Niiko is a type of dance practiced by the Somali Bantus who are an Ethnic minority of foreign descent in Somalia.
01 · What it is
Dance
Live movement, rhythm, costume, or staged dramatic performance passed between generations.
02 · Where & name
Somalia
Written in its own script on record as نييكو.
03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)
Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
04 · Proof & reuse
1 cited source
Every claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is Niiko in plain words?
Niiko is a type of dance practiced by the Somali Bantus who are an Ethnic minority of foreign descent in Somalia. In local script on record, it is written نييكو.
Where is Niiko practised or documented?
Sources on this page place Niiko in Somalia.
What is the current condition of Niiko today?
□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
How do I cite or share this Niiko entry?
Cite as: "Niiko." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/niiko, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.
Niiko is a type of dance practiced by the Somali Bantus who are an Ethnic minority of foreign descent in Somalia. Due to its sensual nature it is more often done by non-practicing Muslims and eschewed by those who are religiously observant, and Somalis in general.
Associate [Niiko] with the minority Bantu, who are descended from pre-Somali populations and recent immigrant eastern Swahili groups originally brought to Somalia as slaves... Niiko is therefore not necessarily an authentic Somali dance, but one that has been appropriated from minority cultures of African and slave descent.
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Niiko”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.
Niiko is Somali dance primarily in southern Somalia, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 1
The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. 1
