Zinder

About Zinder

Zinder (locally, Damagaram), formerly also spelled Sinder, is the third largest city in Niger, with a population of 235,605 as by the 2012 census. It is situated 861 km (535 mi) east of the capital Niamey and 240 km (150 mi) north of the Nigerian city of Kano.

Zinder was originally the site of the small Hausa village of Zengou. The town grew dramatically in importance following the arrival of Kanuri aristocrats in 1736, who built a new fortified quarter called Birni to the south and declared the town of Zinder as the capital of the Sultanate of Damagaram in 1736. Thereafter Zinder became an important centre of the Trans-Saharan trade and a major hub for trade south through Kano and east to Bornu. The sultanate remained nominally subject to the Borno Empire until the reign of Sultan Tanimoune Dan Souleymane in the mid-to-late 19th century, who declared independence and initiated a phase of vigorous expansion.

Europeans began exploring the region in the 19th century, beginning with German explorer Heinrich Barth, who stayed in Zinder in 1851, and later the French explorer Marius Gabriel Cazemajou, who was killed in the city in 1897. It was then, after...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.