PeopleWest AfricaNorth Africa

Tuareg (Kel Tamasheq)

The veiled nomads of the Sahara; tea in three glasses, poetry, and the tagelmust.

Mali

Niger

Algeria

Libya

Burkina FasoTamasheq

Customs they practice

1 recorded rite, each with its steps and its WHY.

Community & hospitalitymachine draft

The three glasses of Saharan tea

Among the Tuareg and across the Sahara, green tea is brewed strong and poured from height in three rounds: "the first bitter like death, the second gentle like life, the third sweet like love."

Tuareg · Amazigh

What they eat

1 dish, what they mean and when they appear.

Staplemachine draft

Eghajira

A dense, energy-rich paste of pounded millet, dates, dried cheese, and butter, rolled into balls that travel well across the desert: a Tuareg staple built for distance.

Tuareg

What they wear

1 piece, what it says and who may wear it.

Headwearmachine draft

A long indigo-dyed cotton veil, wrapped repeatedly around the head and face, worn by Tuareg men from the age of maturity onward, so closely tied to Tuareg male identity that the Tuareg are sometimes called "the blue men of the desert."