Striga spp. causes considerable yield loss in sorghum throughout Africa. Significant gains have been made in developing Striga control strategies that are focused on genetic resistance. Improved varieties with a high level of Striga resistance have been developed, released and widely distributed in several countries. However, there are major sorghum-growing niches in some African countries where local African landraces with unique adaptation characteristics are preferred. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, we have targeted the introgression of Striga resistance genes from known sources into preferred African landraces from Ethiopia, Mali, Niger and Tanzania. In this study, a high level of Striga resistance in sorghum cultivar SRN39 is transferred into El Mota, a landrace from Niger with good adaptation in drylands with marginal soil fertility. An advanced backcross population of cross El Mota x SRN39 was genotyped with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers at Purdue University and field tested for Striga resistance in Niger. Data on agronomic characteristics including maturity, height, yield and Striga infestation were recorded. Analysis of field data showed homogeneous variance for Striga infestation across years, significant genetic variation among progenies, and a moderate level of heritability (0.38) for Striga resistance. Genotypes with a good level of Striga resistance and high resemblance of phenotype with the local landrace were recovered. Selected progenies were further tested in a confirmatory study under uniform Striga infestation where plots were deliberately seeded with a known quantity of Striga seed. The same progeny were also examined and contrasted with parental lines in the laboratory at Purdue University for specific Striga resistance mechanisms introgressed and for their association with molecular markers identified in the original population. Results from these tests are reported and the value of marker- and laboratory assay–facilitated introgression discussed.