PLATE 2ELATTUThe larger divisions of Tuareg have names by which they are known to themselves and to their neighbours: these names designate the historical or geographical groupings of tribes. In each group of tribes the existence of nobles and serfs is recognised; there are appropriate terms to describe these social distinctions. The nobles are called Imajeghan;[14]the servile people, Imghad. But no name other than Kel Tagilmus,[15]the “People of the Veil,” exists to describe the society of nobles and serfs alike, irrespective of group or caste. These details will require fuller examination in due course, but it is important to realise immediately that the name Tuareg[16]is unknown in their own language and is only used of them by Arabs and other foreigners. It has, however, been so universally adopted by everyone who has had to do with them or who has written of them that, although not strictly accurate, it would be pedantic not to continue using it. The Tuareg all speak the same language, called Temajegh, which varies only dialectically from group to group. They have a peculiar form of script, known as T’ifinagh, which also is practically identical in all thedivisions of the Tuareg, but is apparently not used by other peoples. Lastly, the Tuareg are nomads by instinct and, save where much intermarriage has taken place, of the same racial type. The conquest of foreign elements in war and their assimilation into servile tribes have, in the course of time, led to some modification of physique and a growth of sedentarism in certain areas. As a whole, however, the nation has survived in a fairly pure state which is readily distinguishable. There is, I think, no justification for considering the People of the Veil a large tribal group of Berbers in North Africa; they are a separate race with marked peculiarities, distinct from other sections of the latter, and, as I believe, of a different origin.They formerly extended further west almost to the sea-board of the Atlantic; their northern and eastern extension can also be deduced from what is known of their migrations. Their neighbours to the south are the negroid Kanuri, Hausa-speaking peoples,[17]and the Fulani; to the east are the Tebu, and in the west the Arab and Moorish tribes; finally, in the north the nomadic and sedentary Arabs and sedentary Libyans of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania. The N.E. corner of Tuareg territory, the Fezzan, is ethnically of such mixed population as to admit of no summary classification; Arab, Libyan, Tebu and negroid peoples are all inextricably mingled together. The Tuareg wander as nomads over the country generally, the negroes and sedentary Libyans till the ground, and, in addition to a proportion of all those already enumerated, the towns are inhabited by yet another people of noble origin, whose connection with the ancient Garamantes of classical authors may be assumed if it cannot be proved. With the exception of the Fezzan the Tuareg are now predominant within their own country. It includes two great groups of mountains, Air and Ahaggar, together with certain smaller adjacent massifs.It is unfortunately not possible to deal with Air in history nor with the Tuareg of Air, by considering the mountains and their inhabitants alone. The migrations of the Tuareg of Air have been so intimately connected with that part of the Sudan which we now call Nigeria that the northern fringe of the area and the country intervening between it and Air must receive attention. This intervening steppe and desert, largely overrun by Tuareg, lie on the way which I followed to reach the mountains. The neglect to which these areas have been subjected justifies me in devoting a chapter to them before coming to Air itself. Again, the concluding chapters of this volume will deal as much with the Southland as they do with Air, for the history of the latter cannot be divorced from that of the former.Since mention will be continually made of the various Tuareg groups as they exist to-day, and of the tribes which they contain, it will be as well to explain that there are to-day four principal divisions of the people, all of whom possess characteristics common and peculiar to the whole race.The main groups are:—1.The People of Ahaggar, called Ahaggaren, or Kel Ahaggar.2.The Azjer, or Azger Tuareg; this name is also spelt Askar, Adjeur, etc.3.The People of Air called the Kel Air, or, in the Hausa language which is current in that country, Asbenawa or Absenawa, from Asben, Azbin or Absen, the Sudanese name for Air.4.The Tuareg of the south-west.The first group is held for convenience to include the Tuareg in the Ahnet mountains, the Taitoq, and those north-west of the Ahaggar mountains. The second group is comparatively compact. The third group is the one with which this volume deals in detail, and includes the Kel Geres and other Tuareg generally of the Southland, in andon the fringes of Nigeria. The fourth group should more properly be divided, as it comprises the distinct aggregations of the Aulimmiden, the Ifoghas of the Mountain (Ifoghas n’Adghar),[18]and the Tuareg of Timbuctoo and the Niger.The country of the Ahaggaren proper is confined to the Ahaggar massif, but there are certain outlying districts to the north and north-west. The confused mass of hills east of Ahaggar towards the Fezzan was, at the beginning of the century, essentially the country of the Azger. In recent years they have tended to move eastwards towards their original homes and away from the influence of the French military posts. The majority of this group now ranges over the country between Ghat and Murzuk. They are the Tuareg who have come least into contact with Europeans. Although there is considerable affinity between them and the Ahaggaren, the Tuareg generally recognise that the Azger do not belong to, or are under the rule of, the Ahaggar chieftains despite the fact that they are all collectively known in Air as Ahaggaren. Those travellers who have known them are at one in considering them to-day an independent division. From the historical point of view the Azger are the most important of all the Tuareg, since from this group, reduced in numbers as it now is, most of the migrations of the race to the Southlands seem to have taken place. They are also probably to-day the purest of the Tuareg stock in existence.The first description of Air and its people in any detail was brought back to Europe by Barth after his memorable journey from the Mediterranean to the Sudan, on which he set out in 1849 with Richardson and Overweg, but from which he alone returned alive more than five years later. Prior to this journey there are certain references in Ibn Batutah and Leo Africanus, but they do not give us muchinformation either of the country or of the people. From Ibn Batutah’s description, the country he traversed is recognisable, but the information is meagre. The account of Leo Africanus written in the sixteenth century is little better. His principal contribution, in the English and original Italian versions, is a bad pun: “Likewise Hair (Air), albeit a desert, yet so called for the goodness and temperature of the aire. . . .”[19]It is an observation, in fact, of great truth, but hardly more useful than his other statement, which records that the “soyle aboundeth with all kinds of herbes,” in apparent contradiction with the previous remark. He adds that “a great store of manna” is found not far from Agades which the people “gather in certaine little vessels, carrying it, when it is new, into the market of the town to be mingled with water as a refreshing drink”—an allusion probably to the “pura” or “ghussub” water made of millet meal, water and milk or cheese. He states that the country is inhabited by the “Targa” people, and as he mentions Agades, it had evidently by then been founded, but beyond these facts his description is wholly inadequate. He unfortunately even forgets to mention that Air is mountainous.Although the European penetration of the Western Sahara may date from the Middle Ages, the same cannot be said of Air. Caillé in 1828 was, in fact, not the first European to visit and describe Timbuctoo, nor was Rohlfs in 1864 the first European in Tuat. There are some very interesting earlier accounts which are gradually being unearthed[20]dealing with these countries. It is regrettable that there are apparently no similar accounts of Air.[21]The first information of any value is found only in comparatively recent times. Hornemann[22]in 1798 travelled from Egypt alongthe Haj Road which runs from Timbuctoo to Cairo. He turned back at Murzuk, but had he continued he would have come to Ghat and eventually to Air. He nevertheless brought back the first modern account of the Tuareg of this country, or rather of a section of them, the Kel Owi, whom he calls the Kolouvey. His information about the Ahaggaren and about the divisions of the Tebu, who lived east and north-east beyond the limits of the country which they now occupy, is worth examining in connection with their ethnological history. After Hornemann’s journey Denham, Oudney and Clapperton[23]collected some further details about Air and its people in the course of an expedition to Chad and Nigeria at the beginning of the last century, and in 1845 Richardson began a systematic study of the Azger and Air Tuareg during a preliminary journey to the Fezzan. But none of these travellers had the first-hand personal experience which, five years afterwards, Barth, Richardson and Overweg obtained on their expedition.The part played by Great Britain in the exploration of the Central Sahara, testified to by the graves of many Englishmen or foreigners in the service of the British Crown, is little known in this country. Our efforts to abolish the slave trade in Africa and our paramount position in Tripolitania early in the last century led to that initiative being taken, to which the world even to-day owes most of its knowledge of the Fezzan, and which opened the Sudan to commerce and colonisation. While Richardson was apparently the first and only Englishman to visit Air until my travelling companion, Angus Buchanan, went there from Nigeria in 1919, the graves of explorers in neighbouring lands show that we stand second to none in geographical work in the Central Sahara. It was only when, in the partition of North Africa, this vast area fell to the French, that there was any falling off in the numbers of Englishmen who in each successive decade travelled and died there. Their work deserves to be betterknown: Henry Warrington died of dysentery at the desert well of Dibbela, south of Bilma in Kawar, on his way to Lake Chad with a German, Dr. Vogel. Dr. Oudney died on 5th January, 1824, at Murmur near Hadeija (Northern Nigeria), after accompanying Clapperton and Denham from Tripoli by way of Bilma and Chad to explore Bornu. Tyrwhit, who went out to join them, died at Kuka on Lake Chad, on 22nd October, 1824. Barth’s companion Richardson died in the early part of 1851 at N’Gurutawa in Manga, S. of Zinder, and their companion Overweg succumbed near Lake Chad. Both Barth and Overweg were Germans who had volunteered and were appointed to serve on an expedition sent by Her Majesty’s Government to explore Central Africa and to report on the abolition of the slave trade. Dr. Vogel, another German, who had been sent by Her Majesty’s Government to join Barth and complete his work, died near Lake Chad after his return, while an assistant, Corporal MacGuire, was killed on his way home at Beduaram, N. of Bilma, in the same year. Of those who had opened the way for the Clapperton expeditions, Ritchie had died of disease in 1819 at Murzuk and Lyon had been obliged to turn back before reaching Bornu. Clapperton himself on a second journey lost his life at Sokoto on 13th April, 1827. North Africa has claimed her British victims no less than the swamps and jungles of Equatoria, only they are not so well known, for they never sought to advertise their achievements.Few people in this country or abroad realise how great was the influence of Great Britain in the Sahara during the lifetime and after the death of that remarkable man, Colonel Hamer Warrington, H.M. Consul at Tripoli from 1814 to 1846. Apart from the fact that he virtually governed Tripoli, our influence and interests may be gauged by the existence of Vice-Consulates and Consulates, not only along the coast at Khoms and Misurata, but far in the interior at Ghadames and Murzuk. The peregrinations of numerous travellers and efforts to suppress the African slave trade hadobliged Her Majesty’s Government to play a part in local tribal politics, for it had early become clear that if this abominable traffic was to be abolished the sources of supply would have to be controlled, since it proved useless only to make representations on the coast where caravans discharged their human cargo. At one moment it even seemed as if Tripolitania would be added to the British Empire, and as lately as 1870 travellers were still talking of the French and British factions among the Fezzanian tribes. But Free Trade and other political controversies in England half-way through the century brought about a pause, and the arrest was enough to withdraw public interest from North Africa and to give France her chance. The controversies were the object of much bitter criticism by the idealist Richardson, who saw political dialectics obscuring a crusade on behalf of humanity for which he was destined to give his life. He seems to have been profoundly affected and to have suffered himself to become warped, as Barth on more than one occasion discovered.[24]The inevitable consequence of a British occupation of Tripolitania would have been the active penetration of the Air and Chad roads and a junction with the explorers and merchants who were working north from the Bight of Benin. But French interest in North Africa as a consequence of their occupation of Algeria grew progressively stronger as it declined in this country, while to the same waning appetite must be ascribed the fact that for seventy years no Englishman visited Air. Regrettable as this may appear to geographers, it is even more tragic to realise how few have heard of the German, Dr. Heinrich Barth, than whom it may be said there never has been a more courageous or meticulously accurate explorer. After several notable journeys further north he accompanied Richardson as a volunteer, and on the latter’s death continued the exploration of Africa for another four years on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, which he most loyally served.If in this volume he is repeatedly mentioned, it is without misgiving or apology; it may help in some little measure to rescue his name from unmerited oblivion in these days of sensational and superficial books of travel. The account of his journey and of the lore and history of the countries of Central Africa which he visited from Timbuctoo to Lake Chad is still a standard work.Barth and his companions entered Air in August 1850, and left the country for the south in the closing days of the same year. Reaching Asiu from Ghat, they traversed the northern mountains of Air, which are known to the Tuareg as Fadé.[25]After passing by the wells in the T’iyut valley and the “agilman” (pool) of Taghazit, they camped eight days later on the northern outskirts of Air proper. During this period their caravan was subjected to constant threats of brigandage from parties of northern Tuareg, and on the day before reaching the first permanent habitations of Air in the Ighazar near Seliufet village, they again narrowly escaped aggression from the local inhabitants. An attack was eventually made on them at T’intaghoda, a little further on, and they only just escaped with their lives after losing a good deal of property. The same experience was repeated near T’intellust, where the expedition had established its head-quarters in the great valley which drains the N.E. side of the Air mountains. When, however, they had once made friends with that remarkable personality, Annur, chief of the Kel Owi tribal confederation, and paramount chief of Air, they were free from further molestation, and thanks to him eventually they reached the Sudan in safety. From T’intellust Barth made a journey alone to Agades by a road running west of the central Bagezan mountains. After his return the whole party moved to the Southland along the great Tripoli-Sudan trade route which passes east of the Central massifs. Crossing the southern part of Air known as Tegama they entered Damergu, which geographically belongs to the Sudan, about New Year’s Day, 1851. In the course ofhis stay in Air Barth made the first sketch map of the country, catalogued the principal tribes and compiled a summary of their history which is still the most valuable contribution which we possess on the subject.Some twenty-seven years later, another German, Erwin von Bary, reached Air from the north by much the same road as that which Barth and his companions had followed. He left Ghat in January 1897 and reached the villages of Northern Air a month later. Thence he journeyed to the village of Ajiru, a village on the eastern slopes of the central mountains, and awaited the return from a raid of Belkho, the chieftain who had succeeded Barth’s friend Annur as paramount lord of the country. The unfortunate von Bary was subjected to every form of extortion, and though Belkho, when he returned, compelled his people to restore what they had stolen, the chief himself made life unpleasant for the traveller by taking all his presents and doing nothing for him in return so long as he showed any desire to proceed on his journey southwards. Belkho pleaded such poverty that the explorer nearly died of starvation, but von Bary admittedly had laid himself open to every form of abuse. He had arrived almost penniless, did not understand the courtesies of desert travelling, and seems to have placed undue reliance on his skill as a doctor to achieve his objects. But when he eventually gave up the idea of going on to the Sudan, Belkho treated him well. Although von Bary’s opinion of the Tuareg of Air is not favourable, in reality he owed them a great debt of gratitude. No other people who dislike foreigners so much as they do would have protected him and helped him as they finally did. His quarrels with Belkho seem to have been in part due to his own tactlessness and discourtesy, and in part to his inability to realise that the chief, for political reasons, did not desire him to go to the Sudan. Von Bary returned to Ghat, meaning to try once more to reach Nigeria as soon as he had picked up his stores and some more money, but his diary ends abruptly with the remark that he would be ready to start south againfrom there in fifteen to twenty days. He died within twenty-four hours of reaching Ghat, on 3rd October, 1877. He had spent a cheerful evening with Kaimakam,[26]and had gone to bed; at 6 a.m. he was breathing peacefully asleep; by ten o’clock he was dead. His death does not seem to have been quite natural. It remains one of the mysteries of the Sahara. Von Bary’s account of Air[27]is very incomplete and his observations are coloured by the hardships which he suffered. With the exception of certain botanical information and notes on one or two ethnological points, his descriptions contain little that had not already been made known by Barth.Then began that competition among European Powers for African colonies which was soon to reach a critical stage. The Anglo-German Convention of 1890 had proposed to divide Africa finally, but before that date the French had seen one desirable part after the other fall to our lot. They determined before it was too late to take as much as possible of what still remained unallocated. Central Africa, east of Lake Chad, certain tracts of indifferent country on the western coast and the greater part of the Sahara were still unclaimed by any European Power. And so it was that in France the magnificent scheme was conceived of sending three columns from north, west and south to converge on Lake Chad, and formally to take possession of the lands through which they passed in accordance with the stipulations of the Congress of Berlin, where it had been laid down that territorial claims were only valid if substantiated by effective occupation. It was not till 1899, however, that the French plans reached maturity. Three expeditions duly set out from the Congo, the Western Sudan and Algeria to cross Africa and meet on Lake Chad. Their adventures constitute one of the most romantic chapters in Colonial history. The western column, at first under Captain Voulet,who was accompanied by Lieut. Chanoine and others, marched from the Niger along the northern edge of the Nigerian Emirates. Mutiny and murder among the European personnel were experienced. French politics at home, where the Jewish question had become acute, were responsible for all manner of delays; the command changed hands repeatedly. But the northern column and the Congo party were equally delayed; not until a year after the date fixed for the rendezvous on the lake did the three expeditions meet. The military escorts were united under Commandant Lamy, and gave battle to the forces of Rabah, one of the Khalif’s generals, who had crossed half Africa to carve out for himself a kingdom in Bornu and Bagirmi after thedébâcleof the Mahdia on the Upper Nile. Lamy defeated him and annexed French Equatorial Africa.Of these three expeditions, the northern column, known as the Foureau-Lamy Mission, had passed through Air on its way south. The Europeans who accompanied it were in 1899 the first Frenchmen to enter the country and to carry out the plan originally contemplated by Flatters in 1881. The annexation of Air by France may be counted from this date.The Foureau-Lamy Mission[28]entered the borders of Air from Algeria at the wells of In Azawa; their heavy losses in camels obliged them to abandon large quantities of material, but they eventually reached Iferuan in the Ighazar, not far from T’intaghoda. Here the camp of the expedition was attacked in force by the Tuareg, who were only driven off with great difficulty. The situation was critical. The whole country was hostile to the French; they were so short of camels that on the stage south of Iferuan to Agellal they had to move their baggage in small lots, marching their transport forwards and backwards. Their destiny hung in the balance when friendly overtures were made to them near Auderas by a Tuareg of considerable note, Ahodu of the Kel Tadek tribe, whose fathers and forefathers for five generations hadbeen keepers of the mosque of Tefgun near Iferuan. Ahodu’s political sense has rarely been at fault, either then or since; he saw that the only end possible for his people from protracted hostilities with the Europeans was disaster. He promised the French peace while the column remained in Air. It reached Agades in safety, and the Sultan was obliged to hoist the French flag and provide transport animals and guides. No attack was made near the town, thanks to the efficacy of Ahodu’s presence, but his powers of persuasion were insufficient when the column marched out into the barren area further south. The guide purposely misled the expedition and it nearly perished of thirst, succeeding only with great difficulty in returning to Agades. It eventually started once more and reached the south, where its story ceases to concern the exploration of Air.Since 1899, then, the fate of Air has been settled in so far as Europe was concerned, for it was recognised as lying within the French sphere; but the country was not effectually occupied until 1904, when a camel patrol under Lieut. C. Jean established a post at Agades. The post was evacuated for a short time and then reoccupied. The exploration of the mountains has proceeded slowly since that date. Sketch maps were gradually compiled in the course of camel corps patrols, and in 1910 the Cortier geographical mission published a very creditable map of the mountains,[29]other than the northern Fadé group, based on thirty-three astronomically determined co-ordinates supplementing the five secured by the Foureau-Lamy Mission. Chudeau in 1905 made a brief geological survey and published some notes on the flora, which remain uncatalogued to this day;[30]very complete collections of the fauna have been made by Buchanan[31]and examined in England by the British Museum (South Kensington) and by Lord Rothschild’s museum atTring. The ethnology of the country is very superficially discussed in a book published by Jean; Barth’s account remains the one of value. The complete exploration of the mountains and detailed mapping still remain to be done as well as other scientific work of every description.“Air” as a geographical term for the mountainous plateau does not signify exactly the same thing to the inhabitants of the country themselves as it does to us; properly speaking, it is applied by them only to one part of the plateau, for the whole of which the more usual name of Asben or Absen is used. The latter is probably the original name given to the area by the people of the Sudan before the advent of the Tuareg. It is now very generally used even by them: it is universal further south. Barth has speculated at some length upon the origin of the name Air or Ahir, to take its Arabic form, and concluded that the letter “h” had been deliberately added out of modesty to guard against the word acquiring a copronymous signification. But early Arabic geographers give the form as Akir and not as Ahir, so the laborious explanation of the learned traveller is probably unnecessary.The boundaries of Air may be defined either as running along the line where the rocks of the area dip below the sands of the desert, or as following certain well-marked basins and watercourses of material size, where disintegrated rock or alluvium has covered the lower slopes of the hills. The mountainous area is some 300 miles long by 200 miles broad. It lies wholly within the tropics and is surrounded by desert or by arid steppe. Owing to the general elevation of the country the climate is quite pleasant.Drainage of theCENTRAL SAHARAF. R. del.Emery Walker Ltd. sc.In remote ages the rainfall of the Central Sahara was sufficient to create the deep and important river beds which compose the hydrographic system of this part of North Africa. Among these watercourses is one of great size, flowing from the Ahaggar massif towards Algeria, called the Ighaghar. Duveyrier has tried to prove that it was the Niger of Pliny, largely on the grounds that the root “Ig”or “Igh” occurs in both words and in Temajegh means “to run.” The effect of this identification, which is hard to accept, would be to make the classical ethnology of the Sahara less easy to follow, but it has little significance in considering Air, except in so far as it would tend to show that the geographical knowledge of the Romans did not extend as far south as the plateau. Complementary to the Ighagharbut flowing south from the Ahaggar massif is another equally great river,[32]which early in its course is joined by a large tributary from the Western Fezzan. At a certain point this valley is crossed by the roads from Air to Ahaggar and Ghat, branching respectively at the wells of In Azawa or Asiu. The eastern branch is the caravan road to Ghat from the Sudan, the western one finds its way to In Salah in Tuat and to Algeria. This bed runs south and south-west towards the Niger, which it must have reached at some point between Gao and Timbuctoo in the neighbourhood of the N.E. corner of the Great Bend which the French call “La Boucle du Niger.” This river of remote times must have been one of the great watercourses of Africa, extending from the head-waters in 26° N. Lat. to its mouth in the Bight of Benin on the Equator. It is not possible to say whether the interesting terrestrial changes which diverted the Upper Niger at the lagoons above Timbuctoo into the present Lower Niger, and which brought about the desiccation of the upper reaches, took place suddenly or gradually, but the latter is more probable, for a similar diversion seems to be going on in the Chad area. The lake, in reality an immense marsh and lagoon, is much smaller than when it perhaps included the depression noted by Tilho as extending most of the way to Tibesti; some of the waters of the Chad feeders are already believed to be finding their way in flood-time into the Benue, and it is possible that in the course of time a similar process to that manifested in the Niger area will take place; then Lake Chad will dry up into salt-pans like those at Taodenit. The Saharan river, which flows southward to the west of Air, bears various names. Its course has never been accurately determined, but its general direction is known. From Ahaggar to a point level with the northernmost parts of Air it is called Tafassasset. The T’in Tarabin channel from Ahaggar more probably drained into the Belly of the Desert than into this system, but the Alfalehle (WadiFalezlez) from the Western Fezzan most certainly seems to be a tributary; there are various reasons why it ought not to flow towards Kawar, as used at one time to be thought. West of Air the main bed spreads out into a vast plain-like basin under the name of T’immersoi; further south it is called Azawak. In general I prefer to use the name T’immersoi for the whole until a better one is suggested.[33]The T’immersoi forms a collector in the west of Air for nearly all the water from this group of mountains. Nowadays only a comparatively small amount ever reaches the basin, as much is absorbed by the intervening plain land of Talak[34]and the Assawas swamp west of Agades. The latter are local basins or sumps covered with dense vegetation where some of the most nomadic tribes in Air pasture their herds. Talak is visited by Tuareg from Ahaggar and from the west for the same purpose. It plays an important part in the economy of the country, for water is always to be found in the alluvial soil however dry the season in the mountains has been. Many of the wells have now fallen into disuse, but the output of those which remain is still plentiful. The last rocks of Air on the west disappear below the alluvium of T’immersoi and in the subsidiary basins of Talak and Assawas. The T’immersoi system therefore forms the western boundary of Air.The upper part of the T’immersoi, where it is called the Tafassasset, is also the northern boundary of Air. The wells of In Azawa[35]and Asiu in this valley may be regarded as the point where the main roads from the north enter the extreme limits of the country. Further east on another road between Air and Ghat, von Bary fixed the boundary at the Wadi Immidir, which is in the same latitude as In Azawa.[36]The eastern boundary of Air runs along the line where the last rocks of the group disappear below the sand of the steppe and desert, which extends from north to south between the mountains of the Fezzan and the fringe of Equatorial Africa, and from west to east between the mountains of Air and those of Tibesti with its adjacent massifs. This vast area is crossed by a few roads only, the most important ones being (a) the road from Murzuk along the Kawar depression to Agadem and Lake Chad, (b) and (c), the two principal tracks from Air eastwards to Bilma by Ashegur and Fashi respectively, and (d) the road from Zinder by Termit to Fashi and Kawar. Watering-points are very few, and the habitable oases can be numbered on the fingers of two hands; pasturage is everywhere scarce. This great waste is one of the most unknown parts of North Africa; its eastern portion along the Tibesti mountains as far north as the Fezzan may be said to be absolutely unknown except for two tracks to the mountains whither occasional camel patrols have passed.Kawar and the other oases along the Chad road appear to be closed basins of the Eastern Saharan type. They seem to have no outlet towards the south either into the Chad or into the Niger systems. The desert east of Air, therefore, contains the eastern watershed of the T’immersoi basin, for the valleys of Eastern Air do not run into the desert as Chudeau has suggested,[37]but turn southwards on leaving the hills, in ill-defined depressions or folds which join the Tagedufat valley or one of the other channels flowing westwards in Tegama or Damergu. One valley to the south of Air, probably the Tagedufat itself, is stated to run all the way from Fashi across the desert.The southern limits of Air may be placed along the Tagedufat basin, where the rocks of Air disappear below the sand dunes and downs of Tegama and Azawagh steppedesert. The valley is of some size and flows roughly N.E. and S.W. towards T’immersoi, but whether it actually joins this system or the Gulbi n’Kaba, which finds its way into Sokoto Emirate under the name of the Gulbi n’Maradi and thence into the Niger, is not certain. The former hypothesis seems more probable, but I was unable to follow the Tagedufat sufficiently far west to verify it, nor could I discover any data on the French maps;[38]local reports substantiate my supposition. Both systems in any case are in the Niger basin. Air is not on the watershed between Niger and Chad. The choice of the Tagedufat valley as the southern boundary of Air is made on geographical grounds. What may be termed the political boundary is rather further north along the line of the River of Agades.PLATE 3DESERT AND HILLS FROM TERMIT PEAKCommencing within 50 km. of the In Azawa wells, Air is a low plateau of Silurian formation with islands of Archean rock. Through the plateau-plain a number of separate formations have been extruded by, in many cases, apparently quite recent volcanic action. The northernmost massifs of Taghazit and Zelim lie in about latitude 20°. The volcanic period was of considerable duration, but all the recognisable volcanoes and derived phenomena are post-Eocene.[39]Some of the basalt flows, more especially those from Mount Dogam near Auderas in Central Air, are not old, while the Teginjir lava flow appeared to me so fresh as probably to have come into existence during the historical period. The volcanic phenomena take the form of cinder cones with steep sides as at Teginjir (Mount Gheshwa), cumulo-volcanoes, as in the T’imia and probably Bagezan massifs, domes as in the case of Mount Dogam, and basalt flows in various parts, notably in the T’imia valleys.[40]Aggata[40]appears to be another volcanic peak, but the serrated crest of Ighzan is a phenomenon of the rapid cooling of an igneousextrusion rather than an example of erosion. There are numerous volcanic massifs distinct from each other all over Air, more especially in the centre and north; they are nearly all granitic and very rugged. The Auderas basin is of basalt and cinerite.[41]The plateau, which is in the main horizontal, rises in the centre to a step some few hundred feet higher than the north and south and forms a pedestal for the Bagezan and other massifs some 1500 to 3000 feet higher again. The peaks are as much as 4500 feet[42]above the plateau, which varies from 1500 feet above sea level in the south along the River of Agades, to 2000 feet in the Ighazar in North Air. Round Auderas the plateau may be taken as about 2500 feet above the sea, while to the east of the Bagezan massif the plateau is about 3000 feet, sloping gradually away to the south and east. Between Agades and Auderas there is an abrupt ascent on to the central step of the plateau of some 2000 feet; a corresponding descent of about 150 feet takes place near Assada.The effect of these massifs rising sharply out of the plateau is curious. The Archean or Silurian plain and the volcanic mountain groups are phenomena which have not yet had time to become correlated. The result is that the broad and very gentle valleys of the plateau-plain wander in and out among the disconnected massifs and are fed by deep torrents draining the slopes of impermeable rock. Water erosion has not yet had time to widen or deepen the ravines, while the broad valleys have wide sandy bottoms, where pebbles only rarely occur; their sides are well wooded with pasture on the plains between the beds, except where masses of round basalt boulders, the product of the volcanic disturbances, cover the surface. The massifs have hardly been affected by erosion. The broad valleys between them are the corridors of communication in the country. “Cette superimposition à une vieille pénéplaine usée,” says Chudeau,[43]“de massifs éruptifs jeunes, donne a l’Air un aspect surprenant,presque paradoxal.” And this is the charm of the country that has been called by travellers the Saharan Alps. There is contrast everywhere, but nothing is perhaps more striking than the black patina which the red rocks have assumed. The wind-borne sand has polished them till they shine with a dark metallic gleam, while the sheltered rifts and ravines retain their pink and red surfaces. It is a land of lurid colour, except at midday, when the African sun dominates everything in one blinding glare.[1]The name “Sudan” is used throughout to indicate the country referred to by the Arab and early European geographers under this name, that is to say, the country inhabited by negroid people north of the purely negro zone and south of the Saharan deserts. The “Anglo-Egyptian Sudan” is more correctly described as the “Nilotic Sudan.”[2]The geography of the Sahara as a whole is briefly treated inLe Sahara, by E. F. Gautier, Collection Payot, Paris, 1923, and with greater detail inLe Sahara, by H. Schirmer, Paris, 1893, but much recent work is not included in the latter.[3]O. Bates:The Eastern Libyans(Macmillan), pp. 48-9.[4]Cf. Rohlfs,Kufra, Chap. VIII.[5]“Alguechet” in Leo Africanus, Vol. III. pp. 802, 818, etc. (For particulars see beginning ofChap. IX.)[6]Until motor-cars began to cross the Sahara further west.[7]Bissuel,Les Touareg de l’Ouest, p. 63, says: “A plant called locally ‘Bettina’ and not the Alfalehle (Arabic: Falezlez) was used.”[8]Gautier:La conquête du Sahara, Paris, 1922.[9]SeeLife of Charles de Foucauld, by R. Bazin, translated by P. Keelan, and De Foucauld,Dictionnaire abrégé Touareg Français(Dialecte Ahaggar), publié par R. Basset, Alger, 1918-20.[10]Jean:Les Touareg du Sud-Est, Paris, Larose, 1909.[11]Barth:Travels and Discoveries in Central Africa, London, Longmans, 1857-8, 5 vols.[12]From “Litham,”لثام(rootلثم), a veil.[13]The slaves which they possess do not wear the veil. The slave is not a man but a chattel. As soon as a slave is freed and becomes a serf he wears the veil like the noble Tuareg.[14]In the Air dialect this word is so pronounced. Variations in other dialects are referred to elsewhere. Imajeghan is the plural form of Imajegh. Temajegh is a feminine form of Imajegh.[15]“Kel” means “People of,” “Tagilmus” is the name of the Veil in Temajegh, the language of the Tuareg.[16]For an explanation of this term seeChap. IX.[17]The term “Hausa” throughout this volume is not used in an ethnological sense. It is primarily a linguistic division which may or may not also have an ethnic significance.[18]“Adghar” or “adrar” = mountain in Temajegh. This mountain group between Air and the Niger and south of Ahaggar has no name. It is called the “Mountain of the Ifoghas” (Adghar n’Ifoghas), while the people who live in it are known as the “Ifoghas of the Mountain,” to distinguish them from the Ifoghas tribe in Damergu and the Ifoghas tribe of the Azger.[19]Leo Africanus: Hakluyt Society edition, Vol. I. p. 127, and Vol. III. pp. 798-9.[20]Notably by M. Ch. de la Roncière:Revue des Deux Mondes, 1st February, 1923: “Tombuctou au temps de Louis XI.”[21]M. de la Roncière in a private letter of July 1923 to the author.[22]The edition I have used is a French one: Hornemann,Voyage dans l’Afrique Septentrionale, edited by my ancestor Rennell. Paris: Dentu, 1803.[23]Denham and Clapperton: “Discoveries in North and Central Africa, 1822-4,” Murray, 1826.[24]See Introduction to Richardson’sTravels in the Great Desert of the Sahara, London, 1847, and Barth,op. cit., Vol. II. pp. 219-20.[25]Barth calls this area Fadeangh, a name not known to-day.[26]The Governor appointed by the Turks.[27]Von Bary’s Diary, “La dernier rapport . . . sur . . . les Touaregs de l’Air.” Edited by Schirmer; Paris, Fischbacher, 1898.[28]Documents Scientifiques de la Mission Foureau-Lamy. Various fascicules.[29]Carte de l’Air: Mission Cortier (2 feuilles), 1/500,000. Service Géogr. du Min. des Colonies.[30]Chudeau and Gautier:Missions au Sahara, Paris, Armand Colin, 1909 (Vol. II.,Le Sahara Soudanais, by Chudeau).[31]Buchanan:Out of the World North of Nigeria, Murray.[32]Where the words “rivers” or “watercourse” are used they must be understood to mean drainage channels which are dry most of the year.[33]Gautier on his sketch map inLe Saharauses the name Tafassasset, which, however, is even more of a local name in the north than T’immersoi is in the south.[34]In Temajegh “Talak” means “clay.” Cf. Chudeau:Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 63, etc.[35]Meaning in Temajegh “of the Tamarisk.”[36]Von Bary’s Diary, pp. 108-9. He joined the main road followed by Barth in the T’iyut valley.[37]In the case of the Tafidet and other eastern valleys of Air, Chudeau,op. cit., p. 62. He supposed, as I think erroneously, that the Air group itself and not the desert was the eastern watershed of the T’immersoi basin.[38]The country south of Air and north of the limit included in the maps published by the Mission Tilho of the area each side of the Franco-British boundary between Nigeria and the Territoires Militaires du Niger is hardly mapped at all.[39]Chudeau,op. cit., pp. 263-4.[40]VidePlates23and39.[41]VidePlates13and14.[42]In the case of Tamgak.[43]Chudeau,op. cit., p. 57.CHAPTER IITHE SOUTHLANDSUntilabout twenty years ago it was easier to reach the Western Sudan and Central Africa around Lake Chad from the north than from the Gulf of Guinea, notwithstanding a journey of many months across the Sahara, involving all the considerable hardships and dangers of desert travelling. The objectives which Barth, Foureau, Lamy and their predecessors all had in view were not the exploration of the Sahara, but the penetration of the Sudan. By following the trade routes along which slave caravans used to reach the Mediterranean coast, the explorers of the nineteenth century reached the wealthy Niger lands more easily than they would have done had they attempted to pass through the tropical forests of the West Coast. On the sea-board European penetration at that time was confined to the neighbourhood of a few factories on the shore or the estuaries of certain rivers. Only at the end of the nineteenth century did this country, first among the nations of Europe, realise that the potential markets and supplies of raw material which the Sudan afforded were on a scale far surpassing those which had been dreamt of by the early pioneers on the coast. It was about thirty years ago that communication was eventually opened up between the coast and the Moslem interior, but there is no doubt that the accounts of the Sudan in 1850 brought back by Barth after his memorable journey were directly responsible for the British penetration from the coast of those countries which are now called Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria. The movement reached its culmination in the opening years of the twentieth century, when thenorthern provinces of Nigeria were occupied under the guidance of Sir F. Lugard, while at about the same time the three French columns had met near Lake Chad. With these years the expansionist period closed and a phase of development, which still continues, commenced. British expansion into Northern Nigeria, coming as it did during the South African war, passed comparatively unnoticed in this country except in official circles, where the campaigns of Sir F. Lugard’s small columns aroused considerable anxiety. But because the policy was successful the public heard little of the operations which formally annexed the outlying Emirates of Kano, Katsina and Sokoto. The new countries which we then acquired were of colossal wealth, and contained a population of many millions of people living as thickly in certain parts as the Egyptians in the Nile Delta. The closing years of last and the first few years of this century involved the addition to the British Empire of some of the greatest of the Sudanese cities, which are the terminal points and therefore theraisons d’êtreof the two central Saharan trade roads which come from the Mediterranean by way of Kawar and Air.
PLATE 2ELATTU
PLATE 2
ELATTU
ELATTU
ELATTU
The larger divisions of Tuareg have names by which they are known to themselves and to their neighbours: these names designate the historical or geographical groupings of tribes. In each group of tribes the existence of nobles and serfs is recognised; there are appropriate terms to describe these social distinctions. The nobles are called Imajeghan;[14]the servile people, Imghad. But no name other than Kel Tagilmus,[15]the “People of the Veil,” exists to describe the society of nobles and serfs alike, irrespective of group or caste. These details will require fuller examination in due course, but it is important to realise immediately that the name Tuareg[16]is unknown in their own language and is only used of them by Arabs and other foreigners. It has, however, been so universally adopted by everyone who has had to do with them or who has written of them that, although not strictly accurate, it would be pedantic not to continue using it. The Tuareg all speak the same language, called Temajegh, which varies only dialectically from group to group. They have a peculiar form of script, known as T’ifinagh, which also is practically identical in all thedivisions of the Tuareg, but is apparently not used by other peoples. Lastly, the Tuareg are nomads by instinct and, save where much intermarriage has taken place, of the same racial type. The conquest of foreign elements in war and their assimilation into servile tribes have, in the course of time, led to some modification of physique and a growth of sedentarism in certain areas. As a whole, however, the nation has survived in a fairly pure state which is readily distinguishable. There is, I think, no justification for considering the People of the Veil a large tribal group of Berbers in North Africa; they are a separate race with marked peculiarities, distinct from other sections of the latter, and, as I believe, of a different origin.
They formerly extended further west almost to the sea-board of the Atlantic; their northern and eastern extension can also be deduced from what is known of their migrations. Their neighbours to the south are the negroid Kanuri, Hausa-speaking peoples,[17]and the Fulani; to the east are the Tebu, and in the west the Arab and Moorish tribes; finally, in the north the nomadic and sedentary Arabs and sedentary Libyans of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania. The N.E. corner of Tuareg territory, the Fezzan, is ethnically of such mixed population as to admit of no summary classification; Arab, Libyan, Tebu and negroid peoples are all inextricably mingled together. The Tuareg wander as nomads over the country generally, the negroes and sedentary Libyans till the ground, and, in addition to a proportion of all those already enumerated, the towns are inhabited by yet another people of noble origin, whose connection with the ancient Garamantes of classical authors may be assumed if it cannot be proved. With the exception of the Fezzan the Tuareg are now predominant within their own country. It includes two great groups of mountains, Air and Ahaggar, together with certain smaller adjacent massifs.
It is unfortunately not possible to deal with Air in history nor with the Tuareg of Air, by considering the mountains and their inhabitants alone. The migrations of the Tuareg of Air have been so intimately connected with that part of the Sudan which we now call Nigeria that the northern fringe of the area and the country intervening between it and Air must receive attention. This intervening steppe and desert, largely overrun by Tuareg, lie on the way which I followed to reach the mountains. The neglect to which these areas have been subjected justifies me in devoting a chapter to them before coming to Air itself. Again, the concluding chapters of this volume will deal as much with the Southland as they do with Air, for the history of the latter cannot be divorced from that of the former.
Since mention will be continually made of the various Tuareg groups as they exist to-day, and of the tribes which they contain, it will be as well to explain that there are to-day four principal divisions of the people, all of whom possess characteristics common and peculiar to the whole race.
The main groups are:—
The first group is held for convenience to include the Tuareg in the Ahnet mountains, the Taitoq, and those north-west of the Ahaggar mountains. The second group is comparatively compact. The third group is the one with which this volume deals in detail, and includes the Kel Geres and other Tuareg generally of the Southland, in andon the fringes of Nigeria. The fourth group should more properly be divided, as it comprises the distinct aggregations of the Aulimmiden, the Ifoghas of the Mountain (Ifoghas n’Adghar),[18]and the Tuareg of Timbuctoo and the Niger.
The country of the Ahaggaren proper is confined to the Ahaggar massif, but there are certain outlying districts to the north and north-west. The confused mass of hills east of Ahaggar towards the Fezzan was, at the beginning of the century, essentially the country of the Azger. In recent years they have tended to move eastwards towards their original homes and away from the influence of the French military posts. The majority of this group now ranges over the country between Ghat and Murzuk. They are the Tuareg who have come least into contact with Europeans. Although there is considerable affinity between them and the Ahaggaren, the Tuareg generally recognise that the Azger do not belong to, or are under the rule of, the Ahaggar chieftains despite the fact that they are all collectively known in Air as Ahaggaren. Those travellers who have known them are at one in considering them to-day an independent division. From the historical point of view the Azger are the most important of all the Tuareg, since from this group, reduced in numbers as it now is, most of the migrations of the race to the Southlands seem to have taken place. They are also probably to-day the purest of the Tuareg stock in existence.
The first description of Air and its people in any detail was brought back to Europe by Barth after his memorable journey from the Mediterranean to the Sudan, on which he set out in 1849 with Richardson and Overweg, but from which he alone returned alive more than five years later. Prior to this journey there are certain references in Ibn Batutah and Leo Africanus, but they do not give us muchinformation either of the country or of the people. From Ibn Batutah’s description, the country he traversed is recognisable, but the information is meagre. The account of Leo Africanus written in the sixteenth century is little better. His principal contribution, in the English and original Italian versions, is a bad pun: “Likewise Hair (Air), albeit a desert, yet so called for the goodness and temperature of the aire. . . .”[19]It is an observation, in fact, of great truth, but hardly more useful than his other statement, which records that the “soyle aboundeth with all kinds of herbes,” in apparent contradiction with the previous remark. He adds that “a great store of manna” is found not far from Agades which the people “gather in certaine little vessels, carrying it, when it is new, into the market of the town to be mingled with water as a refreshing drink”—an allusion probably to the “pura” or “ghussub” water made of millet meal, water and milk or cheese. He states that the country is inhabited by the “Targa” people, and as he mentions Agades, it had evidently by then been founded, but beyond these facts his description is wholly inadequate. He unfortunately even forgets to mention that Air is mountainous.
Although the European penetration of the Western Sahara may date from the Middle Ages, the same cannot be said of Air. Caillé in 1828 was, in fact, not the first European to visit and describe Timbuctoo, nor was Rohlfs in 1864 the first European in Tuat. There are some very interesting earlier accounts which are gradually being unearthed[20]dealing with these countries. It is regrettable that there are apparently no similar accounts of Air.[21]The first information of any value is found only in comparatively recent times. Hornemann[22]in 1798 travelled from Egypt alongthe Haj Road which runs from Timbuctoo to Cairo. He turned back at Murzuk, but had he continued he would have come to Ghat and eventually to Air. He nevertheless brought back the first modern account of the Tuareg of this country, or rather of a section of them, the Kel Owi, whom he calls the Kolouvey. His information about the Ahaggaren and about the divisions of the Tebu, who lived east and north-east beyond the limits of the country which they now occupy, is worth examining in connection with their ethnological history. After Hornemann’s journey Denham, Oudney and Clapperton[23]collected some further details about Air and its people in the course of an expedition to Chad and Nigeria at the beginning of the last century, and in 1845 Richardson began a systematic study of the Azger and Air Tuareg during a preliminary journey to the Fezzan. But none of these travellers had the first-hand personal experience which, five years afterwards, Barth, Richardson and Overweg obtained on their expedition.
The part played by Great Britain in the exploration of the Central Sahara, testified to by the graves of many Englishmen or foreigners in the service of the British Crown, is little known in this country. Our efforts to abolish the slave trade in Africa and our paramount position in Tripolitania early in the last century led to that initiative being taken, to which the world even to-day owes most of its knowledge of the Fezzan, and which opened the Sudan to commerce and colonisation. While Richardson was apparently the first and only Englishman to visit Air until my travelling companion, Angus Buchanan, went there from Nigeria in 1919, the graves of explorers in neighbouring lands show that we stand second to none in geographical work in the Central Sahara. It was only when, in the partition of North Africa, this vast area fell to the French, that there was any falling off in the numbers of Englishmen who in each successive decade travelled and died there. Their work deserves to be betterknown: Henry Warrington died of dysentery at the desert well of Dibbela, south of Bilma in Kawar, on his way to Lake Chad with a German, Dr. Vogel. Dr. Oudney died on 5th January, 1824, at Murmur near Hadeija (Northern Nigeria), after accompanying Clapperton and Denham from Tripoli by way of Bilma and Chad to explore Bornu. Tyrwhit, who went out to join them, died at Kuka on Lake Chad, on 22nd October, 1824. Barth’s companion Richardson died in the early part of 1851 at N’Gurutawa in Manga, S. of Zinder, and their companion Overweg succumbed near Lake Chad. Both Barth and Overweg were Germans who had volunteered and were appointed to serve on an expedition sent by Her Majesty’s Government to explore Central Africa and to report on the abolition of the slave trade. Dr. Vogel, another German, who had been sent by Her Majesty’s Government to join Barth and complete his work, died near Lake Chad after his return, while an assistant, Corporal MacGuire, was killed on his way home at Beduaram, N. of Bilma, in the same year. Of those who had opened the way for the Clapperton expeditions, Ritchie had died of disease in 1819 at Murzuk and Lyon had been obliged to turn back before reaching Bornu. Clapperton himself on a second journey lost his life at Sokoto on 13th April, 1827. North Africa has claimed her British victims no less than the swamps and jungles of Equatoria, only they are not so well known, for they never sought to advertise their achievements.
Few people in this country or abroad realise how great was the influence of Great Britain in the Sahara during the lifetime and after the death of that remarkable man, Colonel Hamer Warrington, H.M. Consul at Tripoli from 1814 to 1846. Apart from the fact that he virtually governed Tripoli, our influence and interests may be gauged by the existence of Vice-Consulates and Consulates, not only along the coast at Khoms and Misurata, but far in the interior at Ghadames and Murzuk. The peregrinations of numerous travellers and efforts to suppress the African slave trade hadobliged Her Majesty’s Government to play a part in local tribal politics, for it had early become clear that if this abominable traffic was to be abolished the sources of supply would have to be controlled, since it proved useless only to make representations on the coast where caravans discharged their human cargo. At one moment it even seemed as if Tripolitania would be added to the British Empire, and as lately as 1870 travellers were still talking of the French and British factions among the Fezzanian tribes. But Free Trade and other political controversies in England half-way through the century brought about a pause, and the arrest was enough to withdraw public interest from North Africa and to give France her chance. The controversies were the object of much bitter criticism by the idealist Richardson, who saw political dialectics obscuring a crusade on behalf of humanity for which he was destined to give his life. He seems to have been profoundly affected and to have suffered himself to become warped, as Barth on more than one occasion discovered.[24]The inevitable consequence of a British occupation of Tripolitania would have been the active penetration of the Air and Chad roads and a junction with the explorers and merchants who were working north from the Bight of Benin. But French interest in North Africa as a consequence of their occupation of Algeria grew progressively stronger as it declined in this country, while to the same waning appetite must be ascribed the fact that for seventy years no Englishman visited Air. Regrettable as this may appear to geographers, it is even more tragic to realise how few have heard of the German, Dr. Heinrich Barth, than whom it may be said there never has been a more courageous or meticulously accurate explorer. After several notable journeys further north he accompanied Richardson as a volunteer, and on the latter’s death continued the exploration of Africa for another four years on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, which he most loyally served.If in this volume he is repeatedly mentioned, it is without misgiving or apology; it may help in some little measure to rescue his name from unmerited oblivion in these days of sensational and superficial books of travel. The account of his journey and of the lore and history of the countries of Central Africa which he visited from Timbuctoo to Lake Chad is still a standard work.
Barth and his companions entered Air in August 1850, and left the country for the south in the closing days of the same year. Reaching Asiu from Ghat, they traversed the northern mountains of Air, which are known to the Tuareg as Fadé.[25]After passing by the wells in the T’iyut valley and the “agilman” (pool) of Taghazit, they camped eight days later on the northern outskirts of Air proper. During this period their caravan was subjected to constant threats of brigandage from parties of northern Tuareg, and on the day before reaching the first permanent habitations of Air in the Ighazar near Seliufet village, they again narrowly escaped aggression from the local inhabitants. An attack was eventually made on them at T’intaghoda, a little further on, and they only just escaped with their lives after losing a good deal of property. The same experience was repeated near T’intellust, where the expedition had established its head-quarters in the great valley which drains the N.E. side of the Air mountains. When, however, they had once made friends with that remarkable personality, Annur, chief of the Kel Owi tribal confederation, and paramount chief of Air, they were free from further molestation, and thanks to him eventually they reached the Sudan in safety. From T’intellust Barth made a journey alone to Agades by a road running west of the central Bagezan mountains. After his return the whole party moved to the Southland along the great Tripoli-Sudan trade route which passes east of the Central massifs. Crossing the southern part of Air known as Tegama they entered Damergu, which geographically belongs to the Sudan, about New Year’s Day, 1851. In the course ofhis stay in Air Barth made the first sketch map of the country, catalogued the principal tribes and compiled a summary of their history which is still the most valuable contribution which we possess on the subject.
Some twenty-seven years later, another German, Erwin von Bary, reached Air from the north by much the same road as that which Barth and his companions had followed. He left Ghat in January 1897 and reached the villages of Northern Air a month later. Thence he journeyed to the village of Ajiru, a village on the eastern slopes of the central mountains, and awaited the return from a raid of Belkho, the chieftain who had succeeded Barth’s friend Annur as paramount lord of the country. The unfortunate von Bary was subjected to every form of extortion, and though Belkho, when he returned, compelled his people to restore what they had stolen, the chief himself made life unpleasant for the traveller by taking all his presents and doing nothing for him in return so long as he showed any desire to proceed on his journey southwards. Belkho pleaded such poverty that the explorer nearly died of starvation, but von Bary admittedly had laid himself open to every form of abuse. He had arrived almost penniless, did not understand the courtesies of desert travelling, and seems to have placed undue reliance on his skill as a doctor to achieve his objects. But when he eventually gave up the idea of going on to the Sudan, Belkho treated him well. Although von Bary’s opinion of the Tuareg of Air is not favourable, in reality he owed them a great debt of gratitude. No other people who dislike foreigners so much as they do would have protected him and helped him as they finally did. His quarrels with Belkho seem to have been in part due to his own tactlessness and discourtesy, and in part to his inability to realise that the chief, for political reasons, did not desire him to go to the Sudan. Von Bary returned to Ghat, meaning to try once more to reach Nigeria as soon as he had picked up his stores and some more money, but his diary ends abruptly with the remark that he would be ready to start south againfrom there in fifteen to twenty days. He died within twenty-four hours of reaching Ghat, on 3rd October, 1877. He had spent a cheerful evening with Kaimakam,[26]and had gone to bed; at 6 a.m. he was breathing peacefully asleep; by ten o’clock he was dead. His death does not seem to have been quite natural. It remains one of the mysteries of the Sahara. Von Bary’s account of Air[27]is very incomplete and his observations are coloured by the hardships which he suffered. With the exception of certain botanical information and notes on one or two ethnological points, his descriptions contain little that had not already been made known by Barth.
Then began that competition among European Powers for African colonies which was soon to reach a critical stage. The Anglo-German Convention of 1890 had proposed to divide Africa finally, but before that date the French had seen one desirable part after the other fall to our lot. They determined before it was too late to take as much as possible of what still remained unallocated. Central Africa, east of Lake Chad, certain tracts of indifferent country on the western coast and the greater part of the Sahara were still unclaimed by any European Power. And so it was that in France the magnificent scheme was conceived of sending three columns from north, west and south to converge on Lake Chad, and formally to take possession of the lands through which they passed in accordance with the stipulations of the Congress of Berlin, where it had been laid down that territorial claims were only valid if substantiated by effective occupation. It was not till 1899, however, that the French plans reached maturity. Three expeditions duly set out from the Congo, the Western Sudan and Algeria to cross Africa and meet on Lake Chad. Their adventures constitute one of the most romantic chapters in Colonial history. The western column, at first under Captain Voulet,who was accompanied by Lieut. Chanoine and others, marched from the Niger along the northern edge of the Nigerian Emirates. Mutiny and murder among the European personnel were experienced. French politics at home, where the Jewish question had become acute, were responsible for all manner of delays; the command changed hands repeatedly. But the northern column and the Congo party were equally delayed; not until a year after the date fixed for the rendezvous on the lake did the three expeditions meet. The military escorts were united under Commandant Lamy, and gave battle to the forces of Rabah, one of the Khalif’s generals, who had crossed half Africa to carve out for himself a kingdom in Bornu and Bagirmi after thedébâcleof the Mahdia on the Upper Nile. Lamy defeated him and annexed French Equatorial Africa.
Of these three expeditions, the northern column, known as the Foureau-Lamy Mission, had passed through Air on its way south. The Europeans who accompanied it were in 1899 the first Frenchmen to enter the country and to carry out the plan originally contemplated by Flatters in 1881. The annexation of Air by France may be counted from this date.
The Foureau-Lamy Mission[28]entered the borders of Air from Algeria at the wells of In Azawa; their heavy losses in camels obliged them to abandon large quantities of material, but they eventually reached Iferuan in the Ighazar, not far from T’intaghoda. Here the camp of the expedition was attacked in force by the Tuareg, who were only driven off with great difficulty. The situation was critical. The whole country was hostile to the French; they were so short of camels that on the stage south of Iferuan to Agellal they had to move their baggage in small lots, marching their transport forwards and backwards. Their destiny hung in the balance when friendly overtures were made to them near Auderas by a Tuareg of considerable note, Ahodu of the Kel Tadek tribe, whose fathers and forefathers for five generations hadbeen keepers of the mosque of Tefgun near Iferuan. Ahodu’s political sense has rarely been at fault, either then or since; he saw that the only end possible for his people from protracted hostilities with the Europeans was disaster. He promised the French peace while the column remained in Air. It reached Agades in safety, and the Sultan was obliged to hoist the French flag and provide transport animals and guides. No attack was made near the town, thanks to the efficacy of Ahodu’s presence, but his powers of persuasion were insufficient when the column marched out into the barren area further south. The guide purposely misled the expedition and it nearly perished of thirst, succeeding only with great difficulty in returning to Agades. It eventually started once more and reached the south, where its story ceases to concern the exploration of Air.
Since 1899, then, the fate of Air has been settled in so far as Europe was concerned, for it was recognised as lying within the French sphere; but the country was not effectually occupied until 1904, when a camel patrol under Lieut. C. Jean established a post at Agades. The post was evacuated for a short time and then reoccupied. The exploration of the mountains has proceeded slowly since that date. Sketch maps were gradually compiled in the course of camel corps patrols, and in 1910 the Cortier geographical mission published a very creditable map of the mountains,[29]other than the northern Fadé group, based on thirty-three astronomically determined co-ordinates supplementing the five secured by the Foureau-Lamy Mission. Chudeau in 1905 made a brief geological survey and published some notes on the flora, which remain uncatalogued to this day;[30]very complete collections of the fauna have been made by Buchanan[31]and examined in England by the British Museum (South Kensington) and by Lord Rothschild’s museum atTring. The ethnology of the country is very superficially discussed in a book published by Jean; Barth’s account remains the one of value. The complete exploration of the mountains and detailed mapping still remain to be done as well as other scientific work of every description.
“Air” as a geographical term for the mountainous plateau does not signify exactly the same thing to the inhabitants of the country themselves as it does to us; properly speaking, it is applied by them only to one part of the plateau, for the whole of which the more usual name of Asben or Absen is used. The latter is probably the original name given to the area by the people of the Sudan before the advent of the Tuareg. It is now very generally used even by them: it is universal further south. Barth has speculated at some length upon the origin of the name Air or Ahir, to take its Arabic form, and concluded that the letter “h” had been deliberately added out of modesty to guard against the word acquiring a copronymous signification. But early Arabic geographers give the form as Akir and not as Ahir, so the laborious explanation of the learned traveller is probably unnecessary.
The boundaries of Air may be defined either as running along the line where the rocks of the area dip below the sands of the desert, or as following certain well-marked basins and watercourses of material size, where disintegrated rock or alluvium has covered the lower slopes of the hills. The mountainous area is some 300 miles long by 200 miles broad. It lies wholly within the tropics and is surrounded by desert or by arid steppe. Owing to the general elevation of the country the climate is quite pleasant.
Drainage of theCENTRAL SAHARAF. R. del.Emery Walker Ltd. sc.
Drainage of theCENTRAL SAHARAF. R. del.Emery Walker Ltd. sc.
Drainage of theCENTRAL SAHARA
In remote ages the rainfall of the Central Sahara was sufficient to create the deep and important river beds which compose the hydrographic system of this part of North Africa. Among these watercourses is one of great size, flowing from the Ahaggar massif towards Algeria, called the Ighaghar. Duveyrier has tried to prove that it was the Niger of Pliny, largely on the grounds that the root “Ig”or “Igh” occurs in both words and in Temajegh means “to run.” The effect of this identification, which is hard to accept, would be to make the classical ethnology of the Sahara less easy to follow, but it has little significance in considering Air, except in so far as it would tend to show that the geographical knowledge of the Romans did not extend as far south as the plateau. Complementary to the Ighagharbut flowing south from the Ahaggar massif is another equally great river,[32]which early in its course is joined by a large tributary from the Western Fezzan. At a certain point this valley is crossed by the roads from Air to Ahaggar and Ghat, branching respectively at the wells of In Azawa or Asiu. The eastern branch is the caravan road to Ghat from the Sudan, the western one finds its way to In Salah in Tuat and to Algeria. This bed runs south and south-west towards the Niger, which it must have reached at some point between Gao and Timbuctoo in the neighbourhood of the N.E. corner of the Great Bend which the French call “La Boucle du Niger.” This river of remote times must have been one of the great watercourses of Africa, extending from the head-waters in 26° N. Lat. to its mouth in the Bight of Benin on the Equator. It is not possible to say whether the interesting terrestrial changes which diverted the Upper Niger at the lagoons above Timbuctoo into the present Lower Niger, and which brought about the desiccation of the upper reaches, took place suddenly or gradually, but the latter is more probable, for a similar diversion seems to be going on in the Chad area. The lake, in reality an immense marsh and lagoon, is much smaller than when it perhaps included the depression noted by Tilho as extending most of the way to Tibesti; some of the waters of the Chad feeders are already believed to be finding their way in flood-time into the Benue, and it is possible that in the course of time a similar process to that manifested in the Niger area will take place; then Lake Chad will dry up into salt-pans like those at Taodenit. The Saharan river, which flows southward to the west of Air, bears various names. Its course has never been accurately determined, but its general direction is known. From Ahaggar to a point level with the northernmost parts of Air it is called Tafassasset. The T’in Tarabin channel from Ahaggar more probably drained into the Belly of the Desert than into this system, but the Alfalehle (WadiFalezlez) from the Western Fezzan most certainly seems to be a tributary; there are various reasons why it ought not to flow towards Kawar, as used at one time to be thought. West of Air the main bed spreads out into a vast plain-like basin under the name of T’immersoi; further south it is called Azawak. In general I prefer to use the name T’immersoi for the whole until a better one is suggested.[33]
The T’immersoi forms a collector in the west of Air for nearly all the water from this group of mountains. Nowadays only a comparatively small amount ever reaches the basin, as much is absorbed by the intervening plain land of Talak[34]and the Assawas swamp west of Agades. The latter are local basins or sumps covered with dense vegetation where some of the most nomadic tribes in Air pasture their herds. Talak is visited by Tuareg from Ahaggar and from the west for the same purpose. It plays an important part in the economy of the country, for water is always to be found in the alluvial soil however dry the season in the mountains has been. Many of the wells have now fallen into disuse, but the output of those which remain is still plentiful. The last rocks of Air on the west disappear below the alluvium of T’immersoi and in the subsidiary basins of Talak and Assawas. The T’immersoi system therefore forms the western boundary of Air.
The upper part of the T’immersoi, where it is called the Tafassasset, is also the northern boundary of Air. The wells of In Azawa[35]and Asiu in this valley may be regarded as the point where the main roads from the north enter the extreme limits of the country. Further east on another road between Air and Ghat, von Bary fixed the boundary at the Wadi Immidir, which is in the same latitude as In Azawa.[36]
The eastern boundary of Air runs along the line where the last rocks of the group disappear below the sand of the steppe and desert, which extends from north to south between the mountains of the Fezzan and the fringe of Equatorial Africa, and from west to east between the mountains of Air and those of Tibesti with its adjacent massifs. This vast area is crossed by a few roads only, the most important ones being (a) the road from Murzuk along the Kawar depression to Agadem and Lake Chad, (b) and (c), the two principal tracks from Air eastwards to Bilma by Ashegur and Fashi respectively, and (d) the road from Zinder by Termit to Fashi and Kawar. Watering-points are very few, and the habitable oases can be numbered on the fingers of two hands; pasturage is everywhere scarce. This great waste is one of the most unknown parts of North Africa; its eastern portion along the Tibesti mountains as far north as the Fezzan may be said to be absolutely unknown except for two tracks to the mountains whither occasional camel patrols have passed.
Kawar and the other oases along the Chad road appear to be closed basins of the Eastern Saharan type. They seem to have no outlet towards the south either into the Chad or into the Niger systems. The desert east of Air, therefore, contains the eastern watershed of the T’immersoi basin, for the valleys of Eastern Air do not run into the desert as Chudeau has suggested,[37]but turn southwards on leaving the hills, in ill-defined depressions or folds which join the Tagedufat valley or one of the other channels flowing westwards in Tegama or Damergu. One valley to the south of Air, probably the Tagedufat itself, is stated to run all the way from Fashi across the desert.
The southern limits of Air may be placed along the Tagedufat basin, where the rocks of Air disappear below the sand dunes and downs of Tegama and Azawagh steppedesert. The valley is of some size and flows roughly N.E. and S.W. towards T’immersoi, but whether it actually joins this system or the Gulbi n’Kaba, which finds its way into Sokoto Emirate under the name of the Gulbi n’Maradi and thence into the Niger, is not certain. The former hypothesis seems more probable, but I was unable to follow the Tagedufat sufficiently far west to verify it, nor could I discover any data on the French maps;[38]local reports substantiate my supposition. Both systems in any case are in the Niger basin. Air is not on the watershed between Niger and Chad. The choice of the Tagedufat valley as the southern boundary of Air is made on geographical grounds. What may be termed the political boundary is rather further north along the line of the River of Agades.
PLATE 3DESERT AND HILLS FROM TERMIT PEAK
PLATE 3
DESERT AND HILLS FROM TERMIT PEAK
DESERT AND HILLS FROM TERMIT PEAK
DESERT AND HILLS FROM TERMIT PEAK
Commencing within 50 km. of the In Azawa wells, Air is a low plateau of Silurian formation with islands of Archean rock. Through the plateau-plain a number of separate formations have been extruded by, in many cases, apparently quite recent volcanic action. The northernmost massifs of Taghazit and Zelim lie in about latitude 20°. The volcanic period was of considerable duration, but all the recognisable volcanoes and derived phenomena are post-Eocene.[39]Some of the basalt flows, more especially those from Mount Dogam near Auderas in Central Air, are not old, while the Teginjir lava flow appeared to me so fresh as probably to have come into existence during the historical period. The volcanic phenomena take the form of cinder cones with steep sides as at Teginjir (Mount Gheshwa), cumulo-volcanoes, as in the T’imia and probably Bagezan massifs, domes as in the case of Mount Dogam, and basalt flows in various parts, notably in the T’imia valleys.[40]Aggata[40]appears to be another volcanic peak, but the serrated crest of Ighzan is a phenomenon of the rapid cooling of an igneousextrusion rather than an example of erosion. There are numerous volcanic massifs distinct from each other all over Air, more especially in the centre and north; they are nearly all granitic and very rugged. The Auderas basin is of basalt and cinerite.[41]The plateau, which is in the main horizontal, rises in the centre to a step some few hundred feet higher than the north and south and forms a pedestal for the Bagezan and other massifs some 1500 to 3000 feet higher again. The peaks are as much as 4500 feet[42]above the plateau, which varies from 1500 feet above sea level in the south along the River of Agades, to 2000 feet in the Ighazar in North Air. Round Auderas the plateau may be taken as about 2500 feet above the sea, while to the east of the Bagezan massif the plateau is about 3000 feet, sloping gradually away to the south and east. Between Agades and Auderas there is an abrupt ascent on to the central step of the plateau of some 2000 feet; a corresponding descent of about 150 feet takes place near Assada.
The effect of these massifs rising sharply out of the plateau is curious. The Archean or Silurian plain and the volcanic mountain groups are phenomena which have not yet had time to become correlated. The result is that the broad and very gentle valleys of the plateau-plain wander in and out among the disconnected massifs and are fed by deep torrents draining the slopes of impermeable rock. Water erosion has not yet had time to widen or deepen the ravines, while the broad valleys have wide sandy bottoms, where pebbles only rarely occur; their sides are well wooded with pasture on the plains between the beds, except where masses of round basalt boulders, the product of the volcanic disturbances, cover the surface. The massifs have hardly been affected by erosion. The broad valleys between them are the corridors of communication in the country. “Cette superimposition à une vieille pénéplaine usée,” says Chudeau,[43]“de massifs éruptifs jeunes, donne a l’Air un aspect surprenant,presque paradoxal.” And this is the charm of the country that has been called by travellers the Saharan Alps. There is contrast everywhere, but nothing is perhaps more striking than the black patina which the red rocks have assumed. The wind-borne sand has polished them till they shine with a dark metallic gleam, while the sheltered rifts and ravines retain their pink and red surfaces. It is a land of lurid colour, except at midday, when the African sun dominates everything in one blinding glare.
[1]The name “Sudan” is used throughout to indicate the country referred to by the Arab and early European geographers under this name, that is to say, the country inhabited by negroid people north of the purely negro zone and south of the Saharan deserts. The “Anglo-Egyptian Sudan” is more correctly described as the “Nilotic Sudan.”[2]The geography of the Sahara as a whole is briefly treated inLe Sahara, by E. F. Gautier, Collection Payot, Paris, 1923, and with greater detail inLe Sahara, by H. Schirmer, Paris, 1893, but much recent work is not included in the latter.[3]O. Bates:The Eastern Libyans(Macmillan), pp. 48-9.[4]Cf. Rohlfs,Kufra, Chap. VIII.[5]“Alguechet” in Leo Africanus, Vol. III. pp. 802, 818, etc. (For particulars see beginning ofChap. IX.)[6]Until motor-cars began to cross the Sahara further west.[7]Bissuel,Les Touareg de l’Ouest, p. 63, says: “A plant called locally ‘Bettina’ and not the Alfalehle (Arabic: Falezlez) was used.”[8]Gautier:La conquête du Sahara, Paris, 1922.[9]SeeLife of Charles de Foucauld, by R. Bazin, translated by P. Keelan, and De Foucauld,Dictionnaire abrégé Touareg Français(Dialecte Ahaggar), publié par R. Basset, Alger, 1918-20.[10]Jean:Les Touareg du Sud-Est, Paris, Larose, 1909.[11]Barth:Travels and Discoveries in Central Africa, London, Longmans, 1857-8, 5 vols.[12]From “Litham,”لثام(rootلثم), a veil.[13]The slaves which they possess do not wear the veil. The slave is not a man but a chattel. As soon as a slave is freed and becomes a serf he wears the veil like the noble Tuareg.[14]In the Air dialect this word is so pronounced. Variations in other dialects are referred to elsewhere. Imajeghan is the plural form of Imajegh. Temajegh is a feminine form of Imajegh.[15]“Kel” means “People of,” “Tagilmus” is the name of the Veil in Temajegh, the language of the Tuareg.[16]For an explanation of this term seeChap. IX.[17]The term “Hausa” throughout this volume is not used in an ethnological sense. It is primarily a linguistic division which may or may not also have an ethnic significance.[18]“Adghar” or “adrar” = mountain in Temajegh. This mountain group between Air and the Niger and south of Ahaggar has no name. It is called the “Mountain of the Ifoghas” (Adghar n’Ifoghas), while the people who live in it are known as the “Ifoghas of the Mountain,” to distinguish them from the Ifoghas tribe in Damergu and the Ifoghas tribe of the Azger.[19]Leo Africanus: Hakluyt Society edition, Vol. I. p. 127, and Vol. III. pp. 798-9.[20]Notably by M. Ch. de la Roncière:Revue des Deux Mondes, 1st February, 1923: “Tombuctou au temps de Louis XI.”[21]M. de la Roncière in a private letter of July 1923 to the author.[22]The edition I have used is a French one: Hornemann,Voyage dans l’Afrique Septentrionale, edited by my ancestor Rennell. Paris: Dentu, 1803.[23]Denham and Clapperton: “Discoveries in North and Central Africa, 1822-4,” Murray, 1826.[24]See Introduction to Richardson’sTravels in the Great Desert of the Sahara, London, 1847, and Barth,op. cit., Vol. II. pp. 219-20.[25]Barth calls this area Fadeangh, a name not known to-day.[26]The Governor appointed by the Turks.[27]Von Bary’s Diary, “La dernier rapport . . . sur . . . les Touaregs de l’Air.” Edited by Schirmer; Paris, Fischbacher, 1898.[28]Documents Scientifiques de la Mission Foureau-Lamy. Various fascicules.[29]Carte de l’Air: Mission Cortier (2 feuilles), 1/500,000. Service Géogr. du Min. des Colonies.[30]Chudeau and Gautier:Missions au Sahara, Paris, Armand Colin, 1909 (Vol. II.,Le Sahara Soudanais, by Chudeau).[31]Buchanan:Out of the World North of Nigeria, Murray.[32]Where the words “rivers” or “watercourse” are used they must be understood to mean drainage channels which are dry most of the year.[33]Gautier on his sketch map inLe Saharauses the name Tafassasset, which, however, is even more of a local name in the north than T’immersoi is in the south.[34]In Temajegh “Talak” means “clay.” Cf. Chudeau:Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 63, etc.[35]Meaning in Temajegh “of the Tamarisk.”[36]Von Bary’s Diary, pp. 108-9. He joined the main road followed by Barth in the T’iyut valley.[37]In the case of the Tafidet and other eastern valleys of Air, Chudeau,op. cit., p. 62. He supposed, as I think erroneously, that the Air group itself and not the desert was the eastern watershed of the T’immersoi basin.[38]The country south of Air and north of the limit included in the maps published by the Mission Tilho of the area each side of the Franco-British boundary between Nigeria and the Territoires Militaires du Niger is hardly mapped at all.[39]Chudeau,op. cit., pp. 263-4.[40]VidePlates23and39.[41]VidePlates13and14.[42]In the case of Tamgak.[43]Chudeau,op. cit., p. 57.
[1]The name “Sudan” is used throughout to indicate the country referred to by the Arab and early European geographers under this name, that is to say, the country inhabited by negroid people north of the purely negro zone and south of the Saharan deserts. The “Anglo-Egyptian Sudan” is more correctly described as the “Nilotic Sudan.”
[1]The name “Sudan” is used throughout to indicate the country referred to by the Arab and early European geographers under this name, that is to say, the country inhabited by negroid people north of the purely negro zone and south of the Saharan deserts. The “Anglo-Egyptian Sudan” is more correctly described as the “Nilotic Sudan.”
[2]The geography of the Sahara as a whole is briefly treated inLe Sahara, by E. F. Gautier, Collection Payot, Paris, 1923, and with greater detail inLe Sahara, by H. Schirmer, Paris, 1893, but much recent work is not included in the latter.
[2]The geography of the Sahara as a whole is briefly treated inLe Sahara, by E. F. Gautier, Collection Payot, Paris, 1923, and with greater detail inLe Sahara, by H. Schirmer, Paris, 1893, but much recent work is not included in the latter.
[3]O. Bates:The Eastern Libyans(Macmillan), pp. 48-9.
[3]O. Bates:The Eastern Libyans(Macmillan), pp. 48-9.
[4]Cf. Rohlfs,Kufra, Chap. VIII.
[4]Cf. Rohlfs,Kufra, Chap. VIII.
[5]“Alguechet” in Leo Africanus, Vol. III. pp. 802, 818, etc. (For particulars see beginning ofChap. IX.)
[5]“Alguechet” in Leo Africanus, Vol. III. pp. 802, 818, etc. (For particulars see beginning ofChap. IX.)
[6]Until motor-cars began to cross the Sahara further west.
[6]Until motor-cars began to cross the Sahara further west.
[7]Bissuel,Les Touareg de l’Ouest, p. 63, says: “A plant called locally ‘Bettina’ and not the Alfalehle (Arabic: Falezlez) was used.”
[7]Bissuel,Les Touareg de l’Ouest, p. 63, says: “A plant called locally ‘Bettina’ and not the Alfalehle (Arabic: Falezlez) was used.”
[8]Gautier:La conquête du Sahara, Paris, 1922.
[8]Gautier:La conquête du Sahara, Paris, 1922.
[9]SeeLife of Charles de Foucauld, by R. Bazin, translated by P. Keelan, and De Foucauld,Dictionnaire abrégé Touareg Français(Dialecte Ahaggar), publié par R. Basset, Alger, 1918-20.
[9]SeeLife of Charles de Foucauld, by R. Bazin, translated by P. Keelan, and De Foucauld,Dictionnaire abrégé Touareg Français(Dialecte Ahaggar), publié par R. Basset, Alger, 1918-20.
[10]Jean:Les Touareg du Sud-Est, Paris, Larose, 1909.
[10]Jean:Les Touareg du Sud-Est, Paris, Larose, 1909.
[11]Barth:Travels and Discoveries in Central Africa, London, Longmans, 1857-8, 5 vols.
[11]Barth:Travels and Discoveries in Central Africa, London, Longmans, 1857-8, 5 vols.
[12]From “Litham,”لثام(rootلثم), a veil.
[12]From “Litham,”لثام(rootلثم), a veil.
[13]The slaves which they possess do not wear the veil. The slave is not a man but a chattel. As soon as a slave is freed and becomes a serf he wears the veil like the noble Tuareg.
[13]The slaves which they possess do not wear the veil. The slave is not a man but a chattel. As soon as a slave is freed and becomes a serf he wears the veil like the noble Tuareg.
[14]In the Air dialect this word is so pronounced. Variations in other dialects are referred to elsewhere. Imajeghan is the plural form of Imajegh. Temajegh is a feminine form of Imajegh.
[14]In the Air dialect this word is so pronounced. Variations in other dialects are referred to elsewhere. Imajeghan is the plural form of Imajegh. Temajegh is a feminine form of Imajegh.
[15]“Kel” means “People of,” “Tagilmus” is the name of the Veil in Temajegh, the language of the Tuareg.
[15]“Kel” means “People of,” “Tagilmus” is the name of the Veil in Temajegh, the language of the Tuareg.
[16]For an explanation of this term seeChap. IX.
[16]For an explanation of this term seeChap. IX.
[17]The term “Hausa” throughout this volume is not used in an ethnological sense. It is primarily a linguistic division which may or may not also have an ethnic significance.
[17]The term “Hausa” throughout this volume is not used in an ethnological sense. It is primarily a linguistic division which may or may not also have an ethnic significance.
[18]“Adghar” or “adrar” = mountain in Temajegh. This mountain group between Air and the Niger and south of Ahaggar has no name. It is called the “Mountain of the Ifoghas” (Adghar n’Ifoghas), while the people who live in it are known as the “Ifoghas of the Mountain,” to distinguish them from the Ifoghas tribe in Damergu and the Ifoghas tribe of the Azger.
[18]“Adghar” or “adrar” = mountain in Temajegh. This mountain group between Air and the Niger and south of Ahaggar has no name. It is called the “Mountain of the Ifoghas” (Adghar n’Ifoghas), while the people who live in it are known as the “Ifoghas of the Mountain,” to distinguish them from the Ifoghas tribe in Damergu and the Ifoghas tribe of the Azger.
[19]Leo Africanus: Hakluyt Society edition, Vol. I. p. 127, and Vol. III. pp. 798-9.
[19]Leo Africanus: Hakluyt Society edition, Vol. I. p. 127, and Vol. III. pp. 798-9.
[20]Notably by M. Ch. de la Roncière:Revue des Deux Mondes, 1st February, 1923: “Tombuctou au temps de Louis XI.”
[20]Notably by M. Ch. de la Roncière:Revue des Deux Mondes, 1st February, 1923: “Tombuctou au temps de Louis XI.”
[21]M. de la Roncière in a private letter of July 1923 to the author.
[21]M. de la Roncière in a private letter of July 1923 to the author.
[22]The edition I have used is a French one: Hornemann,Voyage dans l’Afrique Septentrionale, edited by my ancestor Rennell. Paris: Dentu, 1803.
[22]The edition I have used is a French one: Hornemann,Voyage dans l’Afrique Septentrionale, edited by my ancestor Rennell. Paris: Dentu, 1803.
[23]Denham and Clapperton: “Discoveries in North and Central Africa, 1822-4,” Murray, 1826.
[23]Denham and Clapperton: “Discoveries in North and Central Africa, 1822-4,” Murray, 1826.
[24]See Introduction to Richardson’sTravels in the Great Desert of the Sahara, London, 1847, and Barth,op. cit., Vol. II. pp. 219-20.
[24]See Introduction to Richardson’sTravels in the Great Desert of the Sahara, London, 1847, and Barth,op. cit., Vol. II. pp. 219-20.
[25]Barth calls this area Fadeangh, a name not known to-day.
[25]Barth calls this area Fadeangh, a name not known to-day.
[26]The Governor appointed by the Turks.
[26]The Governor appointed by the Turks.
[27]Von Bary’s Diary, “La dernier rapport . . . sur . . . les Touaregs de l’Air.” Edited by Schirmer; Paris, Fischbacher, 1898.
[27]Von Bary’s Diary, “La dernier rapport . . . sur . . . les Touaregs de l’Air.” Edited by Schirmer; Paris, Fischbacher, 1898.
[28]Documents Scientifiques de la Mission Foureau-Lamy. Various fascicules.
[28]Documents Scientifiques de la Mission Foureau-Lamy. Various fascicules.
[29]Carte de l’Air: Mission Cortier (2 feuilles), 1/500,000. Service Géogr. du Min. des Colonies.
[29]Carte de l’Air: Mission Cortier (2 feuilles), 1/500,000. Service Géogr. du Min. des Colonies.
[30]Chudeau and Gautier:Missions au Sahara, Paris, Armand Colin, 1909 (Vol. II.,Le Sahara Soudanais, by Chudeau).
[30]Chudeau and Gautier:Missions au Sahara, Paris, Armand Colin, 1909 (Vol. II.,Le Sahara Soudanais, by Chudeau).
[31]Buchanan:Out of the World North of Nigeria, Murray.
[31]Buchanan:Out of the World North of Nigeria, Murray.
[32]Where the words “rivers” or “watercourse” are used they must be understood to mean drainage channels which are dry most of the year.
[32]Where the words “rivers” or “watercourse” are used they must be understood to mean drainage channels which are dry most of the year.
[33]Gautier on his sketch map inLe Saharauses the name Tafassasset, which, however, is even more of a local name in the north than T’immersoi is in the south.
[33]Gautier on his sketch map inLe Saharauses the name Tafassasset, which, however, is even more of a local name in the north than T’immersoi is in the south.
[34]In Temajegh “Talak” means “clay.” Cf. Chudeau:Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 63, etc.
[34]In Temajegh “Talak” means “clay.” Cf. Chudeau:Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 63, etc.
[35]Meaning in Temajegh “of the Tamarisk.”
[35]Meaning in Temajegh “of the Tamarisk.”
[36]Von Bary’s Diary, pp. 108-9. He joined the main road followed by Barth in the T’iyut valley.
[36]Von Bary’s Diary, pp. 108-9. He joined the main road followed by Barth in the T’iyut valley.
[37]In the case of the Tafidet and other eastern valleys of Air, Chudeau,op. cit., p. 62. He supposed, as I think erroneously, that the Air group itself and not the desert was the eastern watershed of the T’immersoi basin.
[37]In the case of the Tafidet and other eastern valleys of Air, Chudeau,op. cit., p. 62. He supposed, as I think erroneously, that the Air group itself and not the desert was the eastern watershed of the T’immersoi basin.
[38]The country south of Air and north of the limit included in the maps published by the Mission Tilho of the area each side of the Franco-British boundary between Nigeria and the Territoires Militaires du Niger is hardly mapped at all.
[38]The country south of Air and north of the limit included in the maps published by the Mission Tilho of the area each side of the Franco-British boundary between Nigeria and the Territoires Militaires du Niger is hardly mapped at all.
[39]Chudeau,op. cit., pp. 263-4.
[39]Chudeau,op. cit., pp. 263-4.
[40]VidePlates23and39.
[40]VidePlates23and39.
[41]VidePlates13and14.
[41]VidePlates13and14.
[42]In the case of Tamgak.
[42]In the case of Tamgak.
[43]Chudeau,op. cit., p. 57.
[43]Chudeau,op. cit., p. 57.
THE SOUTHLANDS
Untilabout twenty years ago it was easier to reach the Western Sudan and Central Africa around Lake Chad from the north than from the Gulf of Guinea, notwithstanding a journey of many months across the Sahara, involving all the considerable hardships and dangers of desert travelling. The objectives which Barth, Foureau, Lamy and their predecessors all had in view were not the exploration of the Sahara, but the penetration of the Sudan. By following the trade routes along which slave caravans used to reach the Mediterranean coast, the explorers of the nineteenth century reached the wealthy Niger lands more easily than they would have done had they attempted to pass through the tropical forests of the West Coast. On the sea-board European penetration at that time was confined to the neighbourhood of a few factories on the shore or the estuaries of certain rivers. Only at the end of the nineteenth century did this country, first among the nations of Europe, realise that the potential markets and supplies of raw material which the Sudan afforded were on a scale far surpassing those which had been dreamt of by the early pioneers on the coast. It was about thirty years ago that communication was eventually opened up between the coast and the Moslem interior, but there is no doubt that the accounts of the Sudan in 1850 brought back by Barth after his memorable journey were directly responsible for the British penetration from the coast of those countries which are now called Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria. The movement reached its culmination in the opening years of the twentieth century, when thenorthern provinces of Nigeria were occupied under the guidance of Sir F. Lugard, while at about the same time the three French columns had met near Lake Chad. With these years the expansionist period closed and a phase of development, which still continues, commenced. British expansion into Northern Nigeria, coming as it did during the South African war, passed comparatively unnoticed in this country except in official circles, where the campaigns of Sir F. Lugard’s small columns aroused considerable anxiety. But because the policy was successful the public heard little of the operations which formally annexed the outlying Emirates of Kano, Katsina and Sokoto. The new countries which we then acquired were of colossal wealth, and contained a population of many millions of people living as thickly in certain parts as the Egyptians in the Nile Delta. The closing years of last and the first few years of this century involved the addition to the British Empire of some of the greatest of the Sudanese cities, which are the terminal points and therefore theraisons d’êtreof the two central Saharan trade roads which come from the Mediterranean by way of Kawar and Air.