NIGER, FLAG OF

horizontally striped orange-white-green national flag with an orange sun on the centre stripe. The flag's width-to-length ratio is approximately 6 to 7. Modern political development was hindered in Niger by conflict between the French military and guerrilla resistance, the lack of political parties until 1946, and the international isolation of this large, thinly populated territory. When the Fifth Republic constitution of France was adopted in 1958, Niger chose to become an autonomous republic, but only the French Tricolor was flying on December 19, 1958, the day after that status was achieved. The new flag selected by Niger on November 23, 1959, continued to serve after independence on August 3, 1960. The horizontal tricolour of Niger does not include the standard pan-African colours favoured by many neighbouring countries. The orange colour represents the north and east of Niger, largely covered by the Sahara, as well as the heroic efforts of citizens to overcome this difficult environment. The white of the flag is said to stand for purity and innocence as well as civic consciousness and the responsibility of citizens to uphold their duties. The green, suggesting the southwest of Niger and its fertile lands along the Niger River, is a symbol of agriculture and of hope. Ireland and Cte d'Ivoire use vertical tricolours of orange, white, and green, and India has a horizontal flag similar to that of Niger. It was perhaps for that reason that a distinctive orange sunan appropriate symbol, since the tropical sun is a constant feature in the landwas added to the centre stripe of the Niger flag. Whitney Smith History One of the central themes of the history of Niger is the interaction between the Tuareg (and also Tubu) nomads of the vast Saharan north and the agriculturalists of the sedentary souththe interaction, that is, between opposed yet complementary ways of life and civilizations. Among the agriculturalists the main ethnic groups are the Songhai-Zerma in the west, the Hausa in the centre, and the Kanuri in the east. The Hausa have always been the most numerous. They constitute nearly half of the total population of Niger. In the 14th century (possibly also earlier and later) the Tuareg-controlled kingdom of Takedda, west of the Ar Massif, played a prominent role in long-distance trade, notably owing to the importance of its copper mines. Copper was then used as a currency throughout western Africa. Archaeological evidence attests to the existence of communities of agriculturalists, probably Songhai-speaking, in this region, which is now desert, at the time of the kingdom of Takedda. Takedda was succeeded at an unknown date by the sultanate of Agadez. For many centuries the southeastern third of present-day Niger constituted one of the most important provinces of the Kanuri empire of Bornu. The might of Bornu was based on the control of a number of salt-producing sites and of long-distance trade, notably along the string of oases between Lake Chad and the Fezzan via Kawar. The great drought of about 173556the prelude to the present dry cycle, which set in about 1880had an adverse effect upon the natural environment. This may explain why both the communities of agriculturalists west of Ar and the oases between Lake Chad and Kawar disappeared. It may perhaps also explain in part why the Tuareg were able to extend their control over a fair portion of the sedentary south. By the time of the colonial conquest, the disparate regions the French molded into an entity known as Niger may be best described as an assemblage of peripheral borderlands. As borderlands, however, these regions had played a significant role as zones of refugethe west after 1591 and the Moroccan conquest of the Songhai empire and the Hausa region much later, after the 1804 Fulani jihad in central Hausaland (i.e., present-day northern Nigeria). In both cases the refugees were people who had lost in the military as well as the religious struggles of their respective homelands. Thus both regions became bastions of traditionalism in the face of partly alien conquerors attempting to impose Islam. The French conquest began in earnest only in 1899. It nearly met with disaster owing to the local population's determined resistance against the notorious expedition in 1899 led by the French officers Captain Paul Voulet and Captain Charles Chanoine. It was only in 1922, after the severe drought and famine of 191315 and the Tuareg uprising of 191617, that the French felt safe enough to establish a regular administration under civilian control. By then the power of the Tuareg had been broken. As elsewhere, the peace in French West Africa (pax gallica) meant among other things the rapid spread of Islam, a steep demographic increase, and, although exclusively among the Hausa, the extension of cash crop cultivation. The Songhai-Zerma, on the other hand, responded to the French tax demands by engaging themselves as seasonal labourers in the coastal regions. Through the reforms of 1946, France's African subjects in theory were granted full citizenship. Thus Niger, along with the other colonies (renamed overseas territories) of black Africa, was represented in the French Parliament. Consultative-legislative assemblies were also set up locally. These reforms secured the ascent of a tiny new elite, the so-called volusi.e., those who had been trained in French schools. Many were descendants of former slaves, and most were Songhai-Zerma. Indeed, the people of the west had proved to be far more open to European influence than, for instance, the Hausa. At least until 195455 the French administration (headed for 12 years by Governor Jean Toby) remained firmly in control of the political situation. The first local executive was established in 1957. Its head, the left-wing trade unionist Djibo Bakary, advocated a no vote in the referendum of 1958. However, 72 percent of the votes cast were in favour of a continued link with France. Nevertheless, under Bakary's successor, his cousin and fellow Songhai-Zerma Hamani Diori, independence was proclaimed on Aug. 3, 1960. Diori, who set up a single-party dictatorship, was toppled in a coup in 1974. There followed a military dictatorship headed first by Seyni Kountch (until his death in 1987) and then by Ali Seibou. Mahamane Ousmane of the Social Democratic Convention became president in the country's first multiparty presidential elections in 1993. The peanut boom in the 1950s, the relatively favourable climatic conditions between the late 1930s and the 1970s, and the uranium boom in the 1970s raised some hopes for the future. These hopes have been largely thwarted, however, notably by a succession of droughts and unfavourable international developments. Thus Niger remains an underdeveloped, drought-ridden, vulnerable, and dependent country, which is increasingly faced with a problem of overpopulation. Finn Fuglestad