Hausa women gathering in family compound, east of Zinder, Niger

"Both Hausa men and women are profoundly shaped by their agricultural subsistence economy. From early childhood girls anticipate a productive domestic role. Women contribute significantly to labor-intensive food preparation as mothers of numerous children and also as farmers on their husbands' or their own personal plots." [Stephens Connie, 1991: Marriage in the Hausa Tatsuniya Tradition: A Cultural and Cosmic Balance; Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century. the University of Wisconsin Press]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from March 17, 1970 to July 17, 1970.