MANY people mix Nigeria with Niger — the names are similar and the two Western African countries border each other, Niger being the larger country to the north of Nigeria. Niger is a largely Muslim country with a population of about 11.6 million people who speak French, the native Djerma, and, to some extent, Arabic.
In January, a group of 14 Saudis visited Niger to film a documentary to raise awareness of the desperate living conditions in which many Niger Muslims live. According to a UN worker that helped organize the trip, Niger is 98 percent Muslim. The country also suffers from the list of social maladies that are all-too-common on the African continent: Poverty, malnutrition, a high rate of infant mortality, a lack of educational opportunities, corruption and cronyism, and the list goes on.
The informal delegation of Saudis, men and women of various ages and interests, went to the country to chronicle the day-to-day challenges facing these African Muslims. The documentary of their visit will be shown at Dar Al-Hekma College in Jeddah on May 8 and will probably be broadcasted on Saudi television at a later date.
Special education specialist Sharia Walker, 26, headed the group. She said that the idea for the trip came during Ramadan, the holy month where Muslims are supposed to reflect on the suffering and starvation of the world’s impoverished. Sahria and her sister Ihsan felt the urge to visit Niger after learning about the food crisis there.
The two sisters began with a charity fundraising drive. They managed to collect about SR100,000. Then they learned that this money was just a drop in the bucket of need. “Let’s go to Niger,” suggested Ihran. It turns out that Sharia was thinking the same thing.
“I believe people cannot feel the situation unless they live it,” Sharia told Arab News.
And thus the first exploratory trip by the two sisters took place in October 2005 with the help of a United Nations contact. Upon arrival to the capital city of Niamey, they discovered the African Muslims Society, an eight-year-old non-governmental organization that seeks to help impoverished Niger Muslims.
“We were welcomed and taken care of by Abu Malek (an AMS director) who makes thing easier for the people there,” she said.
After the exploratory trip, the two sisters began planning the second trip for the filming of the documentary. This trip involved several Saudis, including an English instructor, a photographer, and the film’s 31-year-old producer and director.
“Through them (the Walker sisters), we were able to go,” said Mariam Abu Daya, 19, one of three special education students who participated in the project. “The situation (in Niger) is not great, but people to some extent are surviving. Yet in the world today there should not be a country that suffers with poverty to that degree.”
The second trip to Niger was attended by Sharia, her mother and sister Ihsan; English instructor Mohammad Walker, 25; artist Carla Roma; Ziad Jarrar, a 31-year-old media and communication consultant; the documentary’s producer and director, Sylvio Saade, 31; Serene Feteih, 30-year-old photographer & event organizer; Hani Khoja, a 36-year-old marketing consultant; three high school students, Hassen Shafie, 19, Elias Ismail Kamal, 17, and Usamah Alkanadi; and three special education students from Dar Al-Hekma College, Hayat Kahtan, 22, Ola Al-Ostaz, 22, and Maryam Abu Daya, 19.
Unlike images of poverty in the developing world that one might see on television, experiencing it with all of the senses — the smell of burning trash pits, the sound of hungry babies crying, the taste of untreated water — makes the situation all the more real.
“It makes you feel sick inside that this continues day after day after day,” said Sharia, pointing out that disease is rampant in developing Africa. Malaria, for example, is as common as the mosquitoes that carry the virus. Animals look like haggard bags of bones, said Sharia. The people lack as much access to education as they do to potable water.
The delegation learned lessons about the difficulties the people encounter. For example, the Saudi group was talking about the need to encourage their children to study. They received a sobering response.
“One of the women asked us, ‘how do you expect us to send our children to school if they don’t have food in their stomachs?’” said Ihsan.
On the lighter side, the Saudis observed that the schools offered educational comedy plays that addressed social issues, such as the way men react to their wives gaining weight during pregnancy. Another play addressed sexual harassment. Some of the school plays were political, in this way far more topically advanced than your typical grade school performance. One play even reflected on the corruption in the educational system.
Sharia also observed that women in Niger were often the family breadwinners, even doing manual labor tasks while pregnant. Sharia said she saw women carrying heavy sacks from the agricultural fields, while men even went as far as to tease other men for doing women’s work if they carried loads.
Gender role reversals (compared to Saudi culture) don’t stop there; male members of Niger’s Al-Tawariq tribe to the north tend to cover their faces, showing only their eyes. “You can feel their prestigious presence as people would stand up and salute them whenever they would pass,” said Sharia describing the interesting mixture of the Arabic and African qualities about the Tawariq.
Despite the many desperate challenges, Abu Daya said that the people were very welcoming, and pious; they were as concerned about their prayers than about where their next meal would come from. And in spite of the poverty, petty crime, said Ihsan, seemed nonexistent. “It’s a very safe place,” she said. “You can feel it.”
Ihsan said that during one of their visits to a school a boy came up to her and asked her if he could have a Qur’an because he did not have one. She gave him her copy. “He held it so tight to his chest and kept jumping out of joy and shouting as if he never thought he would have one,” she said.
Speaking about the outcome of this journey, Hayat Kahtan, the 22-year-old special education student, said that the journey made her cherish her life and strengthen the relationship with her family.
“All the things we’re used to making fusses about are not worth bothering over,” she said. “What counts is that people need to be satisfied and treasure the small things that they have.”
