The Culture of Niger

We thought we would share some of the interesting cultural differences we found while we were in Niger:

1. The men show physical signs of affection (such as holding hands, hugging, etc.) with each other while in public, but not with women.

Dr. Carey and Greg publicly displaying their true feeling for each other in true Nigerien style.

2. We saw many nude men (doing laundry, washing in the river, relieving their bladder) while in Niger and this appears completely normal.  We also saw a lot of women completely pull out their breast for their child and leave it out in case the child needs to breastfeed again.  Also, completely normal.  However, women showing their knees?  Unacceptable.

Michelle and Kristina being scandalous, showing their knees in Africa

3. For Muslims, the left hand is considered the dirty hand; therefore, they will not use it to eat or otherwise touch their mouth.  This made it somewhat difficult to do rehab with left-sided stroke patients and brachial plexus injuries because they will not use their left hand for these tasks, even if it will help them get better.

4. Formal hello's and long goodbyes are the norm.  A standard goodbye after a meeting can take almost as long as the meeting itself!  Nigeriens definitely put the Minnesota goodbye to shame.

The start of our goodbye to the med students...

...still saying goodbye...

...getting close to the end of the goodbye...

This goodbye session took at least 30 minutes and consisted of at least 50 pictures...we decided to spare you some of the details.

4a. In addition to taking a long time to greet you, Nigeriens also greet your family...present or not.

Chako saying hello to Jason from half way around the world.

5. When offered a drink, you have to accept.  A polite refusal, turns out, is actually rude there.

6. Niger is a very patriarchal society.  Women are referred to as Madame (insert husband's first name here).  Many men have multiple wives that are typically "bought" when they have the money.  Many girls marry at 13-14, while men wait until around age 20.  Many women are illiterate.

While we were in Niger, we did not see this quite as much since we were working with medical students and more educated people in Niger, but the people we saw, according to our hosts, are really the minority.

7. With poverty comes begging (we saw beggars everywhere, especially at intersections where they would come up to the car).  Handicapped children tend to get more money for the family, so often times, parents will not treat their kids' deformities because it help bring more money to the family.  We also saw a few cases of twins where one twin would get all the food and attention while the other one would be neglected because of lack of funds.

8. Disabilities may be viewed as deserved because of what someone or someone's family has done, so people will not get treated.  Disabilities may also be viewed as sorcery/curses and people feel they cannot be treated.

9. People use traditional healers, especially for extremity conditions.  An example, one guy in the med school class sprained his ankle and went to a traditional healer where, in order to be successfully treated, he had to get a massage from a women who had given birth to twins.  After class, he asked Michelle for an ankle massage.

10. Wana is widely thought of as a disease that cannot be treated with medicine.  It involves complaints of GI issues to jaundice to death.  The most serious type of wana means the person will die.  We learned about the belief fro Ishmael of the Medical English Club, who comes from the culture where this is believed.  He does not believe it exists.

11.  In Hausa, people commonly ask about one's sleep and one's tiredness.  Apparently, not the same because both questions are asked in one greeting.

12.  Traffic laws are suggestions.  Not to mention, there's a semi-lane for camels and donkey carts.  And there are goat/sheep crossings.  It is totally acceptable to drive the wrong way down a one way if that's where you need to go.  Traffic lights, also suggestions.  You more or less turn when you want to.  We did see one speed limits sign...but I'm thinking that, too, will be more of a suggestion.  Other road sings are written in paragraph format and are impossible to read while driving by.  The streets, we are told, have names, but they're not marked and different people call them different things based on sites on that road.

13. White people can only have 5 people per car (we were pulled over for having 7), but Nigeriens can cram as many people as possible in their "19 passenger vans" (roughly the size of an American mini van with one extra row)...they also put people on the roof and hanging off the back.

You can see the people crammed in the "19 passenger can" along with a ridiculous amount of things on top... loosely tied I might add.

13a.  In addition to a ridiculous number of people, Nigeriens also pack vehicles with excessive cargo...and interesting cargo...

Though not clear because it was taken out of our back window, this is a motorcycle with a goat.  And hay on the front in case the goat got hungry I guess...

14. Bargaining is always appropriate.

15. People move their TVs outside at night to watch them.

16. Men gather at designated areas to drink tea and socialize.  No women allowed.

17. All medical supplies are over the counter.  Included lumbar puncture supplies.

Betsy getting her IV after her lumbar puncture, which we bought all the supplies for at a variety of pharmacies

18.  Africans saw backwards.

Kristina and Michelle learning to saw the African way.  It works really well...I think they're on to something!

19.  Placing your hand to our left axilla (armpit) after shaking someone's hand is a sign of respect.

I am sure there are tons of things we are missing, but this is a good chuck of what we noticed while we were there!