A NEEDLE IN THE DESERT
Can Fashion be a vector for development in a very poor country?
Alphadi's dream became a reality at the foot of the cliffs of Tiguidit on the edge of the Sahara Desert, where the first edition of the International Fashion Festival in Africa (FIMA) took place in 1998. A festival of African fashion in heart of Africa to showcase the creativity and know-how of African designers and stylists. A dream of an Africa still in progress in the culture of peace and development. Since then the FIMA raises the problem of the need to create a large-scale African industry that is exportable to the North.
Because of terrorist threats, FIMA has been forced to adapt its format, by changing the open spaces for closed and highly secure ones, such as the BCEAO's Air Center in Niamey in 2013. The 2015 edition was suspended, at the last moment, because the national army could not guarantee the security of the event. The 10th and last edition of the festival took place in Agadez, in December 2016, under strong security measures. His moto was "education and industry for an Africa of miscegenation and peace".
This last edition took place at the same time as other cultural events like the festival Agadez Sokni, the Grand Marathon of Tenere or the enthronement of the Sultan of Aïr while trying to recover this city, heritage of humanity by UNESCO, for tourism, which has almost disappeared for 10 years because of the instability of the area where terrorist groups are quite active. This “A needle in the desert” project, photographed in 2013 and 2016, has an implicit utopia. That of many young Nigerien men and women who want to succeed in developing their dreams in peace and freedom.
TWO SISTERS, ONE DREAM
THE ABDOU SALÈYE SISTERS
Miriam and Nadia were sixteen and fourteen respectively when we met. They participated for the first time in the International Fashion Festival in Africa (FIMA), in the ninth edition that took place in Niamey (Niger) in 2013. Both dreamed of being top models since their childhood and the FIMA gave them that first opportunity, practically the only one that existed in their country at that time.
They are mestizo, with a Lebanese father and a Niger mother, and are part of the Christian minority in Niger, which does not reach 5%. In 2013 they lived with their divorced mother and attended a private evangelical Christian school. Miriam got good grades while Nadia didn’t put much effort into studying despite her mother’s insistence.
In 2016 I coincided again with Miriam in the tenth edition of the festival that took place in Agadez. Nadia couldn’t participate because she had midterms in high school that she couldn’t miss. Miriam was studying law at the university. Since then they have paraded in several African countries and have won several fashion competitions. Miriam was Miss Facebook Niger in 2016 and won the country’s most important contest in 2020: Miss Niger. Nadia, meanwhile, was second in the Miss Or contest and has just been selected to represent her country in Miss Africa Golden 2021 that will take place in Turkey. She will also participate at the next edition of Miss Niger.
Given the precariousness of work for models in Africa both have followed their mother’s advice and have strived to have a more stable profession. Miriam left her law studies to study a degree in Communication and Multimedia that she complemented with a Master in Project Management. Three months ago, she started his event and communication company. After leaving the institute, Nadia travelled to Morocco for a training in aesthetic care and recently opened her beauty institute in Niamey: Flawless.
The two have more projects in mind: Miriam wants to create her own brand of hair products while Nadia wants to open an aesthetic training center and launch her brand of beauty products.
HAOUA IDE
I met Haoua Ide in 2013 during the ninth edition of the International Fashion Festival in Africa (FIMA). At age 23, she had been parading on different African runways for more than five years. She dreamed of traveling, opening an orphanage and having a house by the river but, above all, she wanted to fall in love and create a family. Fashion was her opportunity, it offered the possibilities to improve her life and to be able to fulfill her dreams. To supplement her income, she worked as a PP.RR in a discotheque called Diams, run by a Lebanese. At that time she lived with her partner, a French soldier, in a house in the centre of Niamey.
Haoua was born into a modest Muslim family in the popular neighborhood of Gamkallé in Niamey. Seventh of eight siblings, she long hid her profession as model because in her traditional environment the fashion world has a very bad reputation.
Alphadi discovered her when she was 16: "One day when I was going to the market I passed by the Alphadi boutique and he noticed me. We were introduced". From that moment on, she started parading. At the age of 18, she participated in the Top Model Niger competition.
We met again in 2016 during the tenth edition of FIMA that took place in Agadez. This time she won the best model award at the festival. She lived most of the time in France with her partner and paraded when a good occasion appeared. She got married and in June 2018 his first son: Noah was born in France.
Haoua the Model or Haoua the Desert Wizard, as she is known, launched her own clothing collection in June 2021: Waye Bi (meaning both Black Woman and Song of the Migrant Bird in the Local Language Zarma). She knows that black models have very few opportunities in Europe. That’s why her clothing line is a song to the freedom and beauty of the black woman. "I’m independent and proud to be black, to be African. I wish to dress the continent". As in her beginnings, she has counted, in this business adventure, with the support of her mentor: Alphadi. With an independent and free attitude, she militates against skin depigmentation and fights to change certain stereotypes of African women.