From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Young girls wearing traditional Djerma dress
The Djerma, also spelled Zerma, Zarma, Dyerma, or Zaberma, are a people of westernmost Niger and adjacent areas of Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The Djerma language is one of the Songhai languages, a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. The Djerma are considered to be a branch of the Songhai people, and are often refered to as "Zarma Songhay" (also spelled "Djerma-Songhai"). Djerma actually constitute several dozen smaller ethnic groups, who were either indigenous to the era prior to the Songhai Empire and have assimilated into the Djerma-Songhai, or else are people of Djerma-Songhai origons who have differentiated themselves sometime in the precolonial period (through dialect, political structure, or religion).[1] Groups usually refered to as part of the Djerma, but who have tracable historical distinctions include the Gabda, Kado, Tinga, and Sorko peoples.
The Djerma live in the arid lands of the Sahel. Many live in the Niger River valley and exploit the river for irrigation. They grow millet, sorghum, rice.
[edit] History
[edit] Early history
The Djerma people are believed to have migrated from what is now the Fula region around Lac Debo, Mali during the Songhai Empire, and settled first in Anzourou and 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 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 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 the east.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Reaching the Zerma People a US led effort to convert the Zarma to Christianity (over 98% are Islamic)]
- Article on a single Zarma village and its diverse livelihoods by S Batterbury, 2001.
