Songhai proper

The Songhai proper (Songhay, Sangwai or Sonrai) are an ethnic group in the northwestern corner of Niger's Tillaberi Region, an area historically known in the country as Songhai. They are a subgroup of the broader Songhai group. Even though the Songhais have so much in common with the Zarma, to the extent that some Songhais may refer to themselves and their dialect as "Zarma", both see themselves as two distinct branches of the same ethnicity. The Songhai originally were the descendants and partisans of the Sonni dynasty that retreated to this area of present Niger after the coup d'état of 1493 and that of the Askia dynasty that also moved later to this same region after the invasion of the Songhai Empire by the Saadi dynasty of Morocco in 1591. These two historical events that resulted in the mass exodus of the Songhai emptied Gao and Timbuktu of their Songhai nobles, who find themselves dispersed today in the above-mentioned region of Southwestern Niger. According to oral history, the Songhai nobles came to be known as "Songhai" during the reign of Sonni Ali Ber. The name was coined from his name to form a tribal name for the ruling caste. The main factions of the Songhai are the "Si Hamey" and the "Mamar Hamey". The Si Hamey (meaning: descendants of Sonni), as the name implies, are the descendants and partisans of the Sonnis, while the "Mamar Hamey" are the descendants and partisans of Askia Mohammad I whose vernacular name among the Songhai is "Mamar". It is also worth noting that both groups use the title surname "Maiga" (meaning, "King or Prince"). After the ruler and founder of the Songhai Empire Sonni Ali died in 1492, his former army general and nephew Askia Mohammad rebelled against his son and successor, Sonni Baru and defeated him in a battle in 1493 . Sonni Baru fled to Ayorou and established his own small kingdom. After the defeat of the Songhai Empire at the battle of Tondibi in 1591, the son of Askia Dawud , Askia Muhammed Gao (aka Wayki), deposed his brother Askia Ishaq II and briefly took command of the Songhai resistance army.