Bright, multicolored, fluorescent tubes criss-cross along the side of one of Niamey’s main roads. At first glance it looks like a carnival with the pink and blue lights, but this is the Yantala night market. Here you can shop for clothes, shoes, sunglasses, shampoo, perfume, watches and radios in the dry, cool evening air rather than sweat in the cloying dust and heat of the Sahel’s daylight hours.

 

October 3, 2005; Niamey, Niger
Doulla Karimou has been a vendor at the Yantala night market for ten years.

October 3, 2005; Niamey, Niger
Ibrahim Abdou has worked at the Yantala night market for ten years.

October 3, 2005; Niamey, Niger
Abdoulrazak Seyni has worked at the Yantala night market for two years.

October 3, 2005; Niamey, Niger
Abdoul Hamidou Idrissa (C) has been selling clothes at the Yantala night market for five years.