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The Hausa are buried in a graveyard, out past the sacred baobab tree, beneath a stone and twigs. Soon eh mound of earth will be worn down and blown away by the wind.

Issafou Adamou, suffering from tuberculosis. he is in isolation, away from his house and his neighbors.

Eighty-year-old Rahamou, too old for menial work, cares for children. On her back she carries her three-year-old great grandchild, who is dying of the kid of malnutrition that begins following birth from insufficient breastfeeding.

In a word where chronic malnutrition and high infant mortality are the norm, a chubby baby is a joy. Here the mother of a child close to perishing finds solace by playing with a healthy child.

Conservative Islam continues to advance in Niger, but indigenous religious practices survive. At a ceremony in darkness, a young man emerges in a trance as a bori after seven hours of prayer.

Confronting Old Hassan, the mediums emerge from a trance-like state and make offerings of food. These gatherings of villagers are akin to a Western church service, as they provide refuge and solace at difficult times.

Women called Bori mediums dance around the tree to the drums in a ritual asking for rain and help with the crops.

Old Hassan has been the guardian of an ancient baobab tree for more than twenty years, as has his father and grandfather before him. Villagers come to pray to the spirits that dwell in the tree for food and relief from the drought.

At a naming ceremony, a newborn baby girl gets ritual scars on her face. Multiple incisions are made on her arms and legs and torso to get rid of the bad blood her mother gave her during delivery. Ashes are rubbed into the facial scars to deepen the…

The Wanzame, the barber, performs such operations as male and female circumcisions, tooth extractions, and uvulectomies, which are thought to remove 'blockages.'