CHAPTER XIV
SOME ASPECTS OF SOCIAL LIFE
Wives of the upper-class—Women and the mosques—Polygamy—Its difficulties in the home-circle—How to maintain peace—Hints on management of the feminine character—A domestic diplomat—Slavery—The former and the present position—Status of a slave.
Wives of men not well-to-do have stalls in public places, peddle or trade by travelling fairly long distances. When the women are their own capitalists the money earned is by no means handed over to the husband. He, too, must work and pay towards the housekeeping. Women of the Hausa and kindred tribes have decided wills of their own. The profits from their trading go to maintain aged relatives or to obtain for themselves cloths and other articles of adornment which the husband’s wages will not procure.
Wives of what may be styled the upper-class do not trade. Nor do they perform housework. That is done by hired servants or by domestic slaves. These wives are not kept in seclusion, but they seldom go out of the compound adjoining the husband’s house except on Fridays—the Mohamedan Sabbath—and then only to visit intimate female friends.
Although many women have affixed to the head, suspended round the neck or attached to the arm little leather cases containing selections from the Koran, unless advanced in years, they do not attend a mosque for prayers. Their religious worship is fulfilled at home. Why only elderly ladies at the mosque? Because, say the Mallamai—teachers; literally, wise men—presence of the younger feminine element would be likely to deflect the thoughts of the male portion of the congregation from the sacred purpose for which they go to a mosque.
Polygamy is general, as with all Mohamedans. Among the native friends made in the course of the journey I count Abigah one of the most illuminating on domestic problems. Abigah’s father, also that name, is King of Lokoja. Abigah junior speaks English fluently. For 12 years he was an attentive pupil at the Church Missionary Society school at Lokoja, becoming a teacher there in secular subjects. Outside the school strong pressure was put upon him by an official then high in the public service of the Protectorate to forswear Mohamedanism. Immediate reward and alluring prospects were offered. The young man was firm. He would not, as he expressed himself to me, “be false to the faith of my people.” He is now at full manhood, and, like all his brothers, has been sent by the father to learn the world in the best manner of tuition, namely, by having to earn a livelihood away from home.
A HAUSA BELLE.
