Tuareg people


The Tuareg people are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and as far as northern Nigeria, with small communities in Ghana, Chad, and Sudan known as the Kinnin.
The Tuareg speak languages of the same name, also known as Tamasheq, which belong to the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family.
They are a semi-nomadic people who mostly practice Islam, and are descended from the indigenous Berber communities of Northern Africa, whose ancestry has been described as a mosaic of local Northern African, Middle Eastern, European, and Sub-Saharan African, prior to the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. Some researchers have tied the origin of the Tuareg ethnicity with the fall of the Garamantes, who inhabited the Fezzan from the 1st millennium BC to the 5th century AD. Tuareg people are credited with spreading Islam in North Africa and the adjacent Sahel region.
Tuareg social structure has traditionally included 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 eras.

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 " channel". Another theory is that Tuareg is derived from Tuwariq, the plural of the Arabic exonym Tariqi. Also compare Hassaniya Arabic Ṭwāreg, plural of Ṭāreg, ultimately derived from Berber targa.
The term for a Tuareg man is Amajagh, the term for a woman Tamajaq. Spellings of the appellation vary by Tuareg dialect. 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, 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. 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.
A small subgroup known as the Kinnin Tuareg have historically inhabited Northern Darfur, in what is now western Sudan, particularly around the region of Mellit. They are culturally and linguistically affiliated with the broader Tuareg group and have been documented in anthropological field studies. Another community of Tuareg descent, also referred to as the Kinnin, has lived in and around the city of Abéché in eastern Chad since the early 20th century. These groups trace their origin to migrations from Niger, and while Tuareg customs are still present, many members have linguistically shifted to Chadian Arabic over time.
Their combined population in these territories exceeds 2.5 million, with an estimated population in Niger of around 2 million and in Mali of another 0.5 million.
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, Tamajeq or Tamahaq, depending on the dialect. 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.
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, whereas about 3.5% of local inhabitants speak Tuareg as a primary language. In contrast, Imperato 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 centuries. 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 interactions with the Tuareg are available from at least the 10th century onwards. Ibn Hawkal, El-Bekri, Edrisi, Ibn Battutah, and Leo Africanus all documented the Tuareg in some form, usually as Mulatthamin or "the veiled ones". Of the early historians, 14th-century scholar Ibn Khaldûn probably wrote 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, 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 elders, called Imegharan, were chosen to assist the chief of the confederation. Historically, there have been seven major confederations.
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 pre-colonial times the imuhagh were the noble warrior caste of the Tuareg feared by their neighbors. They proved their courage and skill in wars and raids. Wars were rare, but raids, also known as rezzous, were frequent. A successful rezzou was profitable and brought much recognition, which was also reflected in the songs and poetry of the Tuareg. The greatest glory was not achieved when great resistance had been overcome, but when the haul was great and the victims were taken by surprise through cunning. The targets were often nomad camps of other Tuareg confederations with which they did not feel connected, but also the Chaambas, who nomadized in the northern Algerian Sahara, and the Toubou people, Hausa, and Fulani in the Sahel zone.
The rezzou season usually began after the first rains. This ensured that the camels had enough food on the way there and back. Distant destinations were preferred, as rezzous often led to counter-rezzous, which were easier and quicker to organize over short distances. Everything that could be carried away was stolen, especially camels. However, through negotiations, it was possible for the victims to recover some or all of their loot later on. From the middle of the 19th century, their vassals also took part in the wars and raids and organized their own rezzous. This was the time when they were also allowed to own camels. - However, the many raids by the northern Tuareg in the second half of the 19th century led to their impoverishment, because they had to hurry on their way back, and many animals were lost due to exhaustion or straying from the group. - During the Tuareg's military campaigns, prisoners were also taken and then kept as slaves or sold, regardless of their previous social status. - During the period when their colonization was not yet complete, the French military commanders tolerated or authorized rezzous by ethnic groups that had submitted to them against those Tuareg tribes that resisted the French. Afterwards, all rezzous and military campaigns on their own behalf were prohibited.
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. It was not until May 1902 that the French made a military advance into Hoggar territory. There they defeated the Kel Ahaggar in the Battle of Tit. This led to some of the Kel Ahaggar moving to Libya and into the territory of the Kel Ajjer. The others, under the leadership of the Amenocal Moussa ag Amastan, submitted to the French. - Some of the Kel Ajjer, who settled in south-eastern Algeria and south-western Libya, resisted colonization by France and were supported by the Ottoman Empire and later by the Senusiyya. Their leader was Sheikh Amoud Ag El Mokhtar. Well-armed, they fought fierce battles with the French between 1913 and 1920. Then their resistance collapsed.
After numerous massacres on the part of the French and the southern Tuareg, the Tuareg were defeated and forced to sign treaties in Mali in 1905 and Niger in 1917.
French colonial administration of the Tuareg was largely based on supporting the existing social hierarchy. The French concluded that Tuareg rebellions were largely the result of reform policies that undermined the traditional chiefs. The colonial authorities wished to create a protectorate operating, ideally, through single chieftains who ruled under French sovereignty, but were autonomous within their territories. Thus French rule, relying on the loyalty of the Tuareg noble caste, did not improve the status of the slave class.