For a thousand years, the nomadic Tuareg people have roamed the sands of the eastern and central Sahara Desert. But today, many find themselves caught between economics and a desire for their old ways. And as economics wins out, many are settling in the ancient desert trading post of Timbuktu.
Known as Blue Men because of their indigo robes, these camel-herding nomads pretty much held their own against the 20th century — until its last three decades. Starting in the 1970s, droughts have forced many from their desert homes. In 1990 a rebellion by an autonomy-seeking group of Tuareg from the northwestern African nation of Mali forced many others to flee. More than 165,000 settled in refugee camps in neighboring countries, waiting for peace.
By 1996, calm had returned to Mali, but a drought has continued. Many Blue Men have lost their animals to it. Others lost their animals during the upheaval. These animals — camels, cows, goats and sheep — are the key to their nomadic life. They provide these nomads with milk, cheese, meat and transportation. Their camels enable them to transport salt bars in a 17-day caravan from Taudenni in northern Mali south to Timbuktu. And if a person needs money, he sells an animal.
Upon leaving the refugee camps, their herds decimated, many fell back on the sedentary lifestyle learned there and headed for Timbuktu in search of work. Some earn money as tourist guides. Others by giving tourists camel rides into the desert. Still others selling tourists trinkets. Some have gone into goat herding or agriculture. And some exist on aid from the government and the United Nations.
Many yearn to return to their nomadic ways, but economics holds them to Timbuktu. Others who desire a nomad's lifestyle feel it’s more important for their children to get a school education, and so they stay on in Timbuktu. When their children finish school, they will not know the desert ways, and they, too, will stay on.
The Tuareg culture
Some Tuareg have been able to return to their traditional life, following trade routes deep into the Sahara with their camel caravans and making their homes around desert oases. Their desert lifestyle is not an easy one. Daytime temperatures can reach 120 degrees F (49 degrees C), so they travel by night, navigating by the stars. Sand storms shift the landscape and pepper exposed skin and eyes. They face a constant search for water.
Their home is a tent. When visitors come, they layout carpets and cushions, and drink mint tea. Both men and women wear flowing blue robes and elaborate silver jewelry. The men wear turbans and veils while the women go unveiled and decorate their eyes with kohl. Women enjoy respect and freedom as well as descent and inheritance through the female line.
Traditionally, these people have had a feudal society. It consisted of a relatively small number of noble families — organized into tribes — a large number of vassals and a lower class of black serfs. While nominally Moslem, the Blue Men have also held on to many of their pre-Islamic rites and customs.
A Berber people with a population of about one million, the Blue Men are no strangers to Timbuktu. They attacked the town in the 15th century and have ruled there several times since. Many more times they have terrorized it. For centuries these tall, fiercely independent warrior people made the Sahara their sanctuary. Only caravans willing to pay the price of passage were allowed to move.
Even the Arabs, who conquered so much of Africa, Asia and even Europe, were unable to impose their will on these nomads. That’s why the Arabs called them “Tuareg” — the “abandoned of God.” While the French colonial powers drew lines in the sand to create Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria, the Blue Men continued to freely wander across them.
Settling in the suburbs
Some Tuareg, not having enough animals to resume the old nomadic ways, have taken a sort of middle ground — they have settled in oases not too distant from Timbuktu. The closest one to town is about 20 miles away, a five-hour camel commute. There the government teaches them to tend vegetable gardens, growing tomatoes, carrots and cabbages. But it’s not a popular activity.
The settlement’s chief lost 50 camels, goats and sheep in a month-long trek out of Mali in 1991. He now has a few animals but not enough to survive on. Like most of the village’s Blue Men, he makes the five-hour trip to Timbuktu once a week to swap leather sandals, silver jewelry, leather bags and daggers for salt and other commodities. The chief says he is happy to be back from the refugee camp, but adds that without his animals he is worse off now.
Like numerous other settled Tuareg, the chief says his prayer is that he will be able to again build up his herd and bring back the old days.
Tips for your own trip to Timbuktu
Traveling to Timbuktu is a rugged undertaking. After flying into Bamako, Mali’s capital, transportation options include bus, river steamer or a flight on Air Mali into Timbuktu.. Schedules, however, tend to be flexible — especially on Air Mali.
To get a taste of nomadic life, take an overnight camel ride into the desert. You can arrange your trip with the camel owners who congregate behind the Hotel Bouctou. Most trips leave around 4 p.m. and return the next day about 10 a.m. The camel ride itself lasts about two hours or less, before reaching camp. The main thing to keep in mind is that, despite scorching daytime temperatures, the mercury plummets in the desert during nighttime. You’ll need warm clothes, a hat, gloves, even a sleeping bag would be helpful.
If you prefer to leave the details to others, check out tour companies that operate journeys to Timbuktu:
