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59-546: Djerma may refer to: Djerma people , an ethnic group of Niger and neighbouring countries Djerma language , a Songhai language of West Africa Djerma, Algeria , a town in Algeria Djerma (Libya) , an archaeological site in Libya Djerma (horse) , a horse breed See also [ edit ] Jerma (disambiguation) Germa (disambiguation) Topics referred to by

118-599: A West African Mande -speaking ethnic group found in Mali , southern Mauritania , eastern Senegal , The Gambia , and Guinea (especially Fouta Djallon ). They speak the Soninke language , also called the Serakhulle or Azer language, which is one of the Mande languages . Soninke people were the founders of the ancient empire of Ghana or Wagadou c. 200–1240 CE, Subgroups of Soninke include

177-523: A Wolof word, was used for the Soninke at least as far back as the 16th century and is used by peoples as far apart as The Gambia and Hausaland . The Jahankas , a subgroup, refer to themselves as of Serakhulle extraction. Historically, the term "Soninke" carries negative connotations in the Futa Djallon and Senegambia , hence the more common use of the term "Serakhulle." Archaeological evidence suggests that

236-451: A circle around the boys. During this time the boys are surrounded with beautiful scarves called disa sing. The author Mamadou Soumare wrote “Above its traditional surgery, the ritual of circumcision makes in evidence, the physical endurance, the pain, the courage, in one word the personality of the child.” The Soninke people have long carried out female genital mutilation (FGM), also called female circumcision. The prevalence rate of FGM

295-491: 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. The Zarma people grow maize , millet , sorghum , rice , 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,

354-637: A large region. According to Anne Haour – 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. Caste-based servitude The traditional form of caste-based servitude was still practiced by the Tuareg , Zarma and Arab ethnic minorities. —Country Report: Niger (2008) US State Department The different strata of

413-677: 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. The Zarma people, like their neighboring ethnic groups in West Africa, have

472-556: A means to escape French economic exploitation. Of the various ethnic groups in Niger, the early cooperation of the Zarma elite with the colonizers led to a legacy where Zarma interests have been promoted, and they have continued to compose an important part of the Nigerien political elite after independence in 1960. The language, society and culture of the Zarma people is barely distinguishable from

531-436: A noble could take a wife from the slave strata. The Soninke practise circumcision and call it birou . Every afternoon, the boys who were circumcised the previous year organize tam-tams for the new boys in order to prepare them psychologically. Throughout the circumcision ceremony, the boys to be circumcised sit around the “tambour” called “daïné”. The other teenagers of the village, young girls, women, men, and slaves form

590-659: A part of the French colonial empire. Most of the Soninke people are found in the valley of the upper Senegal river and along the Mali–Senegal–Mauritania border between Nara and Nioro du Sahel . Migrations under French colonial rule led many Soninke to build communities in Dakar , other cities in Africa and in France. Soninke community were the early settlers in France, their community

649-415: A rich tradition of music, group dance known as Bitti Harey 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. Soninke people The Soninke (Sarakolleh) people are

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708-440: A servile status, these colonial era estimates for "slaves" may exaggerate because there is a difference between servile status and true slavery. Slaves were an economic asset used for farming, herding and domestic work. A system of social stratification developed even among the slaves, and this status system survived even after slavery was officially abolished during French colonial rule. The French came to regions inhabited by

767-422: A stew, is a mixture of millet and beans. The Soninke traditionally engage in both trade and agriculture. During the rainy season, men and women both cultivate. However, women usually stay at home to cook and take care of their children. They also do other work, such as dyeing cotton material. Many early West African immigrants in France came from this ethnic group. The Soninke are an influential ethnic group in

826-562: A template for servile relationships and social stratification of human beings. The linguistic evidence suggests that stratification structure relating to caste system and slavery likely were shared between the Manding and Soninke people, and possibly some others such as the Dogon people of West Africa. However, the linguistic differences between the caste and slave systems of the Soninke and Manding on one hand and northern ethnic groups of Africa such as

885-441: 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. 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 and

944-473: Is accompanied with a wedding event called karikompe . The newly married couple has advisors. The man's advisor is called the khoussoumanta-yougo and the woman's is called khoussoumanta-yakhare . After one week of celebration, the women meet to show the gifts that the couple received from their parents mostly from the woman's mother. Marriage across social strata and caste lines has been taboo, states Saskia Brand. But, in polygynous noble families,

1003-598: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Djerma people 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

1062-446: Is found in Paris and in southern French cities, and their language is the primary dialect spoken among many Muslim communities of France. There are also many Soninke living in cities throughout Central Africa , a population that includes new migrants as well as descendants of migration dating back to the 1800s, such as the laptots who represented French mercantile and colonial interests in

1121-474: Is found in the works of the 8th century Arab geographer Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī and a more complete record is found in works of another 11th century Arab geographer Al-Bakri . The rulers and Soninke people of the Ghana Empire converted to Islam in the 11th century, and they have been Muslim ever since. Some Islamic sources suggest that the conversion was triggered after the 1076 Almoravid conquest of

1180-405: Is higher among the Soninke than among neighbouring ethnic groups such as Wolof people and others. The practice is culturally done as a ritual of social acceptance, and sometimes assumed to be required for religious reasons. In Mauritania and Senegal, FGM of a child is illegal in contemporary law but continues because it is culturally sanctioned for young girls as young as one year old. According to

1239-455: Is shaped by various forms of social stratification. The Soninke strata have included a free category called Horro or Horon , a caste system category called Namaxala or Nyaxamalo , and slaves called Komo . In the Jaara subgroup of the Soninke people, the nobility called Tunkanlenmu was another strata. Soninke society became highly stratified after the 13th century. The slaves were

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1298-449: The jeli below the tage or numu (smiths, pottery workers). The castes and serf system can be linked to the Mandé 'Nyamakalaw' (literally 'caste'). archaeological evidence shows that Arabs and Berbers would later participate in an already established and integrated trade and transport network with West Africa (trading in gold, salt, and some slaves to a lesser extent), building upon

1357-487: 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

1416-693: The Jakhanke , Maraka and Wangara . When the Ghana empire was destroyed, the resulting diaspora brought Soninkes to Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinée-Conakry, modern-day Republic of Ghana , Kano in Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau where some of this trading diaspora was called Wangara, leading to the saying “when Americans landed on the moon, a Soninke was already there” in Senegal , with other versions across West Africa. Predominantly Muslims,

1475-467: 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

1534-458: 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

1593-508: The Songhai people . 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 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. Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan , Tal Tamari and other scholars have stated that

1652-573: 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 , the 20th-century author famous for his classic Homo Hierarchicus , recognized

1711-463: The (13 century BC to the 1st century BC) truly materializing within the (1st and 3rd) centuries CE but was destroyed by about the 12th century, after the Muslim invasions of this region started in the 10th century. In contemporary time, the total population of Soninke people is above 2 million. Soninke people are found throughout West Africa and in France, given their migration when Senegal and Mali were

1770-510: The 13th century. McIntosh concurs with Tamari, but states that the emergence of caste systems likely occurred much earlier in West African societies such as Soninke, Mande, Malinke, Wolof, Serer, and others. She places the development and spread of castes in these societies to about the 10th century, because the slave capture, slave trade and slave holding by elite families was an established institution in West Africa by then, and slavery created

1829-436: The 19th century military, eventually conquering much of the voltaic plateau (southern Burkina Faso , northern Ghana ). The slave trade and slave raiding were historically important parts of the society and economy of the Niger river valley, and there is textual evidence annual raids undertaken by Sunni 'Ali and Askiya Muhammad to capture slaves, for domestic use and export to North Africa. Sahelian societies, including

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1888-488: The 2009 Report on Human Rights Practices by the US State Department, FGM practice among Soninke has included the most dangerous Type III mutilations. Breakfast foods include fonde , porridge made of millet , sugar, milk, and salt, and sombi , porridge made of rice, millet or corn. For lunch demba tere and takhaya are very common, both containing rice and peanuts, frequent Soninke ingredients. Dere ,

1947-460: 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. The Zarma villages traditionally consist of walled off compounds where a family group called windi lives. Each compound has a head male and

2006-568: The Ghana Empire and other Mande states from roots in preceding local ancestral Soninke cultures such as that of Dhar Tichitt, rather than from North Africa or the Middle East. The early written records about Soninke come from early Islamic historians. The Soninke, according to these records, were the founders of the ancient Ghana Empire (not to be confused with modern Ghana), also called the Wagadu Empire. The empire has its roots roughly between

2065-498: The Ghana Empire. The Soninke people, like other Mande peoples, typically adhere to the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. The Soninke society and its culture has historically many cultural practices with its neighboring ethnic groups, particularly the Mande peoples. This includes the religion of Islam, occupations, foods, the rites of passage, family structure, weddings and social stratification. Soninke society, like other groups in Mande,

2124-858: The Soninke were one of the early ethnic groups from West Africa to convert to Islam in about the 10th century. The contemporary population of Soninke people is estimated to be over 2 million. The cultural practices of Soninke people are similar to the Mandé peoples, and those of the Imraguen of Mauritania. They include traditional Islamic rites of marriage, circumcision, and have social stratification. The Soninke people are also referred to as Aswanik, Dafing, Dafi, Dyakanke, Gadyaga, Maraka, Maraxa, Marka, Marka Soninké, Sarakolleh, Saracole, Zarakole, Zagha, Sarakolé, Sarakollé, Sarakule, Sarawule, Saraxole, Seraculeh, Serahuli, Serakhulle, Silabe, Soniake, Soninkés, Sonninké, Toubakai, Wakore, Wangara. They refer to themselves by

2183-553: The Tuareg people and Moors on the other, suggests that these evolved separately. Marriage in Soninke society follows Islamic practices. Cousin marriages are common and preferred in Soninke culture, just as with the Fula people . Parents consent to marriage. A traditional proverb states, "Cousins are made for each other." The practice among Soninke merchants, states Saskia Brand, a professor of psychology and educational sciences, may be related to

2242-607: The West Africa region. The Soninke people were a coastal trade link between the Berber people of the Maghreb region and the other Empires in West Africa. In their early history, they helped exchange salt from the north and western coast for gold found inland. This trade brought Muslim traders to them, particularly Arab traders interested in gold, after Islam arrived in North Africa. The earliest passing mention of Soninke people's Ghana Empire

2301-522: The World Health Organization studies, in Zarma culture the female circumcision is called Haabize . 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

2360-557: 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

2419-633: The Zarma people at the end of the 1890s, during a period of intra-ethnic conflict. The French established a partnership with the Zarmakoy Aouta of Dosso , building a military post there in November 1898. From 1901 to 1903 the area was plagued by natural disasters such as famines and locust attacks, as the French increased their presence. The French relied on the Dosso post and Niger river valley as supply hubs as they attempted to establish their colonial control all

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2478-437: 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

2537-565: 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. After leaving Gao, the Zarma first settled in

2596-458: The Zarma, have historically been based on slavery from far before colonialism. According to Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan , slaves accounted for two-thirds to three-quarters of the total population of the Songhay-Zarma people, similar proportions to other ethnic groups in pre-colonial West Africa. However, Bruce Hall cautions that while it is "certainly true that the majority of population" had

2655-417: 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

2714-552: The Zarmaganda , later expanding south into the Dallol Bosso valley and Dosso by the 17th century. Forming a number of small communities, each led by a chief or ruler called Zarmakoy , these polities were in conflict for economically and agriculturally attractive lands with the Tuareg people , the Fula people and other ethnic groups in the area. The Zabarma Emirate was founded by itinerant Zarma preachers and horse traders in

2773-723: The ancestor of the Soninke was Dinga , sometimes said to have come from the Middle East (though such a story is unlikely, as the "Middle Eastern" tag came about subsequent to the Mande converting to Islam), His sons included Dyabe Sisse, the founder of the Wagadu kingdom with its capital at Kumbi . Another Soninke tradition indicates that they migrated from Aswan , Egypt . However theories of foreign origin are almost entirely doubted/disregarded by scholars and are believed to result from later Eurasiatic cultural influences (Namely Arab and French). Archaeological evidence supports an evolution of

2832-405: The cultural belief that cousin marriages "helps to keep the money in the family". If both families agree, the couple is engaged ( i na tamma laga ) in a mosque . Each month after the engagement, the man pays the woman's family a bridewealth dower ( nakhafa ) for their food and other spending. The marriage, called futtu , is complete with a marriage contract that mentions the dower, and

2891-448: The largest stratum, one at the bottom among the Soninke like other West African ethnic groups, and constituted up to half of the population. The slaves among the Soninke people were hierarchically arranged into three strata. The village slaves were a privileged servile group who lived apart from the village and took orders from the village chief. The domestic slaves lived with a family and could not be sold. The lowest level among slaves were

2950-460: The pre-existing trade routes trading had extended into Ghana and the western Atlantic coast by the 11th century trading systems became increasingly sophisticated in 13th and 14th century Mali Empire and 16th century Songhai Empire . As the practice of slavery grew, so did the caste system. Tamari suggests that a corollary of the rising slavery system was the development and growth of the caste system among numerous ethnic groups of Africa by about

3009-588: The region. Trade networks led by the Wangara mercantile confederations, spread Soninke people and culture throughout most of Mali and Senegal, southern Mauritania, northern Burkina Faso, as well as parts of the Gambia , and Guinea-Bissau. The Maraka-Soninke merchant communities and plantations (centered just north of the city of Segou , Mali) were an economic mainspring under the Bambara Empire , and built trade routes in

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3068-581: The regions where Soninke people are found were inhabited in ancient times. These stone settlements were built on the rocky promontories of Tichit - Walata and the Tagant cliffs of Southern Mauritania. Though there are no surviving records to suggest which ethnic group these people were, the settlers of this region by between 2500 BCE and 600 BCE were likely related to the Soninke and greater Mande people. A significant agro-pastoral society had developed in this prehistoric era. According to Soninke oral tradition ,

3127-409: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Djerma . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Djerma&oldid=1081030406 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

3186-452: 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

3245-480: 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

3304-536: 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

3363-442: The trade slaves who could be bought and sold. With time, each of these strata became endogamous , states Daniel Littlefield, a professor of history. Above the slaves were the castes of Soninke, which too were hereditary, endogamous, and had an embedded hierarchical status. They included, for example, the garanke (leather workers) below the fune (bard), the fune below the gesere or jeli (griots, singers), and

3422-469: The way to Chad . This led to conflicts with the Zarma people. French colonial rulers established mines throughout West Africa staffed with African labor, many of whom were migrant Zarma people. Thousands of Zarma travelled to various mines, as well as to build roads and railroads. These laborers followed pre-colonial raiding pathways towards the Gold coast, with colonial mines provided economic opportunities and

3481-813: The word "Soninké", which is actually the singular of the word "Soninko", but are also called "Sarakholés" by the Wolofs, "Marakas" by the Bambaras, "Wangara" by the Mandinka, "Wangarawa" by the Hausa, "Wakoré" by the Songhais, or even "Toubakai". “Marka” is the name by which they are known in Mali in the region of Kayes , Koulikoro , Sikasso , Ségou , Mopti and in Burkina Faso in that of Dafina. The term "Serakhulle," although often claimed to be

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