The Zarma people are an ethnic group predominantly found in westernmost
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...](_blank)
and
Benin
Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...
, along with smaller numbers in
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...
,
Ivory Coast,
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
Togo
Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...
, and
Sudan.
[Zarma people]
Encyclopædia Britannica In Niger, the Zarma are often considered by outsiders to be of the same ethnicity as the neighboring
Songhai proper
The Songhai proper (Songhay, Sangwai or Sonrai) are an ethnic group in the northwestern corner of Niger's Tillaberi Region, an area historically known in the country as '' Songhai''. They are a subgroup of the broader Songhai group. Even thoug ...
, 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 the
Maliki
The ( ar, مَالِكِي) school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century. The Maliki school of jurisprudence relies on the Quran and hadiths as primary ...
-Sunni school,
and they live in the arid
Sahel lands, along the
Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
valley which is a source of irrigation, forage for cattle herds, and drinking water.
[ Relatively prosperous, they own cattle, sheep, goats and ]dromedaries
The dromedary (''Camelus dromedarius'' or ;), also known as the dromedary camel, Arabian camel, or one-humped camel, is a large even-toed ungulate, of the genus ''Camelus'', with one hump on its back.
It is the tallest of the three species of ...
, renting them out to the Fulani people
The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...
or Tuareg people
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
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 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.
Demographics and language
The estimates for the total population of Zarma people as of 2013 has been generally placed over 3 million,[ but it varies. They constitute several smaller ethnic sub-groups, who were either indigenous to the era prior to the ]Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical ...
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 the Gabda, Tinga, Sorko, Kalles, Golles, Loqas and Kurtey
The Kurtey people (var. Kourtey) are a small ethnic group found along the Niger River valley in parts of the West African nations of Niger, Benin, Mali, and Nigeria. They are also found in considerable numbers in Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Burki ...
peoples.
The Zarma language
Zarma (also spelled Djerma, Jerma, Dyabarma, Dyarma, Dyerma, Adzerma, Zabarma, Zarbarma, Zarmaci or Zerma) is one of the Songhay languages. It is the leading indigenous language of the southwestern lobe of the West African nation of Niger, where ...
is one of the southern Songhai languages
The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/ dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In parti ...
, a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Because of the common language and culture, they are sometimes referred to as "Zarma Songhay" (also spelled "Djerma-Songhai").[Zarma]
Ethnologue: The Languages of the World
History
The Zarma people are an African ethnic group with unrecorded history and no ancient texts. Like other ethnic groups of the region, much of their known history comes from Islamic records after the 8th century, particularly from the medieval accounts of Arabs and North African historians, states Margari Aziza Hill – a professor of humanities.[ The Islamic conquest was motivated and facilitated by the pre-existing trade between West Africa and the Mediterranean before Islam arrived, and in turn the arrival of Islam influenced the history of all people including the Zarma. North African Muslims increased the trans-Saharan trade, becoming of growing importance to the fortunes of ethnic groups and their chiefs. The Muslim traders were major actors in introducing Islam. The Sahel, which forms the origins and historic home of the Zarma people, has been the economic and ecological transition zone and travel route strategically located between the inhospitable Sahara desert and dense sub-Saharan forest zone of Africa.][Margari Hill (2009)]
The Spread of Islam in West Africa: Containment, Mixing, and Reform from the Eighth to the Twentieth Century
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
The Niger delta region already had major settlements of people before Islam arrived. Early Arab documents from the eighth century suggest that Muslims went into West Africa for trade, exchanging salt, horses, dates, and camels they had from the North and Arabian lands with gold, timber, and food from Niger river valley and nearby regions controlled by Songhay-Zarma people. This trade and commerce also ultimately led to cultural and religious conversion.[ Various theories have been proposed as to how, when and why Zarma people converted to Islam. According to Arabic records, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence became the predominant system of rule in Niger river region and West Africa by the 11th-century, after the ]Almoravid
The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...
conquest of North Africa, Niger river, Ghanaian Koumbi Saleh
Koumbi Saleh, sometimes Kumbi Saleh is the site of a ruined medieval town in south east Mauritania that may have been the capital of the Ghana Empire.
From the ninth century, Arab authors mention the Ghana Empire in connection with the trans-S ...
and Senegal river regions. Muslim scholars dispute if these early Islamic documents are reliable, with some disputing the "conquest" language, insisting that it was a peaceful, willing conversion from the old Islamic system to the new Maliki school. For example, Ahmad Baba in 1615 CE stated that black African Muslims willingly adopted Islam, not because of military threat.
The Zarma people migrated south-eastward from Niger Bend region of Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...
where Songhay people are found in high concentration, into their current geographic concentration around the Niger river valley during the Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical ...
period, settling in many towns, and particularly what is now Southwest Niger near the capital Niamey
Niamey () is the capital and largest city of Niger. Niamey lies on the Niger River, primarily situated on the east bank. Niamey's population was counted as 1,026,848 as of the 2012 census. As of 2017, population projections show the capital dis ...
. Their migration to their present homeland was led by Mali Bero
Mali Bero (''Mali'' the ''Great'' or ''Eldest'') or Zarmakoy Sombo is a mythical legendary leader of the Zarma people of western Niger who led them in their migration from an unknown region in Mali eastward to western Niger several centuries ago. ...
, a legendary king of the Zarma. According to oral tradition, Mali Bero
Mali Bero (''Mali'' the ''Great'' or ''Eldest'') or Zarmakoy Sombo is a mythical legendary leader of the Zarma people of western Niger who led them in their migration from an unknown region in Mali eastward to western Niger several centuries ago. ...
decided to migrate with his people following a fight between the Zarma and a neighboring Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
village. They first settled in the Zarmaganda, later expanding south into the Dallol Bosso
The Dallol Bosso ( Zarma: Boboye) is one of two major seasonal river valleys in southwest Niger. The Dallol Bosso valley runs from the Azawagh area in the Sahara west and south through the Dosso Region where it reaches the Niger River valley.
H ...
valley and Dosso.
Forming a number of small communities, each led by a chief or ruler called Zarmakoy The Djermakoy (var. Zermakoy, Zarmakoy, Djermakoye) is the title given to rulers of the Djerma/ Zarma states in what is now southwest Niger.Tuareg people
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
, the Fula people
The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region ...
and other ethnic groups in the area. This medieval era migration is attested by the legends and mythologies within the Zarma community, with some mentioning their historic origins to be Malinke and Sarakholle, one driven by persecution by local Muslim rulers or inter-ethnic rivalries.
According to Abdourahmane Idrissa and Samuel Decalo, the Zarma people had settled the Dallol Bosso
The Dallol Bosso ( Zarma: Boboye) is one of two major seasonal river valleys in southwest Niger. The Dallol Bosso valley runs from the Azawagh area in the Sahara west and south through the Dosso Region where it reaches the Niger River valley.
H ...
valley, called ''Boboye'' in Zarma language, by the 17th-century.
In times of migration the songhai (zarma people) are led by patriarch and in times of war gather under the order of a military chief call wonkoy like those who defeated the caliphate of Sokoto and raid these northern borders, defeated Tukulor
__NOTOC__
The Tukulor people ( ar, توكولور), also called Toucouleur or Haalpulaar, are a West African ethnic group native to Futa Tooro region of Senegal. There are smaller communities in Mali and Mauritania. The Toucouleur were Islamized ...
invasions and raiding Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
confederations. The zabarma Emirate
The Zabarma Emirate was an Islamic state that existed from the 1860s to 1897 in what is today parts of Ghana and Burkina Faso.
The leaders of the Zabarma Emirate, who belonged to the Zarma ethnicity from which the Emirate is named, originated in ...
founded by itinerant Muslim monks and horse traders descended from their native Sahel was a late 19th century military entity that led from garrison town of ''kasena'' conquered much of the voltaic plateau ( south Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...
, North and North Central Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
), carved out the Gurunsi people
The Gurunsi, or Grunshi, are a set of related ethnic groups inhabiting northern Ghana and south and central Burkina Faso.
Pre-colonial history and origins
Oral traditions of the Gurunsi hold that they originated from the western Sudan passing t ...
, the Dagomba people
The Dagombas are a Gur ethnic group of northern Ghana, numbering more than 2.3 million people. They inhabit the Northern Region of Ghana in the sparse savanna region below the sahelian belt, known as the Sudan. They speak the Dagbani languag ...
, the Mandé peoples
The Mandé peoples are ethnic groups who are speakers of Mande languages. Various Mandé speaking ethnic groups are found particularly toward the west of West Africa. The Mandé Speaking languages are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé ...
the Mossi people Mossi may refer to:
* Mossi people
* Mossi language
* Mossi Kingdoms
* the Mossi, a Burkinabe variant of the Dongola horse
* Mossi (given name)
* Mossi (surname)
See also
* Mossie (disambiguation)
* Mossy (disambiguation)
*Mozzi (disambiguation) M ...
and kingdom of Wala {{No footnotes, date=October 2022
The Kingdom of Wala was a polity in what is today Ghana based around Wa. According to some traditions it had an imam as early as 1317.
In the early 1890s, Wala was largely west of the Kulpawn River. Its western bo ...
territories.
Slavery
Slavery has been a historic practice in West Africa long before the arrival of colonialism. In Niger and Mali, where the largest population of Zarma people has historically lived and have their origins, there is textual evidence of a series of annual campaigns during the rules of Sunni 'Ali and Askiya Muhammad (Turé) to capture people as slaves, both for domestic use as well to export them to North Africa mainly Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. The 15th-century ruler Sunni Ali is an integral part of the legends revered by the Zarma people.
The slavery system was a large part of the society and political arrangement. According to Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, the slave population accounted for nearly two-thirds to three-quarters of the total population of Songhay-Zarma people. These numbers are similar to the high percentages of slavery in other ethnic groups that prevailed in pre-colonial West Africa, according to Martin Klein.[ 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" in Niger river area ethnic groups are exaggerations because there is difference between servile status and slavery status.
The ethnic groups including the Songhay-Zarma people, states Benedetta Rossi, stretching over the Sahelo-Sudanese have shared a political and economic system based on slavery from a pre-colonial period. The slaves were an economic asset, and they were used for farming, herding and for domestic work. The slavery system has been well developed and complex, according to Rossi, where a system of social stratification developed within the slaves and a master-slave status system survived even after slavery was officially abolished during the French colonial rule.] The slave communities remain a part of memories of the Zarma people, states Alice Bellagamba.
Colonial era
The French colonial rulers came to regions inhabited by the Zarma people at the end of the 1890s, when the chiefs and warlords within the Zarma society were in an intra-ethnic conflict. The French picked the Zarmakoy Aouta of Dosso as their partner, and established a military post in what was then the village of Dosso in November 1898. The period that followed brought several natural disasters such as famines and locust
Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...
attacks from 1901 to 1903. The French increased their presence during this period.
The French relied on the Dosso military post and Niger river valleys for replenishing their supplies, as they attempted to establish a much larger colonial zone in Sahel all the way to Chad. This led to conflicts and violence against the Zarma people, in a manner that repeated the violence and tribute system imposed on Zarma from "at least the early nineteenth century", state Dennis Cordell and Joel Gregory.
The French colonial rule established mines for resources in West Africa such as along the Gold Coast, and these mines were staffed with African labor that relied in large part with migrant Zarma people. Thousands of Zarma people travelled to various French mines, as well as to build roads and railroads to connect major sites of importance to the French rule. This migrant labor followed the pre-colonial tradition of Zarma warriors heading to Gold coast for booty, but colonial mines provided economic adventurism, however in many cases the migration was a means to "escape French economic exploitation".[
Of the various ethnic groups in Niger, the early cooperation of the Zarma elite led to a legacy where Zarma interests have been promoted and they have continued to be a dominating part of the political elite after its complete independence in 1960.
]
Society and culture
The language, society and culture of the Zarma people is barely distinguishable from the Songhai people
The Songhai people (also Ayneha, Songhay or Sonrai)'' are an ethnolinguistic group in West Africa who speak the various Songhai languages. Their history and ''lingua franca'' is linked to the Songhai Empire which dominated the western Sahel i ...
. 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
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...
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.
Social stratification
Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, Tal Tamari and other scholars have stated that 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 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
Louis Charles Jean Dumont (11 August 1911 – 19 November 1998) was a French anthropologist.
Dumont was born in Thessaloniki, in the Salonica Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. He taught at Oxford University during the 1950s, and was then dire ...
, the 20th-century author famous for his classic ''Homo Hierarchicus'', recognized 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 a large region. According to Anne Haour
Anne Haour (born 1973) is an anthropologically trained archaeologist, academic and Africanist scholar. She is Professor in the Arts and Archaeology of Africa at the Sainsbury Research Unit, Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania ...
– 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.
The different strata of 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 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 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.
]
Female genital mutilation
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
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
and the World Health Organization studies, in Zarma culture the female circumcision is called ''Haabize''.[Priorities in Child survival, education and protection, UNICEF]
/ref> 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 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.
]
Livelihood
The Zarma villages traditionally consist of walled off compounds where a family group called ''windi'' lives. Each compound has a head male and 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.[, Quote: "Huts are typically round with mud walls and straw roofs".]
The Zarma people grow maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...
, millet, sorghum, rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...
, 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, 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.]
Arts
The Zarma people, like their neighboring ethnic groups in West Africa, have a rich tradition of music, group dance known as Bitti Harey
Bitti Harey is a traditional dance of the Zarma people especially that of Zarmaganda in Niger. It is part of the traditional dance to celebrate the end of a good harvest, festivals, wrestling matches and weddings
Bitti Harey is rooted in the c ...
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.
See also
*Songhai proper
The Songhai proper (Songhay, Sangwai or Sonrai) are an ethnic group in the northwestern corner of Niger's Tillaberi Region, an area historically known in the country as '' Songhai''. They are a subgroup of the broader Songhai group. Even thoug ...
*Caste systems in Africa Caste systems in Africa are a form of social stratification found in numerous ethnic groups, found in over fifteen countries, particularly in the Sahel, West Africa, and North Africa. These caste systems feature endogamy, hierarchical status, inh ...
*Mande people Mande may refer to:
* Mandé peoples of western Africa
* Mande languages
* Manding, a term covering a subgroup of Mande peoples, and sometimes used for one of them, Mandinka
* Garo people of northeastern India and northern Bangladesh
* Mande Rive ...
* Mandinka people
*Tuareg people
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
*Zabarma Emirate
The Zabarma Emirate was an Islamic state that existed from the 1860s to 1897 in what is today parts of Ghana and Burkina Faso.
The leaders of the Zabarma Emirate, who belonged to the Zarma ethnicity from which the Emirate is named, originated in ...
- a Zarma Islamic state set up in the 19th century in Northern Ghana
References
Sources
* Decalo, S. (1979) ''Historical Dictionary of Niger'', Scarecrow Press/Metuchen: London. .
External links
Links to recordings of Djerma music on the Web
Article
on a single Zarma village and its diverse livelihoods by S Batterbury, 2001.
{{Authority control
Ethnic groups in Benin
Ethnic groups in Ghana
Ethnic groups in Niger
Ethnic groups in Nigeria
Muslim communities in Africa
Ethnic groups in Burkina Faso
Ethnic groups in Togo
Ethnic groups in Ivory Coast