Cure Salée: The Salt Cure at In-Gall

Every year, at the end of the rainy season, pastoral families move their herds to the salt-rich pastures and wells around In-Gall in northern Niger. The animals take in the mineral salts they need after months of grazing. The gathering is called the Cure Salée — the salt cure.

For the animals it is husbandry. For the people it is the largest meeting of the year: families who have been scattered across hundreds of kilometres arrive in the same place at the same time.

What happens there

Marriages are arranged and celebrated. Disputes are settled. News travels. Camel races, songs and dances fill the days, and among the Wodaabe the Gerewol takes place, in which young men prepare their faces and dress with great care and dance in long lines to be judged by young women.

Tuareg families hold their own gatherings, races and music in the same season.

Why the timing matters

The date is set by the rains and the pasture, not by a calendar. When rainfall shifts, the gathering shifts with it, and in difficult years it is smaller. Drought, insecurity and pressure on grazing land have all affected recent gatherings.

What we are recording next

Our Niger collection begins with pastoral knowledge: how routes are chosen, how water is found and shared, and the songs that travel with the herds.