The Tuareg are a group of nomadic stock breeders (considered part of the Berber peoples), who live in an extensive area of West Africa from Western Sahara to the northern parts of Western Sudan. The question of their origin and early history is still unresolved, but they appear to have traveled southwards in a series of migrations as early as the 7th century AD. By the end of the 14th century Tuareg groups had established themselves as far south as the Nigerian border.

History:
The ancient Sahara was a region worth fighting for. Archaeologists have been digging up and studying the remains of large populations that once lived, evidently in comfort, all over it. Judging from the remains these archaeologists have found, they believe the ancient Sahara was a lush region, filled with low grass valleys, trees, shrubs, and ferns. It had rivers, lakes and swamps.

As they advanced, the Tuareg came into contact with the Songhay and the Hausa, who were forced to acknowledge their regime. Raids against sedentary settlements and caravans were central to their ethos and hierarchy, and increased their herds of cattle. Because of their swift camels and superior weapons, the Tuareg generally had the better of their enemies. The Tuareg also conquered the Harratine who were a farming people of Negroid stock. These people were not trained for war and gave in without a struggle. In return for protection from other desert marauders, they agreed to give the Tuareg half their garden produce. Thereafter they continued to farm their land as serfs.

Location:
Tuareg country ranges from Savannah in the south, with 10-20 inches of rain per year, to barren desert in the north, dominated by the mountains of Ahaggar, Tassilin-ajjer, Adrar-n-Foras and Air. The northern region is very hot in summer, often reaching temperatures of 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Violent winds are also very common and add considerably to the discomfort of the climate. A sandstorm does far more damage than rain and they are much feared. Traveling is extremely hard under such conditions and most people spend the day in the shade of rocks and trees, sleeping and drinking water. The rains in the Sahara are irregular, and in some places it has not rained for 6 years. In contrast, it is not uncommon for snow to fall on the higher slopes of the Ahaggar during winter.

Their Characteristics:
There are a number of distinguishing characteristics of the Tuareg. Firstly, there is a unity of their language which forms part of the Berber language group, and has four main branches or dialects, which are on the whole, mutually intelligible. The language is commonly known as Tamajeq and Tamasheq. Secondly, the alphabet, known as tifnar, is known to all Tuareg groups and is related to an ancient Libyan script. The Tuareg language is the only Berber dialect with a written form. Most Tuareg men know one or two languages as well as their mother tongue. Thirdly, they have a very complex social organization, with both matrilineal and matriarchal elements.

Although the Tuareg are primarily tribal, there are 7 major confederations that bear geographical place names, thus identifying them with the region they call their homeland. They are the Kel Antessar; the Kel Ahaggar; the Kel Ajjer; the Kel Air; the Aullliminden or Iullemmeden; the Kel Adrar-n-Iforas or Iforas; and the Udulan, Kel Gossi and several other tribes south of the Niger River. Each tribe is made up of several clans, which are further divided into groups of families.

Within the society, the main division is between the noble class (Ihaggaren or Amaher) and the vassal classes (Imrad). In the past each of the noble tribes with its respective vassals formed a political unit, under a chief whose authority was symbolized by a drum. The drum chief held supreme political and judicial authority in the drum group, and it was he who had to regulate all relations between nobles and vassals within that unit.

In most Tuareg groups there are also whole tribes of Ineslemen or Marabouts (the religious class established after the introduction of Islam) led by their own chiefs. The relationship between Ihaggarenm Imrad and Ineslemen was deeply affected by European intervention. The noble class was decimated during the revolt against the French in 1917 and today represents probably no more than 15% of the total Tuareg population.

Both manual labor and domestic service are performed by the third class in the Tuareg society. This class is composed of heterogeneous and ethnically mixed peoples living in symbiotic relationship with their masters, the Tuareg. Many were originally slaves, taken during raids and warfare in the south or brought from Sudanese slave markets. The iklan take care of herding, cooking, and all other domestic chores. The artisans and smiths of the Tuareg are known as the inaden. The Tuareg hold these two groups, along with the Harratine, in low social esteem.

Chieftainship is male, but is hereditary through the female line, within fairly broad and seemingly rather indefinite limits of degree of relationship, so that an undesirable heir apparent can easily be passed over in favor of a less direct but more acceptable heir.

Tribal chiefs act as judges, and in principle, have the power of life and death. However, in their national role, such as when they are dealing with neighboring or foreign tribes, the amenokal's decisions do not have full authority unless they have first been approved by an assembly of notables called the arollan.

People of the Veil:
In direct contrast to Arab custom, all Tuareg men wear a veil or tidjelmoust, while their women are unveiled. The men's veil, is the most distinctive and arresting article of clothing among the Tuareg. Self-respecting Tuareg think it shockingly indecent for a man to let his mouth be seen by anyone to whom he owes formal respect; nor will he show his face to anyone whose social standing he considers superior to his own. Both young men and young women adopt the veil or headcloth at initiation or marriage, which indicates that their social functions are identical. The most preferred veils are dyed indigo, though many make do with black ones.

Tuareg attitudes to etiquette are not easily described in words, for gait, gestures and postures all express qualities of elegance, arrogance, refinement and strength. Vanity in regard to dress and ornaments is further characteristic of all true Tuareg and many men wear Islamic amulets which they believe make them great and important. Prestige is a constant concern of the Tuareg, who are much more sophisticated than the other peoples living within their country.

Lifestyle:
Before the arrival of the Europeans most Tuareg were nomadic stockbreeders, with large herds of camels, cattle, sheep and goats. Many Tuareg remain nomadic, moving their herds between dry and rainy season pastures according to the quality and distribution of rainfall (transhumance). The Ahaggaren Tuareg of Algeria pitch their camps in or close to mountain masifs, of which the most important are Ahaggar and Tassili-n-Ajjer. Rainfall is irregular, and a persistent vegetation cannot generally exist outside river valleys and depressions. Pasturage is either very sparse or very scattered, with the result that the people are continually breaking up into small and highly mobile camp units moving at intervals of between a week to a month, always within the territorial limits of the tribe.

The Tuareg also came to prominence as caravaners in the Saharan and Sahelian regions at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when trade routes to the lucrative salt, gold, ivory and slave markets in North Africa, Europe and the Middle East sprang up across Tuareg territory. Nobles controlled the caravan trade, owned most of the camels, and remained more nomadic, coming into the oasis only to collect a proportion of the harvest from their client and servile people.

The caravan trade still persists today in the region between the Air Mountains and Kano, Nigeria. Men from Air spend five to seven months each year on camel caravans, travelling to Bilma for dates and salt, and then to Kano to trade them for millet and other foodstuffs, household tools, and luxury items such as spices, perfume and cloth.

Although the Tuareg generally live on the products of their animals, owing to natural disasters and political tensions, it is now increasingly difficult to make a living solely from nomadic stockbreeding. Most rural Tuareg combine subsistence methods, practicing herding, oasis gardening, caravan trading and migrant labor. The basic elements of their diet are milk, millet, and dates. Enele (millet), is cultivated both in the Saharan oases and the Sudan. It is usually crushed with pestles and winnowed to keep only the white flour, which is used in many dishes. Meat is highly preferred, but is eaten irregularly for as a rule, the nomads do not care to slaughter their animals just for food. On special occasions, the meat most used is that of goats, and camel is only eaten in really exceptional circumstances.

When camel milk is fresh, it has a very sweet flavor. People drink both fresh and sour camel and goat milk, and they eat dried cheese made from this milk. They also bake little flat cakes, made of millet and ground wild seeds. Couscous is a famous Tuareg dish. It is often used to male a sort of stew, with tiny grains of dough rolled from barley or millet, cooked with a small amount of vegetables and butter.

Shelter takes the form of small lightweight tents of leather or sometimes grass huts. The average size of a tent is about ten feet deep and ten to fifteen feet wide. The average household can pack its goods on the backs of two camels, while a donkey or two may be used to carry the odds and ends. Clothing is loose, voluminous, and light in weight. A Tuareg would also consider himself undressed if he does not carry a knife. Women go barefaced but with a head kerchief.

There are two main festivals for unmarried young people, and these courtship gatherings are called Tendis and Ahals. Most Tuareg men marry late, as a young Tuareg has to own quite a few camels to help pay the bride price, and he must accumulate a large enough flock to feed his family and have extra to sell to buy his household needs.

The usual age for marriage is twenty to twenty-five for women and close to thirty for men. Marriage is usually, though not always, within the clan. Cross-cousin marriage seems to be the preferred pattern, and always involves a bride price, which varies according to the beauty and social standing of the bride and the wealth of the husband. Wedding festivities take place in the bride's camp.

A newly married couple live in the camp of the bride's parents for about a year, then usually move over to the camp of the husband. Monogamy is the universal rule, and divorce is both unusual and generally frowned upon.

Tuareg children are socialized into distinct, culturally defined masculine and feminine gender roles. This is partly because male authority figures such as chiefs, Islamic scholars, and wealthy gardeners, remain at home rather than departing on caravans and engaging in migrant labor, and these men exert considerable influence in young boys, who attend Qur'anic schools and assist in male tasks such as gardening and herding. Young girls tend to remain nearer home, assisting their mothers with household chores, although women and girls also herd animals.

Between the ages of five and seven the boys are circumcised, and they undergo their first initiation into manhood. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, the father gives his son a blue veil. This is usually done at the annual Muslim feast. Upon wearing the veil, the boy has entered the class of men.

In Tuareg culture, there is a great appreciation of visual and verbal arts. There is a large body of music, poetry, and song that is of central importance during courtship, rites of passage, and secular festivals. Visual arts consist primarily of metalwork, some woodwork, and dyed and embroidered leatherwork, all of which are specialities of smiths, who formerly manufactured these products solely for their noble patrons.

Women play a single chord violin, the imzad, the sound box of which is made by stretching a skin across an enamel bowl. A drum is similarly made by stretching a wet skin across a grain mortar and the men sometimes play a wooden flute. Parties are held around the campfires in the evening and both men and women sing.

Difficulties:
Over a period of years, the colonial powers imposed a series of conventions regulating and limiting nomadic movements to specific territories for each federation, and post independence frontiers further restricted movements. Wells were improved and their edges cemented in order to improve livestock production; and disease prevention and eradication campaigns carried out. As a result the total number of livestock increased dramatically, resulting in serious overgrazing of pastures.

Realizing by early autumn 1972 that the rains had failed disastrously after a run of bad years, the nomads and their families were forced to trek south in search of pasture for their herds. This massive southward migration intensified as water supplies began to fail, and generated conflicts over rights and obligations among the people and governments of the region. Many animals perished of thirst and hunger or simply from fatigue during the long journey; others were slaughtered prematurely or sold at buyer's prices. Thousands of Tuareg nomads, having lost everything drifted to the bigger villages and towns, where they set up cowhide shelters and lean to shanties on the outskirts of the settlements.

In Algeria, the government was successful in its attempts to denomadize local Tuareg, In the wake of Algeria's oil and gas boom and the 1968-1974 drought in the southern Sahel, most Algerian Tuareg opted for urban life. However, development programs involving the Tuareg that were initiated from the 1940's to the 1970's failed miserably because they worked against the traditional pastoral production systems.

The rains in 1974 were good, but they did not wash away the serious economic and social effects of the drought, and life for the Tuareg was never to be the same. Many Tuareg tempted by the less rigorous urban life never returned to their original homes.

Further catastrophic droughts in 1982-1985 drove thousands more of the Tuareg from Mali and Niger into Algeria and Libya. In 1987, Niger and Mali invited them to return but once they were home the governments failed to honor prior promises and kept the Tuareg in detention camps and deprived them of aid. In Niger an army massacre at Tchin Tarabadene became the signal for a general Tuareg revolt in 1990. Just prior to this time, some of the Tuareg men (calling themselves ishumar - unemployed) left for Libya, where they received military training and weapons. In the early 1990's they returned to their homes and demanded their autonomy. When the revolt spread to the towns of Gao and Timbuktu in the Niger River Valley, it was brutally supressed and thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands fled to Algeria and Mauritania.

Beliefs:
Although the Tuareg still retain many of their pre-Islamic magico-religious beliefs and practices, they are all nominally Muslims. They have earned a reputation for being lukewarm as to Islamic practices and religion in general. Even the important annual Muslim fast of Ramadan is not generally observed. The Tuareg revert to a passive form of Islam which is permeated by local superstition and magic. Amulets are very common, and belief in jinns and spirits is not confined to women. Several Marabout and Shorfa families are found in the area, and some run Qur'anic schools in the garden centers. These Marabouts may be called upon by the Tuareg to write amulets or to say prayers at funerals, but in no way are they as active or powerful as they are in the rest of North and West Africa.

Important rituals among the Tuareg are usually at the various rites of passage such as namedays, weddings, and memorial/funeral feasts as well as Islamic holidays.

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Conclusion:
Despite much romanticizing about the Tuareg, (which was probably fueled by the mystery attached to their remoteness and general inaccessibility and their habit of killing early European travellers), the Tuareg have paid a heavy price for their maintaining their lifestyle. Their apparent leisurely lifestyle cannot conceal the real poverty of most Tuareg families, whose margin of safety from destitution or starvation is very narrow.

• Bleeker, Sonia. The Tuareg - Nomads and Warriors of the Desert
  New York: William Morrow and CO. 1964.
  
• Nicolaisen, Johannes. Ecology and Culture of the Pastoral Tuareg
  Copenhagen: National Museum 1963
  
• Rennell, Franciss James. People of the Veil
  Oosterhout: 1966
  
• Weekes, Richard V. (Editor) Muslim Peoples. A World Ethnographic Survey
  London: Greenwood Press. 1978
  
• The Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 9
  G K Hall and Co Boston 1995
  
• National Geographic Magazine
  April 1980, August 1979, August 1975, April 1974, November 1965.
  
• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mankind
  Marshall Cavendish
  

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Bethany World Prayer Center
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