The Dosso Kingdom is a precolonial state in what is now southwest Niger which has survived in a ceremonial role to the modern day.
41-691: The Djerma people of Niger are believed to have migrated from what is now the Fula region around Lac Debo , Mali during the Songhai Empire , and settled first in Zarmaganda in the 16th century. In the 18th century, many Djerma resettled south to the Niger River valley, the Fakara plateau and Zigui in what is now Southwest Niger near Niamey . Forming a number of small communities, each led by
82-665: A Djermakoy , these polities soon found themselves pressured from the north by the Tuareg and the Fula from the southeast, as well as other ethnic groups in the area. While Djermakoy Aboubacar founded the Dosso state from his own Taguru clan around 1750, it remained a small collection of villages in the Dallol Bosso valley until the 1820s, when it led much of the resistance to the Sokoto Caliphate . While Dosso fell under
123-491: A compound may have several separate huts, each hut with the different wives of the head male. The huts are traditionally roundhouses, or circular shaped structures made of mud walls with a thatched straw conical roof. The Zarma people grow maize , millet , sorghum , rice , tobacco, cotton and peanuts during the rainy season (June to November). They have traditionally owned herds of animals, which they rent out to others till they are ready to be sold for meat. Some own horses,
164-494: A historical musical tradition. The Zarma people are alternatively referred to as Zerma , Zaberma , Zabarma Zabermawa , Djerma , Dyerma , Jerma , or other terms. Zarma is the term used by the Zarma people themselves. The estimates for the total population of Zarma people as of 2013 has been generally placed over three million, but it varies. They constitute several smaller ethnic sub-groups, who were either indigenous to
205-600: A large region. According to Anne Haour – a professor of African Studies, some scholars consider the historic caste-like social stratification in Zarma-Songhai people to be a pre-Islam feature while some consider it derived from the Arab influence. Caste-based servitude The traditional form of caste-based servitude was still practiced by the Tuareg , Zarma and Arab ethnic minorities. —Country Report: Niger (2008) US State Department The different strata of
246-694: A legacy of those Zerma people who historically belonged to the warrior class and were skilled cavalrymen in Islamic armies. Living along the River Niger, some Zarma people rely on fishing. The property inheritance and occupational descent is patrilineal. Many Zarma people, like Songhai, have migrated into coastal and prospering cities of West Africa, especially Ghana. Zarma people also grow guavas, mangoes, bananas, and citrus fruits. The Zarma people, like their neighboring ethnic groups in West Africa, have
287-399: A rich tradition of music, group dance known as Bitti Harey and singing. The common musical instruments that accompany these arts include gumbe (big drum), dondon (talking drums), molo or kuntigui (string instruments), goge (violin-like instrument). Some of this music also accompanies with folley , or spirit possession-related rituals. Dosso, Niger Dosso is a city in
328-553: A vassal of the Mali Empire . In the early 14th century they were defeated by the rising Sonni dynasty , founders of the Songhai Empire. The surviving Za became the leaders of small Zarma principalities. Some helped Askia Muhammad overthrow Sonni Baru in 1493, but did not return to power. After leaving Gao, the Zarma first settled in the Zarmaganda , later expanding south into the Dallol Bosso valley and Dosso by
369-441: Is a part of the Zarma people tradition, with preferred partners being cross cousins, and a system of ritualistic acceptance between co-wives. This endogamy is similar to other ethnic groups in West Africa. The women among Zarma people, like other ethnic groups of Sahel and West Africa, have traditionally practiced female genital mutilation (FGM). However, the prevalence rates have been lower and falling. According to UNICEF and
410-460: Is now southwest Niger near the capital Niamey . According to legend, this migration was led by Mali Bero , who migrated by flying on a magical millet silo bottom. He decided to migrate with his people following a fight between the Zarma and a neighboring Tuareg village. Using this oral tradition as evidence, Lange has argued that the Zarma were the ruling class of the Gao Empire , later
451-565: The Maliki - Sunni school, and they live in the arid Sahel lands, along the Niger River valley which is a source of irrigation, forage for cattle herds, and drinking water. Relatively prosperous, they own cattle, sheep, goats and dromedaries , renting them out to the Fulani people or Tuareg people for tending. The Zarma people have had a history of slave and caste systems, like many West African ethnic groups. Like them, they also have had
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#1732764849354492-582: The Zima or priests and Islamic clerics had to be initiated but did not automatically inherit that profession, making the cleric strata a pseudo-caste. According to Ralph Austen, a professor emeritus of African history, the caste system among the Zarma people was not as well developed as the caste system historically found in the African ethnic groups further west to them. Louis Dumont , the 20th-century author famous for his classic Homo Hierarchicus , recognized
533-417: The 17th century. Forming a number of small communities, each led by a chief or ruler called Zarmakoy , these polities were in conflict for economically and agriculturally attractive lands with the Tuareg people , the Fula people and other ethnic groups in the area. The Zabarma Emirate was founded by itinerant Zarma preachers and horse traders in the 19th century military, eventually conquering much of
574-712: The Djerma region, became a powerful political king maker for the coming order. Political parties vied for the support of the Zarmakoy and the powerful Hausa leaders in the east and the then Zarmakoy, Issoufou Seydou, played a leading role in Nigerien politics at the time of independence. Zarmakoy Seydou was a founder of the PPN, and later the UNIS parties, and was Vice-President and Minister of Justice from December 1958-October 1959. Today
615-537: The Dosso aristocracy continue to hold influential positions throughout Nigerien government, with a majority of post independence leaders having been drawn from the Djerma. The city of Dosso also retains an important place, with a large population of aristocratic class Djerma who rely on the patronage of the Zarmakoy, as the more traditional ruling class reject modern careers. Zarma people The Zarma people are an ethnic group predominantly found in westernmost Niger . They are also found in significant numbers in
656-463: The FGM practice. According to UNICEF, these efforts have successfully and noticeably reduced the practice to a prevalence rate in the single digits (9% in Zarma ethnic group in 2006 ), compared to east-North Africa (Egypt to Somalia) where the FGM rates are very high. The Zarma villages traditionally consist of walled off compounds where a family group called windi lives. Each compound has a head male and
697-541: The French established rulers at village level (the Chef du Canton ) who were promoted by the French over traditional rulers, and thus were entirely dependent upon the French. At Dosso, the French allowed the Zarmakoy to not only retain but expand his territory and to choose his own successors, keeping continuity with the pre-colonial state, and standing above his own Chefs du Canton at the local level. The French so depended upon
738-520: The French increased their presence. The French relied on the Dosso post and Niger river valley as supply hubs as they attempted to establish their colonial control all the way to Chad . This led to conflicts with the Zarma people. French colonial rulers established mines throughout West Africa staffed with African labor, many of whom were migrant Zarma people. Thousands of Zarma travelled to various mines, as well as to build roads and railroads. These laborers followed pre-colonial raiding pathways towards
779-597: The Gabda, Tinga, Sorko, Kalles, Golles, Loqas and Kurtey peoples. The Zarma language is one of the southern Songhai languages , a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Because of the common language and culture, they are sometimes referred to as "Zarma Songhay" (each also may be spelled "Djerma" and "Songhai"). Zarma oral traditions place their origins in the Niger Bend region of Mali . Some describe
820-536: The Gold coast, with colonial mines provided economic opportunities and a means to escape French economic exploitation. Of the various ethnic groups in Niger, the early cooperation of the Zarma elite with the colonizers led to a legacy where Zarma interests have been promoted, and they have continued to compose an important part of the Nigerien political elite after independence in 1960. The language, society and culture of
861-533: The World Health Organization studies, in Zarma culture the female circumcision is called Haabize . It consists of two rituals. One is ritual cutting away the hymen of new born girls, second is clitoridectomy between the ages of 9 and 15 where either her prepuce is cut out or a part to all of clitoris and labia minora is cut then removed. The operation has been ritually done by the traditional barbers called wanzam . Niger has attempted to end
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#1732764849354902-425: The Zarma as originally Mande or Soninke . Historian Dierk Lange has argued that these legends are accurate, pointing to Mande words in the Zarma language. Other scholars, however, believe them to have been part of the broader Songhai ethnic umbrella since the beginning. The Zarma migrated south-eastward into their current geographic concentration during the Songhai Empire period, settling particularly in what
943-492: The Zarma people have traditionally been a socially stratified society, like the Songhai people at large, with their society featuring castes . According to the medieval and colonial era descriptions, their vocation is hereditary, and each stratified group has been endogamous. The social stratification has been unusual in two ways; one it embedded slavery, wherein the lowest strata of the population inherited slavery, and second
984-511: The Zarma people is barely distinguishable from the Songhai people . Some scholars consider the Zarma people to be a part of and the largest ethnic sub-group of the Songhai – a group that includes nomads of Mali speaking the same language as the Zarma. Some study the group together as Zarma-Songhai people. However, both groups see themselves as two different people. Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan , Tal Tamari and other scholars have stated that
1025-417: The Zarma-Songhai people have included the kings and warriors, the scribes, the artisans, the weavers, the hunters, the fishermen, the leather workers and hairdressers (Wanzam), and the domestic slaves (Horso, Bannye). Each caste reveres its own guardian spirit. Some scholars such as John Shoup list these strata in three categories: free (chiefs, farmers and herders), servile (artists, musicians and griots), and
1066-408: The Zarmakoy of Dosso, that in 1923 they moved the capital of the then Military Territory of Niger from Zinder , the home of the powerful pre-colonial Sultanate of Damagaram to a village in Dosso territory which was to become Niamey . As independence approached in the 1950s, Niger was one of the few areas of French West Africa without a growing political class. The Zarmakoy of Dosso, as patron of
1107-608: The adjacent areas of Nigeria and Benin , along with smaller numbers in Burkina Faso , Ivory Coast , Ghana , Togo , and Sudan . In Niger, the Zarma are often considered by outsiders to be of the same ethnicity as the neighboring Songhaiborai , although the two groups claim differences, having different histories and speaking different dialects. They are sometimes lumped together as the Zarma-Songhay or Songhay-Zarma . The Zarma people are predominantly Muslims of
1148-437: The coast. But competing commercial interests by several parties resulted in endless litigation and the connection to Benin never materialized. So the 145 km Niamey-Dosso stretch now lies orphaned and unused, with the tracks ending in the middle of nowhere some 6 km south of Dosso. After 5 years of neglect the tracks are already damaged to such an extent in some places, that they have become unusable. Customs : There
1189-468: The control of the Amir of Gando (a sub division of Sokoto) between 1849 and 1856, they retained their Djermakoy and the nominal rule of a much larger Djerma territory, and were converted to Islam . Under Djermakoy Kossom (r. 1856-65), Dosso united all of the eastern Djerma, and left a small state stretching from Tibbo and Beri in the north, to Gafiadey in the south, and to Bankadey and Tombokware in
1230-560: The east. French colonial forces first entered the area in the 1890s and found Dosso allied with local Fula communities and small states like Kebbi against other Djerma states, the Dendi , the Gourounsi (in modern Burkina Faso ) the Hausa states to the east (in what is now southern Niger), and still struggling to retake the territory it held in 1865. Zarmakoy Attikou (r.1897-1902) took
1271-422: The era prior to the Songhai Empire and have assimilated into the Zarma people, or else are people of Zarma origins who have differentiated themselves some time in the precolonial period (through dialect, political structure, or religion), but these are difficult to differentiate according to Fuglestad. Groups usually referred to as part of the Zarma or Songhay, but who have traceable historical distinctions include
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1312-471: The military help offered by the French forces based in Karimama (now Benin ), but found that after the military conquest of his enemies in 1898, the French forces were stationed in Dosso, where they would stay for the next 60 years. Attikou had delegated the negotiations to his prince Awta, and this future Zarmakoy hitched his star to French power. Despite tensions, the French found one of their few allies in
1353-607: The region, and this alliance of necessity came to benefit Dosso as much as it hurt them. With French aid, Zarmakoy Awta (r.1902-13) retained all of what is the modern Dosso Department , and with his help, the French put down revolts led by a charismatic Marabout in the Dosso region in 1906. The Zarmakoy of Dosso was integrated into the French Colonial system through a type of Indirect Rule rare in its scale and continuity in French West Africa . In most places
1394-456: The slave class. The servile group were socially required to be endogamous, while the slaves could be emancipated over four generations. The traditionally free strata of the Zerma people have owned property and herds, and these have dominated the political system and governments during and after the French colonial rule. Within the stratified social system, the Islamic system of polygynous marriages
1435-589: The slaves, and this status system survived even after slavery was officially abolished during French colonial rule. The French came to regions inhabited by the Zarma people at the end of the 1890s, during a period of intra-ethnic conflict. The French established a partnership with the Zarmakoy Aouta of Dosso , building a military post there in November 1898. From 1901 to 1903 the area was plagued by natural disasters such as famines and locust attacks, as
1476-545: The social stratification among Zarma-Songhai people as well as other ethnic groups in West Africa, but suggested that sociologists should invent a new term for West African social stratification system. Other scholars consider this a bias and isolationist because the West African system shares all elements in Dumont's system, including economic, ritual, spiritual, endogamous, elements of pollution, segregative and spread over
1517-490: The south-west corner of Niger . It lies 130–140 kilometres (81–87 mi) south-east of the capital Niamey at the junction of the main routes to Zinder and Benin . The eighth-most populous town in Niger and the largest in Dosso Region , it had an official population during the 2001 census of 43,561. The population grew to 58,671 in the 2012 census. It is the capital of its region - which covers five departments in
1558-607: The southwestern corner of the nation - as well as of its own department, Dosso Department . The city itself lies at the centre of its own Urban Commune . Dosso is the seat of the Dosso kingdom , a Zarma chieftaincy which rose to dominate the entire Zarma region in Niger in pre-colonial Niger. The traditional ruler is called Zarmakoy or Djermakoy of Dosso, an autochthonous title meaning literally "King of Djermas" where koy means "king" in Zarma (or Djerma) language. Attractions in
1599-565: The total population of the Songhay-Zarma people, similar proportions to other ethnic groups in pre-colonial West Africa. However, Bruce Hall cautions that while it is "certainly true that the majority of population" had a servile status, these colonial era estimates for "slaves" may exaggerate because there is a difference between servile status and true slavery. Slaves were an economic asset used for farming, herding and domestic work. A system of social stratification developed even among
1640-598: The town include the Djermakoy's palace and museum, nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. Road : The city of Dosso is a commercial hub for trade between Niamey and the towns of eastern Niger, as well as Benin. Rail : between 2014 and 2016 a rail link was built between Dosso and Niamey by the French Bolloré conglomerate. The objective was to connect Niamey to the rail network in Benin and thus to
1681-558: The voltaic plateau (southern Burkina Faso , northern Ghana ). The slave trade and slave raiding were historically important parts of the society and economy of the Niger river valley, and there is textual evidence annual raids undertaken by Sunni 'Ali and Askiya Muhammad to capture slaves, for domestic use and export to North Africa. Sahelian societies, including the Zarma, have historically been based on slavery from far before colonialism. According to Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan , slaves accounted for two-thirds to three-quarters of