📰 Niamey

Niamey[6] is the capital and largest city of Niger corpus.1 It is in the western part of the country, surrounded by the Tillabéri Region.2 Niamey lies on the Niger River, primarily situated on the river's left bank (east side).3 The capital of Niger since the colonial era, Niamey is an ethnically diverse city and the country's main economic centre.4

Before the French developed it as a colonial centre, Niamey was the site of villages inhabited by Fula, Zarma, Maouri, and Songhai people.5 French expeditions first visited the location in the 1890s before Captain Henri Salaman established a military post in 1901.6 Niamey replaced Zinder as the territorial capital from 1903 to 1911 and again in 1926, after which large-scale development occurred.7 The first city plan in 1930 relocated neighbourhoods and enacted segregation of European and indigenous neighbourhoods, which remained separate until the 1950s.8 Niamey held Niger's first municipal elections in 1956, electing Djibo Bakary as the first mayor.9 In the decade following independence in 1960, urban planning introduced infrastructure such as the Kennedy Bridge, which connected the city to the right bank.10 In the 1970s and 1980s, Niamey's growth was fuelled by a boom in the national uranium industry and by droughts that brought rural migrants.11 Protests in Niamey contributed to the democratisation of Niger in the 1990s.12 This era saw an Islamic revival.13

Niamey has a dense city centre and includes some villages in the periphery.14 Due to rapid population growth, the city has many informal settlements, allocated semi-legally from chiefs of traditional governments, which are often excluded from public utilities.15 The city's economy is dominated by commerce, largely in the informal economy.16 The city also has extensive urban agriculture.17 Alongside the Zarma people, Niamey has a large Hausa population, who often seasonally migrate from rural Niger.18 Both groups' languages are used as lingua francas.19 Most of the population follows Islam—including the Tariqa movement of Sufism and the newer Izala movement of Salafism—with a Christian minority.20 Niamey is one of the hottest major cities in the world.21 It is prone to droughts and floods.22 The Niger River is the city's only permanent river and the sole source of its municipal water supply.23

Niamey comprises the Niamey Urban Community (Communauté Urbaine de Niamey, CUN), a first-level division of Niger, led by the Governor of Niamey.24 It is divided into five communes: Niamey I, II, III, and IV on the left bank, and V on the right bank.25 The city also has a municipal government, though it was dissolved in 2024.26 Transportation links include Diori Hamani International Airport, highways including RN1, and the unused Niamey railway station.27 Niamey is home to Abdou Moumouni University, Niger's most important university, and Niamey National Hospital, the country's largest referral hospital.28

History

Main article: History of Niamey

Background and foundation

The area of modern Niamey was of little importance before Niger's colonial era.29 As the Sahelian kingdoms fought for control over the Sahel, the Niamey area was a buffer zone that was not urbanised.30 Late-sixteenth-century residents of this area included the Zarma and other Songhai refugees from the Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire, Hausa-speaking Maouri hunters who migrated westward from the Dogondoutchi area, and the regionally dominant Fula people.31 These ethnic groups comprise the population of modern Niamey.[7]32

The villages of Goudel and Gamkalé were founded on the left bank (east side) of the Niger River in the sixteenth century.33 The site that would become Niamey was situated between these villages, around the gully of Gounti Yéna.34 Various other villages sprouted here around the early nineteenth century; the Hausa village of Maourey, the Zarma village of Kalley, and the Songhai village of Gaweye were on the left bank, while the Fula villages of Lamordé, Nogaré, and Kirkissoye were on the right bank.[8]35

Oral histories differ on the chronology of Niamey's early settlement and the etymology of its name.36 The Maouri believe that the city's Maouri founders were driven away from the nearby river island of Néni Goungou by the Fula villagers of Bitinkodji; they say the city was built next to a landmark tree called Gna[10] and was thus named "place of the Gna", or Gna-mé.37 The Zarma believe that the founder, a Kallé Zarma chief from the Zarmaganda region named Kouri Mali, acquired land between Yantala and Gamkalé Sebangayé; they say the city's name is derived from his exclamation of "wa gnam ne", meaning "clear out here" or "settle here".38 The Songhai believe that the founders were two fishermen from Gao, who were gifted the river island of Yama Gungu by the local Fula herders before settling on the left bank.[8][9]39

Colonial era

French invasion and military rule

By the time of the Scramble for Africa, when France laid claim to Niger corpus, western Niger had been weakened by local conflicts and had no major political powers.40 This facilitated the French invasion of Niger, which began in 1891.41 The first European mentions of Niamey were by the 1897 mission of Émile Auguste Léon Hourst,[11] then the 1899 Voulet–Chanoine Mission, which set fire to Niamey.42 A local account mentioned earlier contact with Europeans, identified as the expedition of Georges Joseph Toutée.[12]43

The first French post in Niamey was established in 1901 by Henri Salaman, a captain overseeing the Niger–Chad road.[13]44 The administration chose the location—above a river bend—to provide a port between Zinder and Timbuktu and to facilitate securing control over the inland part of the territory.45 Salaman was the first to refer to the whole cluster of villages as Niamey.46 Niamey's residents viewed him as a bringer of peace and development, and the city became known in Hausa as "garin captin Salma", meaning "Captain Salaman's city".47 French settlement of Niamey began on an empty plateau on the left bank (the modern-day quartier of Terminus).48 Salaman's administration led construction in this area and drew in migrants through incentives, which included suspending taxation and forced labour for residents.[13]49

Niamey replaced Zinder as the capital of Niger in 1903, after a Tuareg revolt had weakened the eastern part of the territory.50 The French government incorporated several former chiefdoms into the Canton of Niamey.51 The first chief, a commoner named Bagniou, was unpopular as he had been a guide for the Voulet–Chanoine Mission, and the chiefdom of Karma protested losing autonomy to the new canton; it was replaced by the Canton of Karma in 1908.52 Niamey had about 1,800 inhabitants in 1904, when it became the capital of the Third Military Territory of Niger.[13]53 The first city limits were then drawn.[14]54 Niamey was not yet a focus of development as the capital's location was intended to be temporary, and officials debated whether the capital should be Niamey or Zinder.[13]55 The capital moved back to Zinder in 1911, after violence in the eastern region had subsided[15] and reorganisation had drawn Niamey further away from the center of the territory.[14]56 From that year, Niamey's population began to decline from a peak of 3,000.[13]57

Colony of Niger

See also: Colony of Niger

The Colony of Niger was founded in 1922.[13]58 Zinder's proximity to the Nigerian border and its distance from French-controlled ports prompted the French to move the capital back to Niamey.59 Although Niamey was isolated from most of the colony, it was near French Dahomey.60 The official reason for the move was that Zinder had insufficient potable water.61 Other reasons included the resistance of Zinder's unified Hausa population to French rule, Niamey's more comfortable climate, and its river location, which officials believed was the only place suitable for agriculture.62 The governor of Niger, Jules Brévié, made Niamey the capital on 28 December 1926, by which time the city had 3,142 inhabitants.[16]63 Construction of the new capital—including the governor's palace—began the year prior, mostly using forced labour.64

In the decades following Niamey's establishment as the capital, the government developed agriculture and trade routes in western Niger, largely ignoring the rest of the territory.[17]65 The government planned to extend Dahomey's rail network to link Parakou to Niamey, but this project was not completed.[18]66 As capital, Niamey also became the center for the educated class of mostly Songhai and Zarma people, with the first regional school opening in 1930.[19]67 Niamey's first city plan in 1930 designated an indigenous quarter near the river and a European quarter further inland, separated by a park used as a zone sanitaire (isolation zone).[20]68 Government construction, including the completion of the governor's palace, took place in late 1930 and early 1931 using forced labour.[21]69

Before the 1930s, most migrants to Niamey were from western Niger.[22]70 Low rainfall in 1930 caused a famine that brought internally displaced people to Niamey starting in May 1931.71 These migrants increased the city's population tenfold, but most left after the famine ended.72 Those who remained established informal settlements with mostly thatched mud buildings on the edge of the indigenous quarter.73 The growth led colonial administrators to increase policing of hygiene.[23]74 Urban planning in the 1930s introduced health initiatives that involved the relocation of existing neighbourhoods, except for Gaweye, to the plateau.75 Most residents wished to stay on the river bank, but, after a 1935 fire destroyed many straw buildings, they were forcibly moved to mudbrick houses, resulting in multiethnic neighbourhoods.76 An urban plan implemented in 1937 divided Niamey into the European city, the indigenous city, and a commercial and industrial zone by the river.[24]77

Most of the urban plan was cancelled during the Second World War, when colonial officials left for the war and the administration prioritised commercial farming over infrastructure.78 As the city's population increased—from 5,000 in 1941 to 7,500 in 1945—the remaining colonial administrators were unable to enforce property ownership laws, resulting in many people acquiring land from indigenous chiefs.[25]79 In the 1940s, the administration used taxation and forced labour to disincentivise immigration to the city.80 This labour was used for public works such as a central hospital and maternity ward.81 Forced labour was permitted under the indigénat until its abolishment in 1946, after which rural immigration increased.[26]82 The same year, Niger gained autonomy as an overseas territory, leading to the formation of political parties in Niamey.83 The French government reorganised Niamey in response to political unrest, and Gamkalé and Yantala were incorporated into the city.[27]84

A new urban plan in 1952, the Plan Herbé (lit.85 ‘Grassy Plan’), divided the city into several zones.86 The indigenous side included dense city blocks, while the European side was more open and green.87 This plan also formalised a marketplace of land plots, replacing traditional ownership.[28]88 Niamey was the first settlement in Niger to become an urban centre, doubling in size between 1945 and 1955 to about 15,000 people.89 The Plan Herbé became outdated amid rapid urban growth and a wave of migrants from a 1954 famine.[28]90 The city grew inward into the zone sanitaire, eliminating the distinction between the European and indigenous cities by 1955.[29]91

Niamey was named as a commune mixte, with a partially elected council, on 14 February 1954.92 It was upgraded to Niger's only commune de plein exercice on 18 December 1955, leading to municipal elections on 18 November 1956, the first in the country.93 The newly formed Mouvement Socialiste Africain coalition (later renamed Sawaba) won a majority in these elections.94 Djibo Bakary—the leader of a popular trade union in Niamey—thus became the first mayor.95 Boubou Hama was his deputy mayor.96 As mayor, Bakary campaigned in support of immediate independence in the 1958 referendum[28] and unsuccessfully ran for Niamey's seat in the 1958 Nigerien Territorial Assembly election.[30]97