In-Gall - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

In-Gall is a town in the Agadez Region, Tchirozerine Department

Tchirozerine Department

Tchirozerine is a department of the Agadez Region in Niger. Its capital lies at the city of Tchirozerine....

of northeast Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

, with a year-round population of less than 500. Known for its oasis

Oasis

In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...

and salt flats, In-Gall is the gathering point for the Cure Salee

Cure Salee

The Cure Salee, or "Festival of the Nomads" is a yearly gathering of the Tuareg and Wodaabe peoples in the northern Niger town of Ingall. Cure Salée marks the end of the rainy season, and usually occurs in the last two weeks of September...

festival of Tuareg and Wodaabe

Wodaabe

The Wodaabe or Bororo are a small subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group. They are traditionally nomadic cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel, with migrations stretching from southern Niger, through northern Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon, and the western region of the Central African Republic....

pastoralists to celebrate the end of the rainy season each September. During the festival, InGall's population grows to several thousand nomads, officials, and tourists.

InGall had been a stop on the main roads between the capital of Niger, Niamey

Niamey

-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...

(600 km to the southwest), and the mining town of Arlit

Arlit

Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border with Algeria...

(200 km to the northeast, 150 km from the Algerian border) or the provincial capital Agadez

Agadez

-Sources:* Aboubacar Adamou. "Agadez et sa région. Contribution à l'étude du Sahel et du Sahara nigériens", Études nigériennes, n°44, , 358 p.* Julien Brachet. Migrations transsahariennes. Vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé . Paris: Le Croquant, , 324 p. ISBN : 978-2-91496865-2.*. Saudi Aaramco...

(100 km to the east). In the 1970s, the main road was repaved to transport uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

from the French-owned mines in Arlit

Arlit

, but the new road bypassed InGall, ending its use as a waystation. Since then, its population has dropped from almost 5,000 to less than 500.

During the Tuareg insurgency of the 1990s, InGall was a prime fortification of the Niger armed forces, and when peace was concluded in 2000 the old fort was reportedly abandoned.

Description

"InGall, an oasis town in a semi-desert zone that forms the gateway to the Sahara. InGall is a conglomeration of mud houses, whose gardens, in contrast to the barren landscape in which the town is set, are filled with fruit trees and vegetable patches."

History

The history, archeology, and culture of the In-Gall area has been extensively studied, most notably by the French anthropologist and archaeologist couple, Suzanne and Edmond Bernus.

In-Gall is not only a prominent Tuareg seasonal center, to which certain clans return each year, but it has a history as a stop in the Trans-Saharan trade

Trans-Saharan trade

Trans-Saharan trade requires travel across the Sahara to reach sub-Saharan Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the late 16th century.- Increasing desertification and economic incentive :...

, was a western outpost of the Songhay Empire in the 16th century, was an important center of the Air Sultanate thereafter, and became a French colonial fort in an often hostile region in the early 20th century.

Pre-history

Archaeological evidence shows the area as a center of prehistoric populations dating back some eight thousand year to when it sat in the midst of a now dry Azawagh river valley, fed by the Air Massif and flowing south to the Niger River

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

. Of particular note have been thousands of pre-common era stone burial mounds which suggest a common culture in the area. Archeologists have also found in the In-Gall region many of the earliest mosques in Niger, dating back to early Berber occupations before 1000CE.

Salt extraction

In-Gall is intimately linked with the nearby salt industry at Teguidda-n-Tessoumt, around 15 km to the north. Teguidda, on the site of an ancient lake bed, floods as water washes down from the Air Massif to the east each year, producing natural salt ponds. The population of In-Gall maintain and harvest from evaporation ponds here, sending laborers from the local clans to work the salt and transport it back to In-Gall at the end of the season. In-Gall is near enough that, unlike the oasis town of Fachi

Fachi

Fachi is an oasis surrounded by the Ténéré desert and the dunes of the Erg of Bilma in eastern Niger, placed on the western edge of the small Agram mountain outcropping. It has an estimated population of some 2000 people. A stopping point of the Agadez to Kaouar caravans of the Azalay, Fachi is 150...

where plots are owned by Agadez

Agadez

based Tuareg clans and worked by a permanent population, the workers at Teguidda return to In-Gall for the remainder of the year. Teguidda also lacks a stable oasis, which provides In-Gall with market gardens and date palm farming on a year round basis. Prior to its decline in the 20th century—because of the smaller scale of the In-Gall salt markets as well as its easy access by road—In-Gall was once a destination of the Azalai

Azalai

The Azalai is a semi annual salt caravan route practiced by Tuareg traders in the Sahara desert, or the act of traveling with a caravan along that route.- History :...

salt caravans in which Tuareg merchants transported salt from the markets here across the Sahel

Sahel

The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....

for agricultural and medicinal uses.

Uranium Mining

In 2004, a Canadian corporation was granted a government license to mine for uranium in the area. Northwestern Mineral Ventures was awarded the Irhazer and Ingall concessions, each 2,000 km². (772 square miles) in size. Mines will reportedly be "open pit" strip mines. More than 100 uranium exploration licenses have been granted int the Azawagh area since 2004 to foreign firms from China (over 40%), Canada, and India Since 2007, Chinese mining consortium, whose license covers an area north of In Gall, has carried out infrastructural work for new uranium mine at Azelik, some 85 km north of In Gall, which includes extending roads from In Gall to the site. Nigerien human rights, environmental and Tuareg groups have argued that mining activities in this region are a threat to scarce water resources, upon which pastoralists depend. The short rainy season in the Azawagh area north and west of In Gall makes the region the northern destination for a cattle and camel herding transhumance

Transhumance

Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...

cycle which sees communities travel as far south as Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

during the dry months.

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