On a recent long weekend, four Americans and four Brits set off for an adventure to Niger. Niger is a country of twelve and half million people and is one of the poorest countries in the world. Our quest was the Cure Salee (Salt Festival), held annually in September, in the small oasis town of Ingall near Agadez at the edge of the Sahara Desert. The Cure Salee is a one hundred year old festival, at which the nomadic Tuareg and Fulani tribes come in from the desert to celebrate the rainy season and to allow their animals to drink the salty water and eat the plants, which are at their peak at this time of year. With camel races, camel displays, a market of silverwork and leather goods and traditional dancing by matrimony seeking members of the Wodaabe people, a group of Fulani, it promised to be a good adventure. And a good adventure it was, but not the one we intended...
See photos in the Niger folder on the right.
On day one of our trip, we drove to Katsina, Nigeria where we had lunch, and then on to Maradi, Niger. This was a full day’s drive but we were rewarded by a stay at The Maradi Guest House, a comfortable hotel in a town that was otherwise very run down and lacking in creature comforts. The following morning we set off shortly after daybreak, deciding to refuel the car before leaving town. After pulling away from the fuel pump, we traveled about ten yards before a big black cloud appeared from the tailpipe and the engine shut down. We had pulled up to the wrong pump and filled the car with diesel instead of gasoline. After an hour and a half or so, during which the mechanic drained and refilled the tank, the engine started and the mechanic raced the engine to blow out the last remnants of diesel. He raced it to such an extent that the fan belt broke. We then spent another couple of hours while the mechanic worked on replacing the belt. This gave us a chance to acquaint ourselves a bit with the people of Maradi, who were very friendly and quite curious about the white foreigners.
On the road again, we were soon in the countryside where the landscape alternated between vast fields of millet and semi-arid desert. Niger is a very agrarian society with few signs of industry. It was quite pleasant and the road coursed through old villages of mud walls and huts surrounded by fields of crops. Our next adventure began about three hours out from Maradi when the fan belt broke again. The water pump broke as well. We had to send our other car to the nearest town to get a mechanic and then had to tow the car thirty-five kilometers to a town called Birnin Konni. It was now late afternoon and the repairs to the car would necessitate an overnight stay. We were now seriously behind schedule and our British friends decided to push on, while we Americans decided not to go any farther away from home in a car that was proving to be, somewhat, unreliable. We had a pleasant dinner and stay at Le Motel, a clean and comfortable accommodation.
The next morning, the car repaired, we took a drive around Birnin Konni. We saw a small mosque where the children were in school and we caused a small disruption as the children were so excited to see us. At one point I tried to photograph a small boy driving a donkey cart but as I approached, he ran off in terror, apparently never having seen a white man before. This got a good laugh from the men who were hanging around nearby. We then set off to visit a small village on the outskirts of town. This was a walk back in time. This village looked to be unchanged for at least the last hundred years. There is no electricity. There is no running water. 
Food is cooked over open wood fires or in an outdoor mud oven (see photos). There were small, walled off compounds made of mud and mud bricks, inside which the people lived amidst beautiful, large, onion shaped, mud granaries. As we pulled up, we first saw the village well, some thirty meters deep, around which there were a number of village women. The women were beautifully dressed in vibrantly colored wrappers and, when they smiled, they revealed matching colored teeth - yellow and orange from chewing cola nuts. We all exchanged our “bon jour”s and did a lot of smiling. Everyone was delighted to see us and we soon had a big following of children in tow. We took pictures of the people and showed them the images on the backs of our digital cameras. This just about caused a riot as everyone wanted to have their picture taken and women ran to fetch their babies for the photographs. Some of the men in the village were a bit disconcerted as we had, unknowingly, failed to follow the protocol of introducing ourselves to the chief before talking to and photographing the women. We made the proper introductions and then all was fine. All in all, it was a fantastic exchange of inter-cultural friendship.
We decided to work our way back toward Nigeria and our next destination was Zinder, on the Niger side of the border. Along the road to Zinder, we came upon a vast market and decided to have a look around. Everything, from fabrics to food, rugs, household goods, goats and camels was on sale. Once again, everyone was excited to see us. We were as exotic to them as they, in their turbans and brilliantly colored outfits, were to us.
We arrived in Zinder at dusk and had an okay meal and a few beers before retiring for the night. I don’t recall the name of the hotel and hope I never do. It was not a comfortable stay as my room seemed to 
be a mosquito farm. However, it was rated as the best place in town by the guide book.
Zinder is a very old town with a typical African market and an “old town” that is very worthwhile seeing. There we found a beautiful old mosque and the emir’s palace. We hired a local to guide us through the maze of streets and alleys, lined with, seemingly, ancient mud walls and houses and we soon had a gang of thirty, or so, excited children following us and jumping in front of our cameras every time we tried to take a photograph.
That afternoon, we arrived in Kano, Nigeria and spent the night. On our final day, we visited some of the markets in Kano and loaded up an already overburdened car with more souvenirs before heading back to home in Abuja. So, it was an adventure after all and one that I will always remember. We didn’t get to the Cure Sallee but we had a fantastic time. Our British friends did get to the festival and reported that it was very interesting but they had little time to really appreciate it. I would love to go back next year and next time will be better prepared. If you want to go, you will need six days if traveling from Abuja. There is a lot of driving involved but it is a worthwhile scenic trip.
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