Hama Amadou, a West African politician who alternated stints in high office in Niger with prison and exile, a reflection of his country’s turbulent politics, died on Oct. 24 in Niamey, the capital. He was 74.

His death in a hospital, from malaria, was announced by the state news agency, Agence Nigérienne de Presse. He had long been in poor health after repeated terms in jail.

Mr. Amadou was the second-longest-serving prime minister in Niger’s history and a onetime president of its national assembly. He was also the country’s most embattled politician: His sometime allies in Niger’s shifting coalition of political parties repeatedly brought charges against him, jailed him at least five times and forced him into opposition and exile.

Since Niger’s independence from France in 1960, jail has been just another tool in its rough-and-tumble politics, and his opponents made use of it throughout his career. He was imprisoned, on charges ranging from embezzlement to a peculiar trumped-up baby-trafficking accusation, in 1996, 2008, 2015, 2020 and 2021.

He almost always rose from the ashes; indeed, he became known as “the Phoenix.” He founded what proved to be a powerful political party during one jail term and ran for president, unsuccessfully, during another.

He was immensely popular, retaining his hold on the masses in one of the world’s most impoverished countries, a hot, arid land that moves at the slow rhythm of the encroaching desert. He advocated a brand of nationalism rooted in self-sufficiency and pragmatic governance, and he connected with his working-class supporters through storytelling in the West African griot tradition.

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