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In Niger, ethnic jokes keep ethnic tensions down
03.02.2008

NIAMEY (AFP) — In Niger, a centuries-old custom that allows people to make jokes at the expense of their "cousins" from other tribes, far from exacerbating ethnic tensions, actually has a calming effect on them.

Abarchi is a taxi driver in the capital Niamey. A row suddenly breaks out with a customer who is refusing to pay for the ride, but a short time later the two men seem to be the best of friends and are sharing a kola nut. Only moments earlier the passenger had been screaming: "I am not paying for that ride. You're a Mauri, I'm a Peul and I can do what I like". The scene transpired to the amused gaze of passers-by.

All people in this western African country participate in such verbal games and everyone prefers the role of master to that of slave, but the business is highly codified. Mock insults are most frequently exchanged between the Djerma people and the Tuareg or the Gobirawa, the Gourmantche people and the Tuareg, the Peul and the Kanuri, and the Mauri and the Peul.
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