Preface

Western social scientists have conducted significant research on African societies, cultures, and civilizations. What is different about this collection of research papers is that the investigators are themselves African citizens as well as social scientists. These authors bring their training in sociology together with their deep concern for the development of their new nation of Nigeria.  They seek to address significant social issues, the solutions to which would improve the welfare of their country.

While these authors do not always bring the detached objectivity sought after by most social scientists in the West, they all bring a deep understanding of the historically rich social context of their research. I believe these studies show that living in the society has strengthened their objectivity, in the accurate if not always detached nature of their observational skill.

The nineteen research papers in this collection are the product of an educational exchange program between the sociology departments at Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria and Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. As the director of this program, I knew both departments well. I had served two years as the acting sociology department head at the founding of Bayero University, and later served seven years as sociology department chair at Cleveland State University, itself only fifteen years older than Bayero. Both faculty groups were active scholars focused on social issues in their respective urban settings. Cleveland State also had a successful institutional history with the State Department’s Fulbright international exchange program, and my application for the support of this collaboration was generously funded.

Over a period of three years, sixteen Bayero sociologists, two or three at a time, spent a half semester as Visiting Scholars in the Cleveland State Sociology Department. Each brought a draft of one or more research studies they had recently conducted and presented these in workshops for the Cleveland State faculty and graduate students. Using reactions and feedback received, they prepared revised drafts, and in a few cases included host faculty as active collaborators and co-authors. A preliminary version of this collection appeared in the Bayero Sociologist, intended primarily for its Nigerian audience. The current expanded collection includes additional research plus supporting contextual materials.

A second group project of this exchange program was the collection of data for the third cohort of the ongoing longitudinal Kano Youth Survey (KYS). In collaboration with Bayero faculty, I directed a team of Bayero student interviewers for the completion of this survey.  The research reported in Chapters 18 and 19, by Dukku and Smith, respectively, gives further information on the KYS.

The locus of our research is metropolitan Kano in northern Nigeria, second only to the southern port of Lagos in total population. In the 19th century British colonial rulers incorporated this centuries-old Hausa-Islamic kingdom into the new multi-ethnic territory they named Nigeria. However, they elected to govern this northern region by “indirect rule,” delegating their authority to the long-established regional monarchy. Their Western and Christian cultural influence did spread throughout the other ethnic regions of Nigeria, which they ruled directly.

Ironically, it was not until national independence in 1960 that Kano and the North began to add this Western layer to its established Hausa-Islamic culture. Indigenous national leadership needed to integrate all regions of Nigeria into a single federation that could be centrally governed in a democratic and equitable manner. As in other former British colonies, English became the official language for all federal institutions, including the new federal university system. Universal primary education became national policy in 1976, including English language instruction.

For centuries Kano had been the central meeting point for trans-Saharan trade from North Africa and the Middle East, with local Hausa traders carrying these goods to diverse regions in sub-Saharan Africa. Such camel caravans became obsolete, replaced by Kano’s international airport, a modern roadway system, and heavy-duty trucks and other commercial vehicles. Kano’s airport has received direct flights from London, Amsterdam, and Moscow, and is the central point of departure for African Muslims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Nevertheless, despite the growing number of modernizing global influences, most Western observers in Kano are struck by the continued strength of the traditional Hausa-Islamic culture. For local citizens in this changing society, social behavior that is considered “too Western” is labelled deviant and subject to sanctions. Other citizens, however, have begun to assign deviant labels to certain traditional behavior patterns and practices.

Following a brief introductory chapter on the sociology of deviance, Bayero sociologists address these issues across five topic areas. Part one examines deviant behavior in domestic and gender roles. The first chapter examines the emerging awareness of domestic violence as a social problem. The next presents a sociological perspective on popular film portrayals of good and bad Hausa wives. A third chapter presents a report on the continued presence and possible updating of a centuries-old Hausa transgender role.

Part two considers youth deviance.  Compared to most Western societies, this transitional age period between childhood dependency and adult responsibility has been longer for males, shorter for females. The chapters examine the delinquent activity of boys in traditional free-roaming gangs, their drug use behavior, and the assigned commercial street activity of girls, with consideration for how these patterns may change with increased modern secular schooling. A fourth chapter presents a survey of university students’ self-reported acts of delinquency.

Part three provides analyses and critiques of the operation of three social control institutions – a psychiatric hospital, prison, and police force.  The authors suggest the net effect of their outmoded operations may be to heighten rather than control deviance.

Part four presents traditional and modern strategies to normalize and thereby make acceptable two public health interventions. One seeks to reduce childhood mortality with preventive immunization. The other seeks to reduce adult deaths from the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Part five, Education and Youth, opens with a chapter on African students’ social isolation experiences when studying abroad. This research contrasts the perceived exclusionary tendencies of modern American culture compared to the openness to strangers that is customary in their home cultures. The final two chapters, revised Master’s papers, examine the joint impact of continuing Islamic education and the increasing attainment of secular modern education for Kano youth, based on analyses of the Kano Youth Survey.