The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, Niger, Sudan, and in many West and Central African countries. Their folk music has played an important part in the development of Nigerian music. They remain well-known for contributing such elements as the goje, a one-stringed fiddle. There are two broad categories of Hausa music: rural folk music and urban court music.

Ceremonial music (rokon fada) is performed as a status symbol, and musicians are generally chosen for political reasons as opposed to musical ones. Ceremonial music can be heard at the weekly sara, a statement of authority by the emir which takes place every Thursday evening.

Courtly praise-singers, like the renowned Narambad, are devoted to singing the virtues of a patron, usually a sultan or emir. Praise songs are accompanied by kettledrums and talking drums, along with the kakakai, a kind of long trumpet, derived from an instrument used by the Songhai cavalry.

Rural folk music includes styles that accompany the young girls' asauwara dance and the bòòríí trance cult. Popular Hausa music includes performers like Muhamman Shata, who sings accompanied by a bevy of drummers, Dan Maraya, who plays a one-stringed lute called a kontigi, Audo Yaron Goje, who plays the goje, and Ibrahim Na Habu, who plays a small fiddle called a kukkuma.

[edit] Bòòríí

The Hausa bòòríí cult is especially well-known outside of the country, and has been brought as far north as Tripoli, Libya by trans-Saharan trade. The bòòríí cult features trance music, played by calabash, lute or fiddle. During ceremonies, women and other marginalized groups fall into trances and perform odd behaviors, such as mimicking a pig or sexual behavior. These persons are said to be possessed by a character, each with its own litany (kírààrì). There are similar trance cults (the so-called "mermaid cults") found in the Niger Delta region.

[edit] Further reading

• Ames, David W. (1971). Glossary of Hausa Music and Its Social Contexts. Northwestern University Press. ISBN 0-8101-0361-3. 
• Kofoworola, Ziky (1987). Hausa Performing Arts and Music. Dept. of Culture, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. ISBN 978-173-041-2. 
• Mack, Beverly B. (2004). Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21729-6.