Nigerians prize their hardworking donkeys, but China prizes their skins for medicine, sending prices soaring

Abubakar Ya’u digs sand from vast, sweeping dunes and loads heavy hessian sacks of the fine, golden bounty onto the backs of his prized donkeys which carry it to market.

But halfway around the world, donkeys are prized for very different reasons. Rampant demand for donkeys in China, where their skins are believed to have medicinal properties, has caused prices to soar – creating a dilemma for Ya’u and his fellow excavators in Kano, northern Nigeria.

“Two years ago we were buying donkeys strong enough for our trade for between 15,000 and 18,000 naira (between US$42 and US$50) – but now to get a good donkey you will require 70,000 to 75,000,” he said.

“The reason for this is the huge purchase of donkeys which are transported to the south where their meat is consumed and their skin exported,” he explained.

“To us, it is a calamity because as a sand digger if you lose your donkey, you can hardly raise the money to replace it.”

Fellow sand digger Abdurrahman Garba, who has been in the business for 30 years, added that export bans by some of Nigeria’s neighbours had made the situation worse.