Niger adopts new national anthem
Niger’s lawmakers Thursday adopted a new national anthem as the country seeks to reconnect with its pride.
The new anthem titled “Honor of the fatherland” proposed in a new law bill was adopted by 149 lawmakers present in the Parliament.
The previous anthem, La Nigerienne, hides a certain number of messages, always highlighting a relationship of dependence, subordination, inferiority and racism, notably in the 3rd and 4th lines of the 1st stanza: “Let’s be proud and grateful/of our new freedom”. The 5th line of the 1st stanza said: “Let’s avoid vain quarrels” and the refusal to recognize the cultural identity of the other in the 8th line of the 1st stanza: “Our race without tutelage”, the State-run news agency ANP reports.
Authorities in 2019 named a committee of experts to write a new anthem solving all the above shortcomings. New anthem is expected to promote equality, liberty, fraternity, patriotism and national unity in line with pan-Africanism, addressing social, cultural and sovereignty issues.
La Nigerienne dating back to 1961, one year after the independence of the country, was written by French Robert Jacquet, Maurice Albert Thiriet and Nicolas Abel François Frionnet.
