Chapter IV: The Organisation of the Air Tuareg (2)

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.]