Blogs in July 2020

Zarma Folktales of Niger 25th July 2020

Zarma Folktales of Niger presents in English the folklore of the Zarma, a lesser-known tribe of West Africa. These tales run the gamut from teaching ethical and moral lessons to portraying tricksters to naming animals to farting contests to...

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Bridge Over Niger 25th July 2020

The United States is financing and building a bridge named after J.F. Kennedy that will span the Niger River in Niamey, Niger-West Africa. The time is between 1965 and 1970, during the Cold War. The bridge has to be...

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Prayer Has Spoiled Everything 25th July 2020

Bori, in the Mawri society of Niger, are mischievous and invisible beings that populate the bush. Bori is also the practice of taming these wild forces in the context of possession ceremonies. In Prayer Has Spoiled Everything Adeline Masquelier...

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Riding the Demon 25th July 2020

In Niger, where access to rail and air travel requires overcoming many obstacles, roads are the nation’s lifeline. For a year in the early 1990s, Peter Chilson traveled this desert country by automobile to experience West African road culture....

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Adventures in Service with Peace Corps in Niger 25th July 2020

Following its creation by President Kennedy in 1961, Peace Corps became an icon of American idealism in action on an international scale. It inspired a generation of American youth, and it continues to attract thousands of youthful Americans to...

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