The Tuareg people (/ˈtwɑːrɛɡ/; 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, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Traditionally nomadicpastoralists, 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.
Tuareg, French Touareg, Berber-speaking pastoralists who inhabit an area in North and West Africa ranging from Touat, Algeria, and Ghadames, Libya, to northern Nigeria and from Fezzan, Libya, to Timbuktu, Mali. Their political organizations extend across national boundaries. In the 2010s there were estimated to be more than two million Tuareg. The northern Tuareg live mainly in true desert country, whereas the southerners live primarily in steppe and savanna. The Tuareg consist of confederations including the Ahaggar (Hoggar) and Azjer (Ajjer) in the north and the Asben (Aïr Tuareg), Ifora, Itesen (Kel Geres), Aulliminden, and Kel Tademaket in the south. The southerners breed zebu cattle and camels, some of which are sold to the northern Tuareg. Raiding of caravans and travelers was important in pre-European times, as was caravan trading, which declined with the introduction of motor vehicles. Droughts across southern Mauritania, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), and Chad in the 1970s and ’80s both reduced the numbers of the southern Tuareg and eroded their traditional pastoral way of life.
These nomadic Berbers have for centuries led a pastoral lifestyle in the Sahara Desert. The Tuareg diaspora, with a total population of around 2 million, is spread across Saharan Africa in such places as southeastern Algeria, Niger, southwestern Libya, northern Burkina Faso, northern Nigeria, and Mali. They easily move across borders leading a semi-nomadic lifestyle. The name Tuareg is derived from Targi (inhabitants of the Targa), a region in Libya where they live. Other variations that refer to the Tuaregs are the “Blue People” and the “People of the Veil”. The Tuaregs speak Tamacheq, which is one of the Berber languages, but some subgroups of Tuareg are also literate in French, Hausa, and Songhay. The Tuareg nation was organized into seven “drum group” confederations in the 19th Century. Each group was headed by a chieftain who had clan elder advisers. These groups were distributed in the Saharan desert areas of Africa. Each tribe has their own distinct way of life influenced by their location but they all share the same traditional dances and dwellings. Although they have kept some religious pre-Islamic practices, they worship under the Maliki sect of Islam dating back to the 16th Century. The Tuaregs also maintained a trade route across the desert that allowed for goods to move from one end of the desert to the other cities in Africa. These trade caravans were known for trading only in luxury goods that made them a huge profit.
Tribal lifestyle has always been fascinating for people living in urban locations. The life of Sahara nomads such as the Tuareg tribe for instance is much different than the life of city people in many regards. How does this tribal lifestyle look like then? How does the Tuareg, or the Sahara nomads live? Early travelers’ stories often referred to them as the Blue Men of the Sahara Desert, the Tuareg men are known for veiling their faces with an indigo cloth. And sadly, that is the extent of many people’s knowledge about the Tuareg. The language of the Tuareg is called Tamacheq, but Tuareg also uses a written script known as Tifinagh. They lead a semi-nomadic life across the Sahara Desert, in the North African countries of Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria, and Chad. Semi-nomadic means that they traveled a lot but they also had homes and lands in which they grew some crops.
The Tuareg people are about 2 million nomadic people who live across the Sahara Desert, including in the North African countries of Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria and Chad. The Tuaregs are part of the Berber group of people, and they are largely Muslim. Much of Tuareg art is in the form of jewelry, leather and metal saddle decorations, and finely crafted swords. The Tuareg population spreads across the borders of several countries, but the largest concentration is in Mali, with an estimated 950,000. The Tuaregs are kind of like the Kurds of the Middle East. They’re a substantial ethnic population that crosses the boundaries of several countries, but have no majority in any one country. As a result, many Tuaregs are pressing for better representation or for their own territory.
The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert in the world (after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are classified as cold deserts). At 9.4 million square kilometres, this vast desert covers much of North Africa. As much of the desert receives less than 3 cm of rain a year, and its rivers (apart from the Nile) are irregular and seasonal, life is extremely harsh for its inhabitants. Yet, there are those who call the Sahara Desert home, one of them being the Tuaregs, a population who can trace their roots back thousands of years. According to one source, the word ‘Tuareg’ has its origins in the Arabic language, and means ‘abandoned by the gods’. Other sources argue, however, that the word is derived from Targa, a city in the southern Libyan region of Fezzan, and that a Tuareg is an inhabitant of that city. The Tuaregs themselves do not particularly like this term, and prefer using the term ‘Imashaghen’ or Imohag, meaning ‘free men’. The 5 th century Greek historian Herodotus recorded that during his time, the region of southern Libya was inhabited by a tribe known as the Garamantes. It has been speculated that these were the ancient people from whom the Tuaregs could trace their ancestry. According to Tuareg folklore, their tribe’s origins can be traced back to the legendary Queen Tin Hinan and her servant Takamet, believed to have lived during the 3 rd or 4 th century A.D. When the Arabs began their conquest of the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) during the 7 th century, the Tuaregs started their continuous migration south-west. By the 11 th century, the Tuaregs arrived in Niger, and were recorded to have even founded the city of Timbuktu. The arrival of the Tuaregs placed a great pressure on the indigenous tribes, who were eventually overrun and pushed southwards.
The Tuareg people are predominently nomadic people of the sahara desert, mostly in the Northern reaches of Mali near Timbuktu and Kidal. The Tuareg are often referred to as “Blue Men of the desert ” – because their robes are dyed indigo blue. They live in small tribes with between 30 and 100 family members and keep camels, goats, cattle and chicken which graze the land. They are a proud race of people, famous for their fighting abilities and artwork, now staring urbanisation and resettlement in the face. The sword is a Tuareg’s most valued possession. Many are passed from generation to generation and said to be protected by the victories of its past owners. Women process milk, make butter, prepare animal skins, make clothes and bedding from skin, collect firewood and water. Men drive the animals take responsibility for selling. Men will take camels to towns to sell them, returning with millet which they use as flour for bread making. Other purchases will include sugar and tea. Most outputs, however, are consumed by the family In recent times the Tuareg have been abandoning their nomadic way of life and take up sedentary lifestyles. Drought and government policy are threatening their traditional way of life but Tuaregs and their camel-caravans still appear unexpectedly on the horizon before melting into the desert again.
The Tuareg people are a big ethnic Berber group, and they don’t have their own country. They live in the territories of several countries in North and West Africa, including Mali and Algeria, and also in the Sahara desert. They are believed to be very brave people that are not afraid of obstacles which is why the off-road Volkswagen Touareg was named after them. The Tuareg people traditionally wear indigo-colored clothes. Because these clothes slightly dye their skin, they are called blue people. In the Tuareg society, women are highly respected because they carry a social status, they inherit the cattle and the property, they can initiate the divorce and even make their ex-husbands leave their home. Very often, a camel is the only thing a man has after getting divorced. Parents and their children (the nuclear family) live in a tent that isnamed after the married woman who owns it. Many Tuareg groups have myths about the female ancestors who were founders of traditions. One is Tagurmat, who fought a battle on Mount Bagzan in the Air region. Her twin daughters are said to have founded the herbal healing profession. The main reason why women are so important in Tuareg society is because they think that they are descendants of the great queen Tin Hinan. According to the legend, she united the tribes and became the mother of the Tuareg people.
The Tuareg inhabit the Saharan regions of North Africa – Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria and Burkina Faso. Tuareg is an Arabic term meaning abandoned by God. They call themselves Imohag, translated as free men. No one knows the true origin of the Tuareg, where they came from or when they arrived in the Sahara. Reputedly of Berber descent, the language of the Tuareg is Tamachek, with their own script known as Tifinagh, thought to have ancient Libyan roots. Their numbers are unclear, but estimates run between 300,000 and 1 million. The Tuareg were recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th Century BC. The most striking attribute of the Tuareg is the indigo veil, worn by the men but not the women, giving rise to the popular name the Blue Men of the Sahara, or Men of the Veil Blue Men of the Sahara, or Men of the Veil. Men begin wearing a veil at the age 25. One of the traditional dances of the nomadic Tuareg is the ‘Tam Tam’ where the men on camel circle the women while they play drums and chant. The huts of the Tuareg nomad are easily constructed, and comprised of weaved matting and tradition fabrics on a timber frame.
Who would have thought that a veil, considered a regular fashion of women, would rather be synonymous with men? Well, in mostly Mali and Algeria, the nomadic people, called the Tuaregs (like the Kurds of the Middle East), have a rather twisted tradition where the men – not the women – are always seen in veils. Composed of some 2 million people who live across the Sahara Desert, and are also spread across some North African countries of Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria and Chad, the Tuaregs are a largely Muslim people. Although Muslims, they practice a different and distinctive brand of the Islamic religion. They call it the Maliki sect, resulting from the teachings of the great prophet, El Maghili, who came among them in the early 16th century.
The “art” of being Tuareg, a semi-nomadic people of Niger, Mali, and Algeria, has fascinated travelers and scholars alike throughout history. The elegance and beauty of the Tuareg peoples—their dress and exquisite ornament, their large white riding camels, their refined song, speech, and dance—all have been subjects of rhapsodic descriptions that suggest a Tuareg “mystique.” Art of Being Tuareg, the first major U.S. exhibition on Tuareg art and culture, considered the history and evolution of these peoples by exploring silver jewelry, leather works including purses, bags, and saddles, and other highly decorated items crafted by them. The Tuareg, a semi-nomadic people of Niger, Mali, and Algeria, have fascinated travelers and scholars throughout history. The “art” of being Tuareg—their elegant dress and exquisite ornamentation, their refined song, speech, and dance—has been the subject of rhapsodic descriptions that suggest a Tuareg “mystique.” Who the Tuareg are today and how the Tuareg and their mystique have been invented through time by themselves and by others are considered in the first major U.S. exhibition on Tuareg art and culture, Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World.
The Tuareg, a seminomadic, Islamic people who speak a Berber language, Tamacheq, live in the contemporary nation-states of Niger, Mali, Algeria, and Libya. They are believed to be descendants of the North African Berbers and to have originated in the Fezzan region of Libya but later to have expanded into areas bordering the Sahara, assimilating into their traditionally stratified society the sedentary farming peoples from regions south of the Sahara. Tuareg traded with these populations and also raided them for slaves. Thus, Tuareg display diverse physical and cultural traits ranging from Arabic influences to influences stemming from south of the Sahara. “Tuareg,” the term by which they are most commonly known today, is actually a term of outside, possibly Arabic origin. It was imposed as a gloss, or cover-term, to designate the ethnicity and culture of a people who, although unified by their common language and culture, belong to diverse social strata based on descent, have different geographic origins, and practice varied subsistence patterns of stock-breeding, oasis gardening, caravanning, professional Quranic scholarship, and smithing. There are also names for numerous subdivisions of Tuareg, based upon precolonial descent groups and confederations. Many Tuareg call themselves “Kel Tamacheq” (people of the Tamacheq language), “Kel Tagelmust” (people of the veil, a reference to the distinctive practice of men’s face veiling), and other more specific terms. There are names referring to the precolonial social categories based on descent, still ideologically important in rural communities: imajeghen, denoting nobility, refers to those Tuareg of aristocratic origin; imghad refers to those of the tributary social stratum; inaden refers to smith/artisans; and iklan and ighawalen denote, respectively, peoples of various degrees of servile and client status. Currently, there is disagreement regarding which term to use to refer to these peoples as a group. “Tuareg” still predominates in most English-language historical and ethnographic literature. “Touareg” and “Targui” are often found in French-language sources. Many contemporary local intellectuals of Niger and Mali refer to themselves as “Tuareg,” but some have expressed a preference for “Kel Tamacheq.” For purposes of standardization, the term “Tuareg” is used in this article.
The Tuareg (Arabic: طوارق, sometimes spelled Touareg in French, or Twareg in English) are a Berberethnic group. The Tuareg today lives mostly in West Africa, but they were once nomads that moved throughout the Sahara. They used their own writing known as the tifinaɤ. Today most Tuaregs are Muslim. Their most important leader was a woman. Tuareg men use veils, but not women. Their families are matrilinear.The Tuareg (or Touareg)—a nomadic pastoralist group of Berber origin—have been enmeshed in a complicated struggle against the Malian state since January 2012, with their initial revolt paving the way for attacks by Islamist rebels. The resulting coup d’etat and occupation of northern Mali by the Tuareg and Islamist insurgents fighting for independence from the Malian government marked the latest in a series of long-simmering Tuareg conflicts with West African nations, with earlier eruptions of violence occurring in the early 1960s, the early and mid-1990s, and several years ago.The Tuareg have no country of their own but instead migrate throughout the western Sahel, crisscrossing the countries of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Niger, and Mali. Popular culture has romanticized the indigo-blue veiled Tuareg as outlaws, “Blue People,” hommes de nulle part (men from nowhere), and chevaliers du désert (knights of the desert). The Tuareg are adherents of Islam, but retain some idiosyncratic practices, such as the traditional requirement that men—but not women—wear veils.
Glenn Welker is an author, researcher, and Website editor in the field of indigenous American studies. This noted and incredibly talented professor and webmaster offers his endless list of bookmarked links. You can click on anything here from American/Canadian and Latin American Indian languages, history and cultures to an abundance of information about computing information, the internet, and web development.
Indigenous Peoples Literature Websites promote indigenous artwork, literature, and culture. Glenn Welker has also enjoyed a thirty year love of Music, particularly ethnomusicology, the music of many cultures. View all posts by ghwelker3
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
