Sahara: Sharing Three Little Glasses Of Tea With The Tuareg

One of my great pleasures while sharing the Tuareg’s harsh Sahara and Sahel lives was to watch them ceremoniously prepare their steaming hot and foamy syrupy green tea and then drink it with them. Three little glasses of it. The first one, somewhat bitter. The second one, after renewing the water, just right. The third one, lighter and sweeter. It surprisingly calmed thirst better than cold water. And so said the Tuareg.  The last time I sat among my nomadic friends was the last time I enjoyed tea. I could not repeat its preparation. And without their warm humanity and extraordinary environments it would have been a disappointment anyway.

For most tribes, heavily sweetened tea was the only luxury they knew, and not always available, or even affordable. Besides some occasional dates from the palm trees of very distant oases, when business took them there, it was the only sweet thing the Tuareg knew. When staying with them, I always offered plenty of tea and of big sugar loaves.

In 1965, when for a couple of weeks I rode a camel with a Tuareg man from camp to camp around the central Sahara’s Ahaggar Mountains, that companion always added to our tea mint leaves he had picked along the way. When our day ended without spotting any mint he pulled from his robe a small can of Vicks VapoRub, a decongestant meant for external use, and dished some of it in our tea because of its menthol content. No, it did not make us sick.

In this 1970 photo taken in Niger’s Sahel, under a tent out of a blinding sun, Radwane is pouring tea for three, including his nephew Abookabook and me. Radwane was one of the sons of Mohammed, then the leader of  the powerful and wealthy noble Iullimiden tribe,

In 1972-1973, when I brought my wife and kids to meet the Tuareg (http://victorenglebertphotography.blogspot.com/search?q=+trans-african ),

this time by jeep, Mohammed wanted to buy our brand new vehicle. He could have afforded several. His family owned thousands camels, zebus, sheep, and goats. The family lorded over an army of vassal Tuareg tribes and servants to herd and water the animals for them. It also controlled great numbers of artisans who produced all the articles they needed for a comfortable nomadic life. This included spears, swords, and knives, camel saddles, wooden mortars, leather cushions and bags, and silver jewelry.                          

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Sahara: Ancient Tuareg Caravan To Lybia

1970 scene of a Tuareg caravan on its way to sell camels, sheep, and goats in Libya, where they would fetch considerably higher prices than in their native Niger.  I shot the scene from my own moving camel while we were crossing a flat area of the Sahara’s AÏr Mountains.

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Sahara Salt Caravan

In 1965 I shared the harsh life of a Tuareg salt caravan of 200 camels across the sand dunes of the Tenere, one of the Sahara’s most dangerous regions. For nearly a month I walked, rode, and often ran up tall sand dunes to give my camera wider views. That experience taught me that thirst is harder to bear than hunger, and that physical exhaustion, added to dehydration, is even worse than thirst. I told that story, and others, in my book, Wind, Sand and Silence: Travels with Africa’s Last Nomads.

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Algerian Sahara: Tuareg Man Watering Camels

In Algeria’s Ahaggar, a lofty Saharan mountain, a Tuareg nomad digs a hole in a wadi, or dry river bed, to reach water for his camels and himself.

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Sahara: Baby Tuareg Handling Baby Camel

Holding his father’s leather whip, a little Tuareg boy meets a baby camel.

The same little boy now chases young camels to pasture, away from their mothers, which they just nursed. His precociousness roused cries of enthusiasm from his family, who observed him from their tents.

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Sahel: Tuareg Boy Riding Home From School

Young Tuareg nomad riding back to camp from school in Niger’s Sahel region near Tchin Tabaraden.

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Yanomami: A Diet Of Termites

In Brazil’s Amazon rain forest a Yanomami woman is pulling down a termite nest from a tree.

Next, that woman and a relative split the nest with a machete, impale one half of it with its open side down, and gather the falling termites on large leaves. Sitting in hammocks, each woman’s little girl takes care of their baby siblings.

Nearby, another relative is beating the second impaled half nest with leaves to help termites to dislodge and fall on the large leaves below. The women will wrap the termites in leaves and cook them on the embers of a fire.

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Indonesia: Borneo Games

In this 1968 photo taken in the center of Borneo’s rain forest, Dyak women are playing a popular game. On their way to pound rice, one early afternoon after lunch, they are moving their pestles in and out on the ground to try to catch the ankles of a woman jumping in and out of them.

Men and boys have their own game of skills. Their goal is to use their large wooden tops to bang those of their opponents. Holding their own tops, some of the players are waiting on the side to enter the game.

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Indonesia: Cooking Rice The Dyak Way

This new 1968 Photo taken at night in Indonesia’s central Borneo shows Dyaks cooking rice in sections of bamboo.

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Indonesia: Dyak Dance For A Stranger

In my 1968 crossing of Borneo I was received in Dyak longhouses with music, dances, and songs. Male and female dancers were virtuosos in their hieratic expressions.

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