Farmers and 'Prostitutes;: Twentieth-Century Problems and Female Inheritance in Kano Emirate, Nigeria

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Periodical article

Title:	Farmers and 'Prostitutes;: Twentieth-Century Problems and Female Inheritance in Kano Emirate, Nigeria
Author:	Pierce, Steven
Year:	2003
Periodical:	The Journal of African History
Volume:	44
Issue:	3
Period:	November
Pages:	463-486
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Northern Nigeria
Subjects:	gender relations Kano polity law of inheritance Islamic law History and Exploration Women's Issues Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Law, Human Rights and Violence Religion and Witchcraft Cultural Roles Historical/Biographical Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853703008478
Abstract:	This article focuses on the implications of an emir of Kano's decision to forbid women from inheriting houses and farms in 1923 and a successor's reversal of that policy in 1954. The earlier emir justified his policy by claiming that women inheritors were becoming prostitutes and the later one argued that women's re-enfranchisement would ameliorate the poverty of destitute elderly women. Both these events appear to have been radical innovations for their time and reflect continuous anxiety over women living outside of male control and a longer-term attack on women's public role in Kano (Nigeria). While the emirs' explanations do not fully reflect the political considerations underlying their decisions, both the proclamations and the way they were explained illustrate contradictions and ambiguities within Hausa conceptions of gender. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]