FLAMME de la PAIX... cont'd

Wonder and Awe

A crowd is gathering quickly. Touareg and Hausa children and vendors are lining the rope fence, watching. Others are right in our work area. Finally we have to call for security to help make sure we have enough room to work. Even with assistance, it is clear we will need to put ropes up around the skeleton. Bido's brother Hima takes a Land Rover to buy poles so we can string a barrier around the dinosaur.

People stand and stare. They see the skeleton from a distance and come over. Most people have never seen anything like this in a book or up close. Many people want their picture taken with the skeleton; many others want to touch it. Everyone is deeply excited - and some are a little surprised - to learn Suchomimus is known only from Niger.

A Nigerienne man counts the teeth of Suchomimus.
For many people this is the first time they have seen a dinosaur skeleton.

Hundreds of people were awed by the skeleton during
the Flamme de la Paix celebration.

We have had signs made to put near the skeleton. A color xerox of a painting of the dinosaur is framed under glass to show what Suchomimus would have looked like with flesh; a silhouette illustration depicts the bones we actually found. French, Hausa, Tomacheck and Arabic explain the name of the dinosaur, how old it is, where it was found and why it is important. The signs also let people know they are looking at the skeleton of the animal as it would have been in life.

Niger has the lowest literacy rate of any country in Africa and we can see people visibly trying to sound out the words and figure out what the sentences mean. Others fire questions at Bido and Hima in Hausa and Tomacheck.

"What is this animal?"

"Is it from Niger?"

"What does this animal eat?"

"Was this animal found alive or dead?"

"Is this skeleton made of fossils?"

We explain that the skeleton is made of copies of the real bones; that real bones are too fragile. People don't seem surprised to learn that Suchomimus is 110 million years old or that dinosaurs were around before people.

Bido explains, "On brush (in the "bush") nomads see fossil bones in the ground all the time. They know they are bones and they know they belong to animals that are no longer here. There are many ancient things in the desert."

When I ask him why people so readily accept the idea that dinosaurs existed before there were people, he explains, "They are Muslims. The Koran says there were animals before Adam. It is possible the dinosaurs existed on earth before people."

In broken French I try to explain to him that there are many people in the United States who have a difficult time accepting the idea that dinosaurs existed - and went extinct - before humans. He laughs.

Paul appears - wearing a huge blue bubu, and a white shesh! He has been asked to say a few words to the visiting dignitaries about the dinosaur and he wants to do it Touareg-style.

11:00

The Ceremony

Thousands of people have turned out for the event and throughout the country, all eyes are on Agadez. Formal ceremonies begin when President Tandja arrives. His entourage of Toyotas and police on motorcycles is preceded by a parade of trotting camels, covered with the red, turquoise, blue and yellow-fringed Touareg leatherwork of fame. The riders wear bright bubus and their heads and faces are covered in the traditional shiny indigo sheshes of the "blue men."

Plastic seats are nestled together and despite the shade, it is swelteringly hot. The American Ambassador, Barbro Owens-Fitzpatrick - a key player in getting the dinosaur erected at the Flamme for the public to see - is here, seated next to the representative from Libya. The Ambassador is hoping to visit us in the field after the Flamme festivities die down.

Niger's President Tandja and one of his ministers
review the day's program

The country of Niger has a population of just over 9 million people, a million of which live in the capital, Niamey, along the banks of the Niger River. The city of Agadez claims a population of 120,000; and while the Agadez region covers nearly 67% of the country it holds only 5% of the country's population, most of whom are Touaregs. The vast majority of the Agadez region - an area larger than France - is desert.

Two thousand years of caravan commerce and trade have been controlled by the Touaregs and Agadez has been the central oasis for long North/South routes stretching into Morocco, Libya, Chad and Mali.

The city of Agadez dates back to the 15^th century, when "the Sultan of the l'Air" was installed in a palace in Agadez to mediate conflicts between Touareg groups. Agadez, a city the color of the surrounding sand, has a long history as a business center and many of the shops are run by Arabs and Hausa people, as well as Touaregs. While the official language of the country is French, the language of commerce in Agadez - as it is throughout Niger as well as in many West African countries - is Hausa. Most Touareg children are polyglot by default - speaking Tomacheck (the Touareg language) at home, Hausa and possibly Fulfulde (the language of the Fulani nomads) outside on the streets, and French (and sometimes English) at school.

When the French established a military presence in Niger in 1906, Agadez resisted and established itself as a fort city with an independent administration until 1922. Since 1960, when Niger achieved independence from France, positions of political power have been held primarily by Djermas, an ethnic group located in southern Niger.

Over time economic, as well as political power, shifted from the North to the South. Nomadic groups, already struggling with the creation of country boundaries that cut them off from traditional routes, were nearly entirely disenfranchised.

As Hima describes it, "Of 1000 people employed in the uranium mine, possibly 50 would be Touareg. There was no way to get into the military, police, customs [primary vehicles for social advancement]. There was also a great lack of respect. If you were stopped by the police you would be told to remove your shesh, or your sword. It is difficult for Touareg nomads to find doctors and, when they came into Agadez, they had to pay, not only for medical treatment, but also for a place to stay. Nomads do not usually earn salaries and cash is hard to come by."

Hima points out another issue festering: lack of schools. Nomads move from place to place, and it is difficult to send children to school. Touaregs wanted education centers where children could stay over night and eat dinner when the family had to move the animals.

All of these issues were festering when, in May 1990 there was an attack on a group of Touareg nomads. An organized armed rebellion made up of many Touareg contingents lasted for five years until, in 1995, in Ouagadougou a definitive accord was signed by all of the organized resistance - 17 different groups.

The government conceded to the five key points:

• Decentralization of power and democratically elected representation
• Liberation and amnesty for political prisoners
• Economic development of northern regions
• Integration of Touaregs into the country's socio-economic systems, including the military
• Integration into Universities and the establishment of "ecoles en brush" - education centers in the bush for nomadic children.

In 1997, our expedition was assigned an armed guard representing the United Saharan Security (USS) - it was one of the first steps taken by the country to integrate Touaregs into the military. Just as our field season was ending, our guardians left for Niamey to be trained and incorporated into the Army.

Now, on this day, the 25^th of September, after three years of "integration" and "sensibilization," all of the Touaregs who were active in the resistance have been integrated into the military, customs, and police forces. Rebels who opted for other work were given a token amount of money. There have been a number of schools set up in the bush.

When I ask Bido what is the most important thing about the Flamme for the people of Niger he tells me, "The fire is the most important thing. Nothing like this has taken place before - today, all of the chiefs of the resistance army have gathered together. All of the Touareg chiefs are gathered. And the President is here - there has not been an assembly of these people together before. All of the people are happy, even the nomads on brush. Everybody is glad to put the conflict behind them and move on."

As the speeches commence, the tall spines of the backbone of the skeleton can be seen on the horizon from the tented audience area.

1:30

In the shade of a hand-held umbrella, speeches by ministers and children's singing are recorded on a Nagra tape-to-tape machine in the Press area. Someone passes out a copy of the presidents' speech. It is 18 pages long Every inch of shade- whether under the tent for official invitees, under trees, under trucks - even under camels - is occupied by sweating people.

Most of the expedition team has relocated from the oppressively hot tent to the trucks and the dinosaur. Our guards have their hands full keeping people out of the barrier and away from the skeleton.

All of a sudden there is clapping and then quiet. The president's speech is over and a troupe of people are walking across the parade grounds towards the skeleton, with Paul and Rissa Boulla - former leader of the Rebellion, now Minister of Tourism - near the front. It looks like they will stop here on their way to light the Flame of Peace.

And then he is there, President Tandja (more than 6 feet tall) with the visiting presidents, prime ministers and ambassadors, around him. They are all at the feet of the skeleton.

Paul, (right) in full bubu and shesh
, gives Hima a tour of the Suchomimus skeleton.

Paul is shaking hands and telling them how excited he is to have Suchomimus in Agadez, how important Niger's dinosaurs are for the history of Africa - and how great the potential is to develop tourism around a museum and protection for the Gadafawa area. He gives them a quick tour of the skeleton. "This head is very specialized for eating fish." "These are some of the biggest claws on any dinosaur." "When this animal was alive, the Sahara was a wet place, filled with rivers."

And then the entourage moves to the pile of old and broken guns, piled high with wood. When the flame alights it burns white-hot and the crowd steps back from the rush of the heat.

The flame burns high - you can see it through the teeth of the dinosaur and for a moment Suchomimus becomes a fire-breathing dragon.

Thankfully the crowds begin to disperse. The team hasn't eaten all day and Allison goes on a food run with Hima for bread and some cold Cokes.

The Flame of Peace

4:00pm

Back in the box.

As the crowd drifts away and the arena is dismantled, we have time to speak more at length with people. The dinosaur goes back in the box faster than it came out in the morning.

Their excitement is infectious. and their questions cut to the heart of the matter: what will happen to the skeleton now?

There is no museum in Agadez - a town with one intermittently available phone line - and although it is clear tourists and locals alike would visit a museum, there is no appropriate space or infrastructure to support a working museum. And of course, where will the money come from to support a museum?

We are gathering information about grants and financial support for conservation and economic development projects. In particular we want to pursue recognition for Gadafawa as a UNESCO world heritage site, a designation that not only brings publicity to the area, but includes financial support for economic and community development.

For the meantime, Suchomimus goes back in the boxes and will be stored at our compound, but many, many people saw this dinosaur today, the dinosaur from the Agadez area, and tonight, when the TVs go on, and the country tunes in the news of the day, they hear about see about the dinosaur breathing the fire of the Flamme de la Paix.

Gabrielle Lyon
Team Member, 2000 Expedition to Niger.