The breeding of local chicken is an important source of animal protein and income for the rural populations of Niger, and the improvement of its productivity requires a better knowledge of production practices. Hence, a socio-economic and technical survey was undertaken from July to August 2017 in order to provide necessary information on the practice of family poultry keeping in Niger. For this purpose, two hundred and sixteen (216) producers were interviewed in the different agro-ecological zones of Niger using structured questionnaire. Results from the study revealed that 43.1% of local chicken producers are women. The most production purpose of the chicken in Niger is for selling (38.31%), self-consumption (37.74%) and donation (22.99%). Scavenging is the most dominant feeding system (92.1%). Constraints related to family poultry production as identified by the study are mainly diseases (45%), lack of housing (16%) which favors predation, lack of food (11%) and lack of training (8%). It is clear that the development of the sector necessarily involves strengthening the surveillance of avian diseases, coupled with veterinary monitoring and supervision of producers.

Women’s fertility in Africa has been a major concern of demographers, global health organizations, and national governments. Yearning and Refusal sheds light on reproductive health issues that affect many women and couples but are overlooked, underestimated, or hidden: infertility, the challenges of accessing contraception, and abortion. Society often places the blame and responsibility on women to find solutions to infertility, and governments and global health organizations provide minimal support to them. At the same time, other women wish to limit their fertility, at least temporarily, and find themselves negotiating with a wide range of actors and institutions, each with their own assumptions and priorities. More common than publicly recognized, inhospitable medical personnel and social norms limiting access to contraception sometimes leave women with no choice but to induce abortion. The problems faced by those with fertility conditions are particularly profound in the Republic of Niger, where producing children is central to being considered a woman, a wife, and a person. Drawing on rare first-hand observations in health clinics and in-depth interviews with women seeking reproductive health services in Niamey, Yearning and Refusal examines the emotional and social consequences of yearning for children and refusing to bear them and the ways women use their agency to maneuver through a patriarchal medical system and society.

Despite the low uptake of biomedical contraception in Niger, women share with one another practical knowledge of a variety of other techniques. The variety of these natural, traditional, and magico-religious methods gives evidence of women’s sometimes hidden desire to regulate their fertility. For some, economic concerns contribute to their pursuit of such techniques, while for others birth spacing to protect the existing children is their concern. Closely spaced births, giving evidence to unconstrained marital sexuality, can provoke shame and ridicule. Pregnancy while nursing is particularly shameful, contributing to a pattern of early weaning. Infant mortality is associated in popular thinking with close pregnancies. Contraceptive charms, lactational amenorrhea, postpartum abstinence, withdrawal, the calendar method, and post-coital baths are among the tools women and sometimes their partners rely upon to regulate their pregnancies. Some women call upon unregulated itinerant street pharmacies for discreet access to contraceptive pills. Popular knowledge of abortifacient substances may be drawn upon to eliminate an undesired pregnancy.

Through the life stories of six women, this chapter identifies the different circumstances in which a woman is considered infertile in Niamey, Niger. Some women have had repeated miscarriages or never experienced a pregnancy in their lifetimes and may be experiencing sterility. In other cases, women have had a child, but infant mortality renders them childless and infertile in the eyes of society. In a third set of circumstances, women have given birth and raised a child, but because of their families’ and society’s exhortation to produce many offspring, they are seen as lacking and thus infertile. While their stories are distinct, common themes emerge in interviews with women facing sterility, the loss of children, and subfertility. Women who encounter fertility constraints—whether they have or have not been able to become pregnant—question their own identity and womanhood. Some women without children find fulfillment outside the maternal framework, through fostering, religious devotion, and politics; but these cases are the exception rather than the rule.

Women who experience infertility feel a wide range of emotions such as affection, anxiety, guilt, joy, shame, and loneliness. This chapter undertakes an anthropological analysis of affective life or sensibilité to better understand the experiences of infertile women in Niger. In this way, the chapter psychologizes anthropology and anthropologizes psychology. Through interviews conducted in Niamey, it is found that when a couple is unable to produce a child, the wife is alienated by her husband and husband’s family, which brings about overwhelming feelings of loneliness. Some interviewees report having to hear insults on a regular basis from their relatives within their own home, making them question their own self-worth. Women stigmatized for being childless feel a deep sense of shame and guilt for not being able to fulfill their social duty. At the same time, they can feel hopeful for a miracle. The extensive marginalization of women without children and the constant gaze of and judgment by others are internalized, incurring psychological distress that deserves greater attention.