councils, and so its application was closely bound up
with the image and practice of traditional rulership.
“Honor killing” is a term used to refer to the
killing by male patrilineal kin of women whose per-
ceived behavior is thought to have brought shame
to the family. While it is well documented in a
number of modern Muslim societies, notably in the
Middle East and Southwest Asia, it is difficult to
gauge its frequency over the longer historical term.
Islamic law is relevant to this phenomenon in
two ways. First, Islamic law calls for the punish-
ment of adultery (zinà), with lashing for those
never married, and stoning to death for those mar-
ried or formerly married. Both the man and woman
involved are liable for punishment. But in most
schools of Islamic law, it is difficult to prove adul-
tery since four witnesses are required. Thus the law
condemns adultery in the most severe of terms, yet
makes it difficult to punish by formal legal process.
This reality may suggest that because the courts
are constrained by legal technicalities it is legiti-
mate for male kin to take matters into their own
hands. Islamic homicide law is also relevant, for it
treats homicide as a tort rather than a crime, except
when it occurs in the context of highway robbery or
rebellion – in other words when it challenges state
authority. The built in assumption is that killing
usually involves conflict between lineages. When
the court finds that homicide has taken place it
authorizes the aggrieved male patrilineal next of
kin to take proportional revenge, or to claim com-
pensation. The court can also exact “Allah’s right”
(™aqq Allàh) and apply its own punishment to the
guilty individual. In northern Nigeria this was typ-
ically one hundred lashes and a year in prison.
When a killing takes place within the patrilineal
group, as it does in the honor killing of an adulter-
ess, only this second punishment is relevant. This
legal pattern may help explain modern situations
such as that in Jordan, where the courts apply a
lesser punishment in cases of honor killing.
The legal setting in northern Nigeria adds a fur-
ther wrinkle. Here it is the Màlikìschool of Islamic
law that is applied, and in this school pregnancy
out of wedlock is accepted as circumstantial proof
of adultery. Of course, short of DNA testing, this
proof is only relevant to the woman. In the past,
Màlikìjurists in North Africa and Spain came up
with a number of ingenious devices to curtail the
impact of this. For instance, they agreed that it was
possible for a child to sleep within its mother’s
womb for up to five years. European colonial legal
scholars scoffed at the unscientific character of this
doctrine, but clearly it had a humane intent. The
sub-saharan africa: northern nigeria 223use of force, deception, or magic might also consti-
tute a valid argument against the charge of adultery.
In a curious way, the Màlikìsystem may have
worked to lure cases into the courts where they
would die a slow death through legal technicalities,
saving the life of a woman who, in areas under the
ostensibly more liberal schools such as the £anafì
or Shafì≠ì, might have been quickly put to death in
an honor killing carried out under the informal
authority of “tribal law.” One conclusion, also sug-
gested by women’s roles in Muslim courts in East
Africa, is that courts grounded in a formal tradition
of written law can provide a counterweight to
social norms unfavorable to women’s rights.
In searching for insights as to why northern
Nigeria lacks honor killing, one also needs to in-
vestigate social and cultural patterns. In Muslim
societies where honor killing is common, and
apparently sanctioned by public opinion, lineages
often have key roles in social and political life.
Marriage articulates the lineage internally, and it
cements external alliances. But among the Hausa,
the predominant ethnic group in northern Nigeria,
lineage does not have a prevalent role. Hausa soci-
ety is best characterized as territorial and hierarchi-
cal. Individuals are identified by village, or urban
quarter of residence, rather than by lineage. Social
interactions in lineage based societies are often
egalitarian and competitive. In Hausa society they
are characterized instead by an emphasis on defer-
ence and decorum.
In lineage based Muslim societies, violence often
erupts between competing lineages who share a
larger cultural identity. In northern Nigeria, the
most frequent examples of violence are those that
involve attacks on individual outsiders, or conflicts
between culturally different communities. Legal
records show the frequent killing of thieves. At
least in the early twentieth century these were fre-
quently slaves or ex-slaves – outsiders with no kin
to support their rights or claim compensation.
Since the 1950s, there have been periodic eruptions
of intercommunal violence involving southerners
or, in the case of the 1980 Mai Tatsine disturbances,
a dissident Islamic sect.
There have been occasional notorious acts of vio-
lence against women in northern Nigeria that have
come before the courts and received widespread
publicity. One dramatic case was recorded in the
register of the Emir of Kano’s Judicial Council in- In this case, a prominent man, Sarki Mai-
duwa, killed his wife, Hafsa, by striking her on her
neck and head. The motive for this, revealed in tes-
timony of her mother, was that Hafsa had refused