History
[edit]
Main article: History of Niamey
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Niamey.
Background and foundation[edit]
The area of modern Niamey was of little importance before Niger's colonial era. As the Sahelian kingdoms fought for control over the Sahel, the Niamey area was a buffer zone that was not urbanised. 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. These ethnic groups comprise the population of modern Niamey.
The villages of Goudel [fr] and Gamkalé [de] were founded on the left bank (east side) of the Niger River in the sixteenth century. The site that would become Niamey was situated between these villages, around the gully of Gounti Yéna [de]. Various other villages sprouted here around the early nineteenth century; the Hausa village of Maourey [de], the Zarma village of Kalley [de], and the Songhai village of Gaweye [de] were on the left bank, while the Fula villages of Lamordé [de], Nogaré [de], and Kirkissoye [de] were on the right bank.
Oral histories differ on the chronology of Niamey's early settlement and the etymology of its name. The Maouri believe that the city's Maouri founders were driven away from the nearby river island of Néni Goungou [de] by the Fula villagers of Bitinkodji; they say the city was built next to a landmark tree called Gna and was thus named "place of the Gna", or Gna-mé. The Zarma believe that the founder, a Kallé Zarma chief from the Zarmaganda region named Kouri Mali, acquired land between Yantala [de] and Gamkalé Sebangayé [de]; they say the city's name is derived from his exclamation of "wa gnam ne", meaning "clear out here" or "settle here". 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.
Colonial era[edit]
French invasion and military rule[edit]
1903 French map showing Niamey and nearby settlements
By the time of the Scramble for Africa, when France laid claim to Niger, western Niger had been weakened by local conflicts and had no major political powers. This facilitated the French invasion of Niger, which began in 1891. The first European mentions of Niamey were by the 1897 mission of Émile Auguste Léon Hourst [fr], then the 1899 Voulet–Chanoine Mission, which set fire to Niamey. A local account mentioned earlier contact with Europeans, identified as the expedition of Georges Joseph Toutée [fr].
The first French post in Niamey was established in 1901 by Henri Salaman [de], a captain overseeing the Niger–Chad road. 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. Salaman was the first to refer to the whole cluster of villages as Niamey. 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". French settlement of Niamey began on an empty plateau on the left bank (the modern-day quartier of Terminus [de]). Salaman's administration led construction in this area and drew in migrants through incentives, which included suspending taxation and forced labour for residents.
Niamey replaced Zinder as the capital of Niger in 1903, after a Tuareg revolt had weakened the eastern part of the territory. The French government incorporated several former chiefdoms into the Canton of Niamey. 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. Niamey had about 1,800 inhabitants in 1904, when it became the capital of the Third Military Territory of Niger. The first city limits were then drawn. 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. The capital moved back to Zinder in 1911, after violence in the eastern region had subsided and reorganisation had drawn Niamey further away from the center of the territory. From that year, Niamey's population began to decline from a peak of 3,000.
Colony of Niger[edit]
See also: Colony of Niger
Niamey in December 1930. The large house in the centre is the French governor's residence. Air photo taken by Swiss pilot and photographer Walter Mittelholzer.
The Colony of Niger was founded in 1922. Zinder's proximity to the Nigerian border and its distance from French-controlled ports prompted the French to move the capital back to Niamey. Although Niamey was isolated from most of the colony, it was near French Dahomey. The official reason for the move was that Zinder had insufficient potable water. 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. The governor of Niger, Jules Brévié, made Niamey the capital on 28 December 1926, by which time the city had 3,142 inhabitants. Construction of the new capital—including the governor's palace—began the year prior, mostly using forced labour.
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. The government planned to extend Dahomey's rail network to link Parakou to Niamey, but this project was not completed. 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. 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). Government construction, including the completion of the governor's palace, took place in late 1930 and early 1931 using forced labour.
Before the 1930s, most migrants to Niamey were from western Niger. Low rainfall in 1930 caused a famine that brought internally displaced people to Niamey starting in May 1931. These migrants increased the city's population tenfold, but most left after the famine ended. Those who remained established informal settlements with mostly thatched mud buildings on the edge of the indigenous quarter. The growth led colonial administrators to increase policing of hygiene. Urban planning in the 1930s introduced health initiatives that involved the relocation of existing neighbourhoods, except for Gaweye, to the plateau. 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. An urban plan implemented in 1937 divided Niamey into the European city, the indigenous city, and a commercial and industrial zone by the river.
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. 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. In the 1940s, the administration used taxation and forced labour to disincentivise immigration to the city. This labour was used for public works such as a central hospital and maternity ward. Forced labour was permitted under the indigénat until its abolishment in 1946, after which rural immigration increased. The same year, Niger gained autonomy as an overseas territory, leading to the formation of political parties in Niamey. The French government reorganised Niamey in response to political unrest, and Gamkalé and Yantala were incorporated into the city.
A new urban plan in 1952, the Plan Herbé (lit. 'Grassy Plan'), divided the city into several zones. The indigenous side included dense city blocks, while the European side was more open and green. This plan also formalised a marketplace of land plots, replacing traditional ownership. Niamey was the first settlement in Niger to become an urban centre, doubling in size between 1945 and 1955 to about 15,000 people. The Plan Herbé became outdated amid rapid urban growth and a wave of migrants from a 1954 famine. The city grew inward into the zone sanitaire, eliminating the distinction between the European and indigenous cities by 1955.
Niamey was named as a commune mixte [fr], with a partially elected council, on 14 February 1954. It was upgraded to Niger's only commune de plein exercice [fr] on 18 December 1955, leading to municipal elections on 18 November 1956, the first in the country. The newly formed Mouvement Socialiste Africain coalition (later renamed Sawaba) won a majority in these elections. Djibo Bakary—the leader of a popular trade union in Niamey—thus became the first mayor. Boubou Hama was his deputy mayor. As mayor, Bakary campaigned in support of immediate independence in the 1958 referendum and unsuccessfully ran for Niamey's seat in the 1958 Nigerien Territorial Assembly election.
Post-independence era[edit]
Independence, economic growth, and population boom[edit]
Niamey riverfront in 1961
By 1960, the year of Niger's independence, Niamey's population had grown to 33,816. A new city plan was drafted in 1961 by the French firm Kalt, Pourdaier-Duteil, and Raymond [de], which zoned the former indigenous quarter for a higher density than the former European quarter. Niamey received the country's only asphalt highway, spanning a few kilometres between Diori Hamani International Airport and the Presidential Palace—the former governor's palace. The French military base in the city was transferred to the Niger Armed Forces in 1961, becoming the 1re Compagnie de commandement, d'appui et de service (1re CCAS; transl. 1st Company of Command, Support, and Service), but Niamey's gendarmerie unit remained under French control. The 1re CCAS led a rebellion against the French units in the city on 3 December 1963.
Public-sector employees in Niamey comprised a large part of Niger's workforce in the mid-1960s, and the proportion grew to 14% by 1980. The government of Hamani Diori aimed to increase the country's industrial activities; Niamey received a textile production facility and a refrigerated slaughterhouse. Niamey's groundnut industry rapidly grew around this time, which contributed to increasing the capital's population to 108,000 in 1972. Diori's government established a party militia in 1964, stationing personnel in each of the city's seventeen quartiers. An urban plan in the 1960s introduced developments including a greenbelt. The plan ended the distinction between European and indigenous neighbourhoods, aiming to lower the disparity within the city's population density. Despite this, housing insecurity increased, and the informal settlement of Talladjé [de] was created in 1966. Diori led the inaugural summit of the Organisation de la Francophonie in 1969 in Niamey, giving the city unprecedented media coverage, after which Diori launched a rebranding campaign for the city, which included naming of streets. The Kennedy Bridge opened in 1970 and connected the left bank of Niamey to the much less populated right bank, which then began to urbanise.
A national uranium boom in the 1970s and 1980s improved the economy of Niamey. The city's public spending was then invested in modern buildings, resulting in an era of opulent architecture in a revival of the Sudanese style. The economic situation caused a baby boom. Meanwhile, a drought in 1972–73 brought a wave of migrants that led to rapid urban sprawl, and Malian immigrants settled in the outer parts of the city. As a result, the population of Niamey grew from 108,000 to 398,365 inhabitants, and the city limits expanded from 1,367 ha (3,380 acres) in 1970 to 4,400 ha (11,000 acres) by 1977, annexing peripheral villages.
After the military government of Seyni Kountché took power in the 1974 coup, there were strict controls on residency and the government would regularly round up and deport those without permits back to their villages. The government established a daily curfew and placed 10,000 political agents in the city, which had a population of 400,000. A second drought occurred in 1983–84, bringing about 150,000 migrants to Niamey. Kountché's government responded to the ensuing housing crisis with eviction and resettlement to new districts including Lazaret and Madina [de], but the crisis continued. Kountché's government also constructed water sources in the city's periphery and led the construction of the Grand Mosque of Niamey, funded by the Libyan government. In 1984, the Schéma Directeur d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme (transl. Master Plan for Urban Planning and Development) divided Niamey into five districts, subordinate to the Prefect Mayor, to manage the large population. These were reorganised into the Niamey Urban Community (Communauté Urbaine de Niamey, CUN), with three municipalities, in 1989. In the 1990s, with further reorganisation and decentralisation, the city's growth rate slightly declined.
Democratisation era and urban reorganisation[edit]
View from the left bank overlooking the Kennedy Bridge in 1990
In the 1990 Kennedy Bridge massacre, soldiers killed three student protestors. This event propelled protests and political participation in support of democracy. That November, 100,000 people in Niamey participated in a general strike against president Ali Saibou, after which he agreed to establish a democratic council. In 1993, the year Mahamane Ousmane became the first democratically elected president, Niamey had high rates of poverty and unemployment as public-sector jobs decreased. Niger's democratisation effected an upsurge in the popularity of private radio and in Islamic discourse. Islamic groups based in Niamey, including Izala Society supporters, played major roles in protests against the Ousmane government's proposed family law in 1994 and against the city's hosting of the International Festival of African Fashion [fr] in 2000. A coup d'état organised in Niamey in February 1996 installed Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara as president. Baré was unpopular in Niamey as public-sector employment decreased and state-run urban services declined. On 9 April 1999, Baré was ambushed, shot, and killed at Niamey's airport during a coup d'état.
The CUN was reorganised in 1996 amid a wide reorganisation of the country's municipalities. The CUN became a first-level region of Niger and was divided into five municipalities. The plan allowed the region to shrink to centralise the area managed, but a 2002 plan instead allowed each municipality to expand within a perimeter to benefit from urban growth. This plan redrew municipalities' boundaries based on pre-colonial settlements, with consulting from traditional chiefs. Administrative decentralisation in 2004 gave these municipalities control over zoning, leading to a dispute with the CUN. Residents of the village of Saga [de] disagreed with being incorporated into the CUN. In 2011, the municipalities were reorganised as municipal districts, undoing the decentralisation.
Place du Liptako-Gourma in 2018
Urban development projects in the 2010s involved the expropriation and destruction of neighbourhoods. These projects included president Mahamadou Issoufou's Niamey Nyala initiative, launched in 2011, and preparation for the city's hosting of an African Union summit in 2019. In 2013, American and French military bases were established at adjacent parts of Diori Hamani International Airport. Niamey was the site of protests against the 2021 presidential election and president-elect Mohamed Bazoum; most Niameyans believed he had stolen the election as the city had overwhelmingly voted for Ousmane. Air force units in the city led a failed coup against Bazoum before his inauguration. In July 2023, the Niger junta began renaming street names from the colonial era to more local names, such as replacing the name of Charles de Gaulle with that of Bakary. In April 2024, the junta's leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, declared the dissolution of local governments, replacing the mayor of Niamey, Oumarou Dogari, with an army official. The same month, hundreds rallied in Niamey to demand the withdrawal of the US military from the country. The US withdrew its troops from Niamey in July 2024.
