The academy for educational development, through an A.I.D.-funded project, sponsored ethnographic research in Tahoua development, Niger, from 1987 to 1989.
This research found that “meats and vegetables, although both eaten alone as snacks, are valued for the way in which they contribute to the sauce” for the staple millet dish.
“Fruits are views as snacks, and for those who do not have the money to buy them, a luxury.”
“Meat, including liver, is higher valued as a prestige food throughout Niger.”
For families that can afford it, liver is eaten, particularly by men but occasionally by small children.
Liver is recognized as a dietary cure for night blindness. Perhaps even more than in the Asian countries, mothers in Tahoua do not try to encourage their young child to eat anything s/he dose not appear to want to eat.
In general, people eat to “get full” and do not consider that certain foods are good to eat because they are more “Nutrition” than others.