ABSTRACT
Most Europeans who encountered the Tuareg in traditional times, and by ‘traditional’ I here include the period of colonial rule up to the time of Algerian independence in 1962, were impressed by the position of women in their society. European writers, moreover, were clearly taken by their beauty and elegance. Rene Gardi, for instance, the celebrated Swiss journalist who travelled amongst the Kel Ahaggar in the early 1950s, commented repeatedly on how ‘agreeable they were to the eye’. Such writers were also impressed by the prominent roles Tuareg women played in social life. Unlike the Arab societies to the north, Tuareg women, as Gardi remarked, ‘had a lot to say in the affairs of the tribe’. They took part in the discussions of men and, unlike their Arab counterparts, were neither veiled nor secluded.1 They owned slaves and livestock in their own right; the camp was their domain, and they were responsible for most of its affairs-the management of the goat herds, the preparation of food, the education of children, and many other aspects of its organisation; while even beyond the confines of the domestic environment they were the foci of much of social life. And in matters of love and marriage, Tuareg women had a freedom unknown amongst their Arab neighbours-a matter which greatly impressed Europeans who wrote about such customs extensively, but not always correctly. Women were also the ‘poets’ and musicians of society. Battles, raids, the valour of their men folk, other significant deeds and love stories were composed and recorded in verse and then recited in song to the accompaniment of their imzads.2 The news of an ahal, as these recitals were called, -would attract men from far afield, particularly when performed by an accomplished woman. For a young man, an ahal was an occasion of great social significance where he could court the girl of his fancy and pronounce his worth as a potential husband, while for a woman it was an opportunity to print her reputation indelibly on society. As the evening progressed, the intensity and tempo of the ahal increased until well into the night and early hours of the morning, with casual flirtations often giving way to the intimacies of mild love-making.
