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Eaters Of The Dry Season: Circular Labor Migration In The West African Sahel

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"Eaters of the Dry Season" (masu cin rani in Hausa) corrects the stereotype of Sahel migrants as hapless, helpless victims of drought and poverty. Most are poor, of course, but this work on rural-urban mobility in Niger documents a centuries-old way of maximizing labor and resources following each rainy season. This is not news, since fine earlier research by Ken Swindell and Polly Hill, among others, found similar patterns, but David Rain's data provides a new level of concreteness on the topic. His fieldwork in villages and the city of Maradi is precise, though the sheer amount of detail is rather overwhelming at times. But it clearly shows Nigeriens' resilience and ingenuity, with circular migration vital to their risk-aversion strategies. Significantly, Rain locates migrants themselves at the center of his study, not the usual official statistics or theories of development experts. He summarizes surveys and paraphrases interviews well, with many men (and some women) emerging as individuals, though their stories would be further enhanced with more of their own words. For this see N. Cross & R. Barker eds, "At the Desert's Edge" which covers the whole Sahel region. There is a wonderful social history in B. Cooper, "Marriage in Maradi," while W. Miles, "Hausland Divided" notes interesting contrasts between Francophone Niger and Anglophone Nigeria. N.B. The dust jacket does not list Rain as having a professional position; "Eaters" is certainly strong enough to earn him a good job in his field.