Tuareg people

The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Traditionally nomadic pastoralists, small groups of Tuareg are also found in northern Nigeria.

The Tuareg speak languages of the same name (also known as ''Tamasheq''), which belong to the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family.

The Tuaregs have been called the "blue people" for the indigo dye coloured clothes they traditionally wear and which stains their skin. They are a semi-nomadic people who practice Islam, and are descended from the indigenous Berber communities of Northern Africa, which have been described as a mosaic of local Northern African ( Taforalt), Middle Eastern, European (Early European Farmers), and Sub-Saharan African-related ancestries, prior to the Arab expansion. Tuareg people are credited with the spreading of Islam in North Africa and the adjacent Sahel region.; For an abstract
ASC Leiden Catalogue
For a review of Norris' book:

Tuareg society has traditionally featured clan membership, social status and caste hierarchies within each political confederation. The Tuareg have controlled several trans-Saharan trade routes and have been an important party to the conflicts in the Saharan region during the colonial and post-colonial era. Some researchers have tied the ethnogenesis of the Tuareg with the fall of the Garamantes who inhabited the Fezzan (Libya) from the 1st Millennium BC to 5th Century AD.

Names

The origins and meanings of the name ''Tuareg'' have long been debated. It would appear that ''Twārəg'' is derived from the broken plural of ''Tārgi'', a name whose former meaning was "inhabitant of ''Targa''", the Tuareg name of the Libyan region commonly known as Fezzan. ''Targa'' in Berber means "(drainage) channel". Another theory is that Tuareg is derived from ''Tuwariq'', the plural of the Arabic exonym ''Tariqi''.

The term for a Tuareg man is ''Amajagh'' (variants: ''Amashegh'', ''Amahagh''), the term for a woman ''Tamajaq'' (variants: ''Tamasheq'', ''Tamahaq'', ''Timajaghen''). Spellings of the appellation vary by Tuareg dialect. However, they all reflect the same linguistic root, expressing the notion of "freemen". As such, the endonym strictly refers only to the Tuareg nobility, not the artisanal client castes and the slaves. Two other Tuareg self-designations are ''Kel Tamasheq'' (Neo-Tifinagh: ), meaning "speakers of Tamasheq", and ''Kel Tagelmust'', meaning "veiled people" in allusion to the tagelmust garment that is traditionally worn by Tuareg men.

The English exonym "Blue People" is similarly derived from the indigo color of the tagelmust veils and other clothing, which sometimes stains the skin underneath giving it a blueish tint.Gearon, Eamonn, (2011) ''The Sahara: A Cultural History'' Oxford University Press, p. 239 Another term for the Tuareg is ''Imuhagh'' or ''Imushagh'', a cognate to the northern Berber self-name ''Imazighen''.

Demography and languages

The Tuareg today inhabit a vast area in the Sahara, stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and the far north of Nigeria. Their combined population in these territories exceeds 2.5 million, with an estimated population in Niger of around 2 million (11% of inhabitants) and in Mali of another 0.5 million (3% of inhabitants).Pascal James Imperato, Gavin H. Imperato (2008)
Historical Dictionary of Mali
fourth Edition. Published by Historical Dictionary of Africa No. 107. Scarecrow Press. Inc.

The Tuareg are the majority ethnic group in the Kidal Region of northeastern Mali.

The Tuareg traditionally speak the Tuareg languages, also known as ''Tamasheq'', ''Tamachen'', ''Tamashekin'', ''Tomacheck'' and ''Kidal''. These languages belong to the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family. According to ''Ethnologue'', there are an estimated 1.2 million Tuareg speakers. Around half of this number consists of speakers of the eastern dialect (''Tamajaq'', ''Tawallammat''). The exact number of Tuareg speakers per territory is uncertain. The CIA estimates that the Tuareg population in Mali constitutes approximately 0.9% of the national population (~150,000), whereas about 3.5% of local inhabitants speak Tuareg (Tamacheq) as a primary language. In contrast, Imperato (2008) estimates that the Tuareg represent around 3% of Mali's population.

History

Early history

In antiquity, the Tuareg moved southward from the Tafilalt region into the Sahel under the Tuareg founding queen Tin Hinan, who is believed to have lived between the 4th and 5th century. The matriarch's 1,500-year-old monumental Tin Hinan tomb is located in the Sahara at Abalessa in the Hoggar Mountains of southern Algeria. Vestiges of an inscription in Tifinagh, the Tuareg's traditional Libyco-Berber writing script, have been found on one of the ancient sepulchre's walls.

External accounts of interaction with the Tuareg are available from at least the 10th century onwards. Ibn Hawkal (10th century), El-Bekri (11th century), Edrisi (12th century), Ibn Batutah (14th century), and Leo Africanus (16th century) all documented the Tuareg in some form, usually as Mulatthamin or "the veiled ones." Of the early historians, fourteenth century scholar, Ibn Khaldûn probably has some of the most detailed commentary on the life and people of the Sahara, though he apparently never actually met them.

Colonial era

At the turn of the 19th century, the Tuareg territory was organised into confederations, each ruled by a supreme Chief (''Amenokal''), along with a council of elders from each tribe. These confederations were sometimes called "''Drum Groups''" after the Amenokal's symbol of authority, a drum. Clan (''Tewsit'') elders, called Imegharan (wisemen), were chosen to assist the chief of the confederation. Historically, there have been seven major confederations.

* ''Kel Ajjer'' or Azjar: centre is the oasis of Aghat (Ghat).
* ''Kel Ahaggar'', in Ahaggar mountains.
* ''Kel Adagh'', or ''Kel Assuk'': Kidal, and Tin Buktu
* '' Iwillimmidan Kel Ataram'', or ''Western Iwillimmidan'': Ménaka, and Azawagh region (Mali)
* '' Iwillimmidan Kel Denneg'', or ''Eastern Iwillimmidan'': Tchin-Tabaraden, Abalagh, Teliya Azawagh (Niger'': Assodé, Agadez, In Gal, Timia and Ifrwan.
* ''Kel Gres'': Zinder and Tanut (Tanout) and south into northern Nigeria.
* ''Kel Owey'': Aïr Massif, seasonally south to Tessaoua (Niger)

In the mid-19th century descriptions of the Tuareg and their way of life were made by the English traveller James Richardson in his journeys across the Libyan Sahara in 1845–1846.

In the late 19th century, the Tuareg resisted the French colonial invasion of their Central Saharan homelands and annihilated a French expedition led by Paul Flatters in 1881. However, in the long run Tuareg broadswords were no match for the more advanced weapons of French troops. After numerous massacres on both sides, the Tuareg were subdued and required to sign treaties in Mali 1905 and Niger, the French met some of the strongest resistance from the Ahaggar Tuareg. Their '' Amenokal'', traditional chief Moussa ag Amastan, fought numerous battles in defence of the region. Finally, Tuareg territories were taken under French governance.

French colonial administration of the Tuareg was largely based on supporting the existing social hierarchy. The French came to the conclusion that Tuareg rebellions were largely the result of the implementation of policies that undermined the authority of traditional chiefs. The French wished to create a protectorate operating, ideally, through single chieftains. It was proposed that French support for the chieftains would result in them becoming loyal adherents of the colonial authority, and the authority would interact with the Tuareg only through the chieftains. One of the consequences of this policy was that the French authorities did little or nothing to improve the status of the servile portion of Tuareg society, believing that the noble caste, on whom their policy relied, would not survive without slaves.

Post-colonial era

When African countries achieved widespread independence in the 1960s, the traditional Tuareg territory was divided among a number of modern states: Niger, Algeria, Libya, and Burkina Faso. Competition for resources in the Sahel has since led to conflicts between the Tuareg and neighboring African groups, especially after political disruption following French colonization and independence. There have been tight restrictions placed on nomadization because of high population growth. Desertification is exacerbated by human activity i.e.; exploitation of resources and the increased firewood needs of growing cities. Some Tuareg are therefore experimenting with farming; some have been forced to abandon herding and seek jobs in towns and cities."Does Supply-Induced Scarcity Drive Violent Conflicts in the African Sahel? The Case of the Tuareg Rebellion in Northern Mali" (Nov., 2008) ''Journal of Peace Research'' Vol. 45, No. 6

In Mali, a Tuareg uprising resurfaced in the Adrar N'Fughas mountains in the 1960s, following Mali's independence. Several Tuareg joined, including some from the Adrar des Iforas in northeastern Mali. The 1960s' rebellion was a fight between a group of Tuareg and the newly independent state of Mali. The Malian Army suppressed the revolt. Resentment among the Tuareg fueled the second uprising.

This second (or third) uprising was in May 1990. At this time, in the aftermath of a clash between government soldiers and Tuareg outside a prison in Tchin-Tabaraden, Niger, Tuareg in both Mali and Niger claimed autonomy for their traditional homeland: ( Ténéré, capital Agadez, in Niger and the Azawad and Kidal regions of Mali). Deadly clashes between Tuareg fighters (with leaders such as Mano Dayak) and the military of both countries followed, with deaths numbering well into the thousands. Negotiations initiated by France and Algeria led to peace agreements (11 January 1992 in Mali and 1995 in Niger). Both agreements called for decentralization of national power and guaranteed the integration of Tuareg resistance fighters into the countries' respective national armies.

Major fighting between the Tuareg resistance and government security forces ended after the 1995 and 1996 agreements. As of 2004, sporadic fighting continued in Niger between government forces and Tuareg groups struggling for independence. In 2007, a new surge in violence occurred.

Since the development of Berberism in North Africa in the 1990s, there has also been a Tuareg ethnic revival.

Since 1998, three different flags have been designed to represent the Tuareg. In Niger, the Tuareg people remain diplomatically and economically marginalized, remaining poor and not being represented in Niger's central government.

Religion

The Tuareg traditionally adhered to the Berber mythology. Archaeological excavations of prehistoric tombs in the Maghreb have yielded skeletal remains that were painted with ochre. Although this ritual practice was known to the Iberomaurusians, the custom seems instead to have been primarily derived from the ensuing Capsian culture. Megalithic tombs, such as the jedar sepulchres, were erected for religious and funerary practices. In 1926, one such tomb was discovered south of Casablanca. The monument was engraved with funerary inscriptions in the ancient Libyco-Berber writing script known as Tifinagh, which the Tuareg still use.

During the medieval period, the Tuareg adopted Islam after its arrival with the Umayyad Caliphate in the 7th century. In the 16th century, under the tutelage of El Maghili, the Tuareg embraced the Maliki school of the Sunni, which they now primarily follow., Quote: "The religion of the Tuareg is Maliki Sunni Islam" The Tuareg helped spread Islam further into the Western Sudan. While Islam is the religion of the contemporary Tuareg, historical documents suggest that they initially resisted the Islamization efforts in their traditional strongholds. According to the anthropologist Susan Rasmussen, after the Tuareg had adopted the religion, they were reputedly lax in their prayers and observances of other Muslim precepts. Some of their ancient beliefs still exist today subtly within their culture and tradition, such as elements of pre-Islamic cosmology and rituals, particularly among Tuareg women, or the widespread "cult of the dead", which is a form of ancestor veneration. For example, Tuareg religious ceremonies contain allusions to matrilineal spirits, as well as to fertility, menstruation, the earth and ancestresses. Norris (1976) suggests that this apparent syncretism may stem from the influence of Sufi Muslim preachers on the Tuareg.

The Tuaregs have been one of the influential ethnic groups who have helped spread Islam and its legacy in North Africa and the adjacent Sahel region. Timbuktu, an important Islamic center famed for its ulama, was established by Imasheghen Tuareg at the start of the 12th century. It flourished under the protection and rule of a Tuareg confederation. In 1449, a Tuareg ruling house founded the Tenere Sultanate of Aïr (Sultanate of Agadez) in the city of Agadez in the Aïr Mountains. 18th century Tuareg Islamic scholars, such as Jibril ibn 'Umar, later preached the value of revolutionary jihad. Inspired by these teachings, Ibn 'Umar's student Usman dan Fodio would go on to lead the Fulani jihads and establish the Sokoto Caliphate.

Society

The Tuareg society has traditionally featured clan membership, social status and caste hierarchies within each political confederation.

Clans

Clans have been a historic part of the Tuaregs. The 7th century invasion of North Africa from the Middle East triggered an extensive migration of Tuaregs such as the Lemta and the Zarawa, along with other fellow pastoral Berbers. Further invasions of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym Arab tribes into Tuareg regions in the 11th century moved the Tuareg southward into seven clans, which the oral tradition of Tuaregs claims to be descendants of the same mother.

Each Tuareg clan (''tawshet'') is made up of family groups constituting a tribe, each led by its chief, the ''amghar''. A series of ''tawsheten'' (plural of ''tawshet'') may bond together under an '' Amenokal'', forming a ''Kel'' clan confederation. Tuareg self-identification is related only to their specific ''Kel'', which means "those of". For example, ''Kel Dinnig'' (those of the east), ''Kel Ataram'' (those of the west). The position of ''amghar'' is hereditary through a matrilineal principle, it is usual for the son of a sister of the incumbent chieftain to succeed to his position. The ''amenokal'' is elected in a ritual which differs between groups, the individual amghar who lead the clans making up the confederation usually have the deciding voice. The matrilineal inheritance and mythology among Tuareg clans, states Susan Rasmussen, is a cultural vestige from the pre-Islamic era of the Tuareg society.

According to Rasmussen, Tuareg society exhibits a blend of pre-Islamic and Islamic practices. As such, patrilineal Muslim values are believed to have been superimposed upon the Tuareg's traditional matrilineal society. Other, apparently newer customs include the practice of close-cousin endogamous marriages and polygyny in conformity with Islamic tenets. Polygyny, which has been witnessed among Tuareg chiefs and Islamic scholars, is in turn thought to be contrary to the pre-Islamic monogamous tradition of the nomadic Tuareg.

Social stratification

Tuareg society has featured caste hierarchies within each clan and political confederation. These hierarchical systems have included nobles, clerics, craftsmen and unfree strata of people including widespread slavery.

Nobility, vassals and clerics

Traditionally, Tuareg society is hierarchical, with nobility and vassals. The linguist Karl-Gottfried Prasse (1995) indicates that the nobles constitute the highest caste. They are known in the Tuareg language as ''imúšaɣ'' (approximately pronounced 'imohar' with a French 'r' – also known as ''Imajaghan'', "the proud and free"). The nobles originally had a monopoly on carrying arms and owning camels, and were the warriors of the Tuareg regions. They may have achieved their social status by subjugating other Tuareg castes, keeping arms to defend their properties and vassals. They have collected tribute from their vassals. This warrior nobility has traditionally married within their caste, not to individuals in strata below their own. A collection of tribes, each led by a noble, forms a confederation called ''amanokal'', whose chieftain is elected from among the nobles by the tribal chiefs. The chieftain is the overlord during times of war, and receives tribute and taxes from tribes as a sign of their submission to his authority.

The vassal-herdsmen are the second free stratum within Tuareg society, occupying a position just below that of the nobles. They are known as ''ímɣad'' (''Imghad'', singular ''Amghid'') in the Tuareg language. Although the vassals were free, they did not own camels but instead kept donkeys and herds of goats, sheep and oxen. They pastured and tended their own herds as well those owned by the nobles of the confederation. The vassal strata have traditionally paid an annual ''tiwse'', or tribute to the nobles as a part of their status obligations, and hosted any noble who was traveling through their territory. In the late Medieval era, states Prasse, the previously existing weapon monopoly of the nobility broke down after regional wars took a heavy toll on the noble warrior strata, and thereafter the vassals carried weapons as well and were recruited as warriors. After the start of the French colonial rule, which deprived the nobles of their powers over war and taxation, the Tuaregs belonging to the noble strata disdained tending cattle and tilling the land, seeking instead soldiering or intellectual work.

A semi-noble stratum of the Tuareg people has been the endogamous religious clerics, the '' marabouts'' (Tuareg: ''Ineslemen'', a loan word that means Muslim in Arabic). After the adoption of Islam, they became integral to the Tuareg social structure. According to Norris (1976), this stratum of Muslim clerics has been a sacerdotal caste, which propagated Islam in North Africa and the Sahel between the 7th and the 17th centuries. Adherence to the faith was initially centered around this caste, but later spread to the wider Tuareg community. The marabouts have traditionally been the judges (''qadi'') and religious leaders (''imam'') of a Tuareg community.

Castes

According to the anthropologist Jeffrey Heath, Tuareg artisans belong to separate endogamous castes known as the ''Inhædˤæn'' ('' Inadan''). These have included the blacksmith, jewelers, wood workers and leather artisan castes. They produced and repaired the saddles, tools, household items and other items for the Tuareg community. In Niger and Mali, where the largest Tuareg populations are found, the artisan castes were attached as clients to a family of nobles or vassals, carried messages over distances for their patron family, and traditionally sacrificed animals during Islamic festivals.

These social strata, like caste systems found in many parts of West Africa, included singers, musicians and story tellers of the Tuareg, who kept their oral traditions. They are called ''Agguta'' by Tuareg, have been called upon to sing during ceremonies such as weddings or funerals. The origins of the artisanal castes are unclear. One theory posits a Jewish derivation, a proposal that Prasse calls "a much vexed question". Their association with fire, iron and precious metals and their reputation for being cunning tradesmen has led others to treat them with a mix of admiration and distrust.

According to Rasmussen, the Tuareg castes are not only hierarchical, as each caste differs in mutual perception, food and eating behaviors. For example, she relates an explanation by a smith on why there is endogamy among Tuareg castes in Niger. The smith explained, "nobles are like rice, smiths are like millet, slaves are like corn".

The people who farm oases in some Tuareg-dominated areas form a distinct group known as ''izeggaghan'' (or ''hartani'' in Arabic). Their origins are unclear but they often speak both Tuareg dialects and Arabic, though a few communities are Songhay speakers. Traditionally, these local peasants were subservient to the warrior nobles who owned the oasis and the land. The peasants tilled these fields, whose output they gave to the nobles after keeping a fifth part of the produce. Their Tuareg patrons were usually responsible for supplying agricultural tools, seed and clothing. The peasants' origins are also unclear. One theory postulates that they are descendants of ancient people who lived in the Sahara before they were dominated by invading groups. In contemporary times, these peasant strata have blended in with freed slaves and farm arable lands together.

Slaves

The Tuareg confederations acquired slaves (often of Nilotic origin) as well as tribute paying states by conducting raids on surrounding communities. They also secured captives as war booty or purchased slaves in markets. The slaves or servile communities are locally called ''Ikelan'' (or ''Iklan'', ''Eklan''), and slavery was inherited, with the descendants of the slaves known as ''irewelen''.

They often live in communities separated from other castes. The Ikelan's Nilotic extraction is denoted via the Ahaggar Berber word ''Ibenheren'' (sing. ''Ébenher'').

The word ''ikelan'' itself is plural form of "slave", an allusion to most of the slaves. In the post-colonial literature, the alternate terms for ''Ikelan'' include "Bellah-iklan" or just "Bellah" derived from a Songhay word.

According to the historian Starratt (1981), the Tuareg evolved a system of slavery that was highly differentiated. They established strata among their slaves, which determined rules as to the slave's expected behavior, marriageability, inheritance rights if any, and occupation. The ''Ikelan'' later became a bonded caste within Tuareg society, and they now speak the same Tamasheq language as the Tuareg nobles and share many customs. According to Heath, the ''Bella'' in the Tuareg society were the slave caste whose occupation was rearing and herding livestock such as sheep and goats.

When French colonial governments were established, they stopped acquisition of new slaves and slave trading in markets, but they did not remove or free domestic slaves from the Tuareg owners who had acquired their slaves before the French rule started. In the Tuareg society, like with many other ethnic groups in West Africa, slave status was inherited, and the upper strata used slave children for domestic work, at camps and as a dowry gift of servants to the newlyweds.

According to Bernus (1972), Brusberg (1985) and Mortimore (1972), French colonial interests in the Tuareg region were primarily economic, with no intention of ending the slave-owning institution. The historian Martin A. Klein (1998) states instead that, although French colonial rule indeed did not end domestic slavery within Tuareg society, the French reportedly attempted to impress upon the nobles the equality of the Imrad and Bella and to encourage the slaves to claim their rights. He suggests that there was a large scale attempt by French West African authorities to liberate slaves and other bonded castes in Tuareg areas following the 1914–1916 Firouan revolt. Despite this, French officials following the Second World War reported that there were some 50,000 "''Bella''" under direct control of Tuareg masters in the Gao–Timbuktu areas of French Soudan alone. This was at least four decades after French declarations of mass freedom had happened in other areas of the colony.

In 1946, a series of mass desertions of Tuareg slaves and bonded communities began in Nioro and later in Menaka, quickly spreading along the Niger River valley. In the first decade of the 20th century, French administrators in southern Tuareg areas of the French Sudan estimated that "free" to "servile" groups within Tuareg society existed at ratios of 1 to 8 or 9.Klein (1998) "Appendix I:How Many Slaves?" pp. 252–263 At the same time, the servile "''rimaibe''" population of the Masina Fulbe, roughly equivalent to the ''Bella'', constituted between 70% to 80% of the Fulbe population, while servile Songhay groups around Gao made up some 2/3 to 3/4 of the total Songhay population. Klein concludes that approximately 50% of the population of French Soudan at the beginning of the 20th century was in some servile or slave relationship.

While post-independence states have sought to outlaw slavery, results have been mixed. Certain Tuareg communities still uphold the institution. Traditional caste relationships have continued in many places, including slaveholding. In Niger

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