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The Hausa are a major ethnic group living primarily in northern Nigeria and Niger, with a population of tens of millions. They are historically significant as traders and farmers whose language and culture have shaped West African commerce, society, and regional dynamics for centuries.
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The Hausa (autonyms for singular: Bahaushe (m), Bahaushiya (f); plural: Hausawa and general: Hausa; exonyms: Ausa; Ajami: مُتَنٜىٰنْ هَوْسَا / هَوْسَاوَا) are an ethnic group native to West Africa. They speak the Hausa language, which is the second most spoken language after Arabic in the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Hausa are a culturally homogeneous people based primarily in the Sahelian and the sparse savanna areas of southern Niger and northern Nigeria respectively, numbering around 86 million people, with significant populations in Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, the Central African Republic, Togo, and Ghana, as well as smaller more recent populations in Sudan, Eritrea.
Predominantly Hausa-speaking communities are scattered throughout West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route north and east traversing the Sahara, with an especially large population in and around the town of Agadez. Other Hausa have also moved to large neighbouring coastal cities in the region such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Accra, Abidjan and Cotonou as well as to parts of North Africa such as Libya over the course of the last 500 years. The Hausa are traditionally agriculturists who live in small villages as well as in precolonial towns and cities. The Hausa aristocracy had historically developed an equestrian based culture. Still a status symbol of the traditional nobility in Hausa society, the horse still features in the Eid day celebrations, known as Ranar Sallah (in English: the Day of the Prayer). Daura is the cultural center of the Hausa people. The town predates all the other major Hausa towns in tradition and culture.