Traditional musical styles of Niger

The Hausa dominate over half of the population of the country, use the duma for drumming and the molo (a lute) in their Griot customs, along with the Ganga, alghaita (shawm) and kakaki (known as trumpet) for martial, state and ceremonial events. These uses are characterized by the ceremonial usage of big trumpets to make the authority of the Sultanate of Damagaram in the southeast Zinder region.

The Zarma people made up over 20% of Niger’s population, while Tuareg and Fulani both of them made around a million in the early 21^st century, somewhat less than 10% of each. The Kanuri just have over 4% and while Toubou, Diffa and Gurma have the smallest population of less than a half percent each.

The Zarma live the area around the capital known as Niamey. They play, generally solo, mixture of lutes (xalam or molo), fiddles and flutes like the Fula, carry on the griot custom of class-based praise singers and artists. Songhai folk music was the topic of broadly study in the late colonial and early independent era.

The Tuareg people who were from the North are known for their romantic, informal sung/ spoken love poetry performed by both women and men, with voices accompanied by clapping, tinde drums for the women’s songs and a one-stringed viol for the men’s songs.

The Fula and Wodaabe are itinerate desert subgroup of Fula that practice group singing accompanied by clapping, bells and stamping. The Wodaabe Gerewol festival is one instance for this repeating, fascinating and percussive vocal custom. The Beriberi too is known for difficult polyphony singing.