John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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2.2 Indigenous Peoples : 070-082 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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2.2 Indigenous Peoples : 070-082 |
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| .070. During recorded history, which has been a time of diminishing rainfall, the greater bulk of the Sahara has been occupied by pastoral nomads. Originally most of these were Berbers, who ranged over vast areas in search of fodder for their camels, sheep and goats; and traded their milk, meat and hides for the crops of the oases that existed then (notably for fruit and cereals). Some of them also owned cropland, which was worked for them by slaves. (Berber herders inspecting stock in the market at Kairouan) |
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| .071. In the 7th
and 11th centuries, however, when the Arabs swept across North Africa,
the Berbers lost their best croplands and pastures and were either banished
to the mountain ranges of the north or pushed further south into the desert.
(Berber farmstead north of Biskra; in winter) |
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| .072. Those Berbers who live in the mountains today graze livestock ... practicing transhumance (or vertical nomadism) moving up and down slopes according to the season. (Berber farmstead and pastures near Constantine) |
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| .073. They usually combine herding with cultivation ... on terraced hillsides where water is available for irrigation, and/or taking advantage as here of winter rain. (Field near Constantine) |
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| .074. Those living further south, with less rain, water their gardens by hand, and graze livestock in semi-desert conditions. (South of Kairouan) |
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| .075. Cropping here is confined to winter, which is the rainy season in Mediterranean regions. The fields are bigger today but the techniques used have changed very little. (South of Kairouan) |
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| .076. Because of intermarriage it is no longer possible to distinguish between Arabs and Berbers on the basis of physical characteristics: instead it is the Berber language (spoken by some but by no means all) that separates the two; and sometimes their clothing. (At the market in Kairouan) |
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| .077. The Tuareg are a sub-set of the Berbers and now occupy much of the central Sahara and the Sahel to the south. Before the arrival of the Europeans most Tuareg were nomadic herders ... of camels, sheep and goats ... trading animal products for dates and millet. (Tuareg herders near Tamanrasset) |
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| .078.They were raiders and traders also, and also crisscrossed the Sahara bringing gold, ivory and slaves from West Africa; and carrying salt and Arab and European trade goods in the opposite direction. Many of the traders married slaves. (Tuareg children of West African ancestry) |
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| .079. Persons of Arab origin now occupy the greater bulk of the Sahara. The first wave of Arab invaders to spread their religion and language across the region arrived in the 7th century, but they were followed by further all-conquering waves of migrants. (Arab family in Sinai) |
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| .080. Today Arabs can be found in small and large communities throughout the length and breadth of the Sahara. Many intermarried with Berber tribes: and their descendants became the ethnic cement which bound Saharan people together, in town and country, across nomadic pasture lands and in intensively farmed oases. (Bedouin children at Ain Khudra) |
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| .081. The homogenization of Egypt’s cultural mosaic was furthered in recent times following the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser. This flooded the homes and farms of thousands of Nubians who had previously lived alongside the river south of Aswan ... in the Sudan as well as Egypt. Many of these were re-settled in the 1960s in villages adjacent to Aswan -- which had long been Egypt’s gateway to Nubia. (Nubian village near Aswan) |
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| .082. Many others were settled on new agricultural lands close to Kom Ombo in an area referred to these days as “New Nubia”... which could now be irrigated. Nubia (or “Kush”) was a Christian kingdom for a thousand years but the last such kingdom collapsed in 1504, and with the influx of Arabs from the north most Nubians converted to Islam. They retain some elements of their culture ... architectural styles, music, and language (in part) ... and are darker skinned than most of their Arab neighbours. (Irrigated farmland at Kom Ombo) |
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