The Arma people is an
ethnic group
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
of the middle
Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...
valley, descended from
Moroccan invaders of the 16th century. The name, applied by other groups, derives from the word ''ar-rumah'' () 'fusiliers'.
[ N. Levtzion, "North-West Africa: from the Maghrib to the fringes of the forest" in]
The Cambridge history of Africa, Volume 4 : c.1600-c.1790
Ed. Cambridge University Press (1975), pp.154-155
The Arma ethnicity is distinct from (but sometimes confused with) the 3.6 million
Zarma people
The Zarma people are an ethnic group predominantly found in westernmost Niger. They are also found in significant numbers in the adjacent areas of Nigeria and Benin, along with smaller numbers in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Sudan ...
of western Niger, who predate the Moroccan invasion and speak the
Zarma language
Zarma (''Zarma Ciine/Sanni''; Ajami: ) is one of the Songhay languages. It is the leading indigenous language of the southwestern lobe of the West African nation of Niger, where the Niger River flows and the capital city, Niamey, is located. Z ...
, also a member of the
Songhay languages
The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, ...
.
As of 1986, there were some 20,000 self-identified Arma in
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
, mostly around
Timbuktu
Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census.
...
, the middle Niger bend and the
Inner Niger Delta
The Inner Niger Delta, also known as the Macina or Masina, is the inland river delta of the Niger River. It is an area of fluvial wetlands, lakes and floodplains in the semi-arid Sahel area of central Mali, just south of the Sahara Desert.
...
.
Songhai expedition
The
1590 expedition sent to conquer the
Songhai Empire
The Songhai Empire was a state located in the western part of the Sahel during the 15th and 16th centuries. At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its lar ...
trade routes by the
Saadi dynasty
The Saadi Sultanate (), also known as the Sharifian Sultanate (), was a state which ruled present-day Morocco and parts of Northwest Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was led by the Saadi dynasty, an Arab Sharifism, Sharifian dynasty.
...
of Morocco was made up of four thousand
Moroccan,
Morisco
''Moriscos'' (, ; ; "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church and Habsburg Spain commanded to forcibly convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed Islam. Spain had a sizeable Mus ...
refugees
A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
and European renegades. They were armed with European-style
arquebus
An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier.
The term ''arquebus'' was applied to many different forms of firearms ...
es. After the destruction of the Songhai Empire in 1591, the Moroccans settled into
Djenné
Djenné (; also known as Djénné, Jenné, and Jenne) is a Songhai people, Songhai town and Communes of Mali, urban commune in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. The town is the administrative centre of the Djenné Cercle, one of the ...
,
Gao
Gao (or Gawgaw/Kawkaw) is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley.
For much of its history Gao was an imp ...
,
Timbuktu
Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census.
...
and the larger towns of the Niger River bend . Never able to exert control outside their large fortifications, within a decade the expedition's leaders were abandoned by Morocco. In cities like Timbuktu, the men of the 1591 expedition intermarried with the Songhai, became small scale independent rulers, and some of their descendants came to be identified as minor dynasties of their own right. By the end of the 17th century,
Bambara,
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym, depending on variety: ''Imuhaɣ'', ''Imušaɣ'', ''Imašeɣăn'' or ''Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit th ...
,
Fula, and other forces came to control empires and city-states in the region, leaving the Arma as a mere ethnicity.
See also
*
Judar Pasha
Judar Pasha () was a Spanish-Moroccan military leader under the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in the late 16th century. He led the Saadian army in the conquest of the Songhai Empire.
Born as Diego de Guevara in Cuevas del Almanzora, Castil ...
: Commander of the Moroccan military Expedition of the 1590s.
*
Battle of Tondibi
The Battle of Tondibi was the decisive confrontation in the 16th-century invasion of the Songhai Empire by the army of the Saadi dynasty in Morocco. The Moroccan forces under Judar Pasha defeated the Songhai under Askia Ishaq II, guaranteeing t ...
: Culmination of the Moroccan Expedition, destroying the Songhai Empire in 1591.
*
Pashalik of Timbuktu
The Pashalik of Timbuktu, also known as the Pashalik of Sudan, was a West African political entity that existed between the 16th and the 19th century. It was formed after the Battle of Tondibi, when a military expedition sent by Saadian sultan ...
: Territory governed by the Arma on behalf of Morocco.
Notes
References
*Samuel Decalo. Historical Dictionary of Niger. Scarecrow Press, London and New Jersey (1979).
*James Stuart Olson. The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. "Arma", p. 37. Greenwood Press (1996)
*Michel Aitbol. Tombouctou et les Arma de la conquête marocaine du Soudan nigérien en 1591 à l'hégémonie de l'empire peul du Macina en 1833. Paris, (1979).
*Albrecht Hofheinz
Goths in the Lands of the Blacks. New Arabic manuscript finds from Timbuktu and their significance for the historiography of the Niger Bend. (2001)
*.
External links
Al-Andalus, Andalucía y España en Tombuctú y la frontera subsahariana (s. XVI-XXI). Universidad de Jaén (Spain), 19–20 February 2004.
Ethnic groups in Mali
Ethnic groups in Niger
Muslim communities in Africa
Moroccan diaspora in Africa
Spanish diaspora in Africa
{{Africa-ethno-group-stub