Allah Made Us E-Book

Rudolf Pell Gaudio

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: New Directions in Ethnography
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 439

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

A rich and engrossing account of 'sexual outlaws' in the Hausa-speaking region of northern Nigeria, where Islamic law requires strict separation of the sexes and different rules of behavior for women and men in virtually every facet of life.

• The first ethnographic study of sexual minorities in Africa, and one of very few works on sexual minorities in the Islamic world
• Engagingly written, combining innovative, ethnographic narrative with analyses of sociolinguistic transcripts, historical texts, and popular media, including video, film, newspapers, and song-poetry
• Analyzes the social experiences and expressive culture of ‘yan daudu (feminine men in Nigerian Hausaland) in relation to local, national, and global debates over gender and sexuality at the turn of the twenty-first century
• Winner of the 2009 Ruth Benedict Prize in the category of "Outstanding Monograph"

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES ON ORTHOGRAPHY, TRANSLATION AND TRANSCRIPTION

1 INTRODUCING ‘YAN DAUDU

Cultural and Sexual Citizenship in Northern Nigeria

Who are ‘Yan Daudu?

Encountering ‘Yan Daudu

Outline of the Book

Notes

2 PEOPLE OF THE BARIKI

‘Yan Daudu and Bori

‘Yan Daudu on the Eve of Colonial Rule: Baba of Karo Remembers

‘Yan Daudu, ‘Prostitution’ and Northern Nigerian Nationalism

‘Yan Daudu and the Academic Imaginary

Notes

3 OUT IN THE OPEN

Narrating Gender, Sexuality, Kinship and Work

Daudu on the Move

Girlfriends and Boyfriends

Conclusion

Notes

4 WOMEN’S TALK, MEN’S SECRETS

Playing and Laughing with Language and Gender

“Go back home”

Dominant Perceptions of Proverbs and Habaici

Performing Proverbs and Habaici

Habaici as Sexual Put-down

Learning about Indirect Speech Indirectly

Fighting among ‘Girlfriends’: Argument as Sociability

The Social Construction of Sexual ‘Secrets’

‘Civilian’ Uses of the ‘Harka Dialect’

Notes

5 PLAYING WITH FAITH

Barbado’s song

On Muslim ‘Humorlessness’

Swearing to God

Laughing about Arabs and Hausa Muslim ‘Big Men’

Notes

6 MEN ON FILM

Ibro Daudu

Receptions of Ibro Daudu

Alhaji Damina’s Biki Video

The Sound of Silence

Notes

7 LOST AND FOUND IN TRANSLATION

Do You Harka?

Sexual Citizenship in Regional, National and Global Perspective

Notes

EPILOGUE: MAY GOD KEEP A SECRET

Notes

GLOSSARY OF HAUSA TERMS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

New Directions in Ethnography is a series of contemporary, original works. Each title has been selected and developed to meet the needs of readers seeking finely grained ethnographies that treat key areas of anthropological study. What sets these books apart from other ethnographies is their form and style. They have been written with care to allow both specialists and nonspecialists to delve into theoretically sophisticated work. This objective is achieved by structuring each book so that one portion of the text is ethnographic narrative while another portion unpacks the theoretical arguments and offers some basic intellectual genealogy for the theories underpinning the work.

Each volume in New Directions in Ethnography aims to immerse readers in fundamental anthropological ideas, as well as to illuminate and engage more advanced concepts. Inasmuch, these volumes are designed to serve not only as scholarly texts, but also as teaching tools and as vibrant, innovative ethnographies that showcase some of the best that contemporary anthropology has to offer.

Published volumes

1. Turf Wars: Discourse, Diversity, and the Politics of Place Gabriella Gahlia Modan

2. Homegirls: Language and Cultural Practice among Latina Youth Gangs Norma Mendoza-Denton

3. Allah Made Us: Sexual Outlaws in an Islamic African City Rudolf Gaudio

This edition first published 2009

© 2009 Rudolf Pell Gaudio

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

Registered Office

John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

Editorial Offices

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA

9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK

The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.

The right of Rudolf Pell Gaudio to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gaudio, Rudolf Pell.

Allah made us: sexual outlaws in an Islamic African city / Rudolf Pell Gaudio.

p. cm. — (New directions in ethnography; 3)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4051-5251-8 (hardcover: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4051-5252-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Sexual minorities—Nigeria—Kano. 2. Prostitution—Nigeria—Kano. 3. Sex role—Nigeria—Kano. 4. Sex customs—Nigeria—Kano. 5. Islamic law—Social aspects—Nigeria—Kano. 6. Muslims—Nigeria—Kano Region—Social life and customs. 7. Hausa (African people)—Nigeria—Kano—Social life and customs. 8. Kano (Nigeria)— Social life and customs. 9. Kano (Nigeria)—Religious life and customs. 10. Kano (Nigeria)—Biography. I. Title.

HQ73.3.N62K364 2009

306.76088′2970966978—dc22

2008051206

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

For my parents, Christina and Alexander Gaudio, and my oga, Phil Shea.

LIST OF FIGURES

1.1Approximate extent of Hausa city-states since 18101.2Nigeria2.1City of Kano just after Nigeria’s independence3.1A ‘mother,’ her ‘daughters,’ and their friends in Sabon Gari, 19975.1The author (a.k.a. Sani) in Rijiyar Kuka, 19946.1Packaging for the video cassette for the film IbroDaudu6.2Alhaji Damina outside his own restaurant in Rijiyar Kuka, 20026.3Invitation to a biki hosted by Hajiya Asabe in Sabon Gari, 19966.4Dancing at a biki in Zakawa, 19937.1Invitation to Madhuri Mairawa’s biki, 1994

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ma sha’ Allah. This project took shape over great stretches of space and time thanks to numerous people who (like myself) often had only a vague sense of the form it would ultimately take. Their contributions are especially remarkable given the many delays, miscommunications and cultural breaches that I committed on both sides of the Atlantic. Whatever positive value lies in these pages is due largely to their efforts; the faults are all mine.

Because of the stigma and ambiguity attached to gender-nonconformity, homosexuality and prostitution (not to mention laws against such practices), making these acknowledgments raises some of the same rhetorical problems discussed elsewhere in this book. One associate in Kano confided that, despite my intentions, some audiences might even view this text as an act of ingratitude towards the people who helped me and towards Hausa Muslim culture itself. Thus, while I am anxious to thank the individuals and agencies that supported me while I was carrying out this research, I must emphasize that they have not necessarily endorsed the course it has taken. Many of those who were most helpful to me placed a premium on discretion and must remain anonymous. These individuals, known as ‘yan daudu, independent women, and masu harka, welcomed me into their social worlds, offered me food, drink and fellowship, and tolerated my social and linguistic missteps, as well as unusual and inconvenient requests for assistance. In my attempts to describe their words, deeds and lives, I have tried to respect my friends’ values and reputations, and I ask for forgiveness where I have fallen short.

I extend sincere thanks to the faculty and staff of the Department of Nigerian Languages at Bayero University, Kano (BUK), especially Professor Abdullahi Bature; the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Languages at BUK; the Kano State History and Culture Bureau, especially its former research director, Malam Auwalu Hamza; and Arewa House Centre for Historical Documentation and Research. I am indebted to Dr. Salisu A. Abdullahi, Professor Abdalla U. Adamu, Alhaji Muhammad Munzali Muhammad (CEO of Yoko Films), Professor Tijjani Isma’il and Hajiya Binta Tijjani, Alhaji Aminu Sharif Bappa, Alhaji Malam Sa’idu, Professor M.S. Abdulkadir, Professor Thomas K. Adeyanju, Hajiya Aisha Rufa’i, Mr. David Jowitt, Sani Bello Mai Tafari, and the staff at the former U.S. Consulate in Kaduna. Special thanks to Usman Aliyu Abdulmalik, who helped me with transcribing and countless other things; to Professor Fatimah M. Palmer, for the cultural and culinary lessons; and to Sunusi Ibrahim, Bashir Umar, Haruna Abubakar, and Sunusi Shu’aibu. Allah ya saka da alheri, amin.

Fieldwork in Nigeria was funded by a Fulbright Junior Research grant administered by the Institute for International Exchange; research and travel grants from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona; faculty support awards from Purchase College, State University of New York; and a professional development award from the Purchase chapter of United University Professionals. Funds for completing earlier versions of the project were provided by the Stanford Institute for Research on Women and Gender and a DOE Title VI grant administered by the Stanford Center for African Studies; subsequent funding was provided by Purchase College.

My academic mentors and colleagues in the northern Nigerian/Hausa studies ‘mafia’ – especially Clifford Hill, Joe McIntyre, Susan O’Brien, Matthias Krings, Esther Morgenthal, Katja Werthmann, Douglas Anthony, Louise Lennihan, Steven Pierce, Heidi Nast, Adeline Masquelier, Moses Ochonu, Sean Stilwell, and John A. Works – offered intellectual, moral and practical assistance. Murray Last and Renée Pittin gave critical feedback on earlier drafts; Jonathan Reynolds furnished archival materials for Chapter 2; and Jack Tocco made sense of my own archives. Special thanks to Alaine S. Hutson, for repeatedly helping me find my way; to Brian Larkin, Conerly Casey, and Shobana Shankar, for encouraging me to trust my ethnographic instincts; and to Deborah Pellow, for taking me under her wing and keeping me there.

The dissertation that this book grew out of was caringly guided by Shirley Brice Heath, John Rickford, Penelope Eckert and Will Leben of the Stanford Linguistics Department, where I also enjoyed the collegial support of Renée Blake, John Baugh, Jen Roth-Gordon and others; these relationships continue to enrich my work. The same can be said of my colleagues at the University of Arizona, especially Jane H. Hill and Susan U. Philips, on whom I have relied extensively for professional support and scholarly advice. Kira Hall, Anna Livia, Mary Bucholtz, Sara Trechter and Bonnie McElhinny gave painstaking editorial commentary on articles that furnished parts of Chapters 4, 5 and 6, and Sandro Duranti, Candy Goodwin, Chuck Goodwin, Bill Hanks, Miyako Inoue, Judith Irvine, Chaise LaDousa, Erez Levon, Bruce Mannheim, Barb Meek, Leila Monaghan and Bonnie Urciuoli gave critical feedback on work presented in other forums.

Henry Abelove, Cesnabmihilo Dorothy Aken’ova, Zehra Arat, Niko Besnier, Christa Craven, Catherine M. Cole, Donald Donham, Deborah Elliston, Wolfram Gleichmar-Hartmann, Lorraine Herbst, Janet Jakobsen, Miranda Joseph, Suzanne Kessler, Bill Leap, Ellen Lewin, Martin Manalansan, Shaka McGlotten, Stephan Miescher, Steven Murray, Esther Newton, Maisa Taha, Niels Teunis, David Valentine and Luise White offered incisive observations about sexuality, gender, nation and race in Africa and elsewhere. Deb Amory led me to many interesting places. Jacqui Ambrosini, Sima Belmar, Martha Fenn, Kathleen Hill, Brad Holland, Marie J. Palluotto, Leland Pitts-Gonzalez, Marianne Villanueva and Anne Wolf shared their experiences and insights on the creative process. Special thanks to Greg Gaudio for his critical feedback on my opening chapters, and to my great Aunt Louise Iorillo for her biscotti and her prayers.

For their guidance, encouragement and extraordinary patience, I thank my editor at Wiley-Blackwell, Rosalie Robertson, my former editor, Jane Huber, and their assistants/mavens, Deirdre Ilkson and Julia Kirk, whose unflagging attentiveness and enthusiasm kept me on track. Ben Soares, two anonymous reviewers, and the students in my Global Sexualities class at Purchase gave generous, detailed commentary on earlier drafts. Hassane Boukary and Isma’ila Maigyara patiently answered my linguistic questions. Rob Scarpa spent many hours designing the photographs, maps and other images, amazing me with his artistry and boundless generosity.

Marla Berman, Dana-ain Davis, Sid Donnell, Adriana Estill, Helen Gremillion, Marco Last, Bonnie McElhinny, Patrick Mead, Denise Morgan, Leslye Obiora, Roopali Mukherjee, Teresa Picarazzi, Carolina Sanin, Michelle Stewart, Jennie Uleman, Char Ullman and Jess Weinberg helped me navigate the ethical and emotional relationship between academics and “real” life. Towfiq Awwal, Emory Fry, Mike Hall, Gerard Ilaria, Marvin Peguese, Wai Poc, Thomas Uldrick and Case Willoughby let me kvetch. Stefanie Jannedy gave me solace and the space to compose myself. Steve Bialostok knew just what I needed. Jeff Maskovsky kept me honest. Norma Mendoza-Denton was my rain in the desert. Galey Modan reminded me to tell the story, and helped me see the point.

I thank my parents, Christina and Alexander Gaudio, and the whole Gaudio clan for supporting me from a distance and giving me a loving home to return to. This book is dedicated to them, and to my mentor and friend, Philip J. Shea, whose knowledge of northern Nigerian history and culture was surpassed only by the generous enthusiasm with which he shared it, often with a plate of food and a glass of lemonade. Phil inspired countless students in Kano and elsewhere. We miss him.

NOTES ON ORTHOGRAPHY, TRANSLATION AND TRANSCRIPTION

Orthography

Hausa is usually written using a modified form of the roman alphabet that includes three special ‘hooked’ letters to represent sounds that do not exist in European languages: and are glottalized (pronounced like their unglottalized counterparts, but with a supplemental constriction of the glottis), while is implosive (pronounced with a sudden in-breath of air). Other consonants are pronounced approximately as in English, with the following exceptions: ts is glottalized; c is pronounced like English ch; r is trilled or rolled.

Hausa vowels are pronounced roughly as in Spanish, and are either long (aa) or short (a); they are also pronounced with a distinctive tone: high (ú), low (ù) or falling (û). Although distinctions of vowel length and tone do affect word meanings, they are not marked in standard orthography. In this book I generally use standard spellings, indicating distinctive vowel qualities only when necessary – e.g., to distinguish the words bábà [‘mother’] and bàbá [‘father’]. Excerpts from published texts are reproduced with idiosyncratic spellings intact.

I have chosen to treat the words Shari’a and Bori as proper nouns, capitalizing them to emphasize their special religious and cultural significance.

In accordance with the normal convention, single quotes indicate a gloss.

Translation

In translating from Hausa to English, I have attempted to strike a balance between literal and idiomatic interpretation. Arabic expressions used in everyday Hausa speech are sometimes translated (e.g., Wallahi [‘by God’]), sometimes not. Where the Hausa original is provided along with an English translation, underlining, boldface and italics are sometimes used to indicate matching passages, e.g., an Arabic expression with its English translation, or a Hausa proverb with its English translation.

The word Allah is sometimes translated as ‘God’ and sometimes left untranslated; this choice follows the practice of English-speaking Muslims in Nigeria and elsewhere, who use both names more or less interchangeably. (Note that Hausa- and Arabic-speaking Christians also refer to God as Allah.)

All singular Hausa nouns, pronouns and adjectives are grammatically feminine or masculine; plural forms are unmarked with respect to gender. When grammatical distinctions of gender and number are relevant to my analysis, they are indicated in English translation using superscript forms, e.g., ke [‘youf’], kai [‘youm’] or ku [‘youpl’]; dogo [‘tallm’] or doguwa [‘tallf’].

Transcription

Where a verbatim transcript of Hausa speech is provided along with an English translation, punctuation marks (period, comma, question mark, exclamation mark) are used as in colloquial written English. Other transcription conventions are as follows.

= indicates latching, i.e., a quicker-than-usual transition between speaker turns unaccompanied by a conversational pause.

[ indicates the beginning of a conversational overlap, with the open-bracket being located as closely as possible to the point in the first speaker’s utterance at which the second speaker started talking.

] indicates the end of an overlap.

() indicates uncertainty regarding the accuracy of the transcription inside the parentheses.

(xx) indicates indiscernible speech.

(..) or <..> indicates that speech has been omitted from the transcript.

(()) or < > indicates my commentary about the interaction (as an analyst, not as a participant).

1

INTRODUCING ‘YAN DAUDU

Hajiya Asabe had a feminine name and a handsome, mustached face. In the room he rented in Kano’s infamous Sabon Gari neighborhood, he received a daily stream of visitors: girlfriends stopping by to gossip, out-of-town relatives seeking financial assistance, flirtatious boyfriends, hopeful suitors. People knew they could count on finding Hajiya Asabe in his room because, as a self-described karuwa, or ‘prostitute,’ he woke up late most mornings and stayed close to home during the day. Most evenings he spent at a nearby nightclub where a modestly upscale, male clientele came to listen to live performances of Hausa and Arab music, to drink beer or a nonalcoholic alternative, and to socialize with the women and ‘yan daudu, feminine men like Hajiya Asabe, who served as the club’s unofficial hosts. (Regular customers had to pay a door fee; women and ‘yan daudu did not.) Among the ‘yan daudu who frequented the club, Hajiya Asabe stood out with his stylish dress and a graceful, self-confident demeanor that was both charming and haughty. It was this demeanor that had made me notice him during my earliest visits to the club, and that made him so alluring to the men who sought his company.

One day late in the dry season in 1994, I went to pay Hajiya Asabe a visit. As I entered the cement courtyard, I found him kneeling on a small mat outside his room. Not wanting to disturb him as he performed the late-afternoon la’asar prayer, I took a seat on a nearby bench while the compound’s other residents – most of them non-Muslims from southern Nigeria – went about their regular activities. Once he finished praying, Hajiya Asabe joined me on the bench and called for Mama Ayo, the middle-aged Yoruba woman who managed the compound, to bring me a cold beer. Hajiya Asabe did not drink alcohol, but he was unfailingly hospitable towards his guests, and in the early days of our friendship he always offered me a bottle of Gulder, the most expensive beer on the market, whenever I came by to visit. Although Hajiya Asabe and I had been casually acquainted for almost a year, we had only recently begun spending time together, so we were still getting to know one another. After the usual exchange of greetings and small talk, he complimented me on my command of Hausa, the major language of northern Nigeria, and suggested that all that remained for me to become a ‘complete Hausa’ [] was to embrace Islam. He even offered to slaughter a ram in my honor if I were to convert. Hajiya Asabe’s religious zeal astonished me. After all, the social milieu in which I knew him was hardly one that most people would characterize as Islamically devout.