Zongo settlements are areas in West African towns populated mostly by migrants from the northern savannah regions and the West African Sahel,[1] especially from Niger and northern Nigeria.[2]
Common features of the zongo communities are their use of Hausa language as lingua franca and their shared religion: Islam.[3] The designation of these wards of migrants as zongos derives from the Hausa word zango which literally means "a camping place for trading caravans".[4] As the name reveals, zongos were originally founded as places of trade in the long-distance trading networks that connected the West African subregion.[5]