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drew-mga2022mi6011 · 4 months

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Research | The Amazigh People

Berber Girl in Morocco (2006) - New World Encyclopedia

Before getting into previsualisation and character writing, I wanted to properly understand the culture of the people that would live in this story. In my research of the Atlas Mountains and Moroccan culture, I came across the Berbers.

The Berbers (Imazighen, singular Amazigh) are an ethnic group indigenous to Northwest Africa, speaking the Berber languages of the Afroasiatic family. Originally, Berber was a generic name given by the Romans to numerous heterogeneous ethnic groups that shared similar cultural, political, and economic practices. It was not a term originated by the group itself.

Historically, it is not clear how the name "Berber" evolved, although it is supposed to be from the word "barbarian," applied by Romans to many peoples. The variation is a French one when spelled Berbere and English when spelled "Berber." Both names, "Amazigh" and "Berber," are relatively recent names in historical sources, since the name "Berber" appeared first in Arab-Islamic sources, and the name "Amazigh" was never used in ancient sources. It is no less important to keep in mind that the Berbers were known by various names in different periods (New World Encyclopedia, n.d.).

The two largest populations of Berbers are found in Algeria and Morocco, where large portions of the population are descended from Berbers but only some of them identify as Amazigh. Roughly one-fourth of the population in Algeria is estimated to be Berber, while Berbers are estimated to make up more than three-fifths of the population in Morocco. In the Sahara of southern Algeria and of Libya, Mali, and Niger, the Berber Tuareg number more than two million. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Berber world had been reduced to enclaves of varying size. In Tripolitania and southern Tunisia those were chiefly formed by the hills of the Nafūsah Plateau and the island of Jerba, in eastern Algeria by the mountains of the Aurès and Kabylie, and in Morocco by the ranges of the Rif, the Middle and High Atlas, the Anti-Atlas, and the Saharan Atlas (Brett, 2019).

Berbers are mainly Sunni Muslim, but there are many traditional practices found among them. Since Berbers typically outnumber Arabs in rural areas, traditional practices tend to predominate there. The Berbers converted to Islam slowly, over the course of centuries, and was not dominant until the sixteenth century. The result is that within Berber Islam are preserved traces of former religious practices, making it a somewhat atypical sect.

During the time of the Barbary pirates, slaves and war prisoners from Europe were transported and sold into North Africa. Estimates place possibly one million Europeans arriving in Africa this way, bringing with them green and blue eyes and blond and red hair. As intermarriage took place with the resident North Africans, these features became incorporated into today's Berber population (New World Encyclopedia, n.d.).

Knowing all this is key in creating my main character, I need to consider the influence of their culture and how that impacts their personality, wishes and goals. Furthermore, it adds more flavour to the colonial aspect of the story for this book.

References

Brett, M. (2019). Berber | Definition, People, Languages, & Facts | Britannica. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berber.

New World Encyclopedia (n.d.). Berber - New World Encyclopedia. [online] www.newworldencyclopedia.org. Available at: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Berber [Accessed 5 Feb. 2024].

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nacapito · 11 months

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Tinariwen is a collective of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara region of northern Mali. Considered pioneers of desert blues, the group's guitar-driven style combines traditional Tuareg and African music with Western rock music.

#tinariwen #Spotify

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animal25 · 1 year

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Azawakh: Dog Breed, Origin, Grooming, Health, Care Full Info

A canine strain named for the Azawakh Valley in the Sahara desert where they began, this is a spare and nippy huntsman with a regal presence. They’re proud but pious and defensive of their home and family.

Although these are rare, thoroughbred tykes, you may find them in the care of harbors or deliverance groups. Flashback to borrow! Don’t shop if you want to bring one of these tykes home.

As you may guess from the appearance of the strain and their desert origins, these tykes do well in hot climates. While they love their mortal families, they can remain frosty around new people.

As sighthounds, they’ll also want to take off when they see commodity moving, which could include small creatures or indeed running children.

They need educated pet parents who can keep them from bolting, stay firm with training, and fraternize them beforehand.

Origin: Mali, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Africa

Height: 23-29 inches

Weight: 15-25kg

Lifespan: 10-12 years

Colors: black, Brindle, blue fawn, clear sand, dark fawn, grizzle

Breed Characteristics

Altitudinous and elegant, the Azawakh is a West African sighthound that originates from the countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The Azawakh has a short, fine fleece that may come in any color or color combinations red, clear beach to fawn, brindled, parti-color ( which may be generally white), blue, black, and brown.

The head may have a black mask and there may be white markings on the legs, bib, and at the tip of the tail. There is no color or marking disqualifications in the strain. Beseeming its heritage, the Azawakh excels as a companion, guardian, and lure watchdog in the United States.

This ancient stalking hound is so spare and rangy that his bone structure and musculature can plainly be seen beneath his skin.

The smooth S-shaped silhouettes, deep casket, and aerodynamic head mark the Azawakh as a member of the sighthound family, canine sprinters that calculate on keen vision and blazing speed to fix and course their prey.

Azawakh Breed History

The Azawakh strain is also known as the Tuareg Sloughi, named after the Tuareg gadabouts. The strain has many alternate names, including Idii n’ Illeli(sighthound of the free people, or noble canine of the free people). The exact origin of the Azawakh canine is unknown, although it wasn’t until the 1970s that the strain began to come popular in certain areas.

The Azawakh is known to have begun from the Southern Sahara and Sahel areas of West Africa, skirting near Mali and Niger. The Azawakh is regarded as a regardful strain and enjoy appreciation from the gadabouts. The Azawakh developed as a result of interbreeding thousands of times agone and partake ancestors with the Saluki and Sloughi.

The Azawakh is still considered a newer strain in terms of understanding its disposition and broad history. Considered members of the family, this strain still likes to give protection against raiders and nonnatives. They’re exceptional nimrods with an eye for carrying meat and are known to hunt hare, antelope, and wild boar.

The Azawakh is famed for their grim stamina and capability to run 40 mph. They were preliminarily trained to cover camps and quest with possessors, although moment, the Azawakh prefer to hunt within a pack and aren’t known as solitary nimrods. In the 1980s, Azawakh was brought over to the United States.

The first puppies were red and fawn with white markings. The Azawakh strain isn’t presently registered with the AKC but was honored by the UKC in 1993. Although the Azawakh is still rare in the United States, it’s sluggishly climbing in fashionability.

more details:https://animalatoz.com/azawakh/

#https://animalatoz.com/azawakh/

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animala2z · 1 year

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Azawakh: Dog Breed, Origin, Grooming, Health, Care Full Info

Although these are rare, thoroughbred tykes, you may find them in the care of harbors or deliverance groups. Flashback to borrow! Don’t shop if you want to bring one of these tykes home.

As you may guess from the appearance of the strain and their desert origins, these tykes do well in hot climates. While they love their mortal families, they can remain frosty around new people.

As sighthounds, they’ll also want to take off when they see commodity moving, which could include small creatures or indeed running children.

They need educated pet parents who can keep them from bolting, stay firm with training, and fraternize them beforehand.

Origin: Mali, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Africa

Height: 23-29 inches

Weight: 15-25kg

Lifespan: 10-12 years

Colors: black, Brindle, blue fawn, clear sand, dark fawn, grizzle

Breed Characteristics

This ancient stalking hound is so spare and rangy that his bone structure and musculature can plainly be seen beneath his skin.

Azawakh Breed History

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tinariwen-music-blog · 5 years

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عن تيناريوين

تيناريوين (تعني في اللغة الطارقية الصحاري والمفرد "تنيري" الصحراء) مجموعة موسيقية من طوارق أزواد، تعتبر من أوائل المجموعات التي طورت البلوز الأفريقي مستعملة آلات عصرية، منذ عام 2001 م صدرت لهم العديد من الألبومات، وبرزوا عالميا خصوصا بعد ظهورهم في مهرجان الصحراء في أزواد تين إيسكاو عام 2001م. وقد فاز ألبوم الفرقة تاسيلي بجائزة غرامي 2011 م كأفضل ألبوم في العالم.

أعضاء الفرقة

الأعضاء المؤسسون لفرقة تيناريوين في الثمانينات، هم إبراهيم أغ الحبيب، وعبدالله أغ الحوسينين، والحسن أغ التهامي (عازفون ومغنون). وقد انضم لهم فيما بعد جيل جديد من الشباب في التسعينات، يضم كل من أيادو أغ ليشو (عازف)، وإيلاجا أغ حامد (عازف)، وسعيد أغ أياد (قارع طبل) تاريخ الفرقة قصة فرقة تيناريوين أشبه بالأسطورة، فالعضو المؤسس للفرقة إبراهيم أغ الحبيب كبر وشب في مأساة في مالي، عندما شهد وفاة أبيه وهو في الرابعة من عمره. لاحقا بعد مشاهدته فيلم غربي، صنع إبراهيم غيتارته الأولى من أسلاك معدنية لدراجة، وقضيب، وعلبة صفيح. تأسست الفرقة في ثمانينات القرن الماضي في معسكرات الطوارق فيليبيا، عندما نزح آلاف من الطوارق من شمال مالي إبان ثورة كيدال هروبا بحياتهم وبحثا عن عمل وحياة جديدة بعيدا عن بطش الحكومة المالية. كانت خيبة الأمل من وعود القذافي، فأصبح الطوارق ثائرين وتواقين للعودة إلى الوطن. لكن التفاعل مع حياة المدينة أثمر نتائج غير متوقعة، حيث أن استماع أعضاء الفرقة للموسيقى الغربية خصوصا الأغاني بقيتارة جيمي هندريكس، والبلوز الأمريكي الذي مزجته تيناريوين بألحانها الحزينة العاطفية. وكان أعضاء الفرقة يؤدون أغانيهم في المعسكر. عندما اندلعت الثورة مجددا في شمال مالي، غادروا ليبيا، وعلقوا قيتاراتهم، وحملوا أسلحتهم للقتال من أجل استقلال الطوارق. عادت الفرقة إلى الموسيقى وأداء الأغاني المشبعة بالجمال والألم، والشعر ذو الوحشة. موسيقاهم كانت رائجة في أنحاء المنطقة، مما اكسبهم متابعين مخلصين. ثم في أواخر التسعينات اكتشفهم موسيقيون غربيون، وللمرة الأولى أغانيهم غادرت الصحراء، وقدمت للعالم. في السنوات العشر التالية، جابوا العالم، صادحين بأغانيهم تقريبا في كل مهرجان بارز يقام حول العالم الجوائز جائزة غرامي لأفضل ألبوم في العالم 2011 م على ألبوم تاسيلي. جائزة سونغ لاينز لأفضل فرقة عام 2012 م على ألبوم تاسيلي. ألبومات راديو تيسداس (2001). أماساكول (2004). أمان إيمان (2007) .إميديوان (2009) .تاسيلي (2011) .(EMMAAR (2014) .(JOSHUA TREE ACOUSTIC SESSIONS (2014). (2015)OUKIS N’ASUF.

#تيناريوين #tinariwen #african blues #blues #sahara blues #sahara #sahara music #mali #africa #music

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afriqokinworld · 3 years

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There's Just Something So Regal About This! @travel_phototeo #Bluetuareg Download #AfriqOkin free and find Tailors, designers or Accessory makers in your local area to help bring your designs to life! 👉🏾 https://t.co/gpZDMdngev 👈🏾 #AfricanFashion #Afriqokin #AfricanFashionApp #Technology #Apps #Africa #blue #tuareg #nomad #blueman #desert #timbuktu #sahara #africanstyle #africa #mali #turban #nomada #desierto #portraitphotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CU5kUyFI3YU/?utm_medium=tumblr

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radioalpes · 6 years

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youtube

#tinariwen #Mali #music #art #animation #2d animation #3d #rock #blues #folk #art rock #pshychedelic #sahara #arab #world #algeria #design

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whileiamdying · 3 years

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Tinariwen's Amassakoul Review

BBC Review

A polished album from the leading Touareg desert blues band, dominated by...

Jon Lusk, 2004

This second album by the leading Touareg desert blues band in Mali arrives at a time when many will be suffering from the winter blues. If you didn't make it to the Festival in the Desert but enjoyed the live album, you'll be happy to discover that this music has a similar power to transport you to the heats of the Sahara. There's even a studio version of the song "Aldhechen Manin" which first appeared on that wonderfully atmospheric compilation.

In the same way that the experience of displacement and disenfranchisement has produced a vibrant rebel music culture among the Saharawi people of Western Sahara, Tinariwen's roots lie in the Touareg rebellion and subsequent diaspora of Toureg people which took place after Mali's independence.

Tinariwen were the first group to adapt traditional Touareg music onto electric guitars when they began making music in 1979. They are still led by original member Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who has the most distinctive vocal and guitar style of the current male soloists.

Four of the six other musicians represented on "Amassakoul" have joined the group since their 2001 debut "The Radio Tisdas Sessions".

And this second album is a more polished and varied affair, with less massive reverb and a good deal more studio tinkering on most songs.

As before, "Amassakoul" is dominated by distinctively gentle rocking rhythms (which emulate the gait of a camel in all its moods), call and response vocals, gnarled but simple guitar lines, ululations and handclaps.

New elements include the occasional use of flute on tracks like "Alkhar Dessouf" and the closing vocal drone of "Assoul". There's also more percussive detail than before best heard on "Eh Massina Sintadoben" and the vocal patterns of "Araouane" seem to show the influence of Jamaican-style chatting or rapping.

Otherwise, this is pretty much the Tinariwen fans will know and love. The shock of the new that made their first album so appealing isn't as strong, but just as nomads never stand still, they are moving on musically.

Release Details:

LABEL: Emma

DATE: 12/OCT/2004

COUNTRY: France

FORMAT: CD

CATALOGUE # 981-767-3

#Tinariwen #Amassakoul #Algeria #BBC #Mali #Touareg Desert Blues #Festival in the Desert #Jon Lusk #Spotify #Saharawi people #Touareg Rebellion #Western Sahara

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xtruss · 3 years

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Here You Have Watches, There We Have Time

— January 19, 2016 | JosephHouse

The landscape of northern Mali.

During his years spent in the Sahara Desert, Charles de Foucuald (1858-1916) was a solitary European and Christian presence among the indigenous Tuaregs of the region. Wanting to know them better, Charles learned their stories and poetry and worked on a French-Tuareg dictionary. He drew detailed pictures of everyday Tuareg life, from musical instruments to hair braids. He wanted to know the soul of the people. He wanted to be their brother.

Rene Voillaume, founder of the Little Brothers of Jesus, said that Charles joined “his total dedication to the welfare of the Tuaregs [with] an attentive, realistic charity and a very strong sense of justice.” Loving the Tuaregs was Charles’ school for loving God.

Charles and Ouksem Ag Chikkat, a Tuareg friend.

The Tuaregs, these nomadic tribes with their distinctive blue robes, remain a mystery to many people today. Below is an interview with a modern-day Tuareg living in France. Moussa Ag Assarid was born in northern Mali around 1975. The desire for additional education led him to France in 1999. He has worked as a journalist, actor, tour guide, and writer. Moussa wrote an autobiographical account of his journeys in a book, There are No Traffic Jams in the Desert: Chronicles of a Tuareg in France.

Moussa was interviewed in 2011 by Victor M. Amelain for ARIEL Magazine (the link to the original article is below). This candid conversation gives insight into the world-view of a people who were important in the life of Charles, the spiritual father of the Joseph House and the Little Sisters.

An interview with Moussa Ag Assarid:

I don’t know my age. I was born in the Sahara desert, with no papers! I was born in a nomadic camp of Tuaregs, between Timbuktu and Gao, in the north of Mali. I have been a shepherd of camels, goats, sheep and cows for my father. Today I study Management in the University of Montpellier. I am a bachelor. I serve as an advocate for the Tuareg shepherds.

What a beautiful headdress!

It is a fine cotton fabric: it allows me to cover my face in the desert when the wind blows sand, and allows me to continue to see and to breathe through it.

It is a beautiful blue color.

We Tuaregs have long been called “the blue men” because of this color. Interestingly the fabric loses the color and transfers some of the blue ink onto our skin.

How do you get this intense blue?

From a plant called indigo, mixed with other natural pigments. The blue, for the Tuaregs, is the color of the world.

Why?

It’s the dominant color, of the sky, the roof of our home.

Who are the Tuareg?

Tuareg means ‘abandoned’, because we are an old nomadic tribe of the desert. We are lonely and proud: masters of the desert, they call us. Our ethnic group is Amazigh (or Berber), and our alphabet is the Tifinagh.

How many are there of you?

Approximately three million, the majority still are nomadic. But the population is decreasing. A wise man said it is necessary for a tribe to disappear to realize they existed. I am working to preserve this tribe.

What do they do for a living?

We shepherd camels, goats, sheep, cows and donkeys in an infinite kingdom of silence.

Is the desert really so silent?

If you are on your own in that silence you hear your heart beat. There is no better place to meet yourself.

What memories do you have of your childhood in the desert?

I wake up with the sun. The goats of my father are there. They give us milk and meat, and we take them were there is water and grass. My great-grandfather did it, and my grandfather, and my father, and me. There was nothing else in the world than that, and I was very happy!

Really? It doesn’t sound very exciting.

It is. At the age of seven you can go alone away from the compound, and for this you are taught the important things—to smell the air, to listen, to see, to orient with the sun and the stars…and to be guided by the camel if you get lost. He will take you where there is water.

This sounds like valuable knowledge, no doubt.

Everything is simple and profound there. There are very few things, and each one has enormous value.

So that world and this one are very different.

There, every little thing gives happiness. Every touch is valuable. We feel great joy just by touching each other, being together. There, nobody dreams of becoming, because everybody already is.

What shocked you most on your first trip to Europe?

I saw people running in the airport. In the desert you only run if a sandstorm is approaching! It scared me, of course.

They were going after their baggage.

Yes, that was it. I also saw signs with naked women. Why this lack of respect for the woman? I wondered. Then at the hotel I saw the first faucet of my life: I saw the water run and wanted to cry.

Because of the waste, the abundance?

Every day of my life had been involved in seeking water. When I see the ornamental fountains here and there, I still feel an intense pain.

Why?

In the early 90s there was a big drought, animals died, and we became sick. I was about twelve years old and my mother died. She was everything to me! She used to tell me stories and taught me to tell stories. She taught me to be myself.

What happened to your family?

I persuaded my father to let me go to school. Every day I walked fifteen kilometers, until one teacher gave me a bed to sleep in and a woman gave me food when I walked by her house. I then understood what was happening; my mother was helping me.

Where did you get interested in school?

A few years before the Paris-Dakar motor rally came through the compound and a journalist dropped a book from her backpack. I picked it up and gave it to her. She gave it to me and talked to me about that book: “The Little Prince.” I promised myself that I would be able to read it one day.

And you did.

Yes, and because of that I won a scholarship to study in France.

A Tuareg going to college!

Ah, what I most miss here is the camel milk. And the wood fires. And walking barefoot on the warm sand. And the stars. We watched them every night, every star is different, just as every goat is different. Here, in the evenings, you watch TV.

That is true. What do you dislike the most here?

You have everything, and it is still not enough for you. You complain. In France people complain all the time! You chain yourself to a bank; everyone is anxious to have things, to have possessions. Everyone is in a rush. In the desert there are no traffic jams, and do you know why? Because there nobody is interested in getting ahead of other people.

Two Tuareg men in Mali.

Tell me about a moment of deep happiness for you in the desert.

It happens every day, two hours before sunset. The heat decreases, there is still no cold air, and men and animals slowly return to the compound, and their profiles are painted against a sky that is pink, blue, red, yellow, green.

That sounds fascinating.

It’s a magical moment. We all get into the tents and we boil tea. Sitting in silence we listen to the sound of the boiling water. We are immersed in calmness, with our the heart beating to the rhythm of the boiling water, potta potta potta……

How peaceful.

Yes…here you have watches; there, we have time.

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fatehbaz · 4 years

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To nomadic communities around the town of Reggane, they’re known more than half a century later as “leopard skins” — stretches of sand across Algeria’s southern Sahara that are peppered with small black clumps. People used to collect scrap metal from the charred warplanes and trucks that emerge, fossil-like, and then smelt them into jewelry and kitchen utensils. But these Algerians were not properly warned of their danger after France’s misgoverned nuclear bomb-testing campaign of the early 1960s, which vitrified vast tracts of desert with heat and plutonium and left a legacy of uncontained radiation that is still crippling inhabitants.

Estimates of the number of Algerians affected by testing range from 27,000 — cited by the French Ministry of Defense — to 60,000, the figure given by Abdul Kadhim al-Aboudi, an Algerian professor of nuclear physics. Yet there has been little accountability for France’s disregard. A compensation scheme for victims of France’s nuclear tests exists, but it has made payouts to only 17 people. The majority of those were residents of French Polynesia [...]. Activists and nuclear experts have since derided the plan [...] as more of a diplomatic attempt at saving face than a motion toward recompense. Modest estimates suggest that since 1960, at least 150,000 people have lived in, near or traveled through areas where France has tested atomic arms. [...] Residents of Reggane told Benchiha about the strange uptick of medical issues that first appeared during the 1970s and continue to this day. Babies born with atrophied limbs; cancers of the liver, stomach and skin [...].

But even after Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, at the end of an eight-year revolutionary war that left hundreds of thousands dead, the French maintained a military presence in the region and tested 13 nuclear bombs underground, in a facility beneath the Hoggar mountains, 400 miles southeast of Reggane. [...] When France finally left, it buried a range of contaminated objects throughout the two areas — metal from remote-controlled towers that activated the bombs, engine parts from planes that flew into Gerboise Bleue’s mushroom cloud to gather radiation data and military-grade trucks placed in the blast radius to act as barometers of its power. But Saharan winds later swept away the sand covering these nuclear tombs.

Radiation and fallout:

France tested its first nuclear bomb in the Tanezrouft area, a portion of the Sahara that straddles Algeria and Mali, some 30 miles south of Reggane, on Feb. 13, 1960. Named Gerboise Bleue (“blue jerboa”) after the left hue of the tricolor French flag and a small rodent living in the Sahara [...].

Southern Algerians — the vast majority of whom were never informed by the French about residual radiation hazards and in some cases the testing dates — began stripping the items for resources.

For many who lived in Reggane the week before Feb. 13, 1960, the only record of their radiation was captured by a necklace. When French troops visited populations the day before Gerboise Bleue, they issued dosimeters on chains to be worn around the neck. A few days later, the troops returned. They collected the necklaces, wrote down who wore them and left, keeping the data for their analyses but never returning to let residents know of the invisible danger that would soon afflict them.

Johnny Magdaleno. “Algerians suffering from French atomic legacy, 55 years after nuke tests.” 2015. [Emphasis mine.]

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sookietime · 3 years

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New designs of the kaiju based on more realism, or popular conspiracy theories. --------------------- Gorgo Gorgo is a kaiju from England. A big, green, fire breathing aquatic monster who only comes on land to save her baby. So, what if Gorgo was real? Or if she showed up, then how would she make more realistic sense? How about a sea mammal that defies what mankind knows of nature? Like how bumble bees can fly, or some animals can hibernate for centuries. So this Gorgo is a huge mammal that just shows up, blowing the minds of scientists. Never discovered, never known, hidden away in the unexplored parts of the ocean, suddenly showing up and wreaking havoc. Backstory: Gorgo had fangs, ears, and breathed air - so with all those combined, it must be a mammal. And the biggest mammals to exist are the ones now existing, like the whales of today. So what if Gorgo is some kind of whale, or somewhere in the family? But took a totally different turn in evolution that it's cousins? Gorgo is a gigantic species of whale - but exactly where it belongs, nobody can figure. It is the biggest mammal known ever, but defies physics by being able to walk on land and belch up burning goop that can ignite at the slightest spark. It's thick hide and layers of fat make shooting it worthless. When a baby Gorgo is discovered by a whaling ship, still hiding inside a ball of fat, milk and ice, it is brought to England for study. A walking whale, as big as a orca. But the "walking whale" soon starts screaming in sounds man can not hear. When amplified by a microphone, the sounds are like a higher pitched version of the infamous "bloop". Days later, the British shores are thrust into chaos by a plodding creature much bigger than a blue whale with huge tusks, algae covering it's hide and trampling everything in sight - like a berserk seal. It also is very smart, equal to a German shepherd, and ripping through with animal cunning. Scientists are flabbergasted - what the fuck is it?! HOW is it walking around? What does it eat? WHY would it's vomit combust like gelled gasoline? Maybe it's different in the water? Why are it's ears shaped like that? Why has nobody ever seen one? Or caught one before? Was this pissed momma "the bloop?!" And if this is the mother...then what must daddy be like? Bloody 'ell.... --------------------- Jet Jaguar The face on the moon is said to be that of a Martian, carved by their now extinct species. Also, it's been said fossils of creatures very much like insects were found on Mars. That may not be true, but what if it is? Jet Jaguar is a machine who uses technology not found on Earth, so what if he isn't from Earth then? What if he's a ancient Martian invention created when man was in the stone age, and only rebooted into modern times? That is what this Jet Jaguar redesign is. Backstory: Jet Jaguar is a robot built in the image of his creators - Martians. Using what old pictures and ideas there are of a 'existing Martian race', then he would look like a kappa, except with a more insect-like body. Just like his creators. But the differences are that his "scaly hide" is artificial, his "shell" is metal, his foot claws are diamond, and his mind is a powerful AI. Jet was found deep in the Earth, in the eye of the Sahara, and covered in Mauritanian and Mali runes of what could only be the ancient Atlantians. Awakening to Dogon drums, he uses a odd mix of sounds, lights, and fake gusts of air to communicate. Once kaiju threat from another planet was found, Jet flew away from his keepers and went to neutralize the threat of Gigan...a bird of Earth overdeveloped with alien tech...

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worldmusicmethod · 3 years

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Learn Desert Guitar | Desert Blues Guitar Lessons In online guitar lessons with Justin Adams you& learn Desert blues guitar styles,Learn Brazilian Guitar,OnlineSambaLessons and rhythms from the Sahara and neighbouring regions - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mali and Egypt..visit :https://worldmusicmethod.com/

#Desert Blues Guitar Lessons #Learn Brazilian Guitar #Online Samba Lessons

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borderlandstates · 4 years

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Sudan currently features prominently in much of the news cycle across the world, as the trial of the brutal dictator Omar al Bashir gets underway. Commentators from across the media landscape, including the New York Times, Guardian and Washington Post are championing this moment as a key point in the modernisation of Sudan, highlighting recent relaxing of laws on Apostacy and alcohol consumption.

Yet few of the western journalists cheering recent changes know much at al about the region, let alone about Sudan’s defacto new ruler, the formidable General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti. A more in depth look at Sudan’s history, and the problems of the Sahel states more generally, would certainly temper this optimism, and allow us to take a broader look at the calamity western neglect of this region could lead to.

There are many dividing lines within Sudanese society. People have inhabited the ‘Kush’ area of the Nile river, around the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, for 1000s of years. The people in what is now northern Sudan were known as Nubians, and their descendants still dominate the region. At one point, a Nubian dynasty even ruled ancient Egypt as pharaohs. The Nubians were also some of the first Christians, belonging to what became to Coptic church for centuries. However, eventually the Nubian kingdoms were conquered by Arabic tribes coming from Egypt and the Hejaz region of Arabia, mostly between the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of these tribes settled in Sudan, marrying into Nubian families, and creating a hybrid Arab-Nubian culture. South and west of the main centres of this culture, in areas such as Darfur, none-Arab African peoples continued to live independently.

A long period of colonial rule, first by Ottomans and Egyptians, but later by the British, began in the 1800s. Sudanese rebellions against foreign rule, including the famous Mahdist rebellion in the late 19th century, further united the Arab-Nubian identity. African ethnic groups such as the Fur in Darfur did not join in these rebellions, and often came into conflict with neighbouring Arab tribes that did. These clashes did not perturb the classically ill-informed British, who granted Sudan independence in 1956 as a united state, rather than splitting it between the Arabic speaking north and the African south. The new Sudan was sparsely populated, but almost a million miles in size, the largest in Africa. Coupes, counter Coups, communist and anti-communist conflict, revolts, famine, and a whole host of other calamities befell it throughout the 20th century.

General Bashir, who controlled the country from 1989 until his overthrow in 2019, brought some degree of stability to the most populated parts of Sudan. He consolidated power by further pitting the population who identified as Arabic against the none-Arabic peoples of Southern and Western Sudan. This helped exacerbate a civil war that led to the secession of the overwhelmingly none-Arabic parts of the South, but also allowed Bashir to gain the absolute loyalty of the pastoral Arab tribes who neighboured African populations.

Darfur, with its mixed population of Arabised and none Arabised ethnicities, became a brutal battleground. People belonging to the Fur tribe, a proudly independent and situated 1000s of miles away from Khartoum, took up arms in protest at the neglect and discrimination they had suffered. Two other African Darfuri groups joined them. While these groups are mostly Muslim, unlike the Dinka and Nuer peoples who won independence for South Sudan, they did not live peaceably with neighbours. Darfuri African ethnic groups are largely settled, agricultural peoples, who need to maintain water sources to grow crops. Previously they had relatively workable relations with the Arab tribes who neighboured them in Darfur, but as desertification increased, this became impossible. The Arabic speaking tribes of Darfur, who are nomadic and pastoral, herding cattle or camels, suffered particularly as desertification meant less land was suitable for maintaining their animals.

The necessity of water for all communities, along with racist, pan-Arab ideologies espoused by the Arab tribes in the region, led to a apartheid, attempted genocide, and an almost 20 year war. Backed by the Sudanese government, the Janjaweed, Arab nomadic fighters originating from Darfur, destroyed 100s of African rebel villages, allowing Arab populations to replace them. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed, with 3 million people displaced. Despite immense international pressure for the conflict to end, it continues to rumble on, not least due to increased scarcity of water and further desertification of land.

The Janjaweed developed into some of the most ruthless fighters in the Arab world, and began to be used by Bashir as mercenaries across the middle east. One example is the ongoing conflict in Yemen, where until recently they made up a percentage of the fighters the Saudis have been using to attack Houthi rebels. From this violent and lucrative context, Hemeti came to prominence. A Chadian Arabic speaker who had been a camel herder previously, Hemeti became a Janjaweed Amir, leading his fellow Arabic militiamen in battles and massacres across Sudan. Though occasionally feigning rebellion to secure more power and wealth, Hemeti was seen by Bashir as the most loyal of the Janjaweed, leading to his appointment as head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

rape and looting across Sudan, from Darfur to the Blue Nile. Hemeti has admitted responsibility for the 2004 Adwa massacre, which killed 126, and is implicated in countless other massacres. His troops have been involved in refugee trafficking in Libya, suppression and slaughter of pro-democracy protesters in 2013, and most recently a brutal massacre in al-Geneina, Darfur, in January 2020. Current peace talks seem doomed to fail in the long term.

Hemeti is not the new prime minister, nor was he head of the transitional military council when they removed Bashir. Yet ambassadors from the US, UK and EU all met with him first once Bashir was removed, clearly demonstrating where they think power lies. Hemeti has around 10,000 men stationed around the capital. For obvious reasons, it is highly unlikely a warlord with such a bloody track record will allow real change in Sudan. Any lip service given to democratic principles, such as the recent secularisation of various laws in July 2020, are unlikely to herald a new era of peace. The glowing coverage of these events highlights how little western journalists really know or care about the region.

Yet the west should care far more about how Sudan and the Sahel states are coping. As a Darfuri, one hope might be that Hemeti could ensure a much-needed diversion of wealth away from the capital and to the poorer regions of the country. But the oil revenue and Sudan’s other wealth is unlikely to counteract the instability caused by desertification. Conflict over resources in areas like Darfur, where 72 percent of the land is arid or semi-arid, is likely to escalate, potentially leading men like Hemeti to kill hundreds of thousands more, or even attempt another genocide.

Competition for resources because of desertification is and will continue to accelerate similar conflicts across the entire Sahel region, from Chad to Mauritania. While each country obviously has unique circumstances, similar ethnic and cultural tensions do exist. The fundamental formula for disaster that they all share – large populations of Pastoral, semi-nomadic communities, often of Arabic origin and almost exclusively Muslim, living closer to the Sahara, who neighbour settled, agricultural, none Arabic and, in Chad’s case, Christian communities living directly south.

In Chad, the longstanding dictator Idriss Déby is of the semi-pastoral Zaghawa ethnicity, a none-Arabic, Nilo-Saharan group. In Northern Chad pastoral Arab tribal groups have previously rebelled, almost overthrowing Déby in 2006 and 2008. Desertification will cause even more instability in this sparsely populated but key state, which contains a large section of settled, agricultural Christian communities in it’s south. The nation is incredibly ethnically diverse, and religiously split almost 50-50. Conflict over resources will therefore almost invariably take on the vicious nature that Darfur’s fighting has, becoming sectarian, racially charged and incredibly brutal. Deserts in the region have advanced 100 kilometres in the last 40 years, and if there is no intervention land and resource conflict will intensify fighting. Just in the last year, hundreds of people in eastern Chad were killed in conflict between cattle herders and farmers.

This collapse in stability could be particularly disastrous for the region, as Chad has been a key western ally in the Sahel, it’s army in recent years performing well in pushing back Boko Haram in 2015, and supporting French troops in their campaign against Islamists in Azawad, Mali, in 2013. However, the West has not been as appreciative as it could be financially and diplomatically, and no improvement in Chad’s stability or economy has meant the nation has backed away from foreign engagements in recent years. This cumulated in 2017, when Déby withdrew troops from neighbouring states such as Niger and Mali, after Trump placed Chad on his infamous ‘Muslim Ban’ list.

The reason Chad was required to intervene both against Boko Haram and Malian Jihadis in the last ten years bring us to two states who have so far failed to halt budding resource conflicts connected to desertification – Nigeria and Mali. In Mali, arguably legitimate struggles by the Tuareg people of Azawad were co-opted and manipulated by islamists, who declared the ‘Islamic State in the Maghreb’. Only French military intervention in 2013 allowed Mali to retake their northern territories. The underlying issues their remain, as again, the farming and urban ethnic groups, such as the Mande who control the government in Bamako, clash with Tuareg, a nomadic and warlike pastoral people.

The most populated nation with the largest economy in all of Africa, Nigeria has the potential to either lead the fightback against this communal resource conflict or become the poster child for the horror desertification can unleash. Northern Nigeria is largely Muslim, but is a patchwork of cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity. Predictably, large sections of the northern population are pastoral, militaristic and semi-nomadic, such as the Fulani. Desertification has already led to population displacement across the north, with around 50 million people living in areas of Nigeria at risk of desertification. The prospect of farmer – herder conflict in northern Nigeria has been escalating, with analysts estimating tens of thousands of deaths already in the last three years, as good land becomes rarer and desertification begins to destroy inter-communal harmony. The government has attempted to find solutions, such as designating land to the herders, but without western support, sectarian violence will continue.

Examining these cases shows us that desertification will undoubtedly lead to the igniting of new wars across the Sahara all the way back to Darfur. This should fill all of us with dread. The loss of life would be inconceivable and could lead to a mass displacement of ethnic groups or destruction of peoples, the likes of which could be comparable to the Rwandan genocide. A new, much larger scale refugee crisis, the bogeyman of many Mediterranean states, could also be a consequence.

A realistic pathway to further western engagement must involve the media bringing these issues to the attention of western audiences. The treat desertification poses is arguably the largest we face, yet it is often covered as just one part of the climate emergency, not as a humanitarian disaster. Engaging more with experts of the various ethnic, religious and cultural ties across Northern Africa would help shed more light on the dangers. Of course, any refocusing western populations have on this problem must then be translated into governmental action. Financial support for projects such as the ambitious ‘Great Green Wall’ or the offering of expertise from experts in the USA who have rolled back desertification, would be an excellent start. It is easier for French, US and British governments to justify money and resources if spent on military endeavours, such as the fight against Boko Haram and other Islamists. These can be painted as actions to safeguard western lives or interests, or as humanitarian crusades. A harder but much more important task is to start directing large scale financial aid into the Sahel states. However, unless we act on this problem as an international community, this problem will become global in scope.

#history #politics #darfur #sudan #ethnicity #conflict #enviroment #geography

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