ABSTRACT
Abou Hamza the sword maker left his village during the drought in 1971 and moved to Maradi. He embodies several common traits of successful seasonal migrants. Abou's skilled craftsmanship and his long residence in the city make his occupation virtually ideal. He has social ties in many places and he can easily pick up and move. As in much of Africa, the household-based production, consumption, and income-generating activities in Niger are intermixed, making the economy and the environment very difficult to separate. Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Niger has experienced economic trends marked by extremely sluggish growth since the 1970s. The relationship between the government of Niger and development organizations has never been overly affectionate. Since the 1970s, food aid has had a significant impact on rural Nigerien lives. One result of apparent exclusion from a shrinking globe has been the transformation of large parts of inhabited Niger into ecological and economic margins.
