Seasonal Migration in Niger - Ethnic Differentiation

Ethnic Differentiation

Djerma - Songhai men often travel to Ghana and Burkina Faso, retracing a pattern of migration which has been recorded back to at least the seventeenth century, when Djerma soldiers were recruited to fight for the small kingdoms in what is now northern Ghana and southern Burkina. The trade networks that resulted from this migration survived throughout the colonial period, and also allowed Djerma a way of escaping to British controlled Gold Coast Colony during times of particularly onerous French forced labor under the Indigénat, as well as in times of drought in the 1910s, 1930s and 1940s.

The example of the Djerma-Songhai of Niger's migration to the former Gold Coast Colony is memorably portrayed by French filmmaker Jean Rouch in his film "Jaguar" (1954-1955). For the film and accompanying academic study, Rouch joins an urban educated Songhai (Damouré Zika), a Sorko fisherman (Illo Gaoudel), and a Fula herdsman (Lam Ibrahima Dia) who travel from the Niger river town of Ayorou to Accra and Kumasi. The Songhai finds work with other Songhai in an Accra lumber market, the Sorko fishes the coast among Ewe fishermen to finance a small business in Accra, while the Fula finds a job selling perfumes with a family member in Kumasi market.

Hausa communities in Niger often send men south to Nigeria during the Exode, not only to majority Hausa areas in the north of the nation, but to large cities such as Lagos which contain networks of Hausa immigrants. Hausa immigrant communities as far afield as Ghana also provide a focus for Nigerien seasonal migration. During the late pre-colonial and early colonial period, Hausa communities also saw frequent labor migrations to escape rule by states linked to the Sokoto Caliphate to the south, and the French to the north and west.

Fula communities, scattered across all of West Africa, provide a frame for Nigerien Wodaabe - Fula seasonal labor networks as far afield as Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire and Lagos in Nigeria. Wodaabe women are more likely to travel for seasonal work migration than other groups, especially Hausa people, and often face discrimination in Nigerian communities to which they travel.

Tuareg communities in the north, like the pastoralist Fula, have their own established seasonal migration patterns revolving around moving their herds in Transhumance cycles for pastures and markets. But they too see seasonal labor migration. Algeria and Libya and south into Nigeria are the more common destinations, amongst Tuareg communities of the complex interrelated Kels or clan structure. The successful export industry coming from the Aïr Mountains oases production of produce such as onions carries other local men as far south as Côte d'Ivoire. Tuareg men are often seen in cities across the Sahel region working in security, an evolution of the traditional self-imposed cultural preference for certain jobs by aristocratic or warrior caste Tuareg men.