Chapter V: The Tuaregs (2)

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Last of all, led by the slaves, come the pack-saddle animals, guarded by the warriors, who protect them from pillage, of which there is always more or less danger in the desert.

The site of the new encampment reached, tents and furniture are unladed, and all is arranged as it was before. The same kind of life as that already described begins again, and goes on without interruption for weeks or even for months, according to the fertility of the district.

Of course all this refers only to times of peace, but amongst the Ihaggaren constantly, and amongst the imrads more rarely, but still pretty often, war, with its many complications, breaks out and upsets everything.

Amongst nomad tribes constant struggle with others is all but a necessity of existence. In certain dry seasons pasturage is alike meagre and innutritious, but the flocks and herds must have food, hence perpetual disputes and quarrels, in which the Amenokal, when there is one, often intervenes to prevent bloodshed if the would-be belligerents are of the same confederation.

If, however, there is no central authority to preserve order the quarrel spreads and becomes general. This was the original cause of the feud between the Awellimiden and the Hoggars of the north, as well as with the Kel Gheres on the west, a feud which has been going on uninterruptedly from time immemorial.

In time of war the _imrad_ or worker suffers but little. Everything is, in fact, so settled by tradition amongst the Tuaregs that even a battle is more like a set of quadrilles than anything else.

To begin with, there is generally a palaver, and when all attempts to patch up the quarrel have failed resort is had to arms. The disputants separate, having fixed a time for their meeting, and on the day and at the place agreed upon the two armies or _attabu_ are drawn up as in a mediæval tournament.

The forces advance in closely serried battalions. Sometimes the Tuareg fights on horseback, but as a rule he prefers to meet his foe on foot. The combatants hurl defiance at each other and rush shouting to the fray. Spears are flung at a distance of some fifty feet, but they are pretty well always caught on the shields of those at whom they are hurled.

Meanwhile the confusion rapidly increases; the chiefs now begin to challenge each other to single combat, and it is no unusual thing for the two armies to cease hostilities with one accord to watch the issue of the struggle between the leaders. Spears, no longer of any use, are flung aside, the dagger and sword taking their place, and gleaming in the sunshine as they are raised against the foe. Blood begins to flow copiously on either side. Here two warriors are holding each other at bay at arms’ length, each trying to pierce his adversary’s heart with his sword; there two others are locked in a murderous embrace, stabbing at each other with their daggers, or trying to crack each other’s skulls with the stone amulet alluded to above.

At last one side wavers, inferior in strength or in numbers to the other. The warriors begin to flee, and the victors shout, “_Ia! ia! Our adellin rour’ onen imzaden!_” (“Ah! ah! There will be no violins for you!”) And this sarcasm, which means that their wives will be angry and scorn them, often so stings the fugitives that they rally and go back to the struggle, eager to win the praises of their women on their return to their tents.

In these battles life is taken without pity or remorse; but, as I have already said, when the victory is won the prisoners are spared. I have even been told by several very trustworthy authorities, that when peace is made on the request of one side or the other, the victors will entirely reclothe the prisoners taken before sending them home.

War, however, amongst the Tuaregs generally takes the form of raids, such as those in vogue with the Arabs.

Dangerous as are these raids, they offer the advantage of taking the enemy by surprise, and meeting him face to face instead of being attacked in the rear. Moreover, the profit if victorious is immediate, and the booty often considerable.

There is plenty of scope in them too for individual courage and for skill in stratagem, promptitude in attack, and for showing off what they greatly admire, the military virtues of endurance under privation, knowledge of the country to be traversed, and so on.

Here I must just add, by way of parenthesis, that one of the chief charges brought against the Tuaregs, that of being treacherous, is the result of this habit of theirs of falling unawares upon their foe. I really cannot blame them, however, for are not surprises and night attacks amongst the tactics of European armies, and does any one dream of attaching dishonour to them?

Military regulations deal with them quite openly, only stipulating that they should not be attempted except with very well-disciplined troops, who are thoroughly in hand. All the more honour then to the Tuaregs that this is their usual way of going to work.

What I may call these hunting expeditions are greatly facilitated, if not altogether necessitated, by the very nature of a nomad life. The preparations are made with the greatest secrecy, and only the sturdiest walkers and the best horsemen are allowed to take part in them. The party, never very large, numbering at the most a hundred, if the way is long as it often is, starts preceded by guides, who lead the _razzia_ by the least frequented route. The most important point to be kept in view is the position of the various wells by the way, for on a knowledge of this essential detail success chiefly depends.

Gliding silently between the encampments of the enemy on the frontiers, the Tuaregs in which are always on the alert, for their exposed situation makes them watchful, the marauding expedition flings itself suddenly upon the _amezzar_ or tribe chosen. The greatest skill is needed to take the enemy unawares, and sometimes all the precautions are in vain, for those attacked have had warning beforehand, but not in time to send couriers out to summon their friends to their aid.

The men then all take to flight, but the women remain, for though the men who resist are slain, no Tuareg would stain his hands with the blood of a defenceless woman; the flocks and herds with the camels are hastily hidden in the bush, but the assailants, or _imihagen_ as they are called, know how to find and collect them.

The next thing to do is to carry off the booty before those pillaged or the _imihagen_ come back to avenge themselves, for they meanwhile have not been inactive, but by means of messengers, or by fires lit on the tops of the dunes, have let their relations know of their need. A column is quickly formed, and starts in pursuit of the raiders.

It is their turn now to have to flee for their lives. The big camels used as beasts of burden and the flocks and herds hamper their march. If they do not get a good start they are often overtaken, and being far less numerous than those they have robbed they have to pay dearly for their audacity.

The pursuing column now shows considerable skill in getting ahead of the raiders, and awaiting them at some well or pond which they must pass, they there in their turn fall suddenly upon the enemy.

The marauders are by this time weary, whilst the robbed are fresh and in first-rate positions. The robbers are dying of thirst; their enemies have drank their fill at their ease.

One such _razzia_ succeeds another, until at last one party to the quarrel is worn out and sues for peace, a marabout acting as intermediary. Innumerable palavers now take place, the Tuareg warriors holding forth to the assembled crowds in long speeches, for they are as anxious to show off their eloquence as they are jealous of their reputation for military skill. A truce is finally patched up, and though it never lasts long it serves as an excuse for a feast, in which, by the way, the Tuaregs, who are naturally frugal and abstemious, rarely indulge.

Children are very kindly treated in Tuareg camps. Except to compel the girls to empty the bowls of the curdled milk, the drinking of which makes them fat, they are never beaten. As soon as they can stand alone the little boys are taught to fling the spear, small weapons suited to their size being specially made for them. The father looks after the martial education of his sons, whilst the mother teaches the girls to work leather, to sing, and to read the written characters I have already described. This is how it comes about that women can generally decipher inscriptions more readily than men.

A strange custom prevails with regard to inheritance, not only amongst the Tuaregs but in other African tribes, and that is, the nephew is the heir of the uncle, not the son of the father. The child of an _imrad_ woman is a serf, and the son of a slave is a slave no matter whether the father is a free man or not. “It is the womb which gives to the child its complexion,” say the Tuaregs. It is the law of Beni-Omia.

The great Awellimiden tribes, however, repudiate this custom, saying that it reflects unfairly upon the virtue of their women. “One is always sure to be the son of one’s mother,” they say, “but not of one’s father. That is why a race less noble than our own have adopted the custom of inheritance from uncle to nephew. They are sure that in the veins of the latter flows the blood of the former.”

The rest of the Tuaregs, however, who have always been noted for their gallantry, date the origin of the so-called Beni-Omia law from Gheres, the father of the Kel Gheres.

Gheres, they say, had a wife named Fatimata Azzer’a, and a sister called Gherinecha. Each of them had a son; the child of the former was called Ituei, that of the latter, R’isa.

Now Gheres, feeling old age gaining on him, wished to prove his wife. He pretended he was ill, and went to consult an old sorcerer who dwelt in a hut on a lofty dune, from which he never came down into the plains. There was no well there, and the sorcerer had neither sheep nor oxen nor camels, none knew what he drank or what he ate.

On his return to his camp after his visit to the sorcerer, Gheres sent for his wife and said to her—“Woman, thou alone canst cure me. My days are numbered unless I can anoint my body with magic ointment made from the brains of a child. Give me thy son.”

“My son is mine,” replied Fatimata; “I have had the trouble of bearing and rearing him. It is true I love thee next to him, but even if thy life depend on it, I will not have him die.”

The chief then sent for Gherinecha and made the same demand of her as he had of his wife.

“After thee, my brother,” she said, “I love R’isa best. But if God inflicts on me the anguish of choosing between thee and him, I choose. Take thou the child, do as the sorcerer bids thee, and may Allah protect thee.”

So Gheres hid his nephew in the bush, killed a kid, took its brains, rubbed his body with them and returned to his camp, where he summoned his relations and subjects to appear before him. He then told the story of what he pretended had happened, and everybody admired the devotion of Gherinecha. Then he called for the child—who had been brought in unperceived under the cloak of a slave—and presented him to the assembled crowds, saying, “Behold my heir and my successor. As my sister loves me more than my wife does, it is but just that after my death my sister’s son should inherit my wealth and my rights.”

The Ben-Omia law has at least had the good result where it is enforced of preserving the purity of the Tuareg blood, for the son of a black slave woman would be and remain a slave all his life, no matter how great the power or how high the lineage of his father.

Amongst the Awellimiden, on the other hand, that is to say, amongst the three chief tribes, the Kel Kumeden, the Kel Ahara, and the Kel Tedjiuane, which dominate the rest of the Confederation, this system has not been observed, with the result that the complexions of the Awellimiden have been notably darkened by the admixture of negro blood.

The Tuaregs are extremely superstitious, and I have already alluded to the number of charms with which they deck themselves.

The Demons or _Alchinen_ play a great part amongst them, and are looked upon as almost human. They are supposed to inhabit the mountains, camping on them, and living a life very much like that of the Tuareg tribes themselves. They have their own quarrels, their own wars, and they too make raids on each other. They are, however, endowed with the power of becoming invisible, and they come unseen to take and to drink the milk of the cows belonging to the Tuaregs. “Beware,” say the Tuaregs, “when you are out at night that you do not run against an _alchin_ (the singular of _alchinen_). You will see nothing at the time, but the next morning when you wake you will find that your foot is sore and you cannot walk. You have trodden on the foot of a demon.”

In spite of the undoubted courage of the Tuaregs, they hate the idea of death. They do not say of any one who has died, “He is dead,” but _Aba_, he has disappeared. It is a sign of very bad breeding to speak of a dead relative or even to pronounce his name. He must be alluded to only as _mandam_, or such an one. None but the descendants of an illustrious chief or the sons of an Amenokal tolerate any allusion to their ancestors, in which case pride is stronger than superstition.

We came in contact on our journey with the two great Confederations of the Igwadaren and the Awellimiden; the former, as we have seen, are a prey to anarchy and they rob traders, but their importance is almost _nil_.

It is very different with the Awellimiden. I do not of course deny that certain tribes are dangerous to travellers; for frequent revolts against the central authority occur, and during our stay at Say the Cheibatan tried to shake off the suzerainty of the Amenokal, but they were cruelly punished by Madidu and his nephew Djamarata.

As a rule, however, the protection promised by a chief can be depended on, and for this reason the Awellimiden will certainly be the first Tuaregs whom we shall be able to induce to lead a more civilized life.

True Awellimiden, or direct descendants from Lemta, are few. They include at present three tribes, the Kel Kumeden, the Kel Ahara, and the Kel Tedjucane. The Amenokal or principal chief is always a member of the first-named, and inherits in the usual order of primogeniture in these districts, that is to say, the brothers reign in succession according to age, then the son of the eldest, and so on.

It is, however, open to the Confederation to depart from this rule, and the Amenokal is not regularly invested with authority until the consent of the assembled Ihaggaren has been given. But it is a very rare thing for an exception to be made, and the right of veto, though it has been used, is seldom exercised.

The predecessor of Madidu was Alimsar, who had succeeded his brother El Khotab, the protector of Barth. I transcribe below the genealogy of the descendants of El Khotab and Alimsar just as it was given to me.

Here too is a list of the tribes making up the Awellimiden Confederation, with the names of their present chiefs.

THE NOBLE OR IHAGGAREN TRIBES.

SERFS OR IMRADS.

To these tribes making up the actual Confederation must be added the following, who were brought into it by force, and have long since submitted with a good grace to be under the protection of the Awellimiden:

Subject to each of these last-named tribes are _imrads_, but I only know the name of one of their tribes, that of the Ekono, vassals of the Wadalen.

In addition to their predatory excursions the Tuaregs on the right and left bank of the Niger make two annual migrations, the time of which is generally the same.

During the dry season, from December to May, the higher districts are sterile and dry, the ponds and wells empty of water. Then the Tuaregs move down to the river-banks and their flocks and herds graze on the coarse weeds which line them. To avoid the sickness amongst the camels which results from eating damp food, and to which I alluded in speaking of Timbuktu, they generally leave them a little further inland. It is at this time that the negroes pay their tribute of maize and tobacco, and it is also during this same season that warlike expeditions are generally undertaken.

For the rest of the year the rain pours down in torrents in the riverside districts, and although its fall is not so constant or so heavy in the higher lands, they too are fertilized by the filling up of the ponds and the wells, many of which even overflow.

Then the nomad tribes go back again to their old haunts, and settle down for the winter in their camps about the wâdies, resembling those of Algeria, which begin near Gao.

These wâdies are such very characteristic features of Central Africa, that a description of one of them may be useful. The word _wâdy_ means the channel of a watercourse which is dry except in the rainy season, but there is water in the upper portion of that of Gao in every season. Its source is far away in the north, and it seems to be identical with the Igharghar of the south, alluded to by Duveyrier, the Astapus of the ancients, which comes down from the Atakor or Ahaggar.

This would confirm Barth’s suggestion, that the marshy depressions which debouch on the Ngiti Sokoto do not extend beyond the district of Air.

My own opinion is that the Gao Wâdy, before it became choked up with sand, was a tributary of the Niger when the course of that river was far more rapid than it is now.

An examination of its banks does in fact lead to the conclusion, that nearly if not quite all along them a line of cliffs, eroded by the action of water, marks what was once the bed of part of the old Niger. In their annual migration the Awellimiden go up as far as the districts near Air, where they come in contact with their enemies the Kel Gheres. Probably competition for the ownership of the pasturages yielding food in the dry season, was the original cause of the feud between the two races, which dates from centuries ago.

The tribes from the left bank of the Niger also move into the kind of islet formed by the bend of the river, advancing to near Dori, where they find a series of ponds and lakes known as Oursi Beli, etc., an idea of which I have tried to give in the map accompanying this volume, but I do not know how far I have succeeded.

There are many very curious and interesting hydrographical problems connected with this bend of the Niger reserved for the future explorer to solve.

Well, what do my readers think of the Tuaregs after the picture I have endeavoured to give of them? I certainly have not represented them as saints, living in a kind of Utopia, where all is well, where the men have no vices and the women no faults.

You will perhaps, however, agree with me that they have very decided characters, and many fine qualities, if also many defects. Their intelligence is certainly great, making it well worth while to try and win them to a better mode of life, and one more conducive to the comfort of their neighbours.

I do not of course fail to recognize what hard work it is to row against the current or to contend against pre-conceived ideas. It is always difficult, and sometimes dangerous.

In 1859 a young Frenchman, not more than twenty years old at the most, disembarked at Constantine. He spent three years travelling about the Algerian Sahara, and under the powerful protection of the Emir Ikhenukhen, chief of the Azguers, he lived for more than a year amongst the Tuaregs.

After his return an expedition was sent out by the Governor of Algeria, and the treaty of Rhadamès was signed.

Then, in accordance with the traditional French policy in matters colonial, instead of profiting by the results already acquired, absolutely nothing further was done. Duveyrier described the Tuaregs as he had found them, just as I have tried to do; he spoke quite frankly of their faults as well as of their virtues, and insisted on the possibility of treating with them on favourable terms. He might well do so, for he had already succeeded in that direction himself.

When twenty years later Flatters was assassinated, Duveyrier was accused of mendacious optimism, and every one was ready to cast a stone at him.

As a matter of fact, however, Flatters was killed by the Hoggars, and Duveyrier had mentioned that they were living in a state of anarchy, which seemed likely to get worse and worse rather than to improve. Flatters insisted on going through their territory, although the Amrar had told him he could not protect him. Now Duveyrier had made a special point of never going into any district without first securing an efficacious safe-conduct, yet in spite of all this he is made responsible for the disaster.

A fitting epilogue ensued, for Duveyrier, disquieted at the accusations brought against him, weakened by fever contracted in his journey, and cut to the heart by the ingratitude of his fellow-countrymen, committed suicide by shooting himself with his revolver, in the hope perchance of finding the justice denied him here in another world, if there be indeed such a thing as justice anywhere.

The English would have made him a peer, and put up statues in his honour; the ignorance of the French, I will not use a harsher word, drove him to commit suicide.

The example is certainly not encouraging to us later explorers.

I should have been more likely to win applause if I had pictured the Tuaregs as irreclaimable savages, relating a thousand entanglements with them, such as imaginary conflicts with their armed bands, where my own presence of mind and the courage of my party saved the expedition from massacre.

I have preferred in the interests of my country to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Even as I write these words, I hear of the death of two young officers and their men, who were killed near Timbuktu in a fight with a Hoggar razzi. The Hoggars again!

This does but confirm what I insisted on when I was at Timbuktu, that we shall never succeed in getting _en rapport_ with the nomad tribes except with the aid of those tribes themselves.

We must first subjugate certain tribes, and then form from amongst them auxiliary levies, or, as the natives call them, _maghzen_, which will aid us, at a minimum cost to ourselves, to establish French influence over the Tuaregs.

Amongst the tribes who would best lend themselves to this purpose, I place the Awellimiden in the very first rank, and they are the hereditary enemies of the Hoggars. Or perhaps I should rather have said, if we wish to bring about a complete pacification of the country, and at the same time win the friendship of the Awellimiden chief, we ought to strengthen his hands.

With this idea in my mind I make the following suggestions. We should arm the Awellimiden with a hundred or a couple of hundreds of percussion rifles, with very large nipples, which would only admit of the use of special caps turned out in French manufactories.

With one hundred such guns the Awellimiden would be invincible, and could soon butcher all their enemies, whether Kel Gheres or Hoggars.

The absolute necessity of having French percussion caps would place them entirely in our hands, and by doling out the ammunition needed little by little, we should force them to submit to and serve us. We should, moreover, have it in our power to break up their strength directly they showed any reluctance to fall in with our wishes.

In return for a service such as this supply of fire-arms, the Amenokal would protect our traders; he has already in fact promised to do so, not only by word of mouth but in writing.

These traders must, however, act with prudence and circumspection. I am quite convinced that I and my companions might fearlessly return to the Awellimiden because they know us now. I have suggested to our Government that we should return, but I have not been more successful in that direction than I have in getting the rifles I asked for.

Strangers must not attempt with a light heart to penetrate into the Tuareg districts, without having secured the formal protection of the chief.

What would you have? When a Grand Duke announces his intention of visiting the wine-shops of the outlying boulevards, don’t we always take care to send an _habitué_ of those boulevards with him to look after him? A _Jaume_ or a _Rossignol_[8] is always in attendance. And if a protector is useful in Paris, can we not well understand that one would be indispensable in the Sahara?

When Madidu has once said to a traveller “Yes, come,” or “You can go,” I am convinced that no danger would be run in the districts subject to him.

With the Awellimiden on our side we could conquer the Sahara, and the Tuaregs would help us to push on towards Lake Tchad, Air, Tunis and Algeria. He would find it to his own advantage to do so, and the conditions of his existence would be manifestly ameliorated.

Do you imagine that these Tuaregs are stupid enough to miss a chance of getting stuffs for clothes, coverlids, glass beads, and all the things they covet? If the men were sufficiently blind to their own interests, I’ll warrant you their wives would not be.

The Tuareg race will be tamed at last, their faults, all the result of the fierce struggle for existence, will disappear, and modern civilization will have conquered a new district in Africa!

One afterthought does, however, occur to me. Will the change be a good thing for the Tuaregs themselves?

When I think of their wandering life, free from all restraint, when I remember their courage, which to them is the highest of virtues, when I consider how truly equal all those worthy of equality are, I ask myself whether after all they are not happier than we Europeans?

Their life is a hard one, and their habits are frugal, but has not custom made this life natural to them, and are they really sensible of its privations?

Good fortune with them is the reward of the brave who know how to win the victory, and it is in _razzis_ that the victory is gained. To spoil the vanquished is also to wash out the stain of an hereditary injury, for the vendetta is not confined to Italy, but often makes friendship impossible between certain tribes in Africa. The goods of him who perishes by the sword are the property of the wielder of that sword, and the death of the vanquished avenges some pillaged or massacred ancestor, as well as enriches the conqueror.

A rough rendering is given below of the _Song of R’Otman_, quoted by Duveyrier, who justly calls it the Tuareg _Marseillaise_, which is chanted in defiance of the Chambas by the Azgueurs, who are their hereditary enemies.

Death to thy mother! Ma’atalla the devil is in thee!

Call’st thou the Tuaregs traitors, the men of the plain?

Ha! but they know how to travel, to fight in the battle,

Sally at morn and return in the evening again!

Aye, and they know how to fall on the enemy sleeping—

Sleeping at ease in the tent with his flocks at his side,

Lapped in his fine woollen garments, his curtains and carpets

Spreading full length in the shade of the canopy wide.

What though with milk newly-drawn from the udders of camels,

What though with meat and with butter his paunch he has filled,

Straight as a nail to the ground pins the lance of the victor,

Out with a shriek and a yell flies the soul of the killed!

Sunk in despair lies the heart-broken wife of the victim,

Scattered and vanished their goods like as water o’erspilled!

Wild manners truly do these lines describe, but they also express proud and heroic sentiments. What will the Tuaregs gain by their transformation into civilized people?

In a few centuries, where the tents of the Amezzar are pitched there will be permanent towns. The descendants of the Ihaggaren of the present day will be citizens. There will be nothing about them to remind their contemporaries of the wild knights of the desert.

No more will they go to war; no more will they lead _razzis_ to ravage the camps of their neighbours, for they will have given up pillage altogether; but perhaps in a bank, which will take the place of the tent of their Amenokal, they will try to float rotten companies, and mines which exist nowhere but in the imagination of their chiefs. What will they be then? Not pillagers but thieves!

Truth to tell, I think I prefer my marauders, who fall on their prey like the lion Ahar!

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French enterprise in AfricaChapter V: The Tuaregs (2)

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