Zarma people

The Zarma people are an ethnic group predominantly found in westernmost Niger. They are also found in significant numbers in 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.