THE ORGANISATION OF THE AIR TUAREG
On 6th August, soon after noon, I marched out of Agades with twenty-six
camels and eight men for Central Air. My two travelling companions
had left the same morning with ten camels in the opposite direction,
bound for a point called Tanut[107] near Marandet in the cliff of the
River of Agades. Some men of the Kel Ferwan, who were camped under
the cliff south of the river, had brought information concerning a
lion. At Marandet, it appeared, a cow had been killed and the trail
of the offending beast was plainly visible; notwithstanding, Buchanan
was unable to secure this lion or any specimen, or even a skull,
so it proved impossible to classify the animal.
Circumstantial evidence goes to show that the lion still exists
in Air, but is nevertheless very rare. In the Tagharit valley, a
few miles north of Auderas, there is a cave in the side of a gorge
which a large stream has cut through a formation of columnar basalt:
a pink granite shelf makes a fine waterfall in the rainy season with
a pool which survives at its foot all the year round. A lion used to
live in this den until recent years, when it was killed by the men of
Auderas because it had pulled down a camel out of a herd grazing in the
neighbourhood. The carcase had been dragged over boulders and through
scrub and up the side of the ravine into the lair; a feat of strength
which no other animal but a lion could possibly have accomplished. When
I came to the overhanging rock the ground was fœtid and befouled, and
the skeleton of the camel was still there and comparatively fresh. One
of the men of Auderas who had been present at the killing secured a
claw as a valuable charm; another had apparently been severely mauled
in the shoulder. They had surrounded the “king of beasts,” as the
Tuareg also call him, and had attacked with spears and swords. There
was no doubt of the animal having been a lion.
The cave in the Tagharit gorge is a short distance from the point[108]
where Barth[109] saw “numerous footprints of the lion,” which
he conceived to be extremely common in these highlands in 1850,
albeit “not very ferocious.” In 1905 a lioness trying to find
water fell into the well at Tagedufat and was drowned; her two small
cubs were brought into Agades, and one of them was afterwards sent
to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.[110] This lion, however, may not
have been of the same variety as the Air species, for the latter is
said never to have been scientifically examined.
The Air lion has been described as a small maneless animal like the
Atlas species, though von Bary, who, however, never himself saw one,
heard that it had a mane. He confirms the report that the animal
was common, as late as in 1877, especially in the Bagezan massif,
where it used to attack camels and donkeys.[111]
The advent of the rains during the latter part of July made
travelling through Air in many ways very pleasant. But there were also
disadvantages. With the first fall of rain the flies and mosquitoes
came into their own again. The common house-flies were especially
trying during my journey north of Agades. They infested the country
miles from any human habitation or open water.
PLATE 13
[Illustration: AUDERAS VALLEY LOOKING WEST]
[Illustration: AUDERAS VALLEY: AERWAN TIDRAK]
South of Agades the rains proved a terrible burden. The combined
onslaughts of flies, mosquitoes and every other form of winged and
crawling insect made life intolerable for Buchanan’s party; meals had
to be eaten under netting and naked lights were rapidly extinguished
by incinerated corpses. Camels got no rest. Even the hardened natives
had recourse to any device to snatch a little sleep. They went so
far as to make their beds in the thorny arms of small acacia trees in
order to escape the plague. The alluvial plain of the River of Agades
had become so soft as to be almost impossible to cross. Mud engulfed
the camels up to their bellies. The drivers used to unload them and
push them bodily over on to their sides at the risk of breaking their
legs in order to let the brutes kick themselves free. The several
stream beds of the system, even if not too swollen to be completely
unfordable, had such perpendicular banks where the water had cut
its way down several feet below the surface of the ground that they
became formidable obstacles. The constant threat of rain made long
marches impossible, though it was abundantly clear that the longer
the time that was spent in the valley the worse the ground would
become. Buchanan was rewarded for his disappointment at not finding
a lion by securing near Tanut two fine specimens of ostrich and an
ant-bear. He also reported the existence near Marandet of a cemetery
in the bank of a stream bed. It was unfortunate that he had not time
to examine this site, as it seems to be an example of urn burial,
probably of pre-Tuareg date.[112]
Half a day’s march from Agades brought me to the village of Azzal
on the valley of the same name, the lower part of which is called
“Telwa,” the most convenient name for the whole of this important
basin. Azzal and the neighbouring Alarsas[113] are small settlements
with a few date palms and some gardens. They were formerly inhabited
only by serfs engaged in cultivating the gardens which supply Agades
with vegetables. After the 1917 revolution in Air the noble population
of certain villages in the Ighazar, which was evacuated, settled there
temporarily under their chief, Abdulkerim of T’intaghoda. They were
living in straw and reed huts, hoping in the course of time to return
north and resume possession of the more substantial houses in their
own country. During my stay in Air several families did, as a matter
of fact, go back to Iferuan and Seliufet. But the presence of the
remainder of these Kel Ighazar in the south is somewhat anomalous,
as the country from the earliest times has been almost exclusively
inhabited by servile people. The area, extending over the foothills of
the main plateau, is not yet, properly speaking, Air, in the sense in
which the name is used by the Tuareg. Like the desert further south,
it is called Tegama.
After following the Telwa for a short distance the track crosses
to the left bank and winds over low bare hills and torrent beds. A
little before reaching Solom Solom there is a wooded valley which
the road leaves to cross a stretch of higher ground by a small pass
covered with the remains of stone dwellings, the site, I presumed,
of Ir n’Allem. The track is evidently very old at this point,
for in places it has worn deep into the rock. The country is wild
and picturesque, but the earth-brown hills are fashioned on a small
scale. The district used to be infested by brigands who preyed on
the caravans bound to and from Agades.
The southern part of my journey followed the usual route, though
Barth on his expedition from T’intellust to Agades travelled both
there and back by an alternative track rather further east in the
Boghel valley and via Tanut Unghaidan, which is not far from Azzal,
where he rejoined the more habitual way.
At Dabaga my road from Solom Solom rejoined the Telwa valley and
crossed the stream bed after a short descent into a basin covered with
dense thickets of dûm palms and acacias. The trees were filled with
birds. The river was in full flood, over a quarter of a mile wide and
some two feet deep—an imposing stream draining south-western Bagezan
and Todra into the River of Agades. I was luckily able to cross it
with my laden camels, but some travellers only a little behind me
were held up for several days by the floods which followed the heavy
rain in Central Air. Travelling at this season of the year is slow,
as camp must be pitched before the daily rains begin, usually soon
after noon. On the other hand, it is very convenient to be able to
halt anywhere on the road regardless of permanent watering-points;
for every stream bed, even if not actually in flood, contains pools
or water in the sand.
Climatically Air is a Central African country. It is wholly within
the summer rainfall belt, the northern limit of which coincides
fairly accurately with the geographical boundary of the country at
the wells of In Azawa. The rains usually commence in July, and last
for two months, finishing as abruptly as they have begun. Within the
limits of the belt, the further north, the later, on the whole, is
the wet season, though great irregularities are observed. In Nigeria
the rains fall during May and June, at Iferuan they occur in August
and September.[114] They are tropical in their intensity, and in Air
nearly always fall between noon and sunset.
During my stay at Auderas there were a few days when the sky
was overcast for the whole of the twenty-four hours, with little
rainfall; the damp heavy feeling in the air reminded one of England,
as the atmosphere was cold and misty. On one particular day it rained
lightly and fitfully for fourteen hours on end with occasional heavy
showers. Such phenomena, however, are rare. Precipitation follows a
north-easterly wind and usually lasts three or four hours; as soon
as the westerly wind, prevalent at this season, has sprung up, the
nimbus disperses rapidly, leaving only enough clouds in the evening
to produce the most magnificent sunsets that I have ever seen.
In 1922 the rainy season at Auderas was virtually over by the 10th
September, though it continued a little later in the north. The rains
were followed by a period of damp heat, and then by some days when the
ground haze was so thick that visibility was limited to a few hundred
yards. Until recent years there seems to have been a short second
rainy season in the north of Air coinciding with the first part of
the Mediterranean winter precipitation. In November near Iferuan I
experienced several days on which rain appeared to be imminent, but
none fell. Natives told me that up to three or four years previously
they had often had a few days’ rain in December and January. In
1850 the last rain of the summer season, which, exceptionally, had
begun as far north and as early as 26th May at Murzuk, was recorded
on 7th October, but in November and December after a fine period the
sky had again become overcast, and a few drops of rain actually fell
in Damergu on 7th January, 1851. The cycles of precipitation in the
Sahara are constantly varying and data are as yet insufficient to
permit any conclusion. It would be quite incorrect, from the accounts
of the last ten years alone, to suppose that the rainfall had markedly
diminished, or that the second rainy season had disappeared.
During the rains the larger watercourses meandering among the
massifs of the country often become impassable for days on end,
which is inconvenient, for in ordinary times they are the channels
of communication. Owing to the lack of surface soil and vegetation
on the as yet undisintegrated volcanic rock, streams fill with
surprising rapidity during the rains and are very dangerous for the
unwary traveller. The great joy of these weeks was the freshness of
the air after the intolerable heat of June and July, especially in
the plains. With the rain too came the annual rebirth of plant life,
which made one’s outlook very sweet. In European spring-time Nature
awakes from winter sleep, but in Africa a new world, fresh and green
and luxurious, is born after the rains out of a shrivelled corpse of
sun-dried desert.
At Dabaga I was persuaded to forsake the caravan road which continues
up the Telwa and take a riding road by Assa Pool and the T’inien
mountains. Difficulties began at Assa, when I tried to pitch my tent
on rocky ground, with the result that it was almost impossible to
keep it erect in the rain squalls which followed. The evening, after
the rain, was unsatisfactory. I wounded two jackals at which I had
shot, but did not kill either. I missed several guinea-fowl and only
secured a pair of pigeons among the dûm palms of the valley. Also,
there were many flies. However, I made the acquaintance of one of
the greatest guides in Air, Efale, who overtook me on his way north,
and camped near me. He talked volubly that night. Next day, after
dropping sharply into the T’inien valley by a narrow defile, the
road became frankly devilish. At the bottom of the steep sides the
soil is impregnated with salt, which effectually prevents anything
growing. There are a number of circular pits where the sandy salt,
called “ara” or “agha,” is worked. The mixture is dried in
cakes and sold in the south for a few pence. It is only fit for camels,
which require a certain amount of salt every month, more especially
after they have been feeding on fresh grass. “Ara” can only be used
for human food if the sand has been washed out and the brine re-dried.
After leaving Assa the vegetation had almost entirely disappeared. Low
gravel-strewn hills on the right obscured the view to the east. The
T’inien valley soon made a right-angle turn to the north, closing
to a narrow cleft, which became even rougher. The track was a series
of steps between huge granite and quartz boulders, among which the
camels kept on stumbling. Their loads required constant readjustment
and there was no room to kneel them down. The way was really only fit
for unloaded camels or riders on urgent business. There had not been
a tree or bush for hours. We climbed some 600 feet in about a mile,
almost to the very top of the jagged peaks on the left that marked
the summit of the T’inien range. By 11.15 a.m. I was beginning to
despair of finding a camp site before the rain was due, as I foresaw
a similar unpleasant descent on the other side of the col which had
so long been looming ahead. Then as I reached the gates of the pass
a view over the whole of Central Air suddenly burst upon me in such
beauty as I can never forget.
The ground sloped imperceptibly to the east. It fell away only about a
hundred feet to the north, where a row of small crags, the continuation
of the T’inien range, cut off the western horizon. Straight in
front in the distance, piled mass upon mass, the blue mountains of
Central Air rose suddenly out of the uplands, soaring into the African
sky. Between the bold cliffs and peaks of the Bagezan mountains and
the long low Taruaji group to the right, a few little conical hills
of black rock broke the surface of the vast plain which rolled away to
the east. From so great a distance the plain seemed tolerably smooth,
veined like the hand of a man with watercourses winding southwards
from the foot of the mountains. Black basalt boulders covered the flat
spaces between lines of green vegetation and the threads of white
sand, where the stream beds were just visible. Over the whole plain
the new-born grass was like the bloom on a freshly-picked fruit. To
the south-east stood the blue range of Taruaji itself, flat-topped
and low on the horizon. Either side of the hills the curve of the
world fell gently away towards the Nile.
I camped a mile or so north of the pass in a valley below the
precipitous cliffs of a rock called Okluf, which has a castellated
crown several hundred feet high. The rocks shone blue-black, with their
feet in a carpet of green that seemed too vivid to be real. There
were plenty of guinea-fowl and many other birds in the palm woods
and thorn groves, and such grass as I thought only grew in the water
meadows of England. I shall never forget the beauty of Central Air
on that noonday in the rains, though I have it in me to regret the
fiendish temper in which the day’s march had left me. The flies
in the evening and the fast-running things upon the ground at night
only made it worse. I had hurriedly and laboriously pitched a tent,
and it never rained after all.
PLATE 14
[Illustration: MT. TODRA FROM AUDERAS]
On the following day I ascended the T’ilisdak valley which flows
into the Telwa, and reached Auderas village, where some huts had
been prepared for us by the chief Ahodu, a man who soon became my
most particular friend. The T’ilisdak valley is renowned for its
excellent grazing and for some mineral springs where men, camels
and herds go after the rainy season to take a “cure” of the
waters.[115] Near Okluf there are the remains of several hut villages,
and some with stone foundations of a more permanent character. They
belong to a servile tribe of Southern Air called the Kel Nugguru,
who at present are living somewhat further west.
Air proper may be said to begin at the head of the T’ilisdak
valley. The part of the plateau I had traversed was therefore still
in Tegama, which includes the whole area south of Bagezan and Todra
as far as the River of Agades, as well as the Taruaji massif, but not
the country east of the latter and of Bagezan. Most of the villages
in Tegama have gardens, and some have groves of date palms. That they
are inhabited by serfs is, of course, natural, since the cultivation
of the soil, in the estimation of the noble Tuareg, is not a worthy
occupation for a man. When, however, in a nomad society agriculture
is relegated to an inferior caste of people, it is inevitable that
the practice should undermine the older allegiances. It becomes
possible for the settled and therefore originally the servile people
to accumulate wealth even in bad times when the profit from raiding or
caravaning is denied to the upper classes of Air. The social effects
of the disruption caused by the 1917 revolution may be observed in
the village organisations, where people of different tribes are now
tending more and more to live in association under the rule of a
village headman, who for them is displacing the authority of their
own tribal chiefs. The village headmen, it is true, are sometimes
themselves the leaders of the tribes in whose area the village is
situated, but more often they are merely local men acting on the
delegated authority of the tribal chief, who in Tegama is probably the
head of an Imghad or servile tribe dependent in turn upon some noble
tribe living in a different part of Air. But in time the population
of a village may become known collectively as the people of such and
such a place, and so reference to the old tribal allegiance of the
inhabitants disappears.
Tuareg tribal names deserve close investigation. They are of two
categories: those which begin with “Kel” (People of . . .) and
those which begin with “I” or sometimes “A.” This “I”
or “A” may be quite strongly pronounced, but often represents
the so-called “neutral vowel,”[116] which is very difficult
to transliterate. Thus the word “Ahaggar” might as correctly
be written “Ihaggar”; the initial vowel indeed is so little
emphasised that the French have come to write simply “Hoggar” or
“Haggar.” On the other hand, in the name Ikazkazan, an Air tribe,
the “I” is marked; in the Azger tribe, again, the Ihadanaren,
it is so lightly accentuated that Barth writes “Hadanarang.” This
point, however, is of little moment: what matters is the question of
the type of prefix to the name. To simplify reference I propose to
call these two types “Kel name” and “I name” tribes. After
examining the two categories at length, a distinction seemed to me
to stand out clearly; I believe it holds good among other Tuareg as
well as those of Air. The primary tribal divisions have names of the
“I” category, except in certain cases where they are nearly always
known to have been forgotten; the subdivisions of these tribes have
“Kel names.” The former are proper names; the latter are derived
either from the place where the people usually or once lived, or from
some inherent peculiarity. The word “Kel” is also used to cover
generalisations of no ethnic importance: the “I name,” on the other
hand, is scarcely ever geographical or adjectival. The generalisation
will be clearer for a few examples, chosen among the Air tribes. The
noble tribe called Imasrodang has for sub-tribes the Kel Elar, Kel
Seliufet and Kel T’intaghoda, called after the villages where they
lived in Northern Air. Again, the Ikazkazan have one section or group
of sub-tribes called the Kel Ulli—the People of the Goats—who
are themselves subdivided into other factions bearing “Kel names.”
Certain other “Kel names” like Kel Ataram or Kel Innek are often
heard in Air, but are not proper names at all; they were erroneously
regarded by Barth as tribal names, but simply mean the “People of
the West” and the “People of the East” respectively, and have
no inherent ethnic significance. In Air the former term logically
includes, and is meant to include, the Arab as well as the Tuareg
tribes of the west.[117]
So clear is this use of geographical “Kel names” that we shall
find repeated instances later on of tribes who, having migrated
from a certain area, retain their old names, though these are no
longer applicable to their new ranges. Take, for example, the Kel
Ferwan—the People of Iferuan, in North Air; they now live in the
southern parts of the country. Or, again, there are two Kel Baghzen,
called after a mountain group in Central Air; the one group is still
in that area, the other, which once lived there, has since migrated
to the country north of Sokoto.
In certain forms the word “Kel” corresponds to the Arabic word
“ahel,” but the latter seems more usually employed in connection
with wide geographical indications of habitat, without much ethnic
significance, like Kel Innek. The use of this type of “Kel name”
is the exception rather than the rule in Temajegh and has a colloquial
rather than traditional sanction. The more common “Kel names,”
on the other hand, are definitely individual tribal names, and refer
to small areas. They are not by any means restricted to sedentary
tribes.[118]
A third category of names commencing with the “Im” or “Em”
prefix is regarded by Barth[119] as virtually identical with the
“Kel” class, but this is not quite accurate. The “Im” prefix
is used to make an adjectival word form of place names; the “Kel
names” only become adjectival by prefixing “People of . . .” Thus
“Emagadezi” would be more correctly translated as “Agadesian”
than as the “People of Agades,” whose correct designation is Kel
Agades. “I names” partake of neither of these characteristics. For
the most part their significance remains unexplained. It follows
that “Kel names,” although proper to the tribes that bear them,
being descriptive or geographical, are certainly not so old as the
individual and proper “I names.”
There are examples of tribes which have lost their “I names”
and are only referred to by a “Kel name,” though in many cases
this is more apparent than real. When a tribe with an “I name”
increases until the point is reached where it subdivides, one of the
subdivisions retains the original “I name,” the remainder take
other and, usually, geographical appellations. This process might be
shown graphically:—
Original I name tribe.
|
+-----------------+-----------+------------+-----------+
| | | |
I name sub-tribe Kel name Kel name Kel name
(as above) sub-tribe sub-tribe sub-tribe
\__________________________________________________________________/
Collective Kel name often the same as one of the sub-tribe Kel names
if the latter has come to play a preponderating part in the group.
This difference of nomenclature has a definite bearing on the
difficulties of co-ordinating sedentarism and nomadism in one people,
which must have occurred to everyone who has studied the problem in
administration. The exact relations between a village headman, the
tribal chiefs of the persons who are living in his village and the
tribal chief of the area in which the village is situated cannot be
defined. One set of allegiances is breaking down and another has not
yet been completely formed. This was already going on in Air when the
position was complicated by the advent of a European Power demanding
a cut-and-dried devolution of authority, and tending to encourage
sedentary qualities in order to prevent raiding. These problems in
Air to-day are almost insoluble, but they are of an administrative
rather than of an anthropological order.
Auderas at the present time is probably the most important place in
Air after Agades. As an essentially agricultural settlement it is an
excellent example of the village organisation. The valley of Auderas
lies about 2600 feet above the sea. Seven small valleys unite above
the village and two affluents come in below, draining the western
slopes of Mount Todra and a part of the Dogam group. The main stream
eventually finds its way out into the Talak plain[120] under various
names. The sandy bed of the valley near the village contains water
all the year round. Both banks are covered with intense vegetation,
including a date-palm plantation of some thousand trees. Under
the date palms and amongst the branching dûm-palm woods, where the
thickets and small trees have been cleared or burnt off, are a number
of irrigated gardens supplied with water from shallow wells. Some
wheat, millet, guinea corn and vegetables are grown with much labour
and devotion. Onions and tomatoes are the principal vegetables all
the year round, with two sorts of beans in the winter. Occasionally
sweet potatoes and some European vegetables like carrots, turnips
and spinach are grown from seeds which have been supplied by the
French. Pumpkins do well and water melons are common. There is also a
sweet melon. Three different shapes of gourds for making drinking and
household vessels are cultivated. Cotton is found in small quantities,
the plant having probably been imported from the Sudan. Its presence in
Air is interesting, as in 1850 Barth had placed the northern limit of
Sudan cotton in the south of Damergu. The cotton plant does very well
when carefully irrigated and produces a good quality of fibre. Two
samples which I brought home from Air were reported on respectively
as: “good colour, strong, fairly fine 1³⁄₁₆ staple,” and
“generally good colour, staple 1³⁄₁₆-1¼ inches, strong and
fine”; the materials were respectively valued at 20·35 and 21·35
pence per pound when American May Future Cotton stood at 17·35 pence
(May 1924).[121] The Tuareg spin their cotton into a rough yarn for
sewing or making cord, but in Air they do not seem to weave. The
indigo plant grows wild in Air: it is not cultivated, nor is it used
locally for dyeing.
The gardens require much attention and preparation. The ground is
cleared and the scrub burnt off as a top dressing. The soil is then
carefully levelled by dragging a heavy plank or beam forwards and
backwards by hand across the surface. The area is divided up into
small patches about six feet square with a channel along one side
communicating with a leat from an irrigation well. These wells are
usually unlined and shallow, with a wooden platform overhanging
the water on one side; on this a rectangular frame is set up with a
second cross member carrying a pulley over which a rope is passed. An
ox or a donkey pulls up the big leather bucket by the simple process
of walking away from the well, returning on its tracks to lower it
again. The bucket is a tubular contrivance, the bottom of which is
folded up while the water is raised; when it reaches the level of
the irrigation channel, a cord is pulled to open the bottom of the
leather tube and the water allowed to run out. The other end of this
cord is attached to the animal, and the length is so adjusted that the
operation is performed automatically each time the bucket comes to the
top. The pole and bucket with a counterweight and the water wheel are
not known in Air for raising water; nor are any dams constructed either
to make reservoirs in ravines or to maintain a head of water for flow
irrigation in the rainy season. Each little patch in the gardens is
hoed and dressed with animal manure. The seed is planted and carefully
tended every day, for it is very valuable. Barth records seeing at
Auderas a plough drawn by slaves. This was clearly an importation
from the north; the plough is not now used anywhere in the country,
which at heart has never been agricultural.
PLATE 15
[Illustration: GRAIN POTS, IFERUAN]
[Illustration: GARDEN WELL]
As in the south, millet and guinea corn are sown during the rains,
but they usually require irrigation before they reach maturity. In
certain areas rain-grown crops could be raised most years. In the
past a fair amount of cereals seems to have been produced in this way;
to-day the Tuareg are too poor to risk losing their seed in the event
of inadequate or irregular rainfall. Although the wheat grown in the
Ighazar used nearly all to be exported to the Fezzan, where it was
much in demand on account of its excellent quality for making the
Arab food “kus-kus,” Air at no time has produced enough grain for
its own consumption. In the economics of Air necessary grain imports
are paid for by the proceeds of wheat sales or live-stock traffic
with the north, and by the profits of the trade in salt from Bilma;
these provide the means of purchasing the cheaper millet and guinea
corn of Damergu. Any additional surplus, representing annual savings,
is invested in live-stock, especially camels, within the borders of
the country.
The breakdown of the social organisations of the Tuareg in Air
compelled numbers of nobles out of sheer poverty after they had lost
their camels and herds to cultivate the soil; before the war not even
the servile people were very extensively so employed if they could
find enough slaves to do the work.
Neither the advent of a European Power nor the subsequent changes in
the social structure of the country has had very much effect on the
position of slaves in Air. Of these there are two categories,[122]
the household slave and the outdoor slave, and both of them are
chattels in local customary law. The former are called “ikelan,”
the latter “irawellan,”[123] or alternatively “bela,”
“buzu” or “bugadie,” which, however, are not Temajegh words,
but have been borrowed from the south. The term “irawel” is also
used generically to cover both categories of slaves, although it
primarily refers to the latter. In the use of this word Barth[124]
makes one of the few mistakes of which he has been guilty, where he
states that the most noble part of the Kel Owi group of tribes in Air
is the “Irolangh” clan, to which the Amenokal or Sultan of the
Kel Owi belonged. The paramount chief of his day, Annur, belonged to
the Kel Assarara section of the Imaslagha tribe, which is probably
the original and certainly one of the most noble of the Kel Owi,
for it includes the Kel Tafidet, who gave their name to the whole
confederation. The traveller’s mistaken reference to Irawellan or
Irolangh is probably due to his having been informed by a member of
some non-Kel Owi tribe that Annur and all his people were “really
Irawellan,” or servile people. Such abuse of the Kel Owi is common
among the other Air Tuareg. It is certainly not justified in fact,
and is due to the contempt in which an older nobility will always
hold more recent arrivals.[125]
The negro slaves, the Ikelan, are primarily concerned with garden
cultivation, and are consequently sedentary. One half of the
produce of their labour goes to their masters and the other half to
support themselves and their families. Ikelan also perform all the
domestic duties of the Tuareg to whom they belong, and herd their
masters’ goats and sheep if they happen to be living in the same
neighbourhood. A certain proportion of the offspring of the flocks is
also given to the slaves. Since, primarily, they are cultivators of the
ground, they do not move from place to place with their owners. They
consequently often escape domestic work and herding. Despite their
legal status they are in practice permitted to own property, though, if
their masters decided to remove it, they would be within their rights
to do so. In other words, the theoretical status of slavery which makes
it impossible for a chattel to own property has been considerably
modified, and not as a consequence of the altered conditions, or of
the legislation of a European Power, but because slavery among the
Tuareg never did involve great hardship. Their slaves, furthermore,
always had the hope of manumission and consequent change to the status
of Imghad or serfs, a rise in the social scale which, in fact, often
did occur. It was in slave trading and not in slave owning that the
Tuareg sinned against the ethical standards which are usually accepted
in Europe, and obtained so unenviable a reputation last century.
Herding live-stock, and especially camels, is the primary function of
the outdoor slave or Buzu. Though often also a negro, he is considered
to possess a somewhat higher status than the Akel, for he does not
as a rule work in the house or village. The Buzu’s work, if on the
whole less strenuous than that of the tiller of gardens, is felt to
be more manly because he is associated with camels. He travels with
nobles or Imghad, to either of whom he may belong. He does all the hard
menial work on the march. He is responsible especially for herding
the camels at pasture and for loading and unloading them each day on
the road. Such duties as filling water-skins, driving camels down to
water, feeding them on the march and making rope for the loads, all
fall to his lot. The Buzu may even accompany his master’s camels on
raids or act as personal messenger for his lord. When the camels are
resting he spends his days watching the grazing animals, or looking
after any other herds which his master may own in the neighbourhood. On
the whole I have found the Buzu a remarkably hard-working person. He is
almost useless without his master to give him orders and to see that
they are carried out, but ready to undertake any exertion connected
with his work, which he regards as his fate, but not his privilege
to perform without complaint.
It is difficult to determine whether there is any racial difference
between the Buzu class, the tillers of gardens, and the ordinary
household slaves. The first are more respected than the last,
which may mean that they are more closely related in blood to their
masters. The practice of concubinage, though not very widespread,
has probably created the caste, and from them, in time, a certain
proportion of the Imghad. While theoretically the children of a slave
concubine and a Tuareg man ought to be “ikelan” like their mother,
in practice they tend to rise into the superior caste of the Buzu,
and eventually in successive generations to Imghad. In Air at least
the general tendency is for the old-established caste distinctions to
become more elastic and for the ancient order to pass away. Although
the events of the last twenty years have contributed greatly to this
change, the strongest factor has certainly been the increasing wealth
of the Imghad, but another reason is probably that many Imghad tribes
in Air were themselves originally Imajeghan before their capture in war
or their subjugation by some means. Consequently with the dissolution
of tribal allegiances in Air and enhanced prosperity they have tended
to revert to their former status. They cling so tenaciously to nobility
of birth that, rather than accept the logical results of inferiority
consequent upon defeat in war, the people collectively combine to
admit the fiction of servile people possessing dual status.
The presence of more than one racial type among the Imghad has
led certain travellers to make quite unjustifiable generalisations
about this section of Tuareg society. There have also been advanced
numerous and most unnecessarily complicated theories to account for
the division of the race as a whole into these two castes. The problem
is really much simpler. Although by no general rule can it be said
that the Imghad originally belonged to this or to that people, they
are all clearly the descendants of groups or individuals captured in
war and subsequently released from bondage to form a caste enjoying
a certain measure of freedom, and having a separate legal or civil
existence under something more than the mere political suzerainty of
the noble tribe which originally possessed them. In this first stage,
the noble tribe represents the original pure Tuareg race, while the
oldest Imghad are the first extraneous people whom they conquered,
in some cases perhaps as early as in the Neolithic ages. “It
is necessary,” says Bates,[126] with great justice, “to state
emphatically that the division into Imghad and Imajeghan is so ancient
that the Saharan Berbers preserve no knowledge of its origin.” This
antiquity may be held to account for the complete national fusion
which has taken place among the two castes: nearly all Imghad would
utterly fail to grasp a suggestion that they were not to-day as much
Tuareg as their Imajeghan overlords, however they may dislike and
abuse the latter. As time went on more and more Imghad were added to
the race, each group being subject to the noble tribe responsible for
its conquest. The possibility of a group of people becoming the Imghad
of an Imghad tribe was precluded by the relations obtaining between
serfs and nobles, whereby it is the sole prerogative of the latter
to wage war or make peace. Should an Imghad tribe capture slaves in
war they could not be manumitted except by the Imajegh tribe, the
lords of the victorious Imghad; and by the act of manumission the
newly-acquired slaves would then become the equals of their Imghad
conquerors under the dominion of the Imajeghan concerned.
The Imghad of Air may be divided into three categories whose history
is so intimately bound up with the noble tribes that it cannot be
considered separately. There are the Imghad whose association with
their respective Imajeghan dates from before their advent to Air; their
origin must be looked for in the Fezzan or elsewhere at some very early
date. Secondly, there are the Imghad who were the original inhabitants
of Air before the Tuareg came, and who by some agreement at the time,
like the traditional one of Maket n’Ikelan,[127] were not enslaved
but allowed to continue living in the country side by side with
the new arrivals in a state of vassalage or semi-servitude. Lastly,
there are the Imghad who are either Arabs, Tuareg of other divisions,
or negroids from the south captured in the course of raids from Air,
in some cases as recently as a generation ago. With these different
origins it is not surprising to find among the Air Imghad both a
strongly negroid type, a non-negroid and non-Tuareg type, and a
type showing the fine features and complexion characteristic of the
Imajeghan themselves. The first type is the pre-Tuareg population
of Air. It is the most common, if only for the reason that negroid
characteristics always appear to be dominant in the cross-breeding
which ensued. The second type represents the Arab or Berber element
acquired by conquest. The third type represents the subjugated groups
of Imajeghan of other divisions.[128] Of the latter category are,
for instance, the Kel Ahaggar, Imghad of the Kel Gharus, who were
originally nobles from the great northern division of the Tuareg. Many
of the Kel Ferwan Imghad are believed to be Arabs or Tuareg of the
west, captured comparatively recently on raids into the Aulimmiden
territory. The Kel Nugguru are the freed slaves of the Añastafidet,
the administrative head of the Kel Owi confederation: they have become
so prosperous that they are now laying claim to be of noble origin,
a pretension which no right-minded Imajegh in Air will admit for a
moment. But it is almost impossible nowadays to trace the history
of each Imghad tribe in detail. Generally, in the absence of more
precise data, it may be assumed that those Imghad tribes which have
“I names” are the oldest; for here the process of assimilation
to the mass of the Tuareg race is most complete, either on account
of the length of their mutual association or owing to the fact that
they were originally themselves of the same race; the “Kel name”
Imghad, on the other hand, are probably more recent additions.[129]
The confusion reigning on the subject of the “Black” and
“White” Tuareg in the minds of the few people in Europe who
have ever heard of the race is due to the practice in the north
of the servile wearing a white, and the nobles a black, veil. But
a “Black” Tuareg, being a noble, will, in the vast majority of
cases, have a much fairer complexion and more European features than a
“White,” or servile Tuareg. In Air the colour of the veil affords
no means of distinguishing the caste of the wearer. The best veils,
being made in the south, are consequently cheaper in Air than in the
north, and this is probably the reason why Imajeghan and Imghad alike
in Air wear the indigo-black Tagilmus. When a white veil is seen, it
usually means that the wearer is too poor to buy a proper black one and
has had to resort to some makeshift torn from the bottom of his robe.
Slaves, domestic or pastoral, do not wear the face veil at all. This
is the essential outward difference between them and the Imghad. The
latter, whatever their origin, are considered to be a part of the
Tuareg people; the former cannot be so, for they are simply accounted
to belong, as camels do, to the People of the Veil.
The exact status of the Imghad, or “meratha” (merathra) as they are
called by the Arabs in Fezzan, is somewhat difficult to define. There
is no adequate translation in any European language of the word
“amghid.”[130] The process of their original enslavement and
subsequent release to form a category of people who have achieved
partial but not complete freedom has, I think, no parallel in
Europe except in a modified form in the state of vassalage. Yet,
as “servile” conveys too narrow and definite a relationship, so
“vassal” is certainly too broad a term. In the state of servility
or, to coin a word, “imghadage” to which the pre-Tuareg inhabitants
of Air appear to have been reduced, the process of enslavement and
release may be said to have taken place only as a legal fiction, and
not, if the tradition is to be accepted as accurate, in real fact. The
general practice seems to have been that when large groups of people
were subjugated or captured in war they were simultaneously released
into the state of imghadage, but when individuals or a few persons
were acquired by force or by purchase, they were only manumitted in
the course of time, if at all, and incorporated at some later date
into an Imghad tribe or village already in existence.
In contradistinction to slaves, the Imghad are not bound individually,
but collectively, and not to individuals, but to a noble tribe
or group of tribes. They are in no sense considered to be the
property of the latter; but the relationship is closer than that
of suzerain and vassal. It is not within the power of an Imghad
tribe to change its allegiance, since in the first instance its
members were theoretically at least the property of its overlord
tribe; they owe their separate existence to an act of manumission
freely and voluntarily accomplished. A change of allegiance could
occur only if a servile tribe were captured in whole or in part;
it follows that when this has occurred one servile tribe might owe
allegiance in several parts to different noble groups.[131] The bond
between them consists of the right of the responsible noble tribe
alone, and therefore of its chief, to administer justice among the
dependent Imghad, either in small cases by tacitly confirming the
verdict of their own headman, or in more weighty matters by express
reference. The Imghad tribe may be fined or punished collectively by
their lords, and would have no right to appeal to the Amenokal without
permission. For the Amenokal to interfere on behalf of an Imghad
tribe would constitute a breach of tribal custom and ensure a rebuff,
if not worse. A certain proportion of the marriage portions payable
in the Imghad tribes goes to their Imajeghan, who have the right to
give or withhold consent to these contracts. One of the functions of
the Imghad is to take complete charge of and use the camels of their
lords for long periods or to trade with them on their behalf. In such
cases the Imghad act as the agents of the nobles, each one of whom
has a right to ask the servile tribe as a whole to undertake these
duties. But such obligations are imposed collectively on the tribe
and not on any one Imghad. It is the custom to share the offspring
of the camels thus herded in equal shares, though in the event of
any of the animals dying whilst under the charge of the Imghad,
the latter are collectively responsible for making good the loss,
save in extenuating circumstances. Conversely, the nobles are, in
every case,[132] the protectors of their dependents. The relations
between Imghad and Imajeghan are a mixture of those obtaining under
the feudalism of Europe and the “client” system of Rome.
A consequence of the interruption of caravan traffic and the
disappearance of one of the principal sources of revenue of the noble
Tuareg is that the Imghad as camel herders, and generally speaking
as the more laborious members of the community, have gained where
the nobles have lost.
Prosperity is emancipating the Imghad, and is materially assisting
the breakdown of social distinctions which in time will survive only
in the philosophic contemplation of the Imajeghan dreaming idly of the
return of better days. The Imghad tribes used to be the unquestioning
allies of their overlords in war; their numbers contributed greatly to
the strength of any Imajegh tribe. Though they might not make war on
their own initiative, the Imghad carried and still carry weapons.[133]
They used to go on raids with their masters, or, if the Imajeghan
were busy elsewhere, represent them with their masters’ camels and
the weight of their own right arms. But the chiefs of the Imghad were
never more than subordinates, or at the most advisers to the nobles.
To-day this unquestioning subservience has almost disappeared and
we even find Khodi, chief of the Kel Nugguru, disputing with the
noble Ahodu the leadership of the village of Auderas. This issue
was one of great importance in local politics and originally arose
out of the disputed ownership of certain palms which had been given
to Ahodu when he was installed as head of the village as a reward
for service rendered by him to the Foureau-Lamy expedition. The
village is on the edge of the Kel Nugguru country, while Ahodu in
fact comes from a northern tribe, the Kel Tadek, who have no real
concern with this district. The impossibility of reconciling the
tribal and settled organisations was clearly demonstrated in every
aspect of this controversy. Khodi, living as a nomad with his people
and camels at some distance from the village, sought, without success,
to govern the community through various representatives, while Ahodu,
who had given up wandering, was suspended by the French during the
settlement of the legal case, and sat in the village watching mistake
after mistake being made. Under the old system Khodi could never have
pretended to dispute with a noble the position of chief of a large
village: in fact an Imghad tribe without a protecting noble overlord
would have been unlikely to administer a village at all. Similarly
among the Ahaggaren Imghad of the Kel Gharus, a man of servile origin,
Bilalen by name, has come to share with T’iaman the lordship of a
once noble people of the north, a position of such importance that
he is regarded as one of the most influential chiefs in Air. Bilalen
has only become associated with the Ahaggaren by marriage; he could
never have achieved even this, much less could he have attained so
powerful a following in the country, under the old _régime_.
[Illustration: THE GOVERNMENT OF THE AIR TUAREG
_Note._—The scheme is largely theoretical, as the Amenokal has
rarely had much authority over any tribes except the People of the
King. His authority over a part of the Aulimmiden has been even more
nominal and has varied considerably from time to time.]
In addition to the social distinctions between nobles and serfs,
the Tuareg attach great importance to tribal classification. Among
the inhabitants of the mountains a man will describe himself as, say,
“Mokhammad of the Kel Such-and-such of the Kel Owi,” or of the
other category, which is called the “People of the King,” as the
case might be. These two great tribal divisions (there were three
before the departure of the Kel Geres for the Southland) will be
referred to in detail when the history of the migrations of the Air
Tuareg is considered. The divisions are absolute; a tribe either is
of the Kel Owi or is not of the Kel Owi. There is usually never any
doubt; the erroneous attribution of a man’s tribe to the Kel Owi
confederation would provoke the indignant rejoinder that his clan
were “People of the King” and did not “belong (_sic_) to the
Añastafidet.” The distinction means all that the difference between
an ancient landed nobility and a _parvenu_ commercial aristocracy
denotes. Many of the older men of the “People of the King” go so
far as to say that there are no nobles among the Kel Owi at all.[134]
Apart from their slightly different ethnic origin, the principal reason
why the Kel Owi have stood apart from the other tribes is that they
possess an administrative leader of their own who represents the whole
confederation; as they say, “he _speaks_ for them to the Amenokal
at Agades.” He is called the Añastafidet, the Child of Tafidet. The
non-Kel Owi tribes, on the other hand, have no single leader other than
the king; in their case each tribal chieftain transacts the business of
his own tribe with the former independently of the other chiefs. For
them the Amenokal of Air assumes the dual function of nominal ruler
of the whole country and of direct overlord of certain tribes.
In accordance with the democratic traditions of the Tuareg, the
Añastafidet,[135] like the Sultan, is elected. He must be a noble,
but need not always be chosen from the same family. He is elected for
a period of three years, but his tenure of office is really dependent
upon a yearly revision by the Kel Owi tribes when they concentrate
in the autumn to go with the salt caravan to Bilma. The tribal
groups mainly responsible for the choice are the Kel Tafidet and Kel
Azañieres; the Ikazkazan, being the junior group of the confederation,
have little voice. The Añastafidet’s badge of office[136] is a drum;
he retains no authority on leaving office, though it entitles him to a
certain degree of respect, and leads to his being consulted on State
matters. In practice if the Añastafidet is reasonably capable he
is confirmed in power for a succession of three-year periods. During
the last fifty years there have been in all about six Añastafidets;
one, I think the last holder of the office, is at present living at
Zawzawa in Damergu. The Añastafidet’s official place of residence
was at Assode in Central Air, but since the evacuation of the north
he has been living at Agades in direct touch with the Amenokal. His
principal duties are to represent the confederation at the Court of the
Sultan and maintain the freedom of transit through Air and Damergu for
caravans, on which the prosperity of the tribes depends. Trade with the
north and the position of the Kel Owi in Air astride the great caravan
road which passes from north to south, east of the Central massifs,
have in effect combined to place the foreign relations of all the
Air people with Ghat and the Fezzan in the hands of the Añastafidet,
business with the potentates of the south, on the other hand, being,
as has already been stated, in the hands of the Amenokal at Agades. The
breakdown of the trans-desert traffic during the war deprived the
Kel Owi of most of their prosperity and the Añastafidet of his work.
The Añastafidet was assisted in his duties by four agents, two
of whom dealt with local business, while the other two lived in
the Southland to assist the Kel Owi tribes in their transactions
there. Neither the Añastafidet nor his agents ever seem to have
received a salary, and the former at least was expected to give
munificent presents, but no doubt their official positions brought
perquisites which compensated for any outlay. As in the case of
the Sultan, the importance of the Añastafidet’s office depends
entirely on the personality of the holder. When von Bary visited the
country, Belkho, chief of the Igermaden tribe, living at Ajiru in
Eastern Air, thanks to his military prowess and political wisdom,
was the _de facto_ ruler of the whole country. His relations with
the Amenokal were strained, even though he had him more or less under
his influence; the Añastafidet had become of so little moment that
he is only once mentioned by this traveller.[137] In Barth’s day,
when Air was under the domination of Annur, another Kel Owi chief of
the same type, the Añastafidet was a mere shadow in the land.
The Añastafidet doubtless represents the surviving functions of a Kel
Owi Amenokal. The restriction of his duties was probably the result
of a compromise arrived at when the Kel Owi entered Air and found
an Amenokal already established in the country, supported by the Kel
Geres and the various tribes known as the “People of the King.”
The more intimate inter-tribal relations between the various units
of the Kel Owi confederation and the organisation of the “People
of the King” will be referred to hereafter in detail.
The system by which the Kel Owi have an administrative leader who seems
to have practically no warlike or judicial functions has in no way
modified the tribal or social organisation of the confederation. As in
the case of all the Tuareg tribes, other than those which have become
entirely sedentary, the government of each unit, large and small, is
patriarchal and similar to that of Bedawin tribes. The chief of a noble
tribe is the leader in war and the dispenser of justice in peace. The
functions are not necessarily hereditary. In council with the heads of
families he exercises authority over the Imghad tribes associated with
his clan, through the chiefs of these servile groups in the manner
already described. The council of the heads of families is of great
importance, but plays an advisory rather than an executive part. The
heads of families rule their own households, including their slaves.
Within ill-defined limits, certain tribes are grouped together under
a common leader known as the “agoalla” or “agwalla.” This
usually occurs in the case of tribes which are nearly related to
each other. Three groups in the Kel Owi division have already been
mentioned; in two of these, the Kel Tafidet and Kel Azañieres, the
office of “agoalla” is said[138] to be hereditary, but I have
been unable to find any confirmation of this except in so far as the
son of a man who, by his personal ascendancy, has secured control
over more than one tribe, would probably more easily step into his
father’s shoes than another person. The grouping of tribes may also
occur for military reasons, but in such cases it has a tendency to be
of a temporary character. It is best to assume that the tribe is the
unit of Tuareg society and that the tribal chiefs are the elements of
which their Government is constructed. “Agoallas” are an exotic
form principally due to individual personality or temporary conditions
prevailing over long-standing customs.
Tribes sometimes group themselves into temporary or permanent
alliances. The former probably spring from military exigencies,
the latter may be due to common origins in the recent past. Such
aggregations as the Kel Azañieres and Kel Tafidet in the Kel Owi
tribes are so obviously due to common tribal origins that they require
no further examination. But the Kel Owi confederation in Air plays
a far larger rôle than do mere tribal alliances. Here is no mere
question of relationship or community of origin, but a more strict
bond, which, however, cannot be defined. Such groups as these have
been termed confederations, though the term is a little misleading,
as no unity of government is implied. The origin of the confederation,
which carries with it more moral than material obligations, is to be
explained by the entry of the Kel Owi tribes into Air as a mass of
people confronted by an already established hostile or at least jealous
population of the same race as themselves. It followed that the new
arrivals would tend to hold together and act with one another. The
conditions of the confederation nevertheless have been such that the
representative is only an administrative head and not a ruler. He is
there to embody a common policy and to dictate one. Loose as these
bonds have been they have served the Kel Owi in good stead, for their
commerce has gained by co-operation at the expense of their rivals,
the “People of the King,” who in the absence of any organisation
have been forced to rely on the fickle ties of common jealousy. How far
there are groups or confederations like the Kel Owi within the larger
northern division of Azger or Ahaggar I cannot say, but the former
are a confederation as the people of Air generally never have been.
Much has already been said of the status of the Tuareg men and their
tribal organisation, but before it is possible to consider their
family life, the method they follow in tracing their descent must be
described. A man’s status, in Air, as elsewhere among the Tuareg,
is determined by the caste and allegiance of his mother. Survivals
of a matriarchal state of society are numerous among the People of
the Veil. They colour the whole life of the race. A woman, they say,
carries her children before they are born, and so they belong to her
and not to the father. “After all,” as one of them said to me when
we had been discussing this question for some time, “when you buy a
cow camel in calf, the calf is yours and not the property of the man
who sold the camel to you. It is the same with women,” he added;
and he seemed to me to have some show of logic. Our medieval (and
perhaps modern) lawyers would have said instead, “partus sequitur
ventrem,” but he would have meant the same as my Tuareg friend. If
a woman marries a man in her own tribe the children, of course,
belong to that tribe, but if she marries away from her people they
belong to her own, and not to her husband’s clan. In this case,
were the husband to predecease his wife, the children and their
mother would return to live with her tribe. If the father survives,
the children usually go on living with him for a time, but as they
belong to their mother’s tribe in any event, they eventually return
there. Should inter-tribal hostilities break out they must leave their
father and fight for their mother’s tribe, even against their own
parent if need so be. Until this is understood the relationships of
the Tuareg appear very puzzling to the traveller. When I first met
Ahodu he informed me that he was of the Kel Tadek people, who are Kel
Amenokal, but he had a half-brother and a paternal cousin who belonged
to the Añastafidet. It appears that the fathers of Ahodu and Efale,
the famous eastern guide, were brothers of a man in the noble Kel
Fares of the Kel Owi confederation. Ahodu’s father took a wife
from the Kel Tadek, so the son became a member of the latter tribe,
whereas Efale’s father married within the confederation. The maternal
allegiance is so strong that, though proud of his father’s repute
as a holy man and representative of the fifth generation of keepers
of the mosque of Tefgun near Iferuan, Ahodu used to speak of the Kel
Owi in disparaging terms when comparing their recent origin with the
antiquity of the Kel Tadek and the other “People of the Amenokal.”
The following examples of definite cases may assist in understanding
the position:
1. A man of the noble Kel Tadek marries a woman of the noble Kel
Ferwan. The children are Kel Ferwan, but will live with the father
until his death or the divorce of the mother, when they return with
her to her own tribe.
2. A man of the noble Kel Tadek married a woman of the Imghad of the
Kel Ferwan. The children will normally be Imghad of the Kel Ferwan.
3. If a man marries a slave woman of another tribe, this woman has
become the property of the husband’s tribe by his purchase or payment
of the marriage portion, and the children belong to the father. This
occurred in Ahodu’s case. One day the Kel Gharus came over and
stole eight slaves belonging to the Kel Tadek, who proceeded to retake
them. The slaves in question were Kanuri people of Damagerim. The Kel
Gharus appealed to the religious court at Agades, which awarded four
slaves to each tribe. Later two of those allotted to the Kel Gharus
ran away to the Kel Tadek, who were allowed to keep them on the ground
that they had been ill-treated by their former masters. One of these
two women Ahodu married, and his son is considered to belong to his
own clan and not to his wife’s former tribe. In this case Ahodu
nevertheless had to pay some compensation to the former masters of
his wife.
The derivation of tribal allegiance through the female line has
carried in its train the consequence that a man or woman’s social
status is always determined by that of the mother. But the restricted
number of noble women, the deference and respect paid to them,
and the impossibility of taking them as concubines have combined to
diminish the numbers of Imajeghan as compared with the Imghad. The
hard-and-fast rule among all the Tuareg, that nobles can only be born
of a noble mother irrespective of the caste of the father, has done
much to preserve the type and characteristics of the race. In recent
years the custom has tended to break down, for where a noble father,
who has taken unto himself a servile wife, is sufficiently powerful
to assert himself he will often succeed in passing off his sons and
daughters as Imajeghan. Ahodu has done so with his boy; but had this
been impossible the child would have been accounted of the Irejanaten
or mixed people. The old laws of succession are said by von Bary to
have become especially slack among the Kel Owi, but even here the
status of noble women has remained so unassailable that it would
still be impossible to-day for them to marry outside their own class.
The laws of inheritance and succession also show the strength of the
matriarchal tradition. Although hereditary office is rare among the
Tuareg nowadays, it seems to have been more frequent in the past.[139]
Ibn Batutah states that the heir of the Sultan of Tekadda was the
son of the ruler’s sister.[140] Similarly of the Mesufa who were
Tuareg, he records that descent is traced through the maternal uncle,
while inherited property passes from a deceased man to the children
of his sister to the exclusion of his own family.[141] The traveller
adds that nowhere except among the infidel Indians of Malabar did he
observe a similar state of things.[142] Bates thinks that Egyptian
records tend to show that the succession of the chieftainship of the
Meshwesh Libyans passed in the female line. The genealogy of many
of the kings of Agades is recorded by their female parentage. The
Tuareg of Ghat not only treat their women-folk in much the same way as
their brethren further south, but Richardson specifically states that
the succession of the chiefs and Sultans of those parts is similar
to the practice of the Tekadda house and at Agades. It is the son
of the sister of the Sultan who succeeds.[143] It seems clear that
before the advent of Islam, which has tended to modify the system,
the Tuareg had a completely matriarchal organisation. In this earlier
state of society may perhaps be found the explanation of the reputed
Amazons of the west of North Africa, recorded by Diodorus Siculus
in a grossly exaggerated version of some story which he had probably
heard concerning the status of certain Libyan women.[144]
I know of no reason to suppose that these matriarchal customs were
derived from association with the negro people; the reverse is quite
as likely to have occurred, as the culture contacts of North Africa,
following the trend of migration, seem to have taken a course from
north to south and not the opposite direction.[145] The matter is
one of great interest,[146] for the matriarchate is found in a highly
developed state in Ashanti, and it would be of interest in connection
with the origin of this people to learn if the system can be traced
to a common origin.[147] I cannot agree with Barth’s[148] conclusion
that the descent of the Sultan of Tekadda “is certain proof that it
was not a pure Berber State, but rather a Berber dominion ingrafted
upon a negro population, exactly as was the case in Walata,” where he
cites the case of the Mesufa. Moreover, this remark is in contradiction
with his previous assumption,[149] to wit: “With respect to the
custom that the hereditary power does not descend from the father
to the son but to the sister’s son . . . it may be supposed to
have belonged originally to the Berber race; for the Askar (Azger),
who have preserved their original manners tolerably pure, have the
same custom. . . . It may therefore seem doubtful whether . . . this
custom belonged to the black native,” with which statement I am
decidedly inclined to agree. The problem, however, is one which I
prefer on the whole to leave to qualified anthropologists.
[Footnote 107: Not to be confused with Tanut in Damergu. The word
“tanut” means a shallow well; there are consequently many places
of this name.]
[Footnote 108: Just north of Auderas.]
[Footnote 109: Barth, _op. cit._, Vol. I. p. 385.]
[Footnote 110: Jean, _op. cit._, pp. 148-9.]
[Footnote 111: Von Bary’s Diary (French edition), p. 183, etc.]
[Footnote 112: The available data are in the hands of the author,
if some more fortunate traveller can check and examine the place.]
[Footnote 113: The “El Hakhsas,” Barth: _op. cit._,
Vol. I. p. 416.]
[Footnote 114: The extremes in variation, for the first rains of
sufficient volume to fill stream beds of a certain size with flood
water, are recorded by von Bary east of Bagezan on 3rd June, 1877,
and by Barth in Northern Air on 1st September, 1850. Both these dates
seem to be exceptional.]
[Footnote 115: This, and not T’efira, is presumably the point south
of Auderas where Barth saw “natron” encrustations on the ground
(see Vol. I. p. 389). Salt or “ara” is collected at T’efira
further east, but Barth would not have described “entering” the
Buddei valley after seeing the “natron,” for the road past Auderas
to T’efira winds down the Buddei valley.]
[Footnote 116: This is the vowel which in English words “oft_e_n,”
“_a_non,” “_u_ntil,” may be written as _o_, _e_, _a_, or _u_.]
[Footnote 117: Cf. Barth, Vol. I. p. 350, and von Bary, p. 169, on
the Kel Ataram of Auderas. The people of this village were simply
“People of the West” for the inhabitants of Ajiru in Eastern Air,
where von Bary was living.]
[Footnote 118: As Barth would have it: _op. cit._, Vol. I. p. 339.]
[Footnote 119: Cf. Barth, _op. cit._, Vol. I. pp. 339 and 347.]
[Footnote 120: The Cortier 1/500,000 map shows a large affluent to
the right bank joining the Auderas valley below the village. This
is incorrect: a small affluent called the Mafinet joins at the point
shown, but the valley purporting to be the upper part of the Mafinet
valley is the Tagharit valley, which falls into the Ben Guten, and not
into the Auderas basin. The Cortier map is generally somewhat incorrect
in this area, especially in regard to the position of Mount Dogam.]
[Footnote 121: I am indebted to Sir J. Currie of the Empire
Cotton-growing Corporation for these reports.]
[Footnote 122: For fear of appearing to misinform people who are always
ready to mind other people’s business before looking after their own,
I hasten to add that the legal practice of slavery has, of course,
been abolished in Air since the advent of the French. The psychology
and habit of slavery, nevertheless, still remain as strong as ever,
and master and slave continue to regard each other by _mutual consent_
in the light of their former relationship. I therefore propose to refer
to slaves and the custom of slavery as if they were still sanctioned
by law.]
[Footnote 123: Respectively “Akel” and “Irawel” in the
singular.]
[Footnote 124: Barth, _op. cit._, Vol. I. p. 344 _sq._]
[Footnote 125: Cf. _infra_, Chaps. XI. and XII.]
[Footnote 126: Bates, _op. cit._, p. 115.]
[Footnote 127: _Vide infra_, Chap. XI., _et apud_ Barth, _op. cit._,
Vol. I. pp. 235 and 239.]
[Footnote 128: When von Bary (_op. cit._, p. 184) says that Imajeghan
were never enslaved, he is wrong. Although the Air Tuareg, when they
raided the Aulimmiden, often used to lift their cattle but spare the
men because they were of the same race, some of the latter division
nevertheless, became Imghad of the Air Kel Ferwan, for instance,
in the course of these raids.]
[Footnote 129: This is, of course, not an absolute rule, for the
“I name” might have been forgotten, as previously explained. The
supposition that “Kel names” represent Imghad and the “I names”
Imajeghan is, of course, quite untenable.]
[Footnote 130: The singular form of Imghad.]
[Footnote 131: There are several instances of this among the Northern
Tuareg, as will be seen from the data contained in Chap. XI.]
[Footnote 132: Cf. Schirmer’s note in von Bary, _op. cit._, p. 184.]
[Footnote 133: Barth’s statement, _op. cit._, Vol. I. p. 237,
that the Imghad are not allowed to carry arms is not substantiated:
he seems at this point to have confused the Imghad with slaves.]
[Footnote 134: Cf. _supra_, p. 134. Von Bary, _op. cit._, p. 181,
notes that the distinction between Imghad and Imajeghan among the
Kel Owi seemed to have broken down. This is perhaps exaggerated,
but interesting, as this division in a sense is the most modern in
development in Air.]
[Footnote 135: Barth erroneously calls him the Astafidet.]
[Footnote 136: Cf. Badges of Office among Libyan rulers given by Bates,
_op. cit._, p. 116.]
[Footnote 137: Von Bary, _op. cit._, pp. 172 and 188-9.]
[Footnote 138: By Jean, _op. cit._, p. 106.]
[Footnote 139: Cf. Bates, _op. cit._, pp. 112, 114-15.]
[Footnote 140: Ibn Batutah (ed. Soc. Asiatique), Vol. IV. pp. 388
and 443. Cf. also Appendix IV.]
[Footnote 141: The Mesufa are a surviving section of the Sanhaja,
and are specifically described by Ibn Batutah and Ibn Khaldun as
a part of the People of the Veil, _i.e._ not negroes or negroids
(_vide infra_, Chap. XI.).]
[Footnote 142: This statement is made in spite of the reference a
little later to the succession of the Sultan of Tekadda, who, though
a Tuareg, does not seem to have been of the Mesufa. This little
inaccuracy is, however, of no importance.]
[Footnote 143: Richardson: _Travels_, etc., Vol. II. pp. 65-6.]
[Footnote 144: Diod. Sic., iii. 53 _sq._ See also Silius Italicus,
ii. 80. Bates, _op. cit._, pp. 112-13 and 148, agrees that the
existence of matriarchal society would be a reasonable explanation
of the Amazon story.]
[Footnote 145: Nevertheless the matriarchate is known to have existed
in classical times as far south as Æthiopia, in the Meroitic kingdom
as well as in early Egypt.]
[Footnote 146: Perry (_The Children of the Sun_) would doubtless
suggest that it came from Egypt.]
[Footnote 147: See Rattray, _Ashanti_, 1924. This authority thinks that
the Ashanti people themselves came from the north. Many of the details
of their matriarchal system accord closely with that of the Tuareg.]
[Footnote 148: Barth, Vol. I. p. 388.]
[Footnote 149: _Ibid._, p. 341. On page 342 he says the Aulimmiden,
who have the same custom, consider the practice shameful, “as
exhibiting only the man’s distrust of his wife’s fidelity; for such
is certainly its foundation.” I don’t agree with this conclusion;
the origins of matriarchy are certainly not as simple as this.]