Songhai

Africaintensive agriculturalists

Map
expand_more Description

The Songhai and closely related Zarma peoples, centered on the Niger-Mali border area, are united by a shared Nilo-Saharan language spread by the Songhai Empire at its peak in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They are largely village dwelling dryland farmers, with rice grown along rivers. Authority is vested in elected chiefs forming a village council, with an appointed village chief who, in larger villages, may be a paramount chief of noble decent; a rising class of wealthy merchants and government officials is challenging that traditional authority.

Identifier
Region
  • Africa
Subregion
  • Western Africa
Subsistence Type
  • intensive agriculturalists
Samples
Countries
  • Benin
  • Mali
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Burkina Faso
External Links