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NIGER | Visit Niger with TransAfrica |
Niger
is the country renowned for its wide open desert and its fascinating people.
It takes its name from the River Niger, which flows through the capital
Niamey – a simple African city where you can find a mix of the old
and the new. The city is home to a beautiful national museum which houses
collections of different ethnic artefacts and craft work, as well as a
lively colourful market where peoples of different tribes and ethic backgrounds
come together to trade.
The savannah area in the southwest stretches as far as the central Sahel, which little by little is being overcome by the great desert sands of the Tenere. In the northeast rise the Air Mountains, a huge formation of volcanic rock against which the highest dunes of the Sahara hurl themselves.
The Great River
The territory around the River Niger, occupied between the 10th and 17th centuries by the great empires of the Kanem-Bornou, the Songhai, the Haoussa and by powerful sultans and crossed by caravans of arab traders, remained unheard of in Europe until the 19th century when the legendary Mungo Park arrived on the banks of the River Niger. Even today this is a little known part of the world, where life is lived to the simple rhythm of the seasons and the 21st century is but a shadow on the distant horizon.
Several peoples live there: the Haoussa farmers and traders, the Djerma and the Songhai, the Gourmantche on the Burkina side, the Kanouri (descendants of the Bournou Empire), the Toubou nomads, the Arabs, the Peul shepherds and the Touaregs (the legendary ‘blue men’). The poor, arid land is dotted with their traditional villages, huts and barns, made of clay and straw and built in an array of different shapes and forms – round, conical, pointed: these are the lines and dimensions that which have so often fired the imaginations of our modern architects. Along the roads and the tracks men, women and children walk carrying their water jars and wood or their merchandise to sell at the market – a place where different ethnic peoples come together to trade. The rare wells are also meeting places for men and animals, the water drawn by rudimentary pumps or simple buckets and often with the help of camels or donkeys. In spite of their daily hardships and lack of resources, the people have learned to survive in this arid land without compromising their love of life, their ‘joie de vivre’.
The Remains of Historical Legend
History always seems to be whispering in your ear in Niger: it is ever-present. The descendants of the ancient kings and sultans have retained their authority and are honoured and respected by their people but the most ancient of all the traces of history you will come across in Niger is quite incredible: a dinosaur cemetery, south of Agadez. Wind and water erosion shifted the sands to reveal the huge white bones of these mysterious animals which, in bygone days, inhabited the verdant forests that that once covered what is today the Sahara. Here and there you can also see coloured rocks thrown by volcanoes, the sediment of ancient salt lakes and tree fossils.
The tree of the Tenere, long dead and since replaced by a metal structure is the landmark that brings our attention to the fact that we are now in the most difficult and mysterious of deserts – the Tenere. Difficult to cross but always full of surprises, its charm touches the very depths of your soul. Fachi is an oasis of date palms. At Bilma, camel caravans are loaded up with salt packs and, along routes a thousand years old, they set out for Agadez. Djado is a ghost town with an old dilapidated fort, inhabited only by the wind – it was once a busy, lively, green and lush oasis. Along forgotten tracks, between the infinite flat and rocky ridges and the soft oceans of sand, you reach the highest dunes of the Sahara at Temet. Sand and rock seem to melt into a lunar landscape but then the Air Mountains are standing there to welcome you, with their rocks eroded by water and wind and sand: the ‘blue mountains’. At the incredible oasis of Timia, amongst the palms and the fruit trees, grow the sweetest tomatoes in the world. There are marvellous stone age drawings, thousands of years old, recalling the lives of the shepherds and hunters from who-knows-where, who inhabited the green Sahara of yesteryear, their prey - elephant, buffalo, antelope, giraffe – all drawn by artists in clear curved lines: it is almost a collection of modern art.
The Magic of the Gerewol
The town of Agadez is an obligatory destination point for anyone crossing the desert. In the shade of its pointed clay minaret, the Touareg and Peul peoples sell their goods, crafted in leather and silver.
Between Agadez and Niamey is the territory of the Touareg people, the veiled men, the ‘blue men’, whose charm and beauty will not fail to conquer your heart. In the evening when the camels are resting, the men perform the dance of swords around their fire, to remind themselves of their past as noble warriors, while the women chant and play the tam-tams.
It is also the territory of the Bororo, or Woodabe, who
belong to the Peul ethnic group. Every year they drive their herds to
the salt plains. In a land where the earth is rich in salt, thousands
of animals are gathered together and hundreds of families meet up to tell
the latest news, to prepare their marriages and to do business. In the
evening, slender young men, dressed in traditional embroidered costumes
and incredible white make-up, dance in seductive movements: this is the
great festival of the Gerewol and it is up to the women to choose the
most handsome men for their lovers. The tam-tam, often nothing more than
a simple frame bound in goatskin, relentlessly accompanies the melancholy
songs of the desert, there in the midst of the ancient sands and under
the kind of brilliantly starry sky that you can only see in the desert.
