Abstract
Despite extensive studies on insecurity and indigenous governance in Northern Nigeria, little attention has been given to the role of culturally encoded nonverbal communication as a community-based security strategy. This study addresses that gap by examining how nonverbal communication functions as an indigenous security system in Hausa society. The study adopts a qualitative interpretive research design, with data generated through participant observation, oral interviews, and retrospective accounts obtained from selected Hausa communities. The research is theoretically anchored in Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson’s (1967) axiom that “one cannot not communicate” and Halliday’s (1978) social semiotic perspective. Together, these frameworks explain how gestures, bodily movements, facial expressions, silence, spatial positioning, dress, and other culturally encoded signs operate as context-dependent semiotic resources for communicating security-related meanings. The findings reveal that these nonverbal cues are employed to identify strangers, detect suspicious behaviour, signal threats, regulate movement, and coordinate collective vigilance, thereby constituting an indigenous system of surveillance, threat detection, and community-based intelligence. Building on these findings, the study proposes a Nonverbal Communication Security Model that conceptualises the relationship between culturally shared nonverbal signs, contextual interpretation, and coordinated community security responses. The study concludes that indigenous nonverbal communication remains an important but underexplored component of community-based security in Hausa society and recommends its consideration in culturally informed security planning and community policing initiatives.
Keywords: Nonverbal communication, indigenous security, community-based intelligence, Hausa society, social semiotics.
DOI: 10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i02.023
author/Adamu, A. U., & Isah, S. S.
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 2(2) | August 2026 |
