ABSTRACT
At the time of Algerian independence in 1962, an estimated 90 per cent of the Kel Ahaggar were living a predominantly nomadic existence.1 I lived with the Kel Ahaggar for much of that decade, and when I left in 1971 I estimated that as many as half of them had either settled or were in the process of sedentarising. I did not return to Ahaggar again until 1999. When I arrived in Tamanrasset, the region’s administrative capital, one of the first things I was told was that there were no more nomads. A few of the older townspeople, who remembered me and guessed that I would want to return to the Dag Rali camps in which I had once spent much time, assured me that the Dag Rali were all now living in town (Tamanrasset) or the surrounding villages. To see for myself, I walked across Atakor, the central mountains of Ahaggar, which was once the home of the Dag Rali and heart of the Kel Ahaggar’s domain. A Tuareg, who accompanied me to my departure point, described Atakor as un terrain abandonné. He was right. I saw no sign or sound of human life, save for the marks of abandoned campsites and the other telltale signs of former human habitation. It was a sad and moving experience, especially as I repeatedly came across the sites of Dag Rali camps in which I had stayed. Today, the Dag Rali are all settled and living in villages such as Tagmart, Terhenanet, Hirafok and Ifrak.2 A few live in Tamanrasset itself. If there is good pasture, their goats may be taken up into the mountains for a few days at a time. A few camels are also to be found grazing there. But otherwise, these mountains have become eerily desolate.
