Tuareg Moving Global

During the last decades Tuareg in the Sahara and the Sahel are forced more than ever to switsch between nomadic life and sedentarisation processes and they are pushed and pulled by international politics into transnational broder crossers without documents, nationalities or citizenships. Global economies, EU-sanctions, and several local and supra local political hegemony efforts turn the life of nomads in a pretty challenging situation. Going beyond traditional topics and getting rid of the historical and colonial burden, the book stresses recent multidimensional transformation processes which concern, strike, affect or even attack the Saharian population of nomads, residents and borderliners. Tuareg are a plural society in which one finds different strategies of living and acting, in which pastoral nomadism meets with all kinds of sedentary living, transnational movements strike with local state sanctions, tribal affiliation attack national loyalities and several strategies of agency elude supra-local influences, whereas others join the global process. To which extent are Tuareg moving global? How does their life in transition look like? What does globalisation mean for a tribal society spread over several countries, influenced by European, African and Arabian thoughts and posed a gateway between Maghreb and Sahel? The first three articles in part one - Where`s Saharan Anthropology Going to? - clarify new tendencies in Social Anthropology of the Sahara and concentrate on new approaches in a research of nomads. Anja Fischer examines the current state of nomads and discusses recent theoretic approaches in dealing with Sahara nomadism. Alexandra Guiffrida explores different categories and variations of mobility and stasis in Saharan and Sahelian Africa. Sebastian Lecocq deals with the question of the ways the cultural and social capital of pastoral nomads is decisively influential on the shape and outcome of their partaking in a globalising urban world. The second part - From Past to Present: Ongoing Discourses - connects historic aspects with recent changings in times of globalisation and leads to ongoing discourses in questions of slavery, social stratification and reactions of foreign influences. Gerd Spittler analyses the correlation of cloth and identity among the Kel Ewey. Dida Badi examines the traditional social stratification and shows to which extent changing land rights have imputs on social strata. Benedetta Rossi gives a detailed overview on the status of Iklan, the former slaves, and focuses on transformations of social hierarchies from 1850 to today. The third part of the book - Gender, Norms and Values - deals with changing norms and values. Annemarie Bouman focuses upon marriages and marriage payments among Iklan in Burkina Faso. Susan Rasmussen explores changing concepts of the body, in particular the female fatness aesthetic or "beauty ideal" among Tuareg in Mali. Part four - Life in Transition - deals with several examples of globalisation in the Sahara and clarifies the multifarious aspects of a Saharan life in transition. Ines Kohl deals with the attractiveness of Libya for impoverished Ishumar from Mali and Niger. Nadia Belalimat considers aspects of globalisation focusing the musical style "al guitara". Marko Scholze shows how the Kel Tamasheq are getting actively involved in tourism and on which strategies and resources they rely to succeed. The last part of the book - Sahara Global Playground - faces the above describes circumstances that the Sahara and Sahel region is getting more and more a playground for global players. Sarah Lunacek describes the relations of Kel Tamasheq with Europeans and the ambiguous meanings, images and perceptions of the so called Ikufar, Kel Tamasheq have constructed. Jeremy Keenan finally deals with the recent problematic situation in the Sahara and the broken out rebellion in February 2007 in the north of Niger.