Tuareg Research Articles

MALI: Reconciliation with Touaregs

MALI: Reconciliation with Touaregs

The making of terrorists

This article, based on almost eight years of continuous anthropological research amongst the Tuareg people of the Sahara and Sahel, suggests that the launch by the US and its main regional ally, Algeria, in 2002–2003 of a ‘new’, ‘second’, or ‘Saharan’ Front in the ‘War on Terror’ was largely a fabrication on the part of the US and Algerian military intelligence services. The ‘official truth’, embodied in an estimated 3,000 articles and reports of one sort or another, is largely disinformation. The article summarizes how and why this deception was effected and examines briefly its implications for both the region and its people as well as the future of US international relations and especially its global pursuance of an increasingly suspect ‘War on Terror’.

A Temporary Diaspora: Contested Cultural Representations in Tuareg International Musical Performance

What occurs when local residents travel, but also continually return home, and become increasingly self-conscious about their culture and history and how these are represented? The goal of this essay is to understand the roles of culture and memory in a traveling performance of Tuareg musicians from Mali, and to show how multiple viewpoints are alternately woven together and not woven together in the fabric of the performance event and wider processes surrounding it. International performances by touring African musicians and singers offer rich perspectives on current anthropological issues of culture, identity, and memory in globalization and diaspora. This essay draws on data from longterm field research in Tuareg (Kel Tamajaq) communities in Niger and Mali, West Africa and among Tamajaq-speaking expatriates and travelers in France and the United States. Central here is a case study of a Tuareg international musical touring ensemble called Tartit from northern Mali. There is analysis of their origins in the "home culture" and background on the Tuareg more generally. This is followed by analysis of the Tartit ensemble's promotion in the media, including interviews, their performance in the United States, and additional more longterm processes surrounding that performance event. [End Page 793] More broadly, the goal is a more nuanced understanding of representations of culture and memory that move beyond mere "hybrids" in transcultural flows. These representations, I argue, reflect meta-messages in which there is shock of not only "the Other," but also shock of "the Self," in new worlds at home as well as in the borderlands.

Jewelry, Fashion, and Identity: The Tuareg Example

La joaillerie touareg constitue une source d'inspiration pour l'Occident, notamment dans le domaine de la mode et dans les medias comme marqueurs d'exotisme. Elle fait aussi l'objet de reinterpretations par des designers et joailliers africains. A travers l'analyse de la convergence des styles locaux et internationaux de la joaillerie touareg, l'A. tente d'evaluer comment ce phenomene peut contribuer a former les identites urbaines touareg et a donner une nouvelle dimension a l'authenticite et a la modernite de la joaillerie des Touareg du Niger

The Libyan Fazzān: a crossroads of routes and a thoroughfare of Arab and Berber tribes historically connected with the Murābiṭūn (Almoravids). A historical and tribal reassessment in the light of what is discoverable in the historical literature, both oral and recorded, of the Tuareg peoples of the Central Sahara and the Libyan Fazzān

AbstractThe subject of this paper is the presentation and argument of a case for the millennium old record of an apparent steady migration of Berber Saharan nomads, who, at a later stage in their history, have came to be recognized as the principal tribes, federations and Sultanates of the Tuareg people whom we know today. These Berber speakers, who are variosly mentioned as the Lamṭa, Lamtūna, Ilemtin, Dag Elemtei and Azgar (Ifoghas), were the acknowledged ancestors of the so-called ‘Sanhaja’ peoples in the Western, the Central and the Eastern Sahara.The Fazzān contains the remains of the ancient city of Jarma (Garama) and from the evidence which has been found from Tifinagh inscriptions which have been discovered at that site, this ‘capital of the Garamantes’ played a significant role in shaping the linguistic and cultural identity of the Tuareg peoples. This identity is especially centered around the city of Ghāt, which borders both the Algerian and Libyan Sahara. This entire region, the Tassili -n- Ajjer and including Akakus, would appear to correspond to Jabal Ṭanṭāna, a toponym which finds a mention in the writings of a number of Arab geographers and historians. Its location made it pivotal for trans-Saharan trade.

The Poetics and Politics of Tuareg Aging: Life Course and Personal Destiny in Niger

The Poetics and Politics of Tuareg Aging: Life Course and Personal Destiny in Niger. Susan J. Rasmussen. Dekalb: Northern Illinois Univerplaining sity Press, 1997. vii. 188 pp., notes, photocationers graphs, works cited, index,

The Father's Friend: Returning to the Tuareg as an 'elder'

Parti - jeune anthropologue - faire du terrain chez les Touareg Kel Ahaggar dans les annees soixante, l'A. est retourne, a la fin des annees quatre-vingt-dix, chez ses anciens hotes. Deux objectifs ont motive ce voyage : 1. Verifier les descriptions, depuis la France ou la Grande-Bretagne, de la situation contemporaine des Touareg : renouveau culturel et nomadisme ou sedentarisation ? consequences du tourisme et des changements culturels et socioeconomiques ? 2. Faire l'experience du retour sur le terrain, vingt-huit ans apres son dernier voyage dans le Sahara : quel accueil ? comment allait s'exprimer l'ecart generationnel qui s'etait creuse avec le temps ?

Alms, Elders, and Ancestors: The Spirit of the Gift among the Tuareg

Throughout much anthropological literature, there are debates concerning the nature of social relationships in gift-giving (Mauss 1925; Parry 1986; Parry and Bloch 1989; Godelier 1999). There are also debates concerning the nature of personal relationships and social and ritual communication between humans and ancestors (Kopytoff 1971; Brain 1973; Fortes 1976; Steadman, Palmer, and Tilley 1996). Few works, however, have explored the Interconnections between these domains: gift-giving, aged social and ritual status, and mortuary rituals addressing ancestors. This essay explores the relationship between alms, elders, and ancestor beliefs among the Tuareg of Niger, West Africa. Many Tuareg explicitly associate elderhood with takote, term denoting aims or charity. Elders predominate during the condolence phase of Tuareg mortuary rituals. This phase features commemorative meals conceptualized as takote aims offerings and believed to confer benediction. The prominence of takote in Tuareg mortuary rituals expresses communication between the dead and their descendants. I explore this communication as reflection on changing relations between the generations, local religion, and historical memory. The goal is to contribute to integrating age, ancestor beliefs, and gift-giving in anthropological theory. (Ancestors, age, life course, ritual, gift-giving) Alms offerings are prominent in ideals and practices surrounding elders, ancestors, and mortuary rituals among the Tuareg people of Niger Republic, West Africa. Many statements associate elderhood with takote (alms), often translated into French by local speakers as la charite and l'aumone. Elders predominate during the condolence phase of Tuareg mortuary rituals called iwichkan, which feature the takote memorial or commemorative meals. These meals are conceptualized as alms offerings and are believed to confer the protection of religious amulet to the families who host them. This essay semiotically analyzes the polysemic meanings and contextual practices of the concept of takote (the Tamajaq term often used as gloss for both alms and mortuary rituals) and emphasizes its relation to the social and ritual statuses of living elder and deceased ancestor. It shows how careful refinements of the study of ancestor-related mortuary rituals in relation to alms offerings illuminate religious and historical memory. The focus is on takote as medium of communication with and about ancestors occurring between the dead and their descendants and among living descendants, particularly elders and youths. The goal here is to analyze how ancestral/mortuary beliefs and practices and alms offerings inform wider theoretical concerns with age, intergenerational relationships, history, and memory. There are two main sections to this analysis: first, there is theoretical discussion of what can be gained in the field of anthropology of aging from the study of alms offerings in ancestral cosmology and rituals, interspersed with this essay's general argument. Next, there is the Tuareg ethnographic case illustrating local cultural meditations on these age-related categories and processes, followed by conclusions regarding its wider relevance for age, intergenerational relationships, and the cultural construction of history and memory. GIFTS, OFFERINGS, AGE, AND ANCESTORS Many scholars (Evans-Pritchard 1956; De Heusch 1985; Weiner 1988; Parkin 1991) have noted the importance of libations, sacrifice, and other offerings in death-related rituals. Few works, however, have explored alms in rituals addressing ancestors in terms of how connections between the living and the dead, the present and the past, and youths and elders are not only forged but also disputed. The emphasis here is on exchanges, communicative events, and tropes both within and on the sidelines of these takote memorial meals in an approach to death ritual as a busy intersection (Rosaldo 1991), particularly useful lens for examining intergenerational and ancestral rituals. …

The Pastoral Tuareg: Ecology, Culture, and Society, vols. 1 and 2:The Pastoral Tuareg: Ecology, Culture, and Society, vols. 1 and 2.

The Pastoral Tuareg: Ecology, Culture, and Society, vols. and 2. Johannes Nicolaisen and Ida Nicolaisen. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.488 pp.

Between Ritual, Theater, and Play: Blacksmith Praise at Tuareg Marriage

Praise performances among the Tuareg people of Niger, West Africa, inform issues in performance and ritual in folklore and anthropology : specifically, interrelationships among aesthetics, play, and power. In this essay, I focus upon a specific smith dance called tebategh. This dance is accompanied by drumming, sung lyrics, and comic repartee - this latter are collectively called tedaban and are presented before large mixed-sex and mixed-class audiences at weddings . It is presented before a large, mixed-class audience of men and women guests at noble weddings. I analyze how performers and audience experience alternating serious and non-serious frames, and how, in a three-way interaction between smiths, audience, and researcher, social identities are manufactured and negotiated. In this process, frames of ritual, theater, art, and play interact.

Whose Reality? Local Perceptions of Fertility Versus Demographic Analysis

Single-round demographic surveys of three Malian populations showed substantial fertility differentials, with much lower fertility in the two nomadic pastoral Kel Tamasheq populations than among the sedentary cultivating Bambara. Demographic analysis explained these fertility differentials by different marriage patterns, dominated by the structural effects of Kel Tamasheq monogamy which maintains a large group of currently unmarried women. This contrasts with the Kel Tamasheq's own pre-occupations with their low fertility which they ascribe to pathologically induced subfecundity and sterility. Parity progression ratios and birth-interval distributions are used to examine the degree to which the Tamasheq perceptions of their own fertility behaviour can be demonstrated by using the demographic data. The importance of the different perspectives and outcomes is discussed, with the need for taking into account local concerns both in analysis and ultimate policy interventions.

The Tent as Cultural Symbol and Field Site: Social and Symbolic Space, "Topos," and Authority in a Tuareg Community

Dans les recits et les etudes symboliques, l'espace de l'anthropologue ainsi que l'espace social local et l'espace symbolique ont ete le sujet de nombreuses reflexions. L'A. situe la pratique ethnographique a l'intersection de l'espace social local, de l'espace symbolique et de l'espace du terrain de recherche chez les Touaregs, une communaute semi-nomade du Nord du Niger. Il etudie le role de la tente en tant que propriete dans le rituel local et en interaction avec la recherche sur le terrain. La tente est un forum de controle de la propriete intellectuelle et materielle et un forum pour une construction alternativement conflictuelle et dialogique de la connaissance anthropologique

Blood is hotter than water: Popular use of hot and cold in Kel Tamasheq illness management

Ethnographic data on Malian Kel Tamasheq use of hot-cold classification in illness management within the household show that, although hot and cold vocabulary is known by most people, the concepts of opposition and balance are only one several approaches to treating illness and are rarely used in practice. This differs from the importance ascribed to hot and cold by Tamasheq traditional healer specialists as cited in the literature. The logic of the classification is based on symptoms rather than foods, and is associated with the presence or absence of blood or water. Many people are able to reproduce this symptomatic logic without being able to articulate its details. Because of their more frequent contact with blood through menstruation and childbirth, women are more susceptible to cold symptoms which are most frequently and clearly articulated in relation to gynaecological illnesses. Knowledge and understanding of the classification varies by social class, with those groups more recently assimilated into the Tamasheq population less likely to subscribe to this interpretation of illness. The influence of data collection methodology to the apparent importance of hot and cold as an explanatory system is also discussed.

A comparative demographic study of three Sahelian populations : marriage and child care as intermediate determinants of fertility and mortality.

The literature on the demography of pastoral populations tends to consider pastor~lism as an independent determinant of the levels and patterns of fertility ~nd mortality. Despite a general lack of adequate data, there is a preoccupation with the low fertility of pastoral populations. Demographic data are presented for three Malian populations: sedentary Bambara cuI ti vators and tw·o Kel Tamasheq groups of nomadic pastoralists. These populations are compared and contrasted and internal social class differentials are examined. Bambara have higher fertility than the two pastoral populations and all three groups have different patterns of mortality. Child mortality levels vary significantly between Kel Tamasheq social classes. An examination of the intermediate determinants of fertility identifies marriage as the most important differentiating factor. For mortality a similar approach is unable to identify any particular intermediate variable as the dominant· determinant of the observed patterns. The principal mortality differentials occur, however. within the pastoral populations, where high status, rich social classes have higher child mortality than poor, low status ex-slaves. Intensive, qualitative studies of marriage and social class variation show that although the pastoral Kel Tamasheq are demographically different· from the Bambara, these differences are caused as much by socio-cultural factors as by economic ones. Kel Tamasheq kinship, household formation patterns and the importance of prestige and status mean that women may spend many of their childbearing years between marriages, either divorced or widmved. This contrasts with the Bambara pattern of continuous marriage maintained through 1m di vorce 2. a tes, polygyny and v.~idO\v inheritance, vhere much status a~j wealth is acquired through having children. The same socio-cultural factors create variation in Tamasheq child care patterns. Social constraints on high status mothers operate in the opposite direction from ecor:ornic constraints, producing unexpected patterns of social class mortality differentials. The study concludes that nomadic pastoralists are not demograp~ically different from cultivating populations because of their production system. To understand why the observed differences do occur, intensive qualitative studies are needed to supplement and explain the quantitative data.

Infant and Child Mortality in Rural Mali

Some new data on child mortality among 3 distinct ethnic groups resident in 2 distinct zones of rural Mali are presented. The data were gathered during a program of single round demographic surveys and both direct and indirect estimates of child mortality are presented. The bulk of the analysis is based on life table analysis of the maternity data. The data span a range of groups with contrasting ways of life. They include: sedentary Bambara millet farmers; the agro pastoral Fulani of the delta; the semi nomadic Seno Mango Fulani; and fully nomadic Kel Tamasheq who are dependent on their animals for their subsistence. The surveys were all conducted during 2 periods of fieldwork in the 1st half of 1981 and 1982. The quality of the birth history data collected in a single round survey among such populations with almost no exact idea of Western calendar years or months can be sufficiently good for a detailed analysis of child mortality using life table techniques. This is important for the future design of studies of child mortality in West Africa. Multi round surveys are always more expensive more complicated to run and take longer to produce results than single round surveys. In the groups surveyed in rural Mali the age pattern of child mortality with the exception of the Delta Fulani was different from the distinctive pattern identified by Cantrelle and Garenne for parts of rural Senegal and the Gambia. The proportion of all infants deaths occurring in the 1st month for the samples in Mali all of which were affected by the heaping of age at death around the 12th month ranged from 33% among the Delta Tamasheq to 51% among the Bambara. Data from the Kenya fertility survey in 1979 indicated an overall level of infant mortality of 106/1000. 42% of infant deaths reported in the survey occurred in the 1st month of life. For the 1st 6 months the spread of mortality experience was quite wide among the 5 main groups. For the succeeding period between 6-18 months the differentials collapsed except for the relatively high levels maintained by the Delta Fulani. Mortality between the 18th month and the 5th birthday was quite similar for the Bambara Gourma Tamasheq and the Seno Fulani with the extremes on the 1 hand by the Delta Fulani (high mortality) and on the other although less extremely by the Delta Tamasheq (low mortality).

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar

Tuareg Art and Artisans

Tuareg Art and Artisans

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar

The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar