Several later books describe the language and culture of the broader Songhay-Zarma populations of this region, including their therapeutic practices and former slavery relations.
•
Over time his close observations of the Songhay-Zarma people have informed other projects, on more general topics, but all grounded in empirical researches in Africa: anthropology of development, medical anthropoogy, anthropology of bureaucacies, and, more generally, an anthropology of public actions and of the delivery of public and collective goods and services in Africa.
Zarma language | Zarma | Zarma people |
While French has been the cross cultural language of choice since independence, there are eight other official languages spoken in Niger, which include Hausa, Zarma/Songhai, Tamajeq, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Arabic, Gurmantche, and Toubou.
Zika was the son of a Zarma speaking traditional healer and fisherman, near the town of Ayorou on the Niger River.
In the Zarma speaking regions in the west of Niger, slavery provided the crucial workforce in agriculture.
While Dosso fell under the control of the Amir of Gando (a sub division of Sokoto) between 1849 and 1856, they retained their Zarmakoy and the nominal rule of a much larger Zarma territory, and were converted to Islam.