernmostpart of the emir'sformer quarters.Only a smallcentral area bordering the courtyardis retainedfor the emir's personaluse.

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(Soron tuwo) was abandoned, along with the massive cooking pots. Today only mallams, guests, kuyangi, and a few of the royal children are cooked for in Yelwa, but largely inside the personal compounds of the title-holding concubines; all other slaves provide their own food. Other wards were abandoned or disappeared altogether. Ka-iya, which at the turn of the century was the second largest concubine ward, slowly became the preserve of elderly former concubines or matan fada (lit. women of the palace), largely those left over from the reign of Abbas. Other wards such as Garko and Dutse became largely deserted and many of the buildings began to collapse. By the time of Emir Sanusi's reign (1953-63) Ka-iya had been abandoned and was razed. And by the time of the present emir (1963- ), Garko and part of Dutse were completely abandoned. To main- tain some sense of community in the area, part of Dutse was merged into UnguwarBare-bari (Fig. 6). Today, with the exception of Yelwa, no concubine wards exist. The con- cubines of the present emir number only about fifteen, and live in the places (wajeje) of wives, inside the personal quarters of the emir (the 'yan soro) or in Yelwa. In addition, the main title-holding concubines (in Yelwa) are all inherited from previous emirs and at least two positions of title- holding concubines have been dissolved.38 There have, in fact, been no new title-holding concubines for almost forty years. Moreover, only a single member of the lower administrative cadre of concubines known as iyayen wajeje (above) remains. She is posted to Yelwa and is known simply as Uwar waje. Because of her singularity, her placement in Yelwa and her advanced age, she has assumed a number of important functions that have lent her title heightened significance. In many ways she is today almost as powerful as Uwar soro.39 The demise of concubinage and the abandoning and razing of various structures and places in the cikin gida, such as various concubine wards, threshing areas and granaries, paved the way for a restructuring of kingly places.

Re-structuring the cikin gida, 1926-90. reflections of changing practices, perspective and power Abdullahi used the opportunities presented by the dissolution of traditional realms in the cikin gida to recompose and restructure the layout of the cikin gida in a 'modern' way. This involved two qualitatively different changes. First, he changed the style and increased the size of his personal realms and, secondly, he introduced a spectrum of Western practices, buildings and visual perspectives previously not experienced by most of the women. In all cases it was primarily Abdullahi, in conjunction with male British friends and officials, who initiated and directed the changes. All the changes were physically centred around a new high-walled, long and linear courtyard down the middle of the women's living space, parallel to the main axis of the palace (Fig. 6). The courtyard was named Sararin garke (lit. field of cattle herds), not to be confused with the concubine ward of the same name, in reference to the large open field that it replaced and in which cattle once grazed. The new layout and buildings destroyed the loosely ordered urban-like setting of the women's settlement. More significantly, the courtyard was designed to have a visual apex inside Soron

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 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 61 baki, the audience chamber of the emir, which was also rebuilt as a much larger and rectangular two-storey structure. The spatial arrangement was purposely chosen to heighten the emir's visual control over the inhabitants of the cikin gida. In particular, the emir was now able to sit on his throne in Soron baki and clearly survey anyone entering or leaving the cikin gida. He could also go up to the second floor and gaze into the personal compounds of the community of women, which were now separated and compartmentalised by the courtyard walls into two visually exclusive halves (Fig. 6).40 Besides increasing the amount of kingly surveillance experienced by palace women, the courtyard design dramatically affected women's sense of space. The palace seemed smaller and they felt more trapped. As Mai-daki laughingly recalled with Madaki and 'yar Kutisa (5 September 1989), 'we [women] really thought the palace was shrinking'. As part of the building process the entire area between Yelwa in the south and Soron hatsi (the former entrance hall into one of the northernmost clusters of granaries) in the north was razed,41and two very large two-storey structures fronting the courtyard were built as private chambers for the emir and his concubines (Fig. 6). The latter resulted in quite a striking increase in the personal space of the emir, which had formerly been restricted to Babban soro and small areas near Kacako and in Yelwa, all of which continued to be used. Within the new structures he established a British-style library, fire- places, and a special kitchen in which to cook for important British and other European guests.42 He also set up the first Qur'anic school for concubines and daughters of the emir around the same time that the British were emphasising the importance of schooling for girls. Unlike the former place of religious instruction, which at the turn of the century was located in the waje (place) of the first wife, the new school belonged to no place. Thus the school building spatially delinked education from women's households, and represented the emergence of a new kind of institutionalised 'public' space. The cultivation of other Western places and institutions in the cikin gida is also evident in Abdullahi's acceptance of modern birthing practices for royal women. Wives and concubines were pressed to give birth in the newly built City Hospital, recently established with Native Authority money, thereby displacing the singular traditional authority of midwives (and women) over birth.43 By the end of Abdullahi's reign, almost no royal women bore children in their compounds as had been the tradition. Late in his reign, impressed by British gardens,44Abdullahi began British-style gardening on a large scale in the western and eastern fields of the cikin gida, at one point bringing in Caterpillar tractors. His gardening appropriated yet more of the traditional spaces of slave women and introduced the notion and practice of gardening and farming for leisure. In the years following Abdullahi's reign, many of these changes were retained and elaborated upon. In particular, Sanusi made one of the rooms in the new personal structures facing the courtyard into a formal medical clinic. Later, during the reign of the present emir, Ado Bayero (1963- ), the facility was replaced by a 'proper' modern health clinic. The latter, a square, cement block structure, was built on the remains of the old concubine ward of Ka-iya which was razed. Alhaji Ado Bayero also tried

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 62 PALACE SLAVE WOMEN IN KANO to institutionalise or spatially formalise children's play by levelling and building a playground on the abandoned ruins of the former concubine ward of Dutsen babba.45 At present a second Qur'anic school is being built in an abandoned portion of one of the new wards built by Abdullahi, Dakata. Most of the remaining residential areas of concubines gradually became wards of elderly concubines (matanfada), elderly or divorced royal women, ('yan Fulani) and elderly helpmates or family members. Today Nassarawa, Kacako and Unguwar Bare-bari (which now includes the former ward of Unguwar uku) are all inhabited primarily by elderly women. They also live in the new 'ward' of Dakata, built specifically for elderly women by Emir Abdullahi. Construction of such a 'ward', a kind of group home for the elderly, is an historic first that requiredthe levelling of the last cluster of palace granaries. Today few of these women remain and most buildings and places are crumbling and/or abandoned.

The expansion, 'movement'and abandonmentof emirs' quarters, c. 1819-1990 The emir has always traditionally lived inside the cikin gida. During the nine- teenth century several emirs made changes in the location or type of structures in which they would live and sleep. Soron malam (lit. room of the Islamic scholar), for example, was built by Ibrahim Dabo (1819-46); Soron maje Ringim was constructed by Usman dan Dabo (1846-55) and the largest and most regal, Babban soro, was built by Abdullahi dan Dabo (1855-83) (Nast, 1993a). No new structures were built until the reign of (1926-53). Then, as described above, Abdullahi very 'untraditionally' expanded his realms both horizontally and vertically along a long, divisive courtyard, more than compensating for the small chambers he vacated in Yelwa. Later, Sanusi (1953-63) abandoned Soron malam (near Kacako; see Figs. 4 and 6). Both areas are now largely in ruins. The colonial period thus saw the abandonment of many historic places of former and the building of many which were new. After independence in 1960, which roughly coincided with the beginning of the present emir's reign (1963), many parts of the new places were recycled back into women's realms. A large proportion of the new structures built by Abdullahi (those facing the courtyard), for example, were partially converted by the present emir into compounds for two of his wives and another compound for an elderly 'yar Fulani. This recycling did not, however, reverse the trend of expanding kingly domains. In the late 1970s a large new 'modern' residence with a Western-style garden at its core was constructed for the emir outside the secluded domain in the southern male slave realm called Sabon gida (lit. the new house). Building the complex required the razing of most of the remains of an historic eunuch colony (Nast, 1992).46 The residence, linked to the cikin gida by a passageway, seems to be one that is increasingly favoured. One of the reasons why it is favoured may be that the new residence is attached to a large new office complex built to accommodate growing outside (male-oriented) business and political interests (see Nast, 1992).

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That is, civic and business interests now bind the emir more closely and persistently to male public spaces than to the royal female spaces formerly crucial to reproducing the state household. The separation of the emir from the cikin gida may also allow him to maintain more easily a modern and elitist 'male' life style, that is, it may allow him to resist domestic press- ure to extend this life style spatially to royal women. The modern residence has many modern amenities, including air conditioning, a nearby satellite dish and video-cassette recorders, amenities not shared by the majority of royal women in his household. The new residential arrangement also reflects the fact that, within the new federalist and post-colonial order, the emir's bodily safety is not threatened by local wars and politics, historically a key motive for siting the emir's chambers in the women's domain (see Nast, 1993b). Thus, by siting Sabon gida in the former male slave domain, the historically rigid spatial boundaries delimiting the husband's place in the household have been ruptured. At the same time, the siting signals royal women's displacement from participation in the reproduction of the state household and diminishes these women's access to new kingly sites of power. Additionally, traditional 'class' distinctions between the emir and his male slaves have been blurred-both parties now being salaried participants in a global economy.

Current trends in the spaces and uses of slave women Slaves and aristocracy alike have used interesting tactics to slow the demise of female slavery described above. One such tactic is quite current and relates to a number of slaves 'voluntarily' returning to the emir, probably in response to the generally poor and insecure political-economic times result- ing from the post-1982 global recession. It seems that male slaves who have come to claim what are now wage-paying positions are required to prove their matrilineal slave status (Haj. Abba Ado Bayero, 1990). In other cases, involving, it seems, primarily slave women, matrilineal slave qualifications are partially fabricated or 'stretched' in order to meet the minimum require- ments of female labour in the cikin gida.47 Many of these women are economically marginalised and in special need of patronage. Intriguingly, despite the presence of 'inauthentic' domestic slave women, the matrilateral slave qualification for concubines remains firm. The emir, for example, recently attempted to take the daughter of a male slave as his concubine. He was turned away on customary grounds; although the father was a slave, the mother was not. On the other hand, concubines are being used in new ways to gain political and economic advantages outside the palace. Palace slave women are now being given to new power brokers in Hausa society, wealthy merchants. Three daughters of a single dogari (a traditional male slave bodyguard of the emir), for example, were given as concubines to three very wealthy and powerful merchants of Kano. Yet another concubine was awarded to the wealthiest merchant in Kano. It thus appears that instead of concubines being exchanged among princes and nobility to effect political bonds, concu- binage is being used to forge kinship ties with those most successful in the new capitalist economic order.48Instead of concubinage signifying political

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CONCLUSIONS The colonial transformation of the landscape of female slavery in the cikin gida of the Kano palace points to the gendered and patriarchal nature of both traditional Hausa society and imperial change. Prior to colonial rule, it was Hausa men (slaves and free) who lived in and ruled the 'outside world' and who were expected to act directly in issues of war and state-level politics. The ability to control women and their 'spaces' was a sign of male political prowess and virility, epitomised in the institution of concubinage. Women were also used by men in concubinage (slaves) and marriage (free daughters) to create kinship-based political bonds. Differences in the value placed on the three 'classes' of palace women were expressed through different spatial prerogatives. Wives, who held the highest status, for example, were awarded their own place and were the most spatially rooted or confined, while domestic slave women lived in public areas, or in the residences of wives and concubines, and were the least spatially restricted. Concubines were a kind of intermediary 'class' of slave women who through their reproductive ties to the king were rooted or secluded communally in the cikin gida and thereby spatially and socially redeemed.49 Patriarchal colonial directives issued following the conquest of Kano were designed to couple the political and economic resources of Kano emirate to Britain. These directives eroded the traditional male-based political order of the emirate and worked through and promoted the patriarchal and gendered spatial organisation of the state household. British directives, decrees and policies affecting slavery, taxation and the secularisation of the state were directed towards, and took place primarily in, the spaces of men, whose posi- tions in 'outside' public life made them the main receivers and negotiators of colonial change; women's lives and places were indirectly and peripherally affected. The 'male spatial order of things' in either culture went largely unchallenged. It was only when slave men were forced out of or left the palace (as in 1925 and 1926) that female slavery began to decline. Kuyangi and jakadu left to follow husbands or other male relations who had been exiled or freed; 'out- side', opportunities for land acquisition or wage labour were not available to women. Concubinage, however, was never outlawed, despite the fact that concubines are slaves. Such disregard probably stemmed from the fact that concubinage was considered an exotic personal or domestic prerogative that did not directly threaten British policies promoting the creation of a free male class of landowners and wage labourers.50Furthermore, according to Islamic law (and in every other social sense), concubine children were free-born. Concubines were therefore not part of what was otherwise a matrilateral system of slave production. Matrilineal marking of slave status should, in fact, have died out as a prac- tice had it not been an effective way of procuring remunerative palace work during the particularly difficult times of the world depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Not only was the return of female slaves again informed by

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 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO 65 male decision-making at this time, but the actual forces affecting and shaping the changes primarily involved (and preferentially burdened) men, including the 1926 tax on all males under sixteen years of age, the onus on men to farm cash crops and the Islamically prescribed responsibility of men to provide housing, food and clothing for their wives. Slave men also shaped the 'spaces' of slave women and concubinage with their decision to marry freeborn women rather than those having slave status. The female slave population, including concubines and domestic slave women, consequently plummeted. The spaces of concubinage largely dissolved and less rigorous verification standards were applied in establish- ing matrilineal rights to female slave positions. The relaxation in standards was needed to broaden the social base from which female domestic slave labour was chosen to work in the cikin gida. Most places vacated by concubines were taken over by elderly royal women and former concubines. The gradual dissolution of female slavery paved the way for a spatial restructuring of the women's domain (the cikin gida) that facilitated greater visual-practical control over royal women. These and other Western-style changes, such as the building of gardens, a library, medical clinic, school and fireplaces, and the increased linearity of building lines and spatial organisation, were largely initiated by Emir Abdullahi and informed by his experience with colonial officials, institutions and perspectives. Abdullahi thus seems to have used the personal space of the royal household (the cikin gida) to experiment with and appropriate certain Western cultural forms and practices. Such modernisation of the inner household was not mandated by the British but reflected the personal negotiations and choices of the emir. These choices point to the political complexities of colonial negotiations and change, throughout which the agency of Hausa leaders was evident. Nonetheless, most of the personal choices affecting the material and spatial organisation of the palace were made by men. All the data suggest that imperialism recast the subordination of women and their spaces into a larger patriarchal capitalist system. Concubines, for example, now serve as political collateral between the emir and the merchant class rather than between the emir and the nobility, representing a change in the use but not in the subordinate position of concubines. The research findings indicate that palace slavery was a high-status insti- tution associated with economic and political advantages that stemmed from the privileged 'class' position and power of royal patrons. These class-based advantages remained (though they were distorted) following the British conquest, evident in the large number of persons with slave status who remained in the palace to work voluntarily or who (through the emir) were chosen for waged positions in the Native Authority. The latter also underscores the political economic basis of slavery. When the king exerted complete control over tax revenues, and when he was positioned literally at the centre of state affairs, he was able to secure the allegiance of a large slave clientage through kingly patronage, which involved substantial material benefits and assignment to significant positions of political power. With colonialism and the subsequent decentralisation of kingly authority, male slaves could no longer depend on the king for either material or political gains. Instead, they were increasingly linked to a more decentralised

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 66 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO political body (the Native Authority) and economically tied to wage labour. Slave men thus became responsible for maintaining their own women and families. The transition to wage labour was, however, uneven and hinged upon the health of the capitalist economy. When global economic factors adversely affected male slaves' ability to provide, they turned to the king for traditional patronage forms of support, leaving again when economic factors allowed them to do so. The ability of slaves to return home to the palace in the future has, however, been undermined by 'outside' marriages. As the last remnants of the male slave population marry 'outside' women the ability of their progeniture to claim royal patronage (should the need arise) will have been diminished. The continued marking of slave status up to the present nonetheless shows the not so subtle ways in which British abolitionist policies were resisted. It contrasts strikingly with rural areas, where, for example, Hill (1977) notes that by the 1930s rural dwellers in two areas outside Kano city were com- pletely unaware of, and unconcerned with, recording slave status. This difference in the affirmation of slave status undoubtedly derives from the marginality of rural slaves and masters, who have historically had little to gain politically or economically from maintaining patronage relations, especially in an increasingly monetised and capitalist social framework. Similar problems of marginality would presumably have been encountered by city dwellers of lesser means. The research therefore demonstrates the centrality of gender and 'class' relations in creating and organising space, and shows how this conclusion can vitally inform and refine analyses of slavery and its abolition across time and place.

NOTES The concept of a 'spatial division of labour' was first developed by the geographer Doreen Massey (1984) to describe how the cultural and geographical variables of places across England structured, and were structured by, certain capitalist industries. This article extends her work to include issues of gender and the household more explicitly. 2 Not all co-operants rememberedan event in the same way or wanted to let me 'in' on what they remembered. Though certain elderly persons had all experienced the same event, for example, not all of them had the same ability to recall the details or how it made them feel. Others tried purposely to mislead me, for a variety of reasons, including a few men and women who initially thought I was a spy. Through working with many people over a number of months it became easier to 'read' socio-spatial data more critically. 3 The Hausa term for the ruler of a , sarki (king), and the English form of the Islamic and term, 'emir', are used interchangeably in the text as they are in practice. 4 For the sake of brevity, and to underscore the gender of those directly serving the emir, I designate these areas 'male' slave realms. But it should be noted that male slaves lived with their families (or other families, in the case of those recently captured or of eunuchs) within personal compounds. There the spatial division of labour was re-presented on a vernacular level: men worked in 'productive' endeavours and socialised outside the cikin gida while women worked inside the cikin gida, where they were responsible for most domestic labour. largely5 A preliminary study indicates that there were at least twenty slave estates outside Kano city in the nineteenth century, with at least two additional estates being built by Abdullahi Bayero (1926-53) and the present emir, Ado Bayero (1963-present), including Fanda and Chiro- mawa, respectively (see also Yunasa, 1976). Many of these estates were associated with country palaces. Although there are three words that can be used to denote concubines, sadaku, kwark- wara and ma-kulle (lit. she who is locked in), sadaku is the term most commonly used in Kano. 6 Wealthy and/or powerful men owned concubines for the same reasons, though in lesser numbers.

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7 The emir also gave his daughters away to noblemen (but for marriage) mainly for the same political ends. Sa'id (1978), for example, mentions the roles of various Kano emirs' daughters in shaping caliphate and local politics, though he does not discuss the issue in any depth. 8 All female prisoners of war were slaves. 9 Ward and place names and locations, along with the division and placement of cikin gida labour, were derived primarily from discussions with Hajiyya 'Yar Mai-tilas and Gogo Kahu (daughters of Emir Aliyu, 1896-1903), Mai-daki and Gogon Ita Dambatta (daughters of Emir Abbas, 1903-19), 'Yar Kutisa (formerly a concubine of Emir Abdullahi, 1926-53), Hajiyya Abba Ado Bayero (the second wife of the current emir), Mallam D'au (a son of Emir Aliyu), Sallama Dako (the current holder of the male slave title which was one of the traditionally most powerful slave positions of state), Sarkin hatsi (lit. King of the Grain, a slave traditionally charged with grain procurement); Galadima Rumbu (a slave assistant to Sarkin hatsi), Alhaji Baba dan Meshe (a present-day 'eunuch' who is actually an impotent man) and the current emir, His Alhaji Ado Bayero, also known as Sarkin (lit. King of) Kano. Discussion data were integrated with previously derived map data and verified in the field with one or more of the co-operants. Some ward and 'place' data conflict with more contemporary data pre- sented in Rufa'i (1987), who did not take into account the historical dynamics of the production of places and the changing roles, titles and hierarchies of male and female slaves. 10That the residences of wives were designated wajeje (places) whereas those of concubines were known as unguwoyi (wards) is significant. The word waje is characteristically used to indicate ownership by a single person. Wajen 'yar Sokoto, for example, means 'the place of the wife from Sokoto'. Each waje was, in fact, essentially a large single family compound built and organised to cater to the needs of a particular wife and her children. Smaller rooms therein were reserved for live-in sadaku and their children and domestic slave women. In contrast, unguwa connotes a more communal and shared space, belonging to the group, typical of the less personal, denser and less hierarchical spaces of the unguwoyi of the concubines. This semantic difference underlines the lesser status of concubines that was played out spatially. l Each title connotes in short form the status a concubine holds and the role she plays in the palace division of labour. Each title-holder is addressed by her title and never by her name. 12 Hajiyya Abba Ado Bayero, 23 January 1990. This is also mentioned by Imam Imoru (Ferguson, 1973). 13 The name of this room, like that of others, is gendered in that it is a name used only by men. Women know it as Rumfar kasa, the same name as that given to a functionally similar court room for men located in the southern male slave domain. It is also sometimes called Soro in reference to the name of the emir's compound, of which it forms part; it needs no qualifier (such as Soron Sarki), since it is part of the soro. Imam Imoru refers to this building in a more general sense as soron ciki, or room of the 'inside' (lit. stomach), in reference to the fact that it lies inside the cikin gida (Ferguson, 1973: 209). 14 These women included not only those who worked and/or lived inside the cikin gida but other women from the emirate at large. 15 I have inferred the ages of domestic slave women from the age profiles of present-day cadres and the physical exertion and strength required for their respective duties. 16 There is some discrepancy between data provided by different informants. His Highness Alhaji Ado Bayero (December 1988) claims that the British entered from the south-east, where- upon a fierce skirmish took place below a kind of tower that formed part of the arsenal in the personal chambers of the emir established by Emir Abdullahi (1854-83; Nast, 1993a). In con- trast, Madakin Kano claims that the palace was entered from the north-east and that the British met with intense resistance from the second floor of one of the guardswomen's chambers in the northern labyrinth that also served as a palace arsenal. Most data support the latter. Perhaps Sarkin Kano is referring to a secondary or contemporaneous but smaller uprising that ensued after WAFF troops had entered the palace. 17 There are conflicting accounts of why Emir Aliyu left Kano to go to Sokoto in the first place, given that he probably knew that the British would attack, and why he took so long to begin his return (see, for example, Muffett, 1964: 95-6, and Sa'id, 1978). 18Sarki Aliyu, by this time captured by the British, was exiled to Yola and later moved to several other locations before finally settling in Lokoja. 19Mai-daki noted the location of the ritual and later confirmed her claim using landmarks visible in a photograph of the event presented in plate 46 of Lavers (1985). 20 What follows is a brief sketch of changes in male slave domains. A much fuller description of the changes is to be found in Nast (1992).

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21 They were soon reintroduced, however, and given bright red and green checked 'traditional' uniforms, presumably so that they could be better recognised and controlled by the British. Traditionally, the emir's bodyguards wore simple white robes and turbans (Lavers, 1985: plate 24) and were humiliated by the new robes, perhaps as much because of their garish colours as by the defeat they signalled. Emir Abbas (1903-19) is said to have personally tried the robes on in a successful attempt to cajole the bodyguards into wearing them (Sallama, 28 October 1989). Whether or not this is true, it demonstrates the resentment bodyguards felt at being asked to wear such robes. 22 A taiki is a very large leather sack for carrying grain by pack animals. The sack has an opening along the middle of its main width, such that when it is placed on top of the animal's back, with the opening facing upwards, it forms two adjacent large pocket-like spaces (see Ferguson, 1973: 324). 23 There is additional evidence that Emir Abbas was not very good at 'controlling' his wives and concubines. According to an informant of Rufa'i (1987: 149), women visitors were compelled during his reign to remove their uppermost headcover (lullubi) and expose their faces to curb what seems to have been a growing influx of adult men into the inside disguised as women. 24 This was the case with the mother of one of the main co-operants of the study, Hajiyya Mai-daki. 25 Before the 1930s, public works projects focused on road and railway building in addition to the construction of new cultural institutions, including a very large central prison, city and dis- trict court houses, housing for colonial officers and schools (Ubah, 1985: 184). The conscription of royal builders (royal builders had slave status and lived outside the palace) is noted by Sa'ad (1981) and was investigated further by the author in 1989, data that form part of a work in progress. 26 See Giginyu (1981: 17), whose informants describe this strong loyalty to the emir as biyayya. 27 Rural dwellers are traditionally characterised as uncultured and dull (see, for example, Sa'ad, 1981). 28 Royal male slaves of the palace are, and historically have been, notorious for their arrogance and power. Heinrich Barth (1890: 290), visiting the palace in the mid-nineteenth century, for example, wrote that 'Hundreds of lazy, arrogant courtiers, freemen and slaves were lounging and idling here [in the northern slave domain], killing time with trivial and saucy jokes'. The tradition of 'saucy joke' telling and other somewhat disrespectful behaviour is still maintained by palace slaves in the northern male slave area. 29 Interestingly, palace slaves today maintain that they were never stripped of titles. To them, it is impossible to dissolve titled positions simply by issuing an order. Their attitude contrasts with that of royalty, who, like the British, maintain that slave titles ceased to exist during this period (Sarkin Kano, 23 January 1990). 301 also retain the word 'slave' rather than 'servant' (bara or bawan yarda) because it is how these people today describe themselves, just as the old ruling class still deem themselves hakimai (nobility) or masu sarauta (royalty), despite their salaries and greatly changed position within the state. Moreover, many 'slaves' still maintain their matrilineal slave status, retain historical titles, carry out traditional duties (something especially evident within concubinage), display ritual forms of subservience and are scarified with the marks of slavery, all of which are discussed in more detail below. 31 Emir Abdullahi's sister, Mai-daki (24 October 1989), intimated in a somewhat critical way that the emir became increasingly subservient to British authority and culture. 32 There is nothing in Islamic law to prohibit a slave man from marrying non-slave women. The practice had been forbidden by Emir Bello (1882-93) in the palace, however, as a means of exerting greater control over royal slave numbers and prerogatives (see Fika, 1978: 56). Even among slave-commoners the practice was uncommon. As Imam Imoru states (Ferguson, 1973: 230), 'A freeborn woman, 'ya, will not consent to marry a slave unless she is a good- for-nothing' (see also Giginyu, 1981). In either case, the benefits to be had from marrying free women accrued largely to slave men. Slave men attained prestige through their association with a non-slave woman and their children became free. 33 This conclusion is deduced from observation of present-day practices of domestic slave women, who seem to rely primarily on gifts from patrons such as the emir and/or their mistress, and (in the case ofjakadu) from passers-by. 34The continued abandonment of these large fields was probably related to the planting of orchards throughout most of the area by Emir Abdullahi (1926-53).

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35The abolition of slavery as defined in British terms thus did not guarantee the acceptance and legitimation of abolition among those who had something to gain from the traditional slave order, in this case those in the palace community. The conservation and cultivation of matrilineal slave ties does not appear to have occurred on the same scale among commoners (see, for example, Hill, 1977). My research suggests, then, that in the palace two competing social 'orders' or contracts coexisted during the colonial period. 36 Concubines, if mothers of royal children, were considered part of the permanent royal family, despite their slave status. With much to gain from their material and social position, they would have been highly unlikely to leave on their own accord. 37 In this case, similar to that of Ka-iya, the Hausa employ a characteristic play on words: the area of waged labour now seemed distant from Yelwa. On the other hand, Mil tara is a milepost located nine miles from Kano along the road to Katsina. They thus used the name Mil tara to express a feeling of distance from a former concubine area that had been (and felt) very close. Interestingly, the word mil derived from the English word 'mile', demonstrating that palace women were by this time thinking and feeling distances according to Western categories or senses of space. 38 The title Uwargida ma-kulle (lit. woman of the house of those [women] locked up) died out, presumably after Inuwa's death in 1963. Historically the title was awarded to the eldest con- cubine of an emir when he was still a prince, the concubine being given to him by his father. Upon his being made emir, she became the highest-ranking concubine, Uwar soro. Abdullahi stopped this tradition, presumably because there were no longer enough concubines to give away to all his sons. Thus upon the death of the present Uwar soro, who was presumably the Uwar gida ma-kulle of Inuwa, the title Uwar soro may die out. The title of Mai-kudandan,which probably dates from the 1500s (see Nast, 1993a), lapsed during the reign of the present emir. The last Mai-kudandanwas inherited from Emir Inuwa (1963) because she was childless. After her death, however, no successor was named and her keys to the dry-goods store (which have assumed ritual importance) were given to Uwar soro and to the last remaining Uwar waje, in Yelwa. These latter two concubines were also inherited from Inuwa, Uwar waje being particularly elderly by the time she was inherited. Mai-soron baki was also inherited, but from Sanusi, after he had been turned out of office in 1963. Concubine inheritance is contingent upon the fertility of a woman. Those concubines who do not produce children are not freed upon the death of their master and, in the case of the palace, are inherited by succeeding emirs. Thus, because Mai-kudandan, Uwar soro and Uwar waje never bore children, they experienced concubinage in three successive reigns. 39 Cf. Rufa'i (1987), who places Uwar waje nearly on a par with the other three title-holding concubines. Mack (1988: 76) seems unaware of the historical presence and importance of Mai-kudandan. 40One of the daughters of the present emir, for example, noted that her father occasionally uses binoculars to look into the women's realms from the second storey of Soron baki. 41 This included the granaries and compound of 'Yar Fanisau, which were by then presumably deserted (see Fig. 4). 42 According to Alhaji dan Meshe, one of the two present-day 'eunuchs', these buildings were planned by Abdullahi in conjunction with one of his good friends who was a (male) British architect. The latter was apparently even allowed inside the cikin gida to supervise the building work. The resultant separation of the traditional builder from the planning process was a serious breach of traditional practice, one that would increasingly become the norm (Sa'ad, 1981; Nast, 1992). Despite such 'modern' touches, no women were allowed into the planning process. 43Midwives still accompanied (and accompany) these women to the hospital, perhaps reflecting resistance by royal women to the moder (and male) medicalisation of birth. 44For the first few decades of colonial rule, prisoners were employed in relatively large gardens where they produced vegetables for British consumption. The British also started a number of tree-planting initiatives to procure local sources of fresh citrus and other tropical fruits, many of which were later linked with windmill schemes. Most of these types of fruit trees and vegetables were grown by Abdullahi in his new home garden. 45 Within months the playground equipment was broken by palace children unfamiliar with how such equipment 'works'. The area has subsequently become deserted. The children prefer to play traditional games such as riding makeshift stick hobby-horses along the long corridor- like courtyard of the cikin gida. 46 At the time of these changes in the cikin gida the southern male slave area was being

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 70 PALACESLAVE WOMEN IN KANO radically restructured to make it the main site of political articulation between colonial and traditional orders (see Nast, 1992). 47Ya Dada, daughter of the present-day Uwarkuyangi, for example, had originally been given to a District Head (the colonial designation for hakimi or nobleman) by the emir as a concubine. She bore several children by him and was therefore freed upon his death, a religious obligation. Despite her 'freedom' she decided to return to the palace as a kuyanga under her mother. She thus rather illegally 'remade' herself into a 'slave'. Another example is the kuyanga Daraba, whose grandmother was the previous Uwar kuyangi. Daraba's mother had been given by the emir to a District Head as a concubine. She had a son and was also 'freed' upon her husband's death. She married again and had Daraba, who, according to traditional matrilateral slave rules, was freeborn. This husband also died. Daraba nonetheless chose to return to the palace to become a kuyanga, even though she was technically the free daughter of a freed slave. A last case in point is Mero, whose grandmother had been a kuyanga who married another slave. The son of the latter, however, married a free woman, who gave birth to Mero. Mero married but later divorced and came back to the palace, where she served as a kuyanga for several years, even though she is technically free. In 1990 she remarried and moved out of the palace. 48 Recall that, through concubinage, slave and royal family lines are intertwined. A telling recent attempt by the aristocracy to fashion economic ties with the merchant class was the recent invention of a completely fictitious title, Mai-kudi, or 'Master of money'. The title was awarded to a wealthy local merchant by the emir in 1990. 49Differences in the spatial prerogatives of each 'class' are linked to issues of patriarchal control over the paternity of women's children and therefore reproduction, as well as ideological/practical constructions of femininity and womanhood. These aspects of 'class' construction among palace women are discussed in depth in Nast (1993b). 50 British acceptance of concubinage is demonstrated in a 1936 circular written by Governor Bernard Bourdillon and entitled 'Social relations with Moslem chiefs and their women folk'. In it he encourages 'European women' to visit the 'harem' of the king on a frequent and informal basis, the harem being seen as a natural and important part of Hausa culture (NAK/KANPROF 1836).

REFERENCES

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Hill, Polly. 1977. Population, Prosperity and Poverty: rural Kano, 1900 and 1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Johnston, H. A. S. 1967. The Fulani Empire of Sokoto. London: Oxford University Press. Last, Murray. 1967. The Sokoto Caliphate. New York: Humanities Press. Lavers, John. 1985. Guide to Gidan Makama Museum, Kano. Lagos: National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Lovejoy, P. and Hogendorn, J. 1993. Slow Death for Slavery: the course of abolition in northernNigeria, 1897-1936. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mack, Beverly. 1988. 'Hajiya Ma'daki: a royal Hausa woman', in P. Romero (ed.), Life Histories of African Women, pp. 46-77. London: Ashfield Press. Massey, Doreen. 1984. Spatial Divisions of Labour:social structuresand the geography of production. London: Macmillan. Moughtin, J. C. 1985. Hausa Architecture. London: Ethnographica. Muffett, D. J. M. 1964. ConcerningBrave Captains. London: Deutsch. - 1971. 'Nigeria-Sokoto caliphate', in M. Crowder (ed.), West African Resistance: the military response to colonial occupation, London: Hutchinson. NAF/15/1939. General correspondence regarding the Kano palace, 1939-65. Kano: Kano State History and Culture Bureau Archives. NAK/KAN/LA/140. 'H.R.H. Prince of Wales, Durbar in Honour of, Invitations to Officials and Non-officials, 1925'. NAK/KANONA 152. 'Installation of the Emirs, Northern ', 1946. NAK/KANPROF 1744. 'Kayan Sarauta (Appurtenances of Office)', 1923. NAK/KANPROF 1836. 'Social Relations with Moslem Chiefs and their Women- folk', 1936. NAK/KANPROF 1081/VII. 'Emir of Kano, Visit to England', 1934. NAK/KANPROF 4164. 'Emir of Kano, 1926-45'. NAK/SNP 7-8/1538/1908. 'Kano Annual Report for 1907'. NAK/SNP 17/klO5/vll. 'Kano Province Annual Report for 1926'. Nast, Heidi J. 1992. 'Space, History and Power: stories of spatial and social change in the palace of Kano, northern Nigeria, c. 1500-1990'. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Montreal: McGill University. -1993a. 'Engendering "space": state formation and the restructuringof the Kano palace following the Islamic holy war in northern Nigeria, 1807-1903', Historical Geography23, 62-75. -1993b. ', Gender and Slavery in West Africa c. 1500: a spatial archaeology of the Kano palace, northern Nigeria'. Paper presented at the 1993 African Studies Association meeting, Boston, Mass.: 4-7 December. Paden, John N. 1973. Religion and Political Culture in Kano. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press. Rufa'i, Ruqayyatu, Mrs. 1987. 'Gidan Rumfa: the socio-political history of the palace of the Emir of Kano, with particular reference to the twentieth century'. Unpub- lished M.A. dissertation. Kano: Bayero University. Sa'ad, Hamman Tukur. 1981. 'Between Myth and Reality: the aesthetics of traditional architecture in Hausaland'. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan. Sa'id, Halil Ibrahim. 1978. 'Revolution and Reaction: the Fulani Jihad in Kano and its aftermath, 1807-1919'. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Department of History, University of Michigan. Schwertdfeger, Friedrich. 1982. Traditional Housing in African . New York: Wiley. Shenton, Robert. 1986. The Development of Capitalism in Northern Nigeria. London: James Currey.

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Smith, Mary. 1954. Baba of Karo: a woman of the Muslim Hausa. London: Faber. Ubah, C. N. 1985. Government and Administration of Kano Emirate, 1900-30. Nsukka: University of Nigeria Press. Yunasa, Yusufu. 1976. 'Slavery in Nineteenth Century Kano'. Unpublished B.A. Hons. thesis, Zaria: Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The researchcould not have been conductedwithout the supportof the Emirof Kano, His HighnessAlhaji Ado Bayero,for whichI am grateful.I am particularlyindebted to Hajiyya Abba Ado Bayero,the emir'ssecond wife, who made her home my own and who provided invaluableassistance in the acquisitionand interpretationof field data. Thanksare also due to the Kano State Historyand CultureBureau, where I was a Fellow and which provided long-termlogistical support. I am additionallygrateful to the CanadianSocial Sciencesand HumanitiesResearch Council and the CanadianInternational Development Agency for providingthe majorityof fundsfor the fieldresearch.

ABSTRACT Spatial analysis of the Kano palace shows that colonial abolitionist policies enacted in northern Nigeria after the British conquest of 1903 affected the lives and places of female and male slaves differently. The differences derived from historical differences in the placement and function of slave women and men in the palace: whereas slave women lived and/or worked in a vast secluded private domain and engaged in state household reproduction on behalf of the emir, male state slaves inhabited 'public' places and held state-related offices. Colonial abolitionist policies, which restructured traditional 'public' spheres of state, accordingly forcefully altered male slave spaces while the private domain of female slavery initially went largely undisturbed. In time, as palace slave patronage was more severely undermined, domestic slave women left the palace to follow slave husbands and/or heads of households who had been exiled or who were in search of better outside opportunities, resulting in a decrease in the reserve of slave women from which concubines were chosen. The reserve declined further as slave men were permitted to marry freeborn women, resulting in a marked decrease in concubine numbers and a marked transformation of the internal organisation of the inner household. The spatial organisation of female slavery in the palace was thus affected indirectly and later than that of male slavery. The article demonstrates the utility of spatial analysis in understanding historical change and points to the need for greater sensitivity to issues of gender, 'class' and power in analyses of slavery and its abolition. It was the gender, wealth and power of royal patrons as well as the state-level skills and authority of male palace slaves, for example, that initially led British officials to promote state slavery for their own ends-advantages for slaves that women and/or masters of lesser means could not provide. Ironically, it was because male slaves held so much authority that British officials eventually intervened directly to erode their places and powers. The analysis establishes that the spatial organisation of slavery was constructed and eroded variably across time and place.

RESUME L'analyse spatiale du palais de Kano montre que les lois abolitionant le colonialisme, enforcees au Nigeria apres la conquete britannique en 1903, ont affect6 differemment la vie et la place des femmes et des hommes esclaves. Ces diff6rencesprovenaient des differences historiques concernant le placement et la fonction des femmes et des

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 73 hommes esclaves dans le palais: tandis que les femmes esclaves habitaient et/ou tra- vaillaient dans un domaine prive et tres retire, et se livraient a la reproduction de la famille au pouvoir pour le compte de l'emir, les hommes esclaves du gouvernement habitaient dans des endroits publics et remplissaient des fonctions qui se rapportai- ent au gouvernement. Les lois abolitionistes coloniales qui ont restructureles spheres publiques traditionnelles de l'etat, ont en consequence vigoureusement transforme les places occupees par les hommes esclaves, tandis que le domaine prive des femmes ne fut pratiquement pas touche au debut. Avec le temps, comme la protection des esclaves du palais devenait de plus en plus fragile, les femmes esclaves quitterent le palais pour suivre leurs maris esclaves et/ou leurs chefs de familles qui avaient ete exiles ou qui etaient a la recherche de meilleures occasions a l'exterieur, provoquant ainsi une diminution dans la reserve des femmes esclaves d'oui les concubines etaient choisies. La reserve declina encore plus lorsque les hommes esclaves re9urent la per- mission d'epouser des femmes qui etaient nees libres, provoquant une diminution pro- noncee du nombre de concubines et une transformation prononcee dans l'organisation interne de la famille. L'organisation spatiale de l'esclavage des femmes du palais fut done affectee indirectement et le fut plus tardivement que celle de l'escla- vage des hommes. Cet article demontre l'utilite de l'analyse spatiale pour comprendre les changements historiques, et souligne la necessite de preter une plus grande sensibilite aux questions de genre, distinctions de classe, et de pouvoir dans les analyses de l'esclavage et de son abolition. Ce fut le genre, la richesse et le pouvoir des protecteurs royaux bien que la dexterite gouvernementale et l'autorite des hommes esclaves qui conduirent l'adminis- tration britannique a promoter l'esclavage au niveau de l'etat pour arrivera leurs fins; ceci donnant des avantages aux esclaves que les femmes et/ou les maitres aux moindres moyens ne pouvaient pas fournir. Ironiquement, ce fut parce que les hommes esclaves avaient tellement d'autorite que les fonctionnaires britanniques finirent par intervenir directement pour eroder leurs places et leur pouvoir. L'analyse etablit que l'organisation spatiale de l'esclavage a ete construite et erodee diff6rem- ment selon le temps et l'endroit.

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