TWAREG

Berber-speaking people of the Sahara, mostly in Algeria.

Twareg is an apparently non-Berber plural; the singular is targui or targi. Twareg (also Tuareg) call themselves, according to the region, amahagh, amaiagh, or amashagh, all reflexes of amazigh, the term more widely used for Berber in the rest of North Africa. It is estimated that there are 400,000 to 500,000 Twareg-language/dialect speakers. Most are fair-skinned Europids, although many are descendants of or mixed with negroid populations (of whom most were slaves). Twareg traditionally distinguish socially between the "noble" clans, camel nomads who in the past could range far and wide, wage war, and claim a share of the resources of groups they dominated (and whose protection they assured), and "vassal" clans, also nomadic but essentially herdsmen (mainly goats, but also camels belonging to the nobles, and cattle in some places), subjects of the noble clans. Other groups often are counted as Twareg, notably sedentary former slave populations (now primarily agriculturalists in the oases and artisans).

The requirements of modern states—fixed borders, schooling of children, control of territory and citizens—and the industrial exploitation of resources have placed extreme pressures on the nomadic existence and traditions dear to the Twareg. They nonetheless maintain such traditional cultural traits as a strong matrilineal principle (in much of their inheritance of property, succession to chieftainship, rights and obligations toward vassal groups, etc.) and the strict veiling of men (women, however, typically are not veiled).

see also berber.

thomas g. penchoen