Saharan Tuareg: Muslims with a Christian Past and Polytheistic Roots

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

The Tuareg are an extremely interesting people with a fascinating (and very dramatic) history and religion.

They are free Saharan nomads usually dressed in loose blue (less often yellow, white or green) djellabies with black or white turbans. A Tuareg cross slung around their necks and a sword or longer dagger is an important identifying feature, but they also wield modern heavy weapons which, combined with traditional blood feuds, regularly wet the Saharan sands with the fresh blood of the opposing side in a dispute (which makes travelling through their territory north of Timbuktu quite adventurous).

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

Tuareg and Islam

Today, the majority of Tuareg people — approximately three million people (but estimates vary widely) — follow Sunni Islam, but due to the remoteness of their territory, they often live outside the reach of mosques, their faith is rather insular and does not emphasize the formal observance of Muslim obligations common in “settled” areas. While I see Muslims praying in every conceivable place in the whole of the Islamic Landscape today and every day, I have not seen the Tuareg praying even once in the few weeks I have been with them in the desert north of Timbuktu. It could have been that they went to more secluded places to pray (sort of in private) or simply that they pray alone in their hearts. Although the Tuareg are pilgrims, they do not leave their Saharan territory, and pilgrimage to Mecca (or at least the desire for pilgrimage) is not commonly experienced among them. Nor do the Tuareg cultivate excessive almsgiving or hospitality to foreign pilgrims, unlike, for example, the Sudanese Muslims, who gave me a truly extraordinary display of hospitality and help along the way.

In the past, the Tuareg have made raids on surrounding ethnic groups, capturing and enslaving people; at the same time, they have dominated the trade caravans crossing their territory and benefited economically. In addition to clans, the Tuareg are also divided into castes: at the highest level are the Tuareg nobility — at most free people, owners of herds, weapons, property… — and at the lowest level are slaves from the sub-Saharan Bantu ethnic groups. In Mauritania, for example, slavery was only officially abolished in 1980, but it still exists to some extent in practice. In Mali, north of Timbuktu, the situation is similar among the Tuareg.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

Islamic mysticism — Sufism — has also long flourished in Timbuktu and its surroundings, influencing the shape of the Tuareg Muslim faith. No wonder, for in accordance with the teachings of the Jewish Torah (from which the Qur’an draws heavily), a nomadic life in the wilderness is the best suited to a man who relies (and must rely in the desert) on God’s protection with all his heart, with all his being. In the Tuareg region the Sufi order of Tijaniya is significantly widespread. The main Tuareg cities (although the word city is highly misleading from our point of view) are considered to be Timbuktu in Mali and Agadez in Niger. Both cities were important centres of Islamic learning in the past. It is also not without interest that approximately 40% of Muslims here are so-called non-denominational. Among the Sunni Tuareg, the Maliki madhab dominates.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

The Tuareg are a Berber ethnic group that is divided into many clans, differing in such things as skin colour, clothing, customs and sometimes religious beliefs. The southernmost clans on the southernmost edge of the Sahel are heavily influenced by West African Vodun and traditional sub-Saharan religions and smaller cults. The Tuareg are certainly not a showcase for crystal clear Islam. It can be affirmed that the majority of Tuareg today practice Islam, but there is a Christian minority (in the northern territories) and diverse syncretisms in the southernmost territory. Most importantly, no one can see into the heads of particular individuals — external conformity may not reflect internal beliefs. Multiple religious identities are also common in the Sahel, typically represented by the Marabout, a Muslim spiritual father and scholar of the Koran, who is also the priest of the Niger River cult called Faro in the Djenné region of Mali, for example. The Tuareg speak the Tamasek language, which belongs to the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It is typical for the southern clans to wear protective amulets called gris-gris (kri-kri), which contain, for example, passages from the Koran sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificed cock bewitched by a priest of the traditional religion or a marabout who channels the divine power of the barakah into the gris-gris.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

Tuareg and Christianity

Prior to the expansion of Islam, many Tuareg clans had been Christian for centuries (from the northeast influenced by Monophysite — or more accurately Miaphysite–Christianity) and some experts believe that the Tuareg cross is originally a Christian cross supplemented with Berber motifs. Other experts, however, defend the thesis that the Tuareg cross has nothing to do with the Christian cross; their theses on the origin of the Tuareg cross are based on legendary stories from the distant past. In any case, there are more theories about the genesis of the cross motif and we must admit that we have no relevant sources. On the issue of Tuareg Christianity in the pre-Islamic period, the discourse is highly polarized: one camp defends the Christian past of the Tuareg, the other camp claims that it cannot be proven and they were probably never Christians. After interviewing Tuareg and studying the available non-Tuareg sources, I defend the thesis that many Tuareg have been Christians for centuries (a minority still remain), and my personal opinion, supported by travel throughout Africa and study of the religions and cults there, is that the Tuareg cross is indeed a direct lineage to the Christian cross. The symbol could not simply change after the adoption of Islam, since it already expressed a generally established and recognised ethnic affiliation in many countries throughout the Sahara and even south of there.

The Tuareg crosses have many traditional forms (more than twenty in total, relating to specific regions and clans), one of the variants used is the classic equilateral cross (worn, for example, by Christians in Ethiopia) with small ornaments on the tops of the arms. Another widespread variant is very similar to the Egyptian Coptic Christian cross, which is descended from the Egyptian Cross of Life. This cross, besides being a clear statement of belonging to the Tuareg people, also serves as a passport, since no border guard would dare not allow a Tuareg with the appropriate Tuareg cross to cross the border into a part of the Sahara, and I am talking about an area as large as half of Europe, covering Mali, Niger, the southern regions of Algeria and Libya, part of Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. However, I have met Tuaregs outside this exclusively Tuareg territory. Respect, reverence and also fear for this free ethnic group, which, when its freedom is threatened, does not hesitate to use any violent means to preserve it, still ensures the free movement of the Tuareg across half of the Sahara desert. I myself have been through the typical customs chicanery in the Sahara on several occasions, where two Tuaregs have arrived, the soldiers and customs officers have stood aside and the Tuaregs have walked freely with their camels and moved on without any paperwork.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

Tuareg and polytheism

The Tuareg have Berber roots — Berbers have been moving around the Sahara since at least 7 millennium BC, until some were pushed by Arab expansion into the very harsh and desolate southern Sahara and it was then that the tribal communities of the Tuareg were formed. The origins of the Tuareg are traced back to Queen Tin Hinan, who lived at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries, and whose impressive tomb in Abalessa in Algeria has survived to this day. Incidentally, in Tuareg society, women have a strong position, which is rather exceptional for the surrounding ethnic groups. At that time, Christian theology was flourishing in what is now northern Algeria — think of the elder Tertullian and the Queen’s contemporary St Augustine. Later, the Arabs called the Tuareg “desert Christians”. Other scholarly lines find Tuareg presence in the Sahara as early as the turn of the century, and even link the marches of girls with swords on important festivals to customs already described by Herodotus.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

In pre-Christian times, the Berbers (from whom the Tuareg later emerged) could be described as polytheists, whose traditional beliefs passed down from generation to generation, probably built on an ancestral cult (where belief in an afterlife was present), were also influenced by Judaism, to no small extent by Ancient Egyptian religion, on the other hand by Iberian megalithic cults and later by Roman cult and various Hellenistic religious ideas. Not surprisingly, the Tuareg moved over a vast area of the Sahara, controlled important trade routes and oases, and transported goods throughout North Africa. The Berbers of the Sahara in the pre-Roman period have been shown to have built pyramid tombs 10 to 30 metres high for deceased kings. There are known surviving pyramid tombs in Algeria and Mauritania. Saint Augustine wrote in the late 4th and early 5th centuries that some polytheistic Berbers worshipped rocks, which would be consistent with the influence of a megalithic cult widespread in the Mediterranean that influenced the Berbers from the north.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

Legendary Timbuktu

Timbuktu has been an important caravan crossroads where salt from the Sahara was exchanged for gold, ivory and slaves from the Sahel and southern regions since the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennium AD, but settlements have been documented here since the Iron Age. From ancient times, caravans arriving in Timbuktu had to pay a fee to enter or stay in Timbuktu. This ancient custom has been preserved to this day, and so a small sum of money is usually exacted from the traveller; if he fails to pay, nothing usually happens. In the past, the Tuareg benefited economically from controlling trade caravans carrying, for example, gold, salt, pepper or slaves, from cattle ranching and also from mining (especially salt mines and copper deposits).

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

In the 13th century the town was inhabited by 10,000 people and an unprecedented cultural development began. Perhaps as early as the 14th century, three large and important mosques with madrasas were built in Timbuktu, to which the teaching at the famous Timbuktu University was later linked. The renowned university — with its later excellence and reputation — was at that time a loose association of these madrasas, which taught students in the courtyards of the mosques or in adjacent houses. Timbuktu grew rich mainly through the gold trade, but as the university grew in importance, the book trade also became increasingly profitable. Islamic theology, Islamic law, Arabic, but also medicine, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, geography and other sciences were studied in Timbuktu. The university city achieved its greatest fame in the 16th century. The main madrasas were associated with the Sankore, Djinguereber and Sidi Yahya mosques, which can still be admired by the traveller, but only a Muslim can look inside. The first two mosques mentioned in particular are beautiful, and a visit to them is worth all the hardships of the journey to Timbuktu. Some sources state that the first mosque with a madrasa — Sankore — was founded perhaps as early as the end of the 10th century. The form of the mosque building is thought to date from the 14th century, later reconstructed several times. Other sources place the beginning of Timbuktu’s learning in the 11th or even 12th century.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

Further east along the southern edge of the Islamic belt is another major city associated with the Tuareg, the Nigerian Agadez (meaning “marketplace” in the Tuareg language Tamasheq). The city is very similar to Mali’s Timbuktu and was also an important caravan crossroads, yet the traveller there will sense a cultural shift towards central Africa. It is the area between Timbuktu and Agadez and a large part of the Sahara north of these cities, including southern Algeria and Libya, that is considered traditional Tuareg territory. In the northern regions of Mali and Niger, the traveller finds himself in the sovereign territory of the Tuareg and is no longer de facto in Mali or Niger, although de jure he is. Efforts to create an official Tuareg state of their own have been long-standing, with a certain culmination in the genesis of the state of Azavad (in northern Mali) in 2012, which, however, was short-lived and did not achieve international recognition. The Tuareg consider this vast territory to be theirs, including the cities of Agadez and Timbuktu, which have often been the site of armed conflict between Tuareg and government troops in repeated Tuareg uprisings. The land there is raw, the sands of the desert often take on the red colour of blood, and freedom there is pure — unsecured and uninsured.

Photo: Ondrej Havelka

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