Dosso Kingdom

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Dosso Kingdom
c. 1750c. 1890
Capital
Late Modern Period
• Established
c. 1750
• Disestablished
c. 1890
Succeeded by
French Niger

The Dosso Kingdom is a precolonial state in what is now southwest Niger which has survived in a ceremonial role to the modern day.

Early history

The

Lac Debo, Mali during the Songhai Empire, and settled first in 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.[citation needed
]

French colonialism

French colonial forces first entered the area in the 1890s and found Dosso allied with local Fula communities and small states like

Gourounsi (in modern Burkina Faso) the Hausa states to the east (in what is now southern Niger), and still struggling to retake the territory it held in 1865.[1]

Zarmakoy

Indirect Rule rare in its scale and continuity in French West Africa. In most places the French established rulers at village level (the Chef du Canton) who were promoted by the French over traditional rulers, and thus were entirely dependent upon the French. At Dosso, the French allowed the Zarmakoy to not only retain but expand his territory and to choose his own successors, keeping continuity with the pre-colonial state, and standing above his own Chefs du Canton at the local level. The French so depended upon the Zarmakoy of Dosso, that in 1923 they moved the capital of the then Military Territory of Niger from Zinder, the home of the powerful pre-colonial Sultanate of Damagaram to a village in Dosso territory which was to become Niamey
.

Independence

As independence approached in the 1950s, Niger was one of the few areas of French West Africa without a growing political class. The Zarmakoy of Dosso, as patron of the Djerma region, became a powerful political king maker for the coming order. Political parties vied for the support of the Zarmakoy and the powerful Hausa leaders in the east and the then Zarmakoy, Issoufou Seydou, played a leading role in Nigerien politics at the time of independence. Zarmakoy Seydou was a founder of the PPN, and later the UNIS parties, and was Vice-President and Minister of Justice from December 1958-October 1959. Today the Dosso aristocracy continue to hold influential positions throughout Nigerien government, with a majority of post independence leaders having been drawn from the Djerma.[citation needed]

The city of Dosso also retains an important place, with a large population of aristocratic class Djerma who rely on the patronage of the Zarmakoy, as the more traditional ruling class reject modern careers.[5]

Rulers chronology

  • c.1750– ?; Zarmakoy Aboubacar
  • ?–?; Zarmakoy Laouzo
  • ?–?; Zarmakoy Gounabi
  • ?–?; Zarmakoy Amirou
  • 1856–1865; Zarmakoy Kassam/Kossom Baboukabiya
  • 1865–1890; Zarmakoy Abdou Kyantou Baba
  • 1890–1897; Zarmakoy Alfa Atta
  • 1897–1902; Zarmakoy Attikou
  • 1902–1913; Zarmakoy Aoûta/Awta
  • 1913–1924; Zarmakoy Moussa
  • 1924–1938; Zarmakoy Saidou
  • 1938–1953; Zarmakoy Moumouni
  • 1953–1962; Zarmakoy Hamani
  • 1962–1998; Zarmakoy Abdou
  • 1998–2000; Zarmakoy Issoufou
  • 2000–current; Zarmakoy Maïdanda Saidou [6]

References


  1. Kimba Idrissa, Les populations du "Niger" occidental au XIXe siecle et leurs reactions face a la colonisation (1896-1906). Paris (1981).
  2. ^ The traditional ruler of Dosso is called Zarmakoy or Djermakoye, an autochthonous title meaning literally "King of Djermas", where koy means "ruler", "lord", or "king" in Zarma (or Djerma) language. See Peace Corps/Niger, "An Introduction to the Zarma Language".
  3. pp. 168-9
  4. ^ Paul E. Lovejoy and J. S. Hogendorn. Revolutionary Mahdism and Resistance to Colonial Rule in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1905-6. The Journal of African History, Vol. 31, No. 2 (1990), pp. 217-244.
  5. ^ Decalo (1979), p.95: "Most of the population of the town claims chiefly descent and hence is 'forbidden' to work or pay taxes, or to engage in commerce, living off the generosity of the Djermakoy who receives a variety of gifts from his commoner subjects."
  6. ^ Dosso: Accueil populaire réservé au Sultan Maïdanda Saidou Djermakoye. nigerinter.com. December 2nd, 2015.

External links