TOUAREGS _ L'unique peuple NOMADE au cœur du Sahara ⎮ Documentaire civilisation ⎮ AMP

Asouf. Nostalgia. The evil of the country. The Tuaregs above all love their space. To be far from the camp, from these beasts, to no longer listen in the dawn to the whining of the chameleons, is a pain. The infinite horizon, the caravan's pachaloupé, the indigo of the outfits, the fresh taste of milk, the wind and the foam of the tea, the pride of the ladies or the colors of the sands, mark in an indelible way the nomad and the attentive traveler. To have rested in their territory, I love these communities and their harsh universe that nothing could replace. Asouf is my homeland. I was born and raised here. Africa and the Sahara fascinate me since childhood. In 1982, I approach the desert for the first time. It is the beginning of a long history, of a passion for a space and its inhabitants. The Tuaregs, who populate these immensities, guide herds and chameleon caravans, they hover in vast territories that, by force of tenacity and courage, they have mastered. I took a taste for the harshness of their life, to the boundless horizons. I endured the harshness of the sun to better appreciate the minutes of twilight and the tea that accompanies them. I weaved there unbreakable bonds of friendship, braved the bans to visit the perilous areas, multiplied the back and forth. Finally, I wanted to offer this tribune in order to carry a contemporary speech relayed by artists and personalities in search of a stable future. I would like to tell you a magical story. It is true, it is true. Minute by minute, day by day, day by day, I am going to tell you what I am going to tell you. I invite the Malians, the Malian officials, the Malian political officials, to try to manage in an honorable way what is happening in the north. This documentary is an attempt, like a step in a construction site, to try, after visiting the people of the desert, to listen to those who have taken a step aside to move away from the humble caravan. The territory of the Tuaregs is endless, shared between Mali and Algeria, Libya, but also Niger and Burkina Faso. These veiled men resisted the French colonial power before being integrated into the new states born of the independence. The recent history is a series of revolts with uncertain outcomes. Long misrepresented in the Sahelian countries, the Tuaregs took up arms to try to improve their conditions. At every stroke of luck, Libya was the final destination of the exiles. There they were able to learn the trade of arms and, through the guitar, share a word of resistance. The Ischoumar movement, the French Choumeur, was launched. In the summer of 2012, I returned to Gaddes, one of the Tuareg capitals in northern Nigeria. The region is relatively quiet, but in recent years, the risks of displacement, groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, have persisted, and the city is deserted by visitors. Everything is calm, where many professionals' hotels are empty, tourist agencies are closed, and the old town, except for the small Koranic schools, is very quiet. Spread along the borders of the five states, the Tuareg mountain concentrates its bastions in northern Mali and here, in the heart of Nigerian Sahara. A whole divided into powerful confederations, even divided into tribes or fractions. Extensive breeders, chameleon oasians, agro-pastors, guides, artists, blacksmiths, a rich and dynamic universe in the complementary areas of the desert-arid Sahelian steppe. I am here with the address book of the French stylist Catherine Prado to meet the artisans and blacksmiths who work with her. The Tuareg artisan can be of great quality and the creator has met Moroccans and jewelers. It is true that what I liked about this artisan, which for me is an artisan, is that it is a cultural artisan. The very essence of the Tuareg culture is found in the artisan, whether it is the work with women or the work with men, it doesn't matter. We find these skills, these techniques, which are close to the techniques of the artisans of couture. It is a meticulous work. It is gold leaf, people who have gold between their fingers. The patterns that we had put on the bustiers are the patterns of Agadez, the Tindim, red, green and orange. We were the ones who brought it. When she saw it, she said, this decoration will be beautiful on the bustiers. She made the template and I made it. In the family of Alassane Agdjidjiri, Catherine Prado's Moroccan women and children work with leather and iron or silver forging by syruping the tea. Catherine, this is for you. This is for you. Women educate children. Women are the center of man. They are the pillars of society. Women decide everything. Women cook. Women teach. Women are princesses in their tent, while respecting their society. Women are the center of man. They are the pillars of society. Women are the center of man. Women are the center of society. Women are the center of society. We need all of you to help us. Want to say that this is a very good to help more family members becomes part of this society. So, we will work together We are not aware of it. To be aware of it, for example, to avoid all that is not good. This is an education that exists in the history of the Torah. Once you reach the age of 13 or 14, you begin to avoid all the things that are not good. To talk about things that are not good in front of people. To eat in front of people in a way that is not very respected. To walk in front of people in a way that is not correct. To dress in front of people in a way that is not good. This is called failure. And to look at everything that is next to you. For example, all the people who are older than you or all those who are younger than you. For example, when you are next to children, you are very careful about what you speak and do. And when you are with the elderly who are older than you, you are very careful. But when you are with people who are the same age as you, you have a little freedom because it is your age. So all this is called failure. And you are very careful about women. It means that the woman is not because she is mature that you pay attention to her. In general, anyone who fails, any woman, you pay attention to her. The woman belongs to the woman. And when she is divorced, she leaves with her children under the tree. And we also have divorces. When a woman is divorced, her family, friends and cousins have a big party to make men jealous. And the other men come around her. And so if her husband still loves her, he will send the family so that she comes back. That's why in Tuareg we have divorces. We Tuareg women, we are free. We are without borders. Where we are, we have our place, we have our freedom. Originally from Tombouctou, Mali, Mama is settled in Belgium. Singer, chorist, she plays the Tendé and participates in several Tuareg formations. She accompanies the guitarist Anana Agaroun with the band Kelesouf. In 2012, he created Tendé Diswat, a more traditional ensemble dedicated to women's voices. For me, I grew up in the West. But there is this Tuareg side. You can go anywhere in the world. When you meet a Tuareg, he will tell you I am Tuareg from Niger, or I am Tuareg from Mali. But there is this identity aspect. You are Tuareg, it's your meaning, it's your identity. The blue man, the caravans, when you come back, you meet human beings. It's not just qualities and flaws. But there is always, I know that in all the Tuaregs I have met, this identity aspect is even stronger. First of all, we are here in this environment that has a pride, that has a strong culture. And that keeps fighting for its freedom. Whether you are an intellectual, a cadre, a fighter, a raiser. There is always this spirit that we all have in this environment, to say to ourselves, I need to stay in this region. I need to cross my valley, which belonged to my tribe, to my faction, to my tent. This is where we set up our tents, this is where my parents settled. We always want to visit, revisit and come back to this magnificent space. The suffering in the desert is not a suffering for me. Because it is a suffering that I accepted. I had the opportunity to go elsewhere, to do other things. But this suffering, I accepted it. So finally, you see it as a community, it is a suffering, but for me it is not a suffering. So this is the link between me and the desert. There is this freedom that remains in itself, that is to say, to have your valley, to have your hill, to move when you want, to get up when you want, without any constraints. It is a kind of nostalgia, it is a kind of freedom that the Noma Touareg that they have always defended. And this is what makes that as soon as the space shrinks, they rise up against those who try to sit on them. Rissa Ixa is a painter, Touareg of Malian origin. He has been living in Niamey for many years. His approach is original. Naive painter, he is also a brilliant all-in-all and his political positions are divided. The colonial borders are the source of many conflicts and the Touareg must recover a dignified space. Above all, we are always focused on colonization. So all this is colonization that is going to look at this, not the Touareg. The Touareg will only look at their rights with weapons. With weapons. So we know that everything that the Touareg is doing now is not only to gain independence but to really show that they have rights in the government. One day, there must be a territory of the Touareg in the Sahara. If ever we manage to put together all the rights and then declare the same thing, the area where we are today, and then we put it in one country, I am sure it can go fast. It won't take much time. If we declare an occupation of the whole Hogar area, plus the air, plus the north of Mali, and all three of us agree on what we put in one country, we choose the capital among the three regions, and then we put in front of us a single person, I am sure it will go fast today. In January 2012, in the north of Mali, the MNLA, the National Liberation Movement of Azawad, reinforced by the fall of the Libyan regime who demobilized Tuareg fighters, went on the offensive and swept away the Malian army in three months. But unprepared, lacking charismatic military personnel, financially exhausted, sometimes naive, the MNLA will lose one by one its septentrional bastions in favor of the jihadist narco-groups. ACMI, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the MUJAO, a movement for the unicity of the jihad in West Africa, and Ansardin, the defenders of the faith of the Tuareg leader dissident Iyad Aghrali, will push the MNLA to lay obedience and impose Sharia. On the banks of the Niger River, I try to apprehend this situation that prevails in 2012, with the strong presence of jihadist fronts in the north of Mali. We had explained to some countries in the region and to Westerners before what is happening now. We had explained that if we do not find a solution and that there is a military intervention of the Tuareg and the MNLA on the ground, there will be everyone, there will be Salafists, there will be all these groups. And finally, they did not shout to this message and we cannot continue to keep officers, fighters, surrounded while there is no political background behind. And then there is a provocation by the Malian army which is directed towards the MNLA, not towards the terrorist groups. Before, these terrorist groups were partners, allies of some military officers and some leaders who were in Koulouba. Today we see that there are terrorist groups that existed and some took advantage of the situation to equip themselves. And this is not a secret for anyone. And then there is also a group that formed just behind, which formed mostly Tuaregs, which is actually directed militarily towards the MNLA and which said at the beginning that its objective was to gradually recover Tuaregs who found themselves in the groups, in the different kathibat of Aqmi and of Mijao. So we shouted a lot to this policy, in any case towards Aqmi to gradually recover all the citizens of the regions of Gaout, it was a good thing. The delicacy of the Malian state, the presence of Islamist fighters and drug traffickers encouraged the intervention of Tuaregs in favor of independence. But the jihadist narcos, better armed and organized, quickly took control imposing a radical and retrograde Islam by overthrowing the MNLA, the Tuareg Laic movement. Because there was war in the north of Mali in the three regions. So that's why almost all the population on the north side spread along the borders. So there are a lot of people who are there as refugees in Nami. Because here in Nami in reality, it's not only the refugees of the Gaout region. There are even families who left Bamako, the other regions of Mali. So there is insecurity almost in all of Mali. How old are you? I am nine. Where do you come from? I come from Mali. That's why there is an association called Solidarité Mali-Niger which was established during the rebellion by refugees from Mali and also from Niger. This association comes to help its children in several areas. But currently it is mainly in the areas of education. 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 50. Everyone comes to do the law in Mali. You have the means, you come to do your law and everyone follows you. That's what happened in Mali. So I don't see a solution at the moment. It escapes us. We don't even find the words. We don't even find the words for that. Because it is a situation that really hurts. It affects everyone. It's not just Mali. It affects everyone. A suburb of the capital, a burning air embraced by an old fan, I find with emotion some friends, Tuareg of Menaka. Shekoum, Zainabou and Natrat are by the way refugees here, in charge of modest parents. They left a chaotic environment. The north of Mali, in this fateful year 2012, is dominated by jihadist groups, in particular the cities, since the retreat of the independentist Tuareg and the disbandment of the national army. It was Alma Taram who contacted me and warned me of their presence. I have known this young girl since her birth. Her mother Zainabou often hosted me. Seeing them here, in a relatively good mood, is a mixture of joy and sadness. On their return to the sector of Menaka, they told me about our reunion and the fact that their men refused to help me cross the border The next time, if it is decreed, we will go and get it ourselves. In January 2013, the French army took action. It will be supported by the Malian forces and an African coalition. In Mali, nothing will be the same as before. After the execution of the jihadists, the progress of the national army is even more serious and pernicious. Where is the outcome? In Niger, the situation is calm, but the recent sub-Brussels are in the memory and the wishes of emancipation in the face of a too centralized state persist. In relation to the current situation, it worries us a lot. A lot, a lot, a lot. Because this is our gift. Because it is no longer a rebellion. I can treat it as a terrorist. Because when we play with religion, it is very dangerous. In Niger today, we have no connection with those who are involved in Mali. Thank you, but it worries us. The people of Sabdine and other branches of Al-Qaeda who were in Maghreb, they have no connection with our marabouts. They have no connection with our community. On the other hand, in Mali, they have established themselves there. They have had connections. They have woven both in Mali and in Algeria. But we say thank you here. As I said, the fear is there, but it is minimal. It is very minimal because our Islam is tolerant. It is a little measured. I don't think it will have an impact that will lead us to what Mali is experiencing now. In Niger as in Mali and in Black Africa in general, Islam is teeming with animist practices and Sufis. The faithful are tolerant. I have been traveling these regions for 30 years. I have never encountered any problems. Radical Islam is imposed from the outside, initially by Salafis from Algeria. One thing is certain, the sultan's musicians have not deserted the places. On great occasions, they hit the long drums and accompany the dignitaries. If we compare 10 or 15 years ago in Niamey, I don't remember seeing so many women wearing veiled clothes. They wore scarves, but now more and more young women wear veiled clothes with an elastic that goes down to their knees. I admit that it worries me. We are free to wear veils if we want to. We are free to sing, we are free to move. But what is happening now in Mali is no longer Islam, it is force. Because Islam is not just scarves. You put on a scarf and that's not what Islam is about. Islam is in the heart. But women are free. We are free to do what we want, to go out, to sing, to dance, to shout if we want. But by respecting our society and respecting the society of others, the culture of others, whether white, black, green or yellow, we respect them. But we are free. Religion is changing a lot of things in our behavior, in our way of thinking, in our way of thinking. I had the impression that in Niger we were much more open than in some countries, even if we were in religion. There was this aspect where we respected the difference. And now I have the impression that not only is it going up in rank on the radical side, but at the same time there is this aspect that goes with it. Everything that is Western is not halal, it is associated with the devil. I find that worrying. There are more and more mosques that are built through this. There are these phenomena. For a long time it was Libya, then there were other countries, but I have the impression that it is also a way where the entry into religion is also done this way. Anyway, it also works. These are mechanisms that work when we associate lack of instruction with poverty. So inevitably, if people come and say we are going to build mosques and a hospital for you and you heal, inevitably people come back to them. In August 2012, in Niamey, I meet Bajan Agamatu, a Malian deputy and traditional leader of the powerful Tuareg factions of the Menaka Circle. I am sure that the vast majority of Tuaregs who are in Sardinia are not Islamists. I think they are not Islamists. Because even today, after the debacle, after the demandation of Emmanuella, I learn that there are people who are rarely seen praying, who hardly pray, and who tell you, oh no, I am in Sardinia. I am in Sardinia. We know a little bit about it everywhere. They tell you they are in Sardinia or they are Mujahideen, even though they don't even pray. They are not even Muslims. Most of them are bandits of the Great Way, road killers, drug traffickers, who tell you they are Islamists. We cannot say we are Islamists. We are Islamists when we sell drugs, when we block roads, when we kill people, we are Muslims. And those who tell you about jihad, we do jihad on populations who are not Muslims. We don't do jihad on a population that we find in mosques or Muslims. Inescapable in the sub-region, Bajan is opposed to armed struggle and to the notion of independence. He therefore has a completely different vision of space and borders. Personally, I think that for the moment we have no interest in a history of independence of any kind for the north of Mali, even if we were offered it. In my opinion, it is not in this way that we will be able to do something, to take up arms, to fight each other, to treat each other. I believe that peace is better because when there is peace, development is there. When there is no peace, there is no development. Encouraged by UNESCO, Alassane is a talented jeweler. The artisans have shown a great adaptation in recent years. In part deprived of their traditional, pauperized clientele, they have been able to satisfy new markets. The nomadic world, in my opinion, will disappear one day. I think it was like that everywhere in the world. I'm not saying it's today or tomorrow, but I know that one day it will disappear. At the time when we were the nomadic toilets, we were not assisted anywhere. Nowhere. We were not assisted by those who admire us from afar. I'm talking about the Westerners. We were never assisted to allow ourselves to stay in a life that brings us a lot, that of nomadic life. We never did anything to stay in our life. On the other hand, there is the phenomenon of globalization. There is the phenomenon of droughts, the loss of everything that makes our life. That's why it stopped. Unfortunately, it stopped suddenly. But we are free. We have freedom. Like in the desert, we are free. Where we are, we are free. To swim, to sing or to dance, we are free. In Europe, we are free to sing. In Mali, it's even worse, we are free. But today, I am freer in Europe than in Mali. What I see today, I am freer here to sing, to say what I want, than in Mali. My love. My grandfather sang about the country, the nostalgia of his country. He had sung that he left and ran away from his country. and his country is in pain, his country is suffering. So he sings about all that. Aramman and his body shine from the nostalgia of his country. Federalism, a recognition of nomadic particularities, the flattening of the Tuareg problem in the countries of the sub-region, a sanitation of the territory and the end of traffic, a fair distribution of the riches of the subsoil, will certainly be the steps required to try to repair the mistakes of the past and authorize the future.