Stielers Handatlas 1891 68 Damagaram crop

The Sultanate of Damagaram was a Muslim pre-colonial state in what is now southeastern

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesZinder.

History

Rise

The Sultanate of Damagaram was founded in 1731 (near Mirriah, modern Niger) by

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Kanouri aristocrats, led by Mallam (r. 1736–1743). Damagaram was at the beginning a vassal state of the decaying Kanem-Bornu Empire, but it quickly came to conquer all its fellow vassal states of western Bornu. In the 1830s, the small band of Bornu nobles and retainers conquered the Myrria kingdom, the Sassebaki sultanates (including Zinder). By the 19th century, Damagaram had absorbed 18 Bornu vassal states in the area. Zinder rose from a small Hausa village to an important center of the

Trans-Saharan trade Trans-Saharan trade requires travel across the Sahara between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the early 17th century. The Sahara once had a very d ...

with the moving of the capital of Damagaram there in 1736. The large fortress of the southeast central city (Birini) was built shortly thereafter, and became a major hub for trade south through Kano and east to Bornu. The Hausa town and Zengou, its

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 Al ...

suburb, expanded with this trade.

Apex

Damagaram had a mixed relationship with the other major regional power, the

Sokoto Caliphate The Sokoto Caliphate (), also known as the Fulani Empire or the Sultanate of Sokoto, was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the F ...

to the south. While it provided aid to the animist Hausa-led refugee states to its west (in what is now Niger) who were formed from the rump of the states conquered by the Sokoto Caliph, Damagaram also maintained good relations with its southern neighbors. Damagaram sat astride the major trade route linking Tripoli to Kano, one of the more powerful Sokoto sultanates, which provided the economic lifeblood of both states. An east–west trade from 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 Mal ...

to Bornu also passed through Zinder, making relations with animist neighbors like Maradi or the Gobirwa as profitable, and thus important. Damagaram also covered some of the more productive of Bornu's western salt-producing evaporation mines, as well as farms producing Ostrich feathers, highly valued in Europe. In the mid-19th century, European travelers estimated the state covered some 70,000 square kilometers and had a population of over 400,000, mostly Hausa, but also Tuareg, Fula, Kanuri,

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

and Toubou. At the center of the state was the royal family, a Sultan (in Hausa the '' Sarkin Damagaram'') with many wives (estimated at 300 by visitor Heinrich Barth in 1851) and children, and a tradition of direct (to son or brother) succession which reached 26 rulers by 1906. The sultan ruled through the activities of two primary officers: the ''Ciroma'' (Military commander and prime minister) and his heir apparent, the ''Yakudima''. By the end of the 19th century, Damagaram could field an army of 5,000 cavalry, 30,000-foot soldiers. Damagaram could also call upon forces of the allied Kel Gres Tuareg who formed communities near Zinder and other parts of the sultanate.

Gun carriage A gun carriage is a frame and mount that supports the gun barrel of an artillery piece, allowing it to be maneuvered and fired. These platforms often had wheels so that the artillery pieces could be moved more easily. Gun carriages are also use ...

s and cannons were produced in the state by the second half of the 19th century. According to

Robin Law Robin C. C. Law (born 1944) is a British Africanist and since 2009 Emeritus Professor of the History of Africa at the University of Stirling. He obtained a BA degree in Literae Humaniores at the University of Oxford in 1967 and a PhD in History ...

, such artillery were ineffective for war or rarely used practically.

French conquest

When the French arrived in force in the 1890s, Zinder was the only city of over 10,000 in what is today Niger. Damagaram found itself threatened by well-armed European incursions to the west, and the conquering forces of Rabih az-Zubayr to the east and south. In 1898, A French force under Captain Marius Gabriel Cazemajou spent three weeks under the Sultan's protection in Damagaram. Cazemajou had been dispatched to form an alliance against the British with Rabih, and the Sultan's court was alarmed at the prospect of their two most powerful new threats linking up. Cazemajou was murdered by a faction at the court, and the remainder of the French escaped, protected by other factions. In 1899, the reconstituted elements of the ill-fated Voulet-Chanoine Mission finally arrived in Damagaram on their way to revenge Cazemajou's death. Meeting on 30 July at the Battle of Tirmini, 10 km from Zinder, the well-armed Senegalese-French troops defeated the Sultan and took Damagaram's capital. With colonialism came the loss of some of Damagaram's traditional lands and its most important trade partner to the British in

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 ...

. The French placed the capital of the new Niger Military Territory there in 1911. In 1926, following fears of Hausa revolts and improving relations with the Djerma of the west, the capital was transferred to the village of Niamey. The brother of Sultan Ahmadou mai Roumji had earlier sided with the French, and was placed on the throne in 1899 as Sultan Ahamadou dan Bassa. Following French intelligence that a rising by Hausa in the area was preparing a revolt with the aid of the Sultan, a puppet Sultan was placed in power in 1906, though the royal line was restored in 1923. The Sultanate continues to operate in a ceremonial function into the 21st century.

Economy

The wealth of Damagaram depended on three related sources: taxes and income from the caravan trade, the capture and the exchange of slaves, and internal taxes.

Environmental policies

Damagaram was originally an area of hunting and gathering activities. As the sultanate developed, the rulers encouraged the rural population to expand farming. Most of the land, especially that surrounding the capital Zinder, belonged to the Sultan and a few notables. In all cases, people who held land were obliged to pay an annual tribute to the sultan. In order to limit the

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defin ...

of this conversion to agriculture, the sultan Tanimoune (1854–84) enforced laws to forbid the cutting of certain trees, with particular emphasis on the gawo tree ( Faidherbia albida) with its fertilising properties: "He who cuts a gawo tree without authorization will have his head severed; he who mutilates it without reason will have an arm cut off." The sultan and later his successors also proceeded to plant trees, ''gawo'' trees in particular, and dispersed the seeds throughout the empire. Other protected trees were ' ('' Balanites aegyptiaca''), ' or ' ('' Ziziphus spina-christi'' and '' Ziziphus mauritiana''), ' ('' Khaya senegalensis''), ' and ' (''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extendi ...

spp.''). The fallow period for land at that time was six years.F.W. Sowers and Manzo Issoufou, "Precolonial Agroforestry and its Implications for the Present: the Case of the Sultanate of Damagaram, Niger. Published in: Vandenbeldt, R.J. (ed.) 1992. Faidherbia albida in the West African semi-arid tropics: proceedings of a workshop, 22-26 Apr 1991, Niamey, Niger. (In En. Summaries in En, Fr, Es.) Patancheru, A.P. 502 324, India: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics; and Nairobi, Kenya: International Centre for Research in Agroforestry. pp 171-175. . The authority that the sultan claimed on trees was a new practice, breaking with customary views on trees in the Sahel. Traditionally, trees were considered 'gifts from the gods' and could not be owned by any individual, but belonged either to the spirits of the bush or to God. The policies of sultan Tanimoune anchored a new perception: they became called the 'trees of the sultan'.

Sultans of Damagaram

The Sultanate of Damagaram has been ruled by the following sultans:Abdourahmane Idrissa & Samuel Decalo, "Damagaram, Sultanate of", in ''Historical Dictionary of Niger'', pp. 160-161 *Mallam Yunus dan Ibram 1731–1746 *Baba dan Mallam 1746–1757 *Tanimoun Babami 1757–1775 *Assafa dan Tanimoun 1775–1782 *Abaza dan Tanimoun 1782–1787 *Mallam dan Tanimoun Babou Tsaba 1787–1790 *Daouda dan Tanimoun 1790–1799 *Ahmadou dan Tanimoun Na Chanza 1799–1812 *Sulayman dan Tanimoun 1812–1822 *Ibrahim dan Suleyman 1822-1841 *Tanimoun dan Suleyman 1841-1843 *Ibrahim dan Suleyman (restored) 1843–1851 *Tanimoun dan Suleyman (restored) 1851-1884 *Abba Gato 1884 *Suleyman dan Aisa 1884-1893 *Amadou dan Tanimoun Mai Roumji Kouran Daga 1893-1899 *Amadou dan Tanimoun dan Bassa 1899-1906 *Ballama (regent) 1906-1923 *Barma Moustapha 1923-1950 *Sanda Oumarou dan Amadou 1950-1978 *Aboubacar Sanda Oumarou 1978-2000 *Mamadou Moustafa 2000-2011 *Aboubacar Sanda Oumarou (restored) 2011–present

Notes

References

Columbia Encyclopedia:Zinder
* * James Decalo. Historical Dictionary of Niger. Scarecrow Press/ Metuchen. NJ - London (1979) * Finn Fuglestad. A History of Niger: 1850–1960. Cambridge University Press (1983) {{DEFAULTSORT:Damagaram, Sultanate Of Countries in precolonial Africa History of Niger Zinder Zinder Region States and territories established in 1731 Former sultanates