9/26/00
Cure Salee
InGall Compound
11:57pm

Camels and Touaregs dressed in their finest parade onto the festival
grounds at Cure Salee to kick off events.

After a blitzkrieg of prospecting and collecting, limited only by plaster, wood and daylight, the team is taking a few days off. We are going to spend two days in the tiny oasis town of InGall at the "Cure Salee," one of the most remarkable nomadic festivals in Niger. For weeks the team has heard about Cure Salee - the market place of leather and silverwork, the beauty pageants of Touareg and Fulani women, the dancing of the Wodaabe, and most of all the camels - camel races, camel displays, the camel saddles, and even, the camel beauty pageant.  After the work at Camp 1, and yesterday's activities at the Flamme de la Paix, we're enjoying the break.

Today and tomorrow the Cure Salee, the "Salt Festival" is taking place, as it has for more than a hundred years, in the tiny oasis of InGall. InGall is a two hour drive south and west from Agadez along a paved road that crosses the flat sahel and gives way to the red and black rocky plains of the edge of the filez ("cliff'). The rocks surrounding InGall are 130 million years old - dinosaur age beds that produced Afrovenator in 1993 and Jobaria, in 1997. 

Today, though, the team didn't stop to prospect (although we thought about it). Instead, we sped along the road, right in the flow of traffic. Everyone was heading to InGall. We arrived minutes ahead of President Tandja - and just in time to see hundreds of camels, bedecked with glorious red and turquoise leather saddles, blue, red and yellow saddle decorations, and gris gris (good luck charms) galore, parade onto the festival grounds.

Touareg camelriders parade before the crowd of over 5,000
to kick off the Cure Salee festivities

Astride the camels were their barefoot Touareg riders, shimmering in deep indigo sheshes, their sandals hanging alongside. These same riders later showed off their animals' beauty and skills, and enticed their mounts to "dance" on their knees to the singing of a bevy of Touareg women in the center of the festival square.

The Cure Salee

The Cure Salee has a long history. Originally called "Zulee," the event was a gathering of all the nomads of Niger who, on their traditional routes north and south, would pass through the InGall area in order to let their animals eat the plants and drink the salty water. (Animals - like people - need salt to stay alive and healthy.) Once a year, before the rainy season was over, and vegetation was at its peak, the nomads would gather together to trade animals, sell goods, share news and gossip. The event would last as long as a week and attract as many as 10,000 people.

Two precocious girls pose for a picture in front of
the many camels at Cure Salee.

After Independence in 1960 the event was recognized by the government as an opportunity to reach nomads with important health and medical information, and for the tribal leaders to raise issues and confer collectively. The Cure Salee was not held for four years during the rebellion and this year the event is more than slightly disorganized because of timing of the Flamme de la Paix.

The coincidence of the Flamme and the Cure Salee left the Cure Salee with the short end of the stick. The dates of the annual event were changed multiple times in the weeks leading up to the festival and, for many people it was not possible to travel between Agadez and InGall in just one day - particularly nomads and performers who were part of the Flamme program. As a result, the events at Cure Salee are disorganized and it is impossible to learn the formal program. In fact, some events - like the camel races - have been cut down due to the lack of participants.

A rider wearing an indigo shesh holds on to his camel saddle.

The team spent the day at the festival - with a long siesta in the afternoon. We are shooting photographs like mad and everyone is impressed by the camels. Most of the camels we see in the field are skinny. The camels here are beautiful, clean with thick white fur. A lot of them are decorated with gris gris (good luck charms) around their necks and some of them even wear colorful leather head-dresses. They make a horrible noise and seem to complain about everything - anytime one of their riders makes them get down, or get up, or move over or turn around, the camels complain.

The camels with riders dwarf a car. Attendees to Cure Salee
arrive by foot, camel, car, truck and bush taxi.

The camels in the beauty pageant not only were the most beautiful, they did not complain. In fact, one of the characteristics the judges look at in the camel competition - along with their overall appearance - is how well behaved they are.

Targuis (Touareg women) sit in the center of the festival area
and sing to accompany the camel displays

The camel show and the camel "dance" (where one by one, camels entered the ring and we made to crawl and turn around and around on their knees!), were accompanied by songs sung by Touareg women.

The women sung together sitting in a tight core at the center of the ring. Their songs were punctuated by the throbbing of a deep camel-leather drum, and high pitched yelps The main singer, a woman in a white top with red embroidery and silver sequins breastfed a tiny baby as she sang, covering one of her ears with her hands to hear herself sing. They never seemed to drink anything, despite the heat of the day. And their make up - red or yellow dots - never smudged.

Touareg women decorate their faces daily for the Cure Salee