THE FAMILY PORTRAIT: In this photo, you can see Alhassan with his wife, Sadouan, and their children. Mouheini, who you might remember from another photo, is their eldest child. She was not present when this photo was taken, given that she was in her husband’s camp tending to her own children.
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THE INCONSISTENCIES OF PARENTHOOD: This photo depicts Salah and his youngest daughter. Salah is one of my best friends from the Azawak. He is married to the outspoken Raichatou, the leader of women in our community of Tangarwashane. Proud of his delicious cooking, he relishes making tagala (sand bread) when I visit. Like most Touareg fathers I know, he adores his children, and spends much of his time cuddling with them. He even opened part of his home to start the first school of Tangarwashane. Read more…
FLYING BAGS OF POOP: I was exhausted from the day’s heat, and tired of conducting questionnaires. Even though my research was fascinating, I wanted to play with kids, and take a break from the gruel of my work. I had spent all day walking from one household to another in the village of Goumbi Kanno, conducting interviews with women to inquire about their hygiene and sanitation practices. I was feeling a little strange asking such personal questions to women I hardly knew. A break was in order. Read more…
CAN YOUR CULTURE MAKE YOU HEALTHIER? This Fulani girl is from the village of Goumbi Kanno, near Niger’s border with Nigeria. At the time that I met her, I was working for CARE International, conducting breastfeeding education among the mothers of Goumbi Kanno, a village composed of both the Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups. I was living on the Hausa side of the village, and my first – very judgemental! — impression of Kanno was that it was filthy and neglected. Read more…
THE ANASSARA (WHITE) GENIE: The day I encountered this child, I had spent the day driving through the wild grasslands of the Azawak. Evening was closing in, and Moustapha, my research assistant, was set on finding a Touareg camp to rest for the night. But before we found one, we spotted a Fulani family that had set up their camp near a ravine. I told Moustapha that I wanted to camp at this spot, near the family. I was excited to possibly interview them for my research. He was skeptical and displeased. He did not want to camp with these strangers. I insisted. Read more…
THAT’S A CAMP? This little boy and his mother were the first Wodaabe that I met in the Azawak. In fact, their camp was the first Wodaabe camp I had ever seen. When I met them, they were sitting together in the middle of grasses underneath the blazing sun. The mother was mending a shirt, and her son sat patiently next to her, intently observing my every move. Read more…
FROM GEREWOLS TO SCHOOLS: Fada, adorned with charm talismans, a round feather- topped hat and a Tuareg saber, came bouncing toward me as I struggled to walk through through prickly burrs. “Hey, follow me, I’ll show you where it’s best to step,” he said. “Come to my camp. It’s just over that dune.” Two hours and about 2,000 prickly burrs later, with a herd of long-horned cows following, we arrived at his home: a wooden bed and a table covered with calabashes. Read more…
THE FLEA INFESTED CAMP: I do not know this Touareg child’s name. But I will never forget her gorgeous smile. Nor will I ever forget the few days I spent in her camp, located deep in the middle of nowhere. Truly, her camp was lost at what seemed the end of the earth, perched in the middle of a vast expanse of low lying hills hundreds of kilometers away from anything even approaching civilization. Read more…
RED RIBBON: AISHA
Aisha is the daughter of Alhassan and Sadouan, and sister to Mouheini. I have posted several times on this family that is particularly close to my heart. They were my host family the first time I traveled to the Azawak and with their nomadic community (they have since settled into the village of Tangarwashane). Aisha’s father, Alhassan, traveled over 20 miles overnight the first night we met to find a goat to slaughter for me in the morning. Read more…