Creating Modernities through Conversation Groups: The Everyday Worlds of Hausa Migrants in Niamey, Niger

African Studies Review, Dec 2004 by Youngstedt, Scott M

Public, institutionalized, streetside hira groups value highly the art of conversation, pure "sociability" (Simmel 1949), democracy, and the equal status of most regular participants, and they discuss the broadest range of topics. However, hierarchies among speakers exist in all groups. Older men, Islamic leaders, and expert conversationalists enjoy the freedom to initiate topics, and their views may sometimes silence others. They are always offered the best seats, typically requiring that other men take places on mats.

Hira is not merely a matter of fun and games or "killing time." It is serious, for much is at stake. Participation is not truly voluntary. While a man has a great deal of freedom to choose his hira partners, topics, times, and level of participation, every "normal" man must regularly participate in hira. A man who avoids hira is regarded as an outcast, as "rashin hankali" (lacking sense), or possibly a mahaucaci (crazy man). Such a man, it is said, is bound to feel not only unhappy, but also cut off from social networks, information, and connections, which are absolutely essential for any chance at material success in Niamey. Though instrumental concerns cannot ensure the durability of hira groups, they are crucial nonetheless. Hira is about building community, building social networks, and creating long-lasting bonds. While most men turn to family first when they have no money, many hira mates make difficult personal sacrifices to provide food, shelter, and substantial loans to others in need.

Furthermore, hira involves difficult verbal work and skill in considering many complex intellectual, personal, and controversial topics, and men are aware that their oral skills and identities are constantly being evaluated by others, that they are "on stage." Hira groups function as "informal encounters" (Goldschmidt 1990:147), but despite the element of fun-loving camaraderie, hira is differentiating in terms of prestige. Hira groups are enlivened by special individuals who are appreciated for their storytelling prowess, ability to coin new phrases, or skill in delivering smart quips to impress their friends.

According to van Jijk (1985:4), "one pervasive strategy in everyday life, and hence also in dialogues, is the optimal display of one's social self for other participants." Kirk-Greene (1974) argues that the concept of mutumin kirki in Hausa involves the demonstration of a wide range of personal qualities and values, including gaskiya (truth), amana (trust), karamci (generosity), hakuri (patience), hankali (common sense), kunya (shame, modesty), ladabi (good manners), mutunci (humanity), hikima (Islamic wisdom), and adalci (Islamic scruples). In practice, hira performance and recognition of a particular mutumin kirki operate reciprocally: "All of these qualities (as well as their opposites) have reflexes in language as is evident... [in] verbal art performances. These are the qualities that build hali, character, and they are the qualities that endow a theory of ideal language behavior" (Hunter & Oumarou 1998:168-69).