“‘It is true,’ said Sandy, ‘many have left this life. But I will never leave it. To leave this life is to scorn the life of my parents, to say there is something superior to that life. Of course, we can do things to improve. We should educate our children, so they can understand better how to treat the animals, how to work with people in the city. But that doesn’t mean we should abandon this life. To be a Tuareg is to be a herder.
We are free and independent. We walk differently from the people in the town. Our life is a good one, as long as there is pasture, water and security. It is the best life I know.’”
From volume IX of the file · Book · 21st century
Themes: freedom · tradition & conservatism
More from Nicholas Jubber
“We are mistaken when we think of nomads as rootless—for isn’t it by walking around a place, rolling in its dust, branching out and returning, that you grow to know it, to love it? Hence tariqa, a way or path, is the Sufi tariqa, ‘The Way’ to communicate with God, the beloved.”