NUTRITION
EATING AND DRINKING : TETATE ED TESASE
Bread, meat, water and milk are the basic elements of Imuhar (Tuareg) nomads’ diet. Normally, in the morning, adults drink only green tea with sugar. At noon, they eat bread dipped in milk and in the evening bread dipped in tomato sauce (sometimes with meat).
Aman iman, Ach isudar. – Water is life, milk nourishes.
This famous proverb of the Imuhar (Tuareg) describes the circumstances of the nomads very well. On the one hand, it points out to the geographic environment – the arid area -, where getting water plays an important role. On the other hand, it points out the economic situation, since milk is a basic food of livestock breeders.
BEVERAGES
WATER
Agelmam/ Water hole
The nomads get their drinking water from wells (anu) or water holes (agelmam). The water of the well is often clear but salty. The rainwater in the water holes is mostly flat and cloudy. Nevertheless, nomads prefer water out of water holes.
TRANSPORT
In times past, the nomads carried the water in a bag made of goat skin. Nowadays, they use the inner tube of a truck tire. Therefore, the water often tastes like rubber. If the water hole or well is nearby, then girls get the water with donkeys carrying it. If the water place is further away, men carry the water with camels back to the camp.
TEA
The nomads like to drink strong green tea with a lot of sugar. The tea is served in little glasses.
Preparation:
The tea is prepared by boiling three parts of water with one part of leaves. It is boiled in a little pot on an open fire. After boiling the tea for a long time, it is poured into another pot. Then at least one part of sugar is added. Now the tea is poured back and forth between the pot and a small cup until it is frothy. After the tea is warmed up, it is served in a little glass with a froth head. Nomads brew up the tea leaves at least once, mostly twice or more.
Making of froth
COFFEE
Nowadays, nomads drink sometimes coffee with sugar.
MILK
When arriving at a camp, guests of nomads get a cup of fresh goat milk. Milk is the basis of the diet among livestock breeders, because it serves as a beverage as well as a meal. Milk is meant for personal consumption only and is never sold. Spilling milk on the ground means bad luck. Women are responsible for the milk economy and therefore have power over the main element of subsistence. While milk of goats and sheep are processed into butter and cheese, camel milk serves only as a beverage. It is hardly possible to make butter or cheese out of camel milk.
MEALS
On the one hand, the nomads produce their own food like milk and meat. On the other hand they, acquire flour or dried tomatoes in the oases.
BUTTER PRODUCTION
Women fill the goat milk in a bag made of goat skin. They then shake the bag back and forth for about 30 minutes. The goat butter is liquid.
production of butter
CHEESE PRODUCTION
Imuhar women make dry cheese from goat milk. They use buttermilk and produce long-life cheese called Aules (Pl. Iwelsan). The cheese has the shape of a Camembert, but is very hard. It is a protein reserve for the summertime. The nomads crumble the cheese, mix it with water and pieces of dates and drink it in the summer season.
Production of buttermilk cheese (aules)
The cheese called Takkamart is made from fresh goat milk. This cheese has the shape of a very thin rectangle (about 10/20 cm). Women spread the fresh cheese on a straw mat and roll up the mat to squeeze all fluid out of the cheese. Afterwards, they dry the cheese in the sun. Mainly nomad women in Niger make this kind of cheese.
TAGELLA (Bread from the sand oven)
Imuhar (Tuareg) nomads do not cultivate crops. They buy flour in the villages. The woman kneads the dough, made of flour, salt and water, for about 30 minutes. In the meantime an open fire burns down. She then shifts the embers to the side and forms a little hole into the hot sand. Then she drops the dough into the hole and covers it with sand and ashes. About 30 minutes later she takes the baked bread out of the sand and cleans it. The nomad woman tears the bread into little pieces and adds milk, tomato sauce and/or butter. Nowadays, she sometimes adds vegetable oil.
SAUCE
The woman crushes the dried tomatoes in a mortar and boils the powder with salt and water in a pot. Meat is sometimes – but not every day – added to the sauce.
Tagella with tomato sauce
MEAT/INNARDS
Imuhar nomads usually eat cooked goat meat. They slaughter a goat and they boil the meat together with bones, innards and tomatoes in a pot. After boiling the meat, the nomad women put the head of the goat into the embers. The children eat the meat of the head the next morning.
ALMUFUF
Imuhar nomads grill the liver and the heart on the open fire. Then they cut the organs into small cubes and wrap the pieces in netlike peritoneum. In the end, they stick the cubes on a skewer hold them above the fire to grill them again. Almufuf is served as an appetizer.
CONSERVATION
If there is meat left, then the nomads hang the meat up on small trees to dry. Pieces of the dried meat are boiled in tomato sauce for dinner.
MEAT OF CAMELS
Nomads eat camel meat only at weddings. Women boil camel meat and men crush it in a mortar. Then the crushed meat is served with Tagella.
CONSUMPTION OF FOOD
Families eat together out of one bowl with a spoon. The nomad woman is responsible for the food supply and bakes two loaves of bread every day. The nomads can buy rice or pasta in the oases, but they prepare them very rarely. Sometimes, on a very cold winter morning, they prepare rice or pasta with milk for the children. If they have to prepare a meal quickly, usually after relocation, they make pasta or rice. But they generally prefer bread.
While a group of people sit around a bowl of Tagella, one person of them hands out the meat amongst those present. This person puts a piece in the bowl in front of each nomad. It is expected only to eat the tagella, which is in the bowl direct in front of oneself. If somebody puts the spoon into the bowl, then they signal that they will continue eating. If someone sticks the spoon into the sand, then they have finished their meal. A small family shares one bowl. Otherwise, the mother eats with the daughters and the father with the sons.
FEAST
Feasts and the meal for guests always consist of tagella with boiled goat meat and butter.
Lunch at a wedding
The more butter the women spread on the tagella, the more delicious the meal is to the nomads. The production of the butter is difficult and it therefore is a valuable good. The more butter a woman adds to the tagella, the closer she is related to the guest.
The preparation of a feast can last up to three hours. Neighbors help the host to prepare the meal. The women make the tagella with meat while young men select the pieces of meat. They make sure that the men and the male guests get the best pieces, even if women hand out the meat. If many nomads come together, women and men eat separately. About five persons share one bowl and one of them rations and hands out the pieces of meat. The women do the dishes with sand and a little bit of water.