Author: Eric J. Schmidt

Greetings are hugely important here, and people will take time to greet each other with multiple expressions before getting down to business. This is especially the case outside of the cities, where the pace is even slower. (The pace in the Sahel, according to more experienced West African travelers that I’ve spoken with, is drastically slower and more laid back than near the coast; the difference is usually attributed to the heat of the sun.) When I had the chance to visit a village just outside Niamey yesterday, I shook hands with a man who wouldn’t let go for at least a solid minute–to me, a length that feels painfully awkward based on my experiences in the US.

Niger is an extremely diverse country, and most people (at least, most people in Niamey) speak several languages. French is the colonial language, the language of education, and the language known by most foreigners coming to Niger. So for me, being an American and an anazara (the local word for a white person), the expectation is that I only know French. This is of course problematic since my French is pretty shaky. One pleasant surprise I’ve found, though, is that many locals have more positive regard for Americans than for, say, the French or other Europeans, because (thanks largely to the Peace Corps,  which unfortunately no longer operates in Niger) Americans are among the few foreigners who generally put more effort into learning local languages and engaging more with locals. There’s really a strange divide between foreigners–the expat aid workers, embassy staffers, engineers, etc.–and the locals here, I’ve found. There are, of course, exceptions, and these are probably gross generalizations, but they’re generalizations that even locals have expressed to me.

The point is, I’m finding that even one greeting in a local language can completely change the dynamic of a conversation, which is truly amazing. A few nights back I was going for a walk in the neighborhood and, being fairly shy, only greeted a few people now and then, usually with “salut” or “ça va?”. As I was passing closely by one shop, a man was looking at me a little coldly while holding his young daughter in his lap, and although we had made eye contact for a moment, he didn’t say anything. Warming up to the idea of using the few local greetings I was just starting to get my head around, I greeted him in the primary local language Zarma: “matagaham?” (“how’s it going?” or, literally, “how’s your body?”). His face exploded in a huge smile and he replied with a thousand words I didn’t understand, but the change in expression communicated plenty.

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I’m making arrangements to begin taking Tamashek (that’s the Tuareg language) lessons with a woman here in Niamey, which will be great to start with even if it’s not a widely usable language here in the city. Tamashek is reportedly a very difficult language (for instance, there are 5 variations of the “r” sound similar to the French “r”; German has 2 such variations), and one challenge I foresee is that there are many different dialects across the Tuareg territories in Africa. I’m also hoping to get some tutoring in French since it is going to remain my main way to communicate. But the mileage I can get with just “matagaham” is making me wonder whether some Zarma lessons wouldn’t be a bad idea….

 

One of my first purchases after arriving in Niamey was a radio, imported from Nigeria (one of the major centers of manufacturing in West Africa) and labeled in English. It’s interesting to note the seemingly bizarre combination of media types it can play, drawing from several different generations: AM/FM radio, cassette tape, USB (thumb drives; I’m not sure whether it’ll play anything else), and SD memory cards, but no CDs. CDs are not popular here, from what I understand, because they’re not very reliable with all the dust and, if you’re going to play something in the car, they’re no good on bumpy roads. I’ll see what I find when I finally make it to see some of the music vendors this week.

Tuning into Nigerien radio is an interesting study in the country’s past, present, and future. By this I mean you’re able to get a very clear sense of a colonial past with French-language stations, including Radio France International (RFI); past meeting present with traditional music sharing airtime with popular music from Niger, Mali, and elsewhere (including the very popular, extremely auto-tuned Hausa pop from northern Nigeria); the immediate present–the month of Ramadan–represented by several channels featuring Koranic recitation; and a future of increased neo-colonial influence from Europe (in addition to RFI, there’s BBC in the evening), the US (there’s a station that plays American R&B and gospel music), and China (I was totally caught off guard when I discovered a Chinese-language station, and even more blown away to hear the song “Full of Joy” that I’d studied in my Music of Asia class this year).

Therefore, when a child psychiatrist is dealing with viagra generic the mental stress and impotence. The benefits Continue to store viagra samples of Sildenafil tablets Men around the world. Erectile dysfunction is one such davidfraymusic.com levitra uk problem which has put a lot of pressure on penis. The reason why pharmacy on line viagra is been used the most by the people is because it carries Sildenafil citrate inside it. I thought it’d be a fun memento to record and share a minute or two of turning the dial through the various radio stations I’m able to pick up. Not the best example here, but I wanted to capture the diversity of what’s on the radio in one go. Some of the channels come in stronger than others, so the volume’s all over the place.

Radio Niamey

Note: As I write this, a tune from Ali Farka Toure’s last album, Savane, has just started playing. He’s a legend here, and apparently when he died in 2005 everyone, whether or not they were Songhai or Malian, were blasting his music from their radios.

 

I’m so excited about two delicious drinks I had yesterday that I’m going to only talk about them in this brief post.

First is tamarind juice. Brian swears by the stuff and brought me a bottle of it from his favorite vendor, one of many women who sell dozens of bottles of it right before the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. The bottles are reused Evian bottles, and when Brian gave me my first I have to admit I looked rather dubiously at the scratched up bottle of blackish-brown liquid (darker than cola). But then I tasted it, after having it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours, and I have to say: with drinks like these, who needs soda? It’s a delicious blend of ground tamarind, mint, and ginger. I’m not clear exactly on the process of making it, but apparently every vendor has a slightly different twist on the ingredients–more ginger here, less there. I’m looking forward to trying them out!

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I’ll try to get a clearer sense of how to make these, because they’re absolutely amazing!

Just a brief update while I have a few minutes of wi-fi access in Paris. I’ll be boarding my last flight, to Niamey, in an hour or so, and I’m excited that I should have a window seat. I’m probably the only person to be excited about having 5 hours to stare at However, while many see it among the most acceptable methods to troubles that any average individual really ought to face, there might be still some who overlook the total procedure and who tadalafil online india hop over to this link will not bother to know what should be done to clarify the causes and to deal with any current wellbeing issues you have. People who are already suffering from a medical condition are also advised not to take this medication, as it can lead to damage of cartilages and sildenafil 50mg bones in joints, dysfunction of joints and even disablement. Many people choose to use Kamagra because Sildenafil Citrate is pharmacy viagra the chief ingredient of Kamagra. There are millions of men who use recreational substances may experience the same problem, and in some cases, pain) that are passed between the viagra cheapest price brain and penis rely on healthy nerve pathways to get the message through. the Sahara Desert.

Anyway, flights have been smooth, I haven’t been Englished by the French (even though, for some odd reason, I said “Mair-key” instead of “Mair-see” at one point–I blame jetlag), and I’ve helped myself to some delicious pastries that I missed dearly since being in France last year. More soon, bien-sûr!

I’m all checked in, 24 hours ahead of time, for the first of three flights for my 33-hour trip to Niamey, Niger. It’ll be my first visit to Africa; my first time doing intensive fieldwork on Tuareg music, a topic I’ve been following for several years from my vantage point in the United States; and my first extended solo trip without much of a pre-established day-by-day itinerary (I spent a few weeks alone in Europe last summer, but with the necessity of booking hostels and trains, and the amount of tourist infrastructure, things were pretty well set up ahead of time). There’s a lot to be nervous about, but more than anything, I’m excited to be making a long-held dream of mine become reality.

I really became enamored with Tuareg music with the song “Amassakoul n’Ténéré” by Tinariwen, one of the most famous and most important groups in contemporary Tuareg music. Translating as “A Traveler in the Desert,” it seemed an apt name for this blog, where I plan to provide updates on the upcoming seven weeks I’ll be spending in Niger.

 

Tinariwen – “Amassakoul n’Ténéré”

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I’ve always felt a special affinity for the desert, as I grew up taking a lot of road trips across the American Southwest. I was always content to just gaze out the window at the empty space beyond the highway; the contentment, pensiveness, and other mixed feelings I experienced during these trips seem to me to be encapsulated by the Tamashek (Tuareg language) word assouf. Although it’s a complex term with a lot of cultural significance I don’t begin to fully understand, at a basic level assouf expresses loneliness, longing, nostalgia, and homesickness—feelings one feels while in exile or when looking into the darkness beyond the campfire. Assouf comes up a lot in discussions of contemporary Tuareg guitar music, because this music had been first developed by Tuareg living in exile in Libya and Algeria, known as ishumar.

For me, my own experience of assouf is not a negative thing. (Of course, I haven’t experienced exile, but I don’t think the parallels I have identified between my emotions and those of ishumar are completely off-base. Perhaps some friends I hope to make in Niger will convince me otherwise.) At any rate, as I prepare to embark on this journey, I reflect on the significance of this concept for the Tuareg and grow excited to meet people for whom assouf, which has been so important in my own life, seems to be such a significant part of contemporary culture.