| About the language
and culture
Dictionary Zarma - English / French and English - Zarma / French.
A site of Peace Corps, Niger. Slightly different spelling, especially with respect of use of doubled vowels.
Very helpful and easy to use dictionary. By
using the
dictionary of the Zarma course you can
search the Peace Corps dictionary, select
'all dictionaries'.
Glossary Zarma - English
Glossary Zarma - English of Webster's
Online Dictionary. There are three pages with
Zarma words ordered alphabetically. By selecting
a word and pressing the mouse button the English
translation pops up. In case the selected word
occurs in other languages as well, a table
appears giving the languages, the word and the
translation in English for each language. Try
this with "ganda",
this word exists in 25 languages. Funny but not
really helpful for quick searching of
significance of words.
Glossary English - Zarma
Short glossary English - Zarma with words and
expressions on web site Language Learning Links. Words
classified by topic. Topics are, amongst others,
greetings, colours, body parts, numbers.
Basic
course Zarma (1966, paper, in English)
Thirty lessons to learn basic phrases. Alas, the
digital copy has a bad quality. The documents
has 314 pages. The intention was to exercise the
phrases while listening to recordings on tape
recorder. The recordings - registered in
Niamey are not available. The manual also
contains glossaries Zarma -
English - French, English - Zarma - French
and French - Zarma - English.
Mind: the spelling regularly deviates from the
current spelling.
Technical language course Zarma (1995,
paper, in English)
This course is developed for people working in
agriculture. The course is divided in chapters
based on themes, such as agricultural cycle,
soil protection, live fencing.
Non-agricultural themes are discussed as well,
such as health and sensibilisation. Per theme
there is a list of relevant words and phrases.
Themes are sometimes illustrated by a story.
Stories are bilingual, in English and Zarma.
Shonghoy-Senni course
(in English).
[link restored]
This dialect of the Songhay language spoken in Mali has a lot in common with the Zarma dialect. The course consist of four modules with very interesting information about the culture.
Draw back is that films are directly loaded which is a problem with slow Internet connections.
Some notes on
Koyraboro Senni Songhay (in English)
[link broken since 17 November 2009]
Some notes of different effects of adding
the suffix -andi to verbs with
examples.
References on
Songhay culture and language (multi
lingual)
[link restored]
Site (still at the outset but promising)
made by a group of six volunteers working to
enable the presence of Songhai in the
Internet. The activities of the group cover
various areas of development-oriented
research and application, among which the
following points of interest figure
prominently: newsreel in Songhai,
bibliographical references, research notes
and guides, etc. Nice photo's can be seen
here. Languages are English, French,
German, and Songhai.
A
quick-course Zarma (in French)
A short clear and easy quick-course for those who want to speak some Zarma next week. Sometimes slightly different spelling.
The
Bible in Zarma (French aid)
A complete version of the Bible in Zarma, both the old and new testament. The text in Zarma are given per chapter. An option is available to open an extra window with the same text in an other language. French is the only European language available.
Gospel recordings in Zarma (in
English)
Telling the story of Jesus in every language
by Global Recordings Network (GRN). This
part of the site contains several MP3 files,
click number with speaker to go to page with
recordings. It can help you to get used to
the Zarma spoken in Niger. Use the picture
books as help.
The Zerma team: Reaching the Zerma people
(in English)
The Zerma People Group Team was formed for the
purpose of reaching the Zarma people with the
message of salvation through Jesus Christ. In
addition to religious information, you will find
texts about "Who are the Zerma", a video clip
with pictures from western Niger and photo's of
Derma people and their environment and some
songs in the Djerma language.
Injuries in Zarma (French aid)
[link broken since 17 November 2009]
Strong contrast to the links before.
Text with an offending character, some are
funny others not. Translation of Zarma to
French.
Ritual injuries: the Marcanda
(French aid)
Scientific discourse on the "marcanda".
In the Zarma area of the Niger, a woman
whose husband gets married organizes a
ceremony in which she asks married women of
the village to come and spend the day at her
home. At nightfall, just before the
newly-wed couple arrives, all the women form
a half-circle : those who were taken as
first wives start to insult those who were
taken as second wives and vice-versa. (see
also next link)
Research and text by Sandra Bornand (ethnographiques.org n°7,
April 2005).
Full
text and transcription are available.
Polygamy among Zarma: more than one wife
for a single male (French)
In Niger women are haunted by polygamy. As a
spectre in the visual field of women, as the
sword of Damocles, comes the day that a
woman has to accept a second or even a third
wife in the household of her and her
husband. (see also Marcanda link)
Article by Louis Lessard and Martine
Lévesque
Alternatives, 10 Mars 2005
Fulani and Zarma tribes pushed into
fights by Desertification?
(in English)
Fights between nomads and sedentary peoples
have occurred often in world history. The
Zarma are farmers who primarily live in the
arid lands of the Sahel. They grow millet,
sorghum, rice, corn and tobacco, and as cash
crops, they raise cotton and peanuts. Since
milk is an important part of their diet and
culture, they also own cattle, but the
Fulani or Touareg people tend the animals.
Clashes between Fulani herders and Zarma
farmers have occurred. This article tries to
explain why conflict might increase when
applied to today's desertification
conditions.
Article by Andrew Furber, ICE Case study no.
29, 1997.
Kassey, a mythical woman in Songhay oral
history (French)
The Arab chronicles based on Songhay oral
traditions show three versions of the Kassey
myth. According to the chronicles of Tarikh
el Fettach Kassey is the mother of one of
the leaders of the Songhay empire in the
16th century.
Article by Ousmane Tandina (H.D.R. Lettres
Modernes, Université de Niamey.)
Ethiopiques n°72. Littérature,
philosophie et art; 1st semester 2004
Traditional Zarma music (in French)
This web page contains 13 recordings of
traditional music. De site
FoFo Magazine contains a lot more
information on media in Niger. The page with
video-recordings
of folkloristic groups from different places
is certainly something you should have seen. Zarma speaking singers which (partly) sing
Zarma songs, for example, Berey Koy (Unité),
Wass Wong
(chimifonda), Tchakey (Gonga), and
John Sofakollé
[link broken 17 November 2009] (Mayaki with French
translation).
Donou, a typical Songhay drink (in
English)
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts tries a
millet drink while visiting Tera Village
(Niger). The drink is called donou,
comprised of millet and goat milk. Read
about his experience.
(available on this site, since the
original no longer exists)
Zarma live and culture in World
Culture Encyclopedia (in English)
Very good site with short articles by THOMAS
M. PAINTER about orientation, history and
cultural relations, economy, marriage and
family, socio-political organization,
religion and expressive culture and a
bibliography.
Also available for
Songhay live and culture by PAUL STOLLER.
Brief Information leaflet
(in English, 15th edition)
Web page with basic information about the Zarma language by the
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)
The
old 14th edition version is still
available.
The Rosetta project (in English, but specific information about Zarma mostly in French)
[link broken 17 November 2009]
Web pages with specific and detailed information about the Zarma language.
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