As Im traveling through Niger, Im conscious of the fact Im making a serious deviation towards my next country, Algeria. To get my first impressions of the agriculture, Im moving on along the Niger River, which crosses the country in the southwest where the soil is the most fertile.
I really get aware that Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. Its rank on the Human Development Index (HDI) is penultimate of 187 countries. Conspicuous is the enormous amount of livestock across almost the whole nation. The economy of Niger is very centralized which means that Niger is very dependent on subsistence crops, uranium deposits and according to my presumptions, livestock. However, these factors do not really contribute to economic growth in Niger. On the contrary, a drop in world demand for uranium, desertification, drought and an exponential people growth have undercut the economy dramatically.[1][2]
Im finally arrived in Nigers capital, Niamey. Im about to buy a chicken, grilled on an exotic way to silence my growling stomach. The price I have to pay, is 2000 CFA Francs, which is three euros and a bit. Niger shares together with seven other countries the Central Africa CFA Franc. Because Niger frequently has serious debts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has to interfere with debt reliefs. The half of the Governments budget is derived from foreign and extern donor resources.
Climate is linked to economy very narrowly. Due to great droughts (Nigers area consist almost 60% of the Sahara desert), Niger is permanently harassed by famines. Vast amounts of population face starvation constantly.[3]
As I sit there on a bench at Niameys Grand Market with the half of my chicken left, completely satisfied and enjoying Nigers gastronomy, I give the remains away to a little poor child at the pavement.
I was really astonished by the great diversity of the Nigerian culture. The history of Nigeria goes back to 2000 BC when Nigeria was mostly populated by nomads who lived from the land. The most well-known inhabitants in their history were the Noks in 800 BC. This tribe started the fashion of making bronze and terracotta sculptures. The Nigerian population was suppressed by British colonizers round 1900 and they were used as slaves in other countries. Finally they recaptured their independence on 1st October 1960.
Nigerian culture is as multi-ethnic as the people.They still nourish their traditional languages, music, dance and literature. The three large ethnic groups of Nigeria are Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo but there are a lot more smaller groups. Because of that only 50% of the population speaks the official language, which is English. As there are more than 250 ethnic groups, there are more than 250 languages.
The Nigerian culture encloses as many varieties in styles of clothing as there are different groups of people living in the country. The main feature of their clothing is the conservativeness.
Another characteristic of the Nigerian people is their handling with guests. They welcome them with the greatest care and warmth. This hospitality returns everywhere in the Nigerian culture.
Soccer is a very practiced sport in Nigeria. Also polo, cricket, swimming and wrestling are very popular.
There are two main religions in Nigeria, Christians and Muslims. The two Christian festivals are Christmas and Easter as we know this. The three Muslim festivals are Eid Al Fitri, Eid Al Maulud and Eid Al Kabir, which are all national public holidays.Each ethic group has different traditions for celebrating these festivals.
So as you can see Nigeria has a very rich culture from different parts of the world. But I cant tell you all of it because I have to move on. If you want to know more about it you surely have to visit Nigeria.
When we visited Nigeria we noticed that this country had a lot of people. After some research it appeared that this country is also the most populous country in Africa with a very strong population growth.
Ethnic groups and religion
Religious joining in Nigeria is strongly related to ethnicity, with rather distinct regional divisions between ethnic groups.
There are over 250 different ethnic groups.
The main ethnic groups are involved in a constant struggle for power, which from time to time leads to violent outbursts. These are the Haussa and Fulani in the north, which are mostly Muslim, the Igbo in the south consist of a large number of Christians, the Yoruba in the west, which practices Christianity, Muslim and sometimes traditional Yoruba religion, and at least the Ijaw. Also the Tiv, the Kanuri and the Ibibio form tribes of respectable size.
Overall statistics indicate that about 50% of the population is Muslim, about 40% are Christian and about 10% practice traditional African religions or no religion at all.
Economy of Nigeria
According to the United Nations Development Programme70.8% of the population in Nigeria lives below the poverty line.
Community Based Poverty Reduction Project for Nigeria wants to improve access of the poor to social and economic infrastructure and increase the availability and management of development resources at the community level.
Apparently Nigeria has a dual economy. They depend on oilearnings, overlaid by a traditional agricultural and trading economy.Agriculture used to be the main source of export earnings and public revenue. The oil sector is now of overwhelming importance to the point of over-dependence. The competition between ethnic and regional groups for power and access to the countrys oil wealth are increasing in intensity.
Because of the rapid population growth, the agricultural sector couldnt keep up with it and now Nigeria, once a large exporter, has to import food. Since the 1970s the economic growth has been irregular. They depend most of the time on the global oil market which fluctuate a lot. Now Nigeria is facing a growing economic decline and the living standards is falling down.
(1) In Dutch we call this Nigeriaanse oplichting aka 419-fraude. This name is derived from the fact that recently many of these scams start in Nigeria. Also non-Nigerians are involved in this type of fraud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud
(2) Nigeria is among the world's 20 poorest countries.
