Source:

Hausa and Hausa-allied peoples [ID 15462]

Quoted after:

"The north is dominated by Hausa and Hausa-allied peoples. Often the language and the people are confused with one another, and it is difficult to know which an author is discussing. Their main settlement area is in the north and northwest of Nigeria's northern states. Here are found the core groups of the Hausa people and the Islamic states that originally formed a linked set of centralized states that still remain politically and commercially important. The Hausa are found as traders throughout the Sahara and Sahel region. They are also skilled farmers. These expatriate Hausa maintain close ties with their home areas, further complicating ethnic relations in the region in general, and in Nigeria in particular. Their spread has made Hausa a general market language throughout the region. (Levinson, 1998, 157)"