BÜCHER

TUAREG SOCIETY WITHIN A GLOBALIZED WORLD

Saharan Live in Transition

ANJA FISCHER and INES KOHl (eds.)

Imprint: I.BTauris
Publisher: I.BTauris & Co Ltd

Hardback
ISBN: 9781848853706
Publication Date: 31 Oct 2010
Number of Pages: 320
Height: 216
Width: 134
£56.50

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The Tuareg (Kel Tamasheq) are an ancient nomadic people who have inhabited the Sahara, one of the most extreme environments in the world, for millennia. In what ways have the lives of the Tuareg changed, and what roles do they have, in a modern and increasingly globalized world? Here, leading scholars explore the many facets of contemporary Tuareg existence: from transnational identity to international politics, from economy to social structure, from music to beauty, from mobility to slavery.
The ancient ways of the Tuareg were largely uninterrupted until the arrival of the colonial powers during the nineteenth century. Colonial forces divided traditional Tuareg territory across five separate new countries, causing profound changes in the social, political and economic structure of the Tuareg. The Tuareg today continue to face the risk of marginalisation within national and international politics. At the same time, the Tuareg are seen as a link between the Arab and African worlds, and their familiarity with the Sahara makes them a port of call for African
migrants traversing the desert to reach Europe. Tuareg (Kel Tamasheq) between Niger, Algeria and Libya.

This book is the first comprehensive study of the Tuareg today, exploring the ways in which the Tuareg themselves are ‘moving global’ – and increasingly switching between nomadic and urban, more sedentary, living. While the lives of the Tuareg are transformed in an increasingly globalized world, they show themselves to be a people linked by their creative abilities to adapt and interact with the world around them. This book provides a comprehensive portrait of Saharan life in transition, presenting an important new theoretical approach to the anthropology and history of the region. Dealing with issues of mobility, cosmopolitanism, and
transnational movements, this is essential reading for students and scholars of the history, culture and society of the Tuareg, of nomadic peoples, and of North Africa more widely.

REVIEWS

‘[This] is a book that comes at the right time, when the need to rethink Tuareg culture – and other African cultures – in their wider (now ‘global’) context has become widely and deeply felt in African Studies. It embodies vast amounts of first-class fieldwork and deploys insightful conceptual frames in the exploration of the empirical evidence. …I believe it will appeal not only to established academics, but also to students – and not only to those specialising in the study of the Tuareg.’

Dr P.F. de Moraes Farias, Honorary Senior Fellow,
Centre of West African, Studies, University of
Birmingham

‘By focusing on the transitions of Tuareg societies whose “classical”delimitations by ethnographers and anthropologists become more and more doubtful… [this book] actually takes into account the contemporary reality of the Tuareg who live in the borderlands between Mali, Niger, Algeria and Libya. In this context they want to explore the consequences of the various aspects of globalisation, and, the various ways the Tuareg respond to and cope with growing influences from the outside.’

Dr Georg Klute, Professor of Social Anthropology,
University of Bayreuth

"This new book develops the theme of how globalization has reached out to such societies and further incorporated them into wordwide networks of production and consumption. The second related theme is to look at such societies through the lens of nomadism or mobility, not of pastoralism."

Professor Jeremy Swift

in: Nomadic Peoples, Volume 15, Issue 2, 2011: S. 141-143.

Acronyms and Abbreviations      vii
Acknowledgements    x
Terminology and Transcription    xii

1. Tuareg Moving Global: An Introduction: Ines Kohl and Anja Fischer 1

PART I: WHERE IS SAHARAN ANTHROPOLOGY GOING?

2. Research and Nomads in the Age of Globalization: Anja Fischer    11
3. Tuareg Networks: An Integrated Approach to Mobility and Stasis: Alessandra Giuffrida    23
4. Tuareg City Blues: Cultural Capital in a Global Cosmopole: Baz Lecocq    41

PART II: FROM PAST TO PRESENT: ONGOING DISCOURSES

5. Foreign Cloth and Kel Ewey Identity: Gerd Spittler    61
6. Genesis and Change in the Socio-political Structure of the Tuareg: Dida Badi    75
7. Tuareg Trajectories of Slavery: Preliminary Reflections on a Changing Field: Benedetta Rossi    89

PART III: DIVERSIFIED NORMS AND VALUES

8. The Price of Marriage: Shifting Boundaries, Compromised Agency and the Effects of Globalization on Iklan Marriages: Annemarie Bouman    109
9. Debating Beauties: Contested and Changing Female Bodily Aesthetics of Fatness among the Tuareg:
Susan Rasmussen    125
10. Libya, the ‘Europe of Ishumar’: Between Losing and Reinventing Tradition: Ines Kohl    143
11. The Ishumar Guitar: Emergence, Circulation and Evolution, from the Diasporic Performances to the World Scene: Nadia Belalimat    155
12. Between the Worlds: Tuareg as Entrepreneurs in Tourism: Marko Scholze    171

PART IV: SAHARA: GLOBAL PLAYGROUND

13. Ambiguous Meanings of Ikufar and their Role in Development Projects: Sarah Lunacek 191
14. Resisting Imperialism: Tuareg Threaten US, Chinese and Other Foreign Interests: Jeremy Keenan 209

Glossary    231
Notes on the Contributors    235
Notes    239
References    275
Index    295