So to see a nomad sell his last camel is like watching someone sell their house and car, liquidate their 401(k) and empty their bank account all at once, just to buy groceries.Īnimals in the Sahel act as a buffer, a cushion against hunger. It’s in livestock that a man settles disputes, pays the dowry for his future bride and leaves an inheritance to his sons. This is a community so tied to its animals that children play with miniature camels or cows cut from rock. Their plight is a sign of how far the economy of the desert has broken down, leaving its people unable to feed themselves in drought after drought. In markets all over Niger, hungry people are selling hungry animals for half their normal value, giving up on the milk and money of tomorrow so that their children can eat today. It takes three men to drag the camel out of the arena, as if he understands the fate that has just befallen his master. When the sale is complete, Yedi rears his enormous neck and lets out a cry, like the deep, subterranean call of a whale. He crouches in the shade of a thorn tree as traders haggle over the 4-year-old male animal, Yedi. In a part of the world where the worth of a man is measured by his animals, Tuareg nomad Soumaila Wantala has come to this market to do the unthinkable: Sell his last camel.
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