African Traditional Religion
A small percentage of the population practices traditional indigenous religious beliefs. Although studies estimate that such practitioners number around 1,055,000 individuals, or about 6.6% of the total population, such numbers can be misleading as there is a high rate of syncretism within Muslim communities throughout the country.
Animist beliefs include both animist based festivals and traditions (such as the Bori cult) practiced by some syncretic Muslim communities (in some Hausa areas as well as among some Toubou and Wodaabe pastoralists), as opposed to several small communities who maintain their pre-Islamic religion. These include the Hausa speaking Maouri (or Arna, the Hausa word for "pagan") community in Dogondoutci in the south-southwest and the Kanuri speaking Manga near Zinder, both of whom practice variations of the pre-Islamic Hausa Maguzawa religion. There are also some tiny Boudouma and Songhay animist communities in the southwest.
Read more about this topic: Religion In Niger
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