Tuareg: Kel Tamasheq, the People Who Speak Tamasheq and a History of the Sahara

(Paperback)

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Romanticised by nineteenth-century explorers as mysterious people of the veil, but with a reputation too as fearsome warriors, the Tuareg have been guardians of the Sahara for over one thousand years. Surviving in one of the most pitiless and inhospitable terrains on earth, they controlled the lucrative caravan trading routes until nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonization followed by twenty-first century global politics and the rise of political Islam, jihadism and terrorism fragmented their society and way of life.And yet the unique and distinctive Tuareg culture, with its ancient Tifinagh script and traditions of proverbs, poetry and song and strict behavioural codes, survives despite pressures on a proud race.With an introduction by Robin Hanbury-Tenison, a preface by Justin Marozzi, and contributions from Ghoubeid Alojaly, Edmond Bernus,Suzanne Bernus, Henrietta Butler, Pierre Boilley, Henri Delord,Jean-Marc Durou, Berny Sebe, Akli Shkka and Jeremy Swift The photographer Henrietta Butler has masterminded and edited this volume and the accompanying uareg exhibition in London at The Royal Geographical Society in June 2015www.tuaregtime.co.uk She has assembled a team of renowned experts whose common theme is above all their passionate interest in these marginalised peoples who find their way of life and culture now so challenged.

Author Bio

Henrietta Butler first met the Tuareg in Niger in 2001 when as a Guardian photographer she covered the Cure Salee near Air, the Tuareg region of North Niger. She returned for the 1st Festival of Air in 2001 and has continued to return to the area as well as the region of Algeria for the past 14 years, with a necessary hiatus in 2007 following the Niger Tuareg's second rebellion. Henrietta last visited Niger in 2013 for the9th Festival of Air which had been zoned off and put under tight military surveillance with only a handful of westerners present.In 2001 she shared the exhibition Desert Nomads with Sir Wilfred Thesiger, also curating his photographs for this. As a freelance photographer, Henrietta Butler has worked for the BBC, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Opera House, and many other theatre and opera companies, and as a documentary stills photographer for Oxford Film and TV. She has also done feature stories for The Independent on Saturday Magazine and The Sunday Times Magazine. She is represented by Arena/PAL and Camera Press.