Dosso Kingdom | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1750–c. 1890 | |||||||
| Capital | Dosso | ||||||
| Common languages | Zarma | ||||||
| Religion | Islam (official) | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Historical era | Late Modern Period | ||||||
• Established | c. 1750 | ||||||
• Disestablished | c. 1890 | ||||||
| |||||||
TheDosso Kingdom is a precolonial state in what is now southwestNiger which has survived in a ceremonial role to the modern day.
TheDjerma people of Niger are believed to have migrated from what is now theFula region aroundLac Debo,Mali during theSonghai Empire, and settled first in Zarmaganda in the 16th century. In the 18th century, many Djerma resettled south to theNiger River valley, the Fakara plateau and Zigui in what is now Southwest Niger nearNiamey. Forming a number of small communities, each led by aDjermakoy, these polities soon found themselves pressured from the north by theTuareg and theFula 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 theDallol Bosso valley until the 1820s, when it led much of the resistance to theSokoto Caliphate. While Dosso fell under the control of the Amir ofGando (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 toIslam. Under Djermakoy Kossom (r. 1856-65), Dosso united all of the eastern Djerma, and left a small state stretching fromTibbo andBeri in the north, toGafiadey in the south, and toBankadey andTombokware in the east.[citation needed]
French colonial forces first entered the area in the 1890s and found Dosso allied with local Fula communities and small states likeKebbi against other Djerma states, theDendi, theGourounsi (in modernBurkina Faso) theHausa states to the east (in what is now southern Niger), and still struggling to retake the territory it held in 1865.[1]
Zarmakoy[2] Attikou (r.1897-1902) took the military help offered by the French forces based inKarimama (nowBenin), but found that after the military conquest of his enemies in 1898, the French forces were stationed in Dosso, where they would stay for the next 60 years. Attikou had delegated the negotiations to his prince Awta, and this future Zarmakoy hitched his star to French power.[3] Despite tensions, the French found one of their few allies in the region, and this alliance of necessity came to benefit Dosso as much as it hurt them. With French aid, Zarmakoy Awta (r.1902-13) retained all of what is the modernDosso Department, and with his help, the French put down revolts led by a charismaticMarabout in the Dosso region in 1906.[4] The Zarmakoy of Dosso was integrated into the French Colonial system through a type ofIndirect Rule rare in its scale and continuity inFrench West Africa. In most places the French established rulers at village level (theChef 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 ownChefs 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 fromZinder, the home of the powerful pre-colonialSultanate of Damagaram to a village in Dosso territory which was to becomeNiamey.
As independence approached in the 1950s, Niger was one of the few areas ofFrench 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 ofDosso 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]
