Seen from afar, here at Niamey there should be hell or a little less. putschistsrebels, military, possibilists, maximalists, pro-government, irreducible and in all of this the feared (and for now set aside) armed intervention to restore democratic order.
There is, as a side dish, the referral to the sender of the mediators of the regional organization Cedeao, the African Union and the UN, the closure of the borders to merchandise and the repeated (and not unprecedented) interruptions to the supply of electricity . All this and much more, especially in the known sidewalk radiothat is the rumors, which multiply like the threats and fears that walk together like twin brothers.
In all of this, during the progressive coup d’état of Wednesday July 26, 2023, two constants emerge which at first glance might seem out of place given the context.
The first is that of August rain rituals which fall, regularly and apparently without making any difference between one regime and another, in the capital and in the countryside. This is to the full advantage of the farmers and above all of the millet, in the growth phase, which constitutes its main, established and immovable food.
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The second reality, which is highlighted in this particular transition, is that of street cleaners from sand which, stubborn as only she can be, occupies, invades, decorates, delimits and interrogates the streets of the capital. Wearing green and yellow jackets in the color of the municipality of Niamey Nyala (the coquettish one, in the Zerma language), decked out with brooms, shovels and other similar tools, they clear the sand from the paved streets of the city center to set it aside at the edge of the same. Sooner or later a truck will pass by or, more easily, wheelbarrows that will try to temporarily keep it at bay from the road surface.
Between the two constants just outlined and the third mentioned above, i.e. the untimely interruptions – but faithful and constant at the same time – in the supply of electricity, the military coup develops between appointments, arrests and attempts to collect the maximum consensus by citizens. Rain, sand and current, with food prices rising and the sense of patient submission to the divine will, which provides for everything, mark the days waiting for what to happen when no one yet knows exactly what. Perhaps, but it is only a remote possibility, the coup too, like politics and democracy, it is sand.