Around a question
Around a question
The Touareg are a nomadic people living in the central Sahara and its borders, the Sahel, split between five african states born in the 1960's : Algeria, Libya, Niger, Mali & Burkina Faso.
"Because the Touareg are demanding their community's right to existence, they have seen their role criticised & interpreted as being the last gasp of the world of customs as opposed to the world of laws, of tradition against reason, of individual interest against universal rights, of a people against the State.
But are a people's rights really incompatible with human rights, as the narrow Jacobin vision would have us believe, denying any community outside the State or stigmatising it as a backward & old-fashioned social structure ? Could there not be a balance between the two extremes resulting in social peace ? Can a democracy, without becoming undemocratic, deny the request for recognition of identity as a perception that people have of themselves and of the characteristics that define them as human beings ?
That is one of the essential questions that, amongst others, the Touareg question invites us to reflect on."
Extract from the Introduction by Hélène Claudot-Hawad.
Map showing the area of political influence of the Touareg at the beginning of the century and today's States.
