WHO
ARE THE HAUSAS?

THE RANGE OF HAUSA

Hausa is spoken by an estimated 22 million native speakers, plus an additional 17 million second language speakers (information from Ethnologue). The largest native speaking population is in northern Nigeria, where Hausa is the native language of the majority of the population and a universal lingua franca regardless of a speaker's first language. Likewise, in Niger Republic, Hausa is the majority language and is spoken by nearly all non-Hausa Nigeriens. In addition to this contiguous area where Hausa is the first or second language of everyone, Hausa features prominently on the linguistic scene across West Africa. In Ghana, in particular, there is a large native Hausa speaking population, and indeed Hausa is one of six "Ghanaian" languages used in daily radio broadcasts from the Ghana Broadcasting Company. Hausa is a lingua franca in Muslim populations in much of West Africa, particularly south of Mali (where Bambara is the main lingua franca) and east of Senegambia (where Wolof is the main lingua franca). Every city of any size in West Africa has a large centralized Hausa community, usually referred to as zango or zongo, a term which originally referred to the stopping point for trade caravans. In cities outside primarily Islamic areas the zango will usually be the center of organized Islamic activities, such as Koranic schools and sites for the major Islamic festivals.

The map below roughly shows the geographical range both as a native language and as a second language. As noted in the previous paragraph, all major West African cities have large Hausa speaking populations. This is not indicated on the map.