Torodi is a small town and a rural commune in

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesSay Department Say is a department of the Tillabéri Region in Niger. Its capital city is Say, and includes the towns of Guéladjo, Tamou, and Torodi. It abuts the urban Region of Niamey, and lies across the Niger River to the southwest of the capital. It ...

of the Tillaberi Region, which surrounds the national capital, Niamey. Say Department, with its capital at the large

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 ...

town of Say, abuts Niamey to the southwest and across the river to the west. The town of Torodi lies about 60 km due west of the city of Say and 50 km east of the border with Burkina Faso. Torodi itself lies on a tributary of the Niger, the Gourbi river. Torodi has historically been a crossroads of Zarma and Songhay people form the north, and the

Gourma people Gurma (also called Gourma or Gourmantché) is an ethnic group living mainly in northeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, around Fada N'Gourma, and also in northern areas of Togo and Benin, as well as southwestern Niger. They number approximately 1,750 ...

, who dominated most of the area that is now Say Department until the 18th century CE. The 18th century saw expansion of

Fulani people The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...

, south along the Niger from

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 impor ...

and the

Inland Niger Delta The Inner Niger Delta, also known as the Macina or Masina, is the inland 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. Location ...

, as well as east from what is now northeast Burkina Faso. While the dominant Fulani Muslim Emirates of this period were based in Liptako to the north and Say to the east, Torodi itself was capital of a smaller Fulani state, which persisted into the colonial period. Torodi rural commune includes several villages, supported by seasonal millet agriculture, pastoral cattle raising, and the collection of firewood to be sold in Niamey.Niger : le puits pastoral de Diankoundi
audio report (2'22") and written summary. Radio France International, broadcast 10 July 2011. The report focuses on the Torodi commune village of Diankoundi.

References

*pp. 11, 36-48, 59-61, 119, 239.

See also

References

Further reading