ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the internal context for the current crisis: Niger's environment, its population, and the social structures, customs, and beliefs of the Nigerien people. The "Sahel," art unfamiliar concept to most North, Americans, is a "desert-side" ecological region lying between the arid Sahara and the grasslands of the Sudan. The Sahelian climate, however, is highly variable and ecologically fragile, and it poses the gravest problems of long-term survival for the inhabitants of the region. The Sahelian climate has also had its impact on soils. The people of Niger have adapted to their harsh climate and environmental limitations in a number of ways. Niger's National Charter attempts to stress elements of commonality in social and political patterns, such as hierarchy in customary political organization, family-based economic production and village-based local residency, and widely shared spiritual beliefs and practices, notably the acceptance of Islam.
