Nigerien Youth

Festival National de la Jeunesse Nigerienne (CD cover)
11" x 8.5", watercolor, pen on paper, 2013

I knew that Nigerians are from Nigeria but I had to look up what the people of Niger were called. I have to look up a lot of things for this blog. Once, along time ago, I wrote that Van Morrison was from Dublin, while in fact he's from Belfast. Wrong country, stupid mistake, so I vowed I would fact check before I throw anything towards an audience. I'm sure there's still a lot of error, but I do my best. I looked up the name Tillabery (which should be spelled Tillabéri) to be able to say anything sensible about the Troupe Artistique de Tillabery, the name of a group that participated in a festival called Festival National de la Jeunesse Nigerienne, featured at #87 in the Top 100 2012. Tillabéri is a city and region in western Nigeria, in which Zarma is the predominant language. Sahel Vert (green Sahel desert) is the title of a piece performed by the Troupe Artistique on an LP produced with recordings from the festival. The LP was yet another gem I came across on line courtesy of Ghost Capital. The background singers in the "troupe" belong to a certain Samaria organization, a national association of young women (whose language is Hausa). So I don't know if the language in the song is Zarma, or Hausa, but I know for a fact that some French is thrown in.