Zarma (Djerma)
The people of Niger's south-west — Songhay-speaking farmers of the river valley who resisted French conquest at Lougou under a woman ruler, whose holey possession cult sends the spirits of the bush into dancers' bodies, and who supply much of Niger's civil service.
Zarma (Djerma) people
Vieil homme zarma d'un village du Dallol Bosso 01.jpg · Wikimedia Commons
Identity
Population: Around three million in Niger, with communities in Mali, Benin and Nigeria
Location: The Niger river valley of south-western Niger — Niamey, Dosso, Tillabéri and the Zarmaganda
Language: Zarma, a variety of the Songhay language continuum
Language family: Nilo-Saharan → Songhay
Traditional governance: Chieftaincies including the Zarmakoy of Dosso, recognised under French rule and retained since; village chiefs and lineage heads; today Nigerien administration.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups — clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes — each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Zarmaganda
The northern homeland from which Zarma expansion into the valley proceeded.
Dosso and the Zarmakoy's domain
The chieftaincy that became the principal traditional authority under colonial rule.
Songhay kin
Closely related communities downstream and in Mali, sharing language and much of the culture.
Gallery
1 images
Culture
Clothing: Wide embroidered boubous and caps for men; women's wrappers, headties and heavy silver and gold; indigo cloth in the older tradition.
Food: Millet as the base — as porridge, as couscous, as the fermented drink fura; rice from the river, sauces of baobab leaf, okra and dried fish.
Ceremonies: Holey possession ceremonies with the godji fiddle and gourd drums, in which named spirits mount their mediums; weddings with days of drumming; Islamic festivals; the Guerewol of neighbouring Wodaabe attended as spectacle.
Marriage customs: Islamic marriage with bridewealth; cousin marriage common; the wedding's drumming and the bride's gold are central.
Initiation rites: Quranic school; initiation into a holey troupe for those the spirits select, involving instruction and seclusion.
Stories & Oral Literature
Sarraounia at LougouHistorical account
In 1899 the Voulet-Chanoine column, which burned its way across the Sahel killing civilians on a scale that eventually shocked even Paris, was resisted at Lougou by Sarraounia Mangou, a priestess-ruler of the Azna. She fought them off and withdrew into the bush. The episode became a novel and a landmark film of African cinema, and Sarraounia is now a national figure in Niger.
The Spirits Come DownReligious tradition
Holey ceremonies call named families of spirits — the Doguwa of the bush, the Hauka who mimic colonial officers, the water spirits of the river — to possess mediums who then speak, diagnose and demand. Jean Rouch's 1955 film of Hauka possession is among the most argued-over documents in visual anthropology. The cult persists alongside Islam.
Proverbs
“The river does not carry the one who refuses the canoe.”
Help must be accepted to work.
“Millet in the granary is the only true argument.”
Food security over rhetoric.
“The spirit chooses the dancer; the dancer does not apply.”
Possession is not volunteered.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Islamic cosmology alongside the holey world of spirit families with their own genealogies, territories and histories, including spirits generated by the colonial encounter itself.
Beliefs: Sunni Islam of the Maliki school with Tijaniyya influence; holey possession; sorcery and counter-sorcery; marabout amulets.
Ancestors: Lineage dead honoured; the founders of chieftaincies recited in genealogy; holey mediums inherit relationships with particular spirits.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Allah
The one God
The holey spirit families
Named groups of spirits — bush, water, Hauka — who possess mediums
Marabouts
Islamic specialists producing protective writing
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Villages of round mud houses with conical thatch and granaries, on the higher ground above the river's flood; Niamey's rapid modern growth.
Building techniques: Banco mud construction with millet-stalk roofing; raised granaries sealed with mud; Sudano-Sahelian mosque building in the towns.
Village layout: Compound of huts around a swept courtyard with granary; village around the chief's compound and the mosque; fields and river gardens beyond.
Artifacts
Godji fiddle
Instrument
Single-string bowed fiddle that calls the holey spirits.
Zarma silver and gold
Craft
Women's heavy jewellery, a store of household wealth.
Granaries of the valley
Agriculture
Sealed mud stores that carry households through the dry season.
Lougou site
Heritage site
Place of Sarraounia's resistance to the Voulet-Chanoine column in 1899.
Historical Timeline
1500s–1700s
Zarma groups move south from the Zarmaganda into the river valley.
1899
The Voulet-Chanoine mission's atrocities; resistance at Lougou under Sarraounia Mangou.
1900–1960
French colonial rule; the Zarmakoy of Dosso is elevated as an intermediary authority.
1960–present
Independence; Zarma prominence in the administration and army becomes a feature of national politics.
Present
Insecurity in Tillabéri displaces large rural populations.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- Britannica: Songhai and Zarma peoplesEncyclopaedia Britannica
Premium & scholarly sources