It was inevitable that the extension of the railway from Lagos would draw the life out of the desert route. This process of travel is dying of inanition. It might still have lasted years, for trading was to be done en route and people naturally conservative in habit do not readily change their methods. But the Morocco trouble and the Tripoli war have given the desert route the happy despatch. It is already practically dead. Healthy commerce and warfare cannot exist together, and the desert route has been abandoned by the majority of the Arab traders.
They are coming and going by the sea service from Europe to Lagos or Forcados and thence either by train all the way from the former port or from the latter one by boat up the Niger to Baro and then by rail to Kano. These plans have been accompanied by other advantages, for the continental goods previously brought by the Arabs from the Mediterranean ports have to a considerable extent been replaced by British manufactures. Moreover, several of the Arab merchants are establishing branches in Manchester and Liverpool. If they can obtain in England the articles wanted the men will not incur the expense of going to the Continent to buy.
The Arabs from North and from Central Africa form a very small proportion of the crowds in Kano market. How are these crowds to be described? Not at all, unless at tabulated length. Buyers and sellers come in from districts 100 miles away and intermediately. There are markets and markets, near and far, large and small, and Kano is the hub, the receiving and the distributing centre of them all. Sokoto, Katsina, and their surrounding districts send horses and cattle. Villages near weave cloth, plait straw into mats, basins and a dozen other forms, and place the article in Kano market. Kano itself and a wide radius around supply hides and skins, and Kano tans and dyes them. It is the combined Lancashire and London of West Central Africa; manufactures and the centre of exchange. But there are no large factories. Tanning, dyeing, weaving, the basket industry, leather work, all and much else are done by individual families or by men employing half-a-dozen employees.
Do not conclude that Kano market is only for big transactions. You can buy anything there, from flocks and herds to native-grown cotton, ginned or unginned, or less than a handful of ground-nuts—known in English fruit shops as monkey-nuts—for a few cowries, of which 280 are the local rate of exchange for a penny.
Arts and crafts flourish in Kano market. Yes, arts and crafts essentially. Note the skill of the fancy leather worker: satchels of many kinds; long, flat purses wherein a double compartment slips perpendicularly into another—a favourite form of keeping money or documents—slippers and covered sandals of brightly-dyed leather carrying devices in still brighter contrast; cushion covers looking as though a dozen chess-boards had been interwoven; large and small bags; whips and many other articles fancily formed of leather, and strips of it decorate spurs and anything where art or ornament can be used with effect. Nothing is more noticeable than the riding boots reaching above the knees and bearing in front brilliant figuring fit for a Claude Duval.
There is the wood carver, handling a small, crude blade and fashioning on calabashes, large and small, curves and lines and flowers, symmetrically shaped and arranged, and selling the whole thing, according to the size of the vessel, for 1d., 2d., 3d., or 4d.
In the blacksmith’s shop only implements of utility are being produced, principally the hoe, which, used by hand, takes the place of our plough in forming a furrow for planting. It consists of a short handle—about 18 to 24 inches—and a small shovel blade set at right angle at the end.
Although not made in the market, there you may see knives and swords of diverse quality, always encased in a leather sheath. The knives, which are of the dagger type, are mostly worn for show. A common way of carrying is at the elbow, the lower part of wearer’s arm passing through a broad ring of leather. Swords nowadays are not regarded as to be drawn for offensive or defensive purposes. But every gentleman of quality wears one. And in Hausaland a gentleman of quality may be a man of poverty with his robe in rags. For ordinary walks abroad the sword will be held by a length of lamp wick or several strips of discoloured linen passing over the shoulder. On State occasions—for processions of the Emir—the sling will be wool, plaited to thick tubular form, the ends finished by large tassels. Green, yellow, red are the colours of slings, some combining the three.
These swords are remarkable evidence of the ability of the metal workers. The blades are occasionally made from high quality steel previously used in a similar capacity, but most have been iron which bound packing-cases, and to this iron is added odd bits of other iron—nails or whatever of the kind comes to hand—the whole welded by hand hammering.
It is astonishing to take some of these swords and, placing the point in the ground, bend them to a half-circle, so finely tempered has the metal been brought by the simple process. The handles are dulled and set with pieces of brass cut from used cartridge-cases and fitted artistically. The leather scabbards are also daintily picked out with small corners of the same metal alternating with polished tin. The swords range in price from 1s. 6d. to 35s.