Hamdallaye

Hamdallaye lies northeast of the Niger River in Zarma country, amid the dry farmland and bush of the Sahel. A Zarma seat of authority was established here in the middle of the seventeenth century. The surrounding villages raised millet and sorghum in the rainy season, while herders moved between pastures to the north and the lands near the Niger. Stands of combretum and guiera shrubs grow among the grasses, giving the country its characteristic broken cover.