Hidden Trade in Hausaland

Abstract

This article is mainly concerned with the importance of the 'house-trade' conducted by fully-secluded women in a village, Batagarawa, in northern Katsina Emirate. I shall show that although each woman sells her produce within the privacy of her husband's compound, one may yet argue that the sellers as a group, together with their customers, are the equivalent of a market-place, especially so far as grains are concerned-a market-place of incomparably greater importance than that which was established in the village recently. Other economic activities of secluded women will also be mentioned.