The Tuaregs: adaptability, mobility and connectivity
Sous-titres français disponibles !Presentation of information about the nomadic Tuaregs, collected during a project of research. My main source was the extensive studies of Hélène Claudot-Hawad.
Présentation des informations liées au nomadisme Touarègue, collectées dans le cadre d'un projet de recherche. Ma principale source furent les nombreux travaux de Hélène Claudot-Hawad.
Thank you Koichiro Kawazaki for the video !
Les photos en noir et blanc sont issues de l'encyclopédie berbère (en ligne), et les photographes sont, dans l'ordre:
H. Claudot-Hawad / M. Gast / M. Gast / P. Echard.
Abstract:
The Tuareg representation is well-spread: covered in clothes from the head to the feet and riding camels through the sand dunes of the Sahara. I wanted to question this exotic depiction to understand the behaviors of Tuaregs. How they survived in various environments, to what extent they were mobile, what were their social and political organization and its relation to their activities, and eventually how they saw their life and world. Thus, I realized that Tuareg were a conglomerate of culturally connected entities, with a highly hierarchic society, practicing slavery, pastoralism, agriculture and long-distant trading. Tuaregs praised their diversity and their connectivity with distant populations, both basis of prestige. Their lifestyle therefore clashed with the rigid western representation of property and frontiers. The former is now endangered by the latter, whereas both ‘nomadic’ Tuaregs and settled population worked in symbiosis for the last millennial.