Tuareg

The Tuareg are a Berber (Amazigh) people of the central Sahara and the Sahel, whose traditional range spans south-western Libya, southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, reaching into northern Nigeria. Long famous as camel-riding pastoralists and caravan traders, they number somewhere between about 1.2 and 3 million people, most of them in Niger and Mali.

Tuareg is an outsiders' name of debated origin, possibly from a word for the inhabitants of the Fezzan in Libya. The people call themselves Imuhagh, Imushagh or Imajeghen depending on dialect, terms that mean "free people" and originally applied to the nobility. They also speak of themselves as Kel Tamasheq, "speakers of Tamasheq", or Kel Tagelmust, "people of the veil", after the indigo turban and face veil worn by men. The dye can tint the skin, which earned them the English nickname "Blue People". Their languages, Tamasheq, Tamahaq and Tamajeq, form a dialect cluster of the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family, and they still use Tifinagh, the ancient Libyco-Berber script.

The Tuareg descend from the ancient Berber populations of North Africa. Some researchers connect their emergence with the decline of the Garamantes of the Fezzan, while the Lamtuna, a Sanhaja tribe at the heart of the Almoravid dynasty, were close relatives. Tuareg tradition honours a founding queen, Tin Hinan, believed to have lived in the fourth or fifth century; a monumental tomb associated with her stands at Abalessa in Algeria's Hoggar Mountains. Arab geographers from the tenth century onward describe veiled nomads of the desert. Arab migrations into North Africa in the seventh and eleventh centuries pushed Tuareg groups further south.

The Tuareg became Muslim during the medieval period, at first with some resistance, and in the sixteenth century adopted the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. Some older customs survive, including matrilineal succession to clan leadership, in which a chief is often followed by his sister's son. Tuareg clerical families helped spread Islam across the Sahel. Timbuktu is traditionally said to have been founded by Tuareg around 1100. The Sultanate of Agadez, based in the Aïr Mountains, was established by a Tuareg ruling house, in 1449 by some accounts and around 1405 by others. For centuries Tuareg caravans carried salt from desert mines such as Taoudenni and Bilma south to the markets of the Sahel.

Tuareg society was organised into confederations, each led by an elected paramount chief, the amenokal, whose emblem was a drum. Below the noble warrior families came free vassal herders, a clerical stratum, endogamous castes of smiths and leatherworkers, and enslaved people. Raiding between confederations and against neighbouring peoples was a recognised source of wealth and prestige.

The Tuareg resisted French expansion into the Sahara, destroying an expedition under Paul Flatters in 1881. The French defeated the Kel Ahaggar at the Battle of Tit in 1902, and the Kel Ajjer fought on with Ottoman and Sanusi support until about 1920. Treaties followed, in 1905 for Mali and 1917 for Niger. French administration ruled largely through noble chiefs and left the servile classes' position largely unchanged.

After independence in the 1960s, Tuareg lands were divided among several new states. Uprisings broke out in Mali in the 1960s and again in Mali and Niger from 1990, ending in peace agreements in 1992 and 1995 that promised decentralisation and the integration of fighters. Further rebellions followed in the 2000s, and northern Mali has remained contested. Desertification and uranium mining in Niger have put heavy pressure on herding, pushing many Tuareg into farming and towns. Meanwhile Tuareg guitar bands such as Tinariwen, founded by former rebel fighters in the 1980s, have toured Europe and the United States.

Our maps label Tuareg territory in 900 and 1279, an approximate desert zone between North Africa and the Sahel. In 900 it lies beside Kanem, and in 1279 beside the Mali Empire. The people lived there long before and after those years. See also Niger and Mali.