Niger
Last minute shopping before dark The golden hour is in the purple blue phase Tropical night will suddenly drop like a curtain Birds will go silent as the frogs pick-up the music The unnerving hum of hungry mosquito hordes Photo Hugh Ardoin Niamey Dusk and Dust Gallery
Stalls crumbling under an avalanche of fruit and greens The Garden of Eden’s open gates and a wireless social network Seen from the Western colonial pedestal, Africa was the beggar in rags Now they enjoy the freedom and the food that Europeans queue for Imagine Southbound boatloads of asylum-seekers crossing the Mediterranean As The Book […]
Away from the Western selfish materialist societies Where confinement is made possible by individualism Where a two persons gathering becomes a legal limit And lockup has a meaning only because of the locks Exceptionalism is the disease, fortunately less contagious Self-isolation is just an acute form of Narcissism This ignorance may save the ‘invisible’ part […]
Camels, taxis and oranges, here is the capital’s life Light traffic at no peak on the Niamey avenues The sand is everywhere on the road in your hair and in your eyes Even the famous spicy roadside grilled chicken has some grit Photo Hugh Ardoin The Niamey Streets Gallery
Niamey, some ten years ago, it could be twenty Time passes at the speed of centuries day by day Following the rhythm of the desert’s tides From sandstorms to rainy season and back again The crops are the clock of life Photo Hugh Ardoin The Niamey Streets Gallery
The whitest ceramics in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa Shiny chalices cupped to gather the rarest water of the desert The miracle is almost there, lost somewhere amongst mirages Meanwhile vendors relax in the shade waiting for the the rain or the customer Whichever will come first.. Hugh Ardoin The Niamey Streets Gallery
Tasked with the daunting mission to haul the desert away An ageing green truck waits for cooler times to start its work Idle men on top watch the shovels intently, but they refuse to move on their own Victory is earned in blood sweat and tears regardless of the help of divine winds While men […]
Travelling at the speed of light along the dusty roads Entering Niamey through the magical gates of dusk When dust mixes with the mist of a past torrid day The sky still shows patches of light blue and fiery clouds Neon lights slowly wake their flickering heads To stand up and fight the incoming darkness […]
Walls come in different shapes and colors They share the same purpose of segregation The outside and the inside are arbitrary definitions Doors are the initiation passage between the kingdoms The sign above the door both an indication and an expectation The night porter is set for his shift with seats and TV set The […]