Chinguetti is the seventh holiest city of Islam. For centuries, at the time of date collection, nomadic families were cited in the nearby palm forests. In recent years, the gradual abandonment of nomadism further separated families, and Getna, the date party, is now a meeting between nomadic and sedentary, among those still living grazing and those who have migrated to the capital or abroad. This is the story of the reunion of one of those families.

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This video is about the Wodaabe group of the Fulani ethnic group. The Wodaabe live in the Following countries: Niger mainly, Nigeria, Chad, parts of Mali? parts of Sudan? They are also a part of the Mbororos who are many in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Central Afr. Republic, Chad

Wodaabe are nomads, migrating through much of the Sahel from northern Cameroon to Chad, Niger, and northeast Nigeria. The last nomads in the area, the Wodaabe number between 160,000 and 200,000. Other around them - the Hausa, Fulani, and Tuaeg - regard the Wodaabe as wild people. The Wodaabe refer to the Fulani with equal disdain as Wodaabe who lost their way.The seasons dictate Wodaabe migrations. From July to September, the short rainy season, sporadic storms cause floods. Most of September and October are hot and dry, November to February is cold. The hottest months, March to June, are also dry. During the short rainy season, Wodaabe lineage groups come together and hold their ceremonial dances, the Geerewol, Worso, and Yakke. The rest of the year the Wodaabe split up into small lineage groups.LivelihoodThe Wodaabe's main economic activity is cattle-herding. Cattle provide milk products that, along with cereal obtained through trading, are the basis of the diet. Beef is eaten only during ceremonies. The Wodaabe also keep goats and sheep for milk and meat and use camels and donkeys for transportation.During the dry season, milk production is lowest, and the need for cereal grains especially acute. At thee times, however, the cows are in their poorest condition and grain prices are highest. Thus, Wodaabe sell their cattle at cutrate prices. Moreover, droughts in the 1970s and early 1980s depleted the herds, so many Wodaabe have had to resort to earning wages in towns or herding cattle for their sedentary neighbors.While these activities allow Wodaabe llineage groups and individuals to survive the dry season, they don't rebuilt the herds. The depletion of the herds means the Wodaabe can't use their traditional way of aiding members of the tribe who lose their cattle - by loaning a cow for several years, with the borrower keeping the calves.Cultural SystemsThe Wodaabe divide themselves into 15 lineage groups. Membership is based on both blood-lines and traveling together in the dry season.Membership in a lineage groups determines who can marry whom. The only marriages that may occur between members of the same groups are Koobegal marriages arranged during the partners' childhood and formally recognized by the council of elders. Subsequent Teegal marriages are by choice of the partners.Lineage-group membership doesn't exclude people from Teegal marriages, but such marriages often cause friction. They usually involve "wife-stealing," often with the consent of the woman but never with that of her husband. Teegal marriage is also a source of friction between the new wife and previous ones. More wives means that fewer resources, such as milk from the husband's herd, are allocated to each. Eloping in a Teegal marriage that carries little stigma allows a Wodaabe woman considerable freedom, but she must leave her children with the ex-husband. The system guarantees the children's place in society while permitting spontaneity and flexibility to the parents.The Wodaabe believe in various bush spirits that live in trees and wells and are reputed to be saddened by how people have treated them. All spirits are intertwined in taboos pertaining largely to ecology. Some spirits are dangerous.The Wodaabe have acquired some knowledge of Islam and invoke the name of Allah in times of death or difficulty. However, what constitutes the notion of Allah for the Wodaabe is ambiguous.More central is a set of values concerning beauty, patience, and fortitude. Physical beauty - a long nose, round head, light skin, and white teeth - is one ideal quality, particularly for men but for women as well. Wodaabe sometimes wear makeup to enhance these attractions.Central cultural institutions are the dances - Geerewol, Worso, and Yakke - held during tribal gatherings in the rainy season. During tribal gatherings, flirtations occur and Teegal marriages are negotiated. In the dances, the men of a lineage engage in a beauty contest judged by three young women from an opposite lineage. These young women are picked as judges by the male tribal elders on the basis of their fortitude and patience. They appraise the men on appearance, charm, and dancing ability.SUGGESTED READINGSCarol Beckwith and Marion Offelin, Nomads of Niger, H.N. Abrams, 1983.Carol Beckwith, "Niger's Wodaabe: People of the Taboo," National Geographic, October 1983.Marguerite Dupire, "The Position of Women in a Pastoral Society" in Women of Tropical Africa, ed. by Denise Paulne, University of California Press, 1982.

Video and on-camera narration by Abdoulaye Bamogo. Produced, edited, written and narrated by Christopher D. Roy, 2009.

Traditional scenes of Tuareg life, including a young man's transition to manhood, wedding festivities and a camel salt caravan through the Sahara.


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After ten years of fighting, peace between the Tuareg guerrillas and government troops was recently signed. The war and the crisis of modernity have endangered the secular caravan carrying salt on camels from the Aïr to Agadez. This year, two Tuareg children can accompany their families in this trailer for the first time in a climate of peace, and this chapter of the series will see the generational change of the Tuareg tradition thanks to the friendship of these two children whose families were on opposite sides during the past conflict.

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To Europeans, the veiled men looking down proudly from the backs of their camels have always embodied the noble knights of the desert. Up until now we have heard little about the mothers, the wives, and sisters of the Tuareg nomads in the forgotten edges of the Sahara. The film documents the independence and vitality of these sisters of the dunes.

Original titel: Adalil - The mistress of tents
A film by Sylvie Banuls and Peter Heller
© 1990, Filmkraft Peter Heller

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In this documentary, we will travel to the heart of Western Sahara, the last remaining unexplored region of the great African desert.
We will meet the nomads that inhabit this land, learn about their fascinating customs, their atavistic rites; the birthplace of an ancient empire. They are the ULAD EL MIZNA, the Children of the Cloud.

The immense desert which comprises the Western Sahara, almost 250,000 km in size, is one of the least-known, and most hostile regions in the world.

In 1976, exile began for the Sahrawi nation, which since then has been crowded into refugee camps in the barren hammada of TINDUF, in extreme living conditions and depending for their survival on international aid.
The unequal war between the FRENTE POLISARIO and Morocco in order to achieve freedom for their country has led to poverty, desolation and an unbearable cost in human lives.

In exile, the Sahrawi nation has, with the few available resources, managed to create a rudimentary but efficient system of administration. The population, some 170,000 people, has organised itself into WILAYAS and DARÍAS, assemblies of neighbours at which they discuss the problems of the community.

Mauritania is a country entirely of desert and with a fascinating history.
The terrifying canyons of the AMOJIAR ravine, its vertical walls, and the frequent landslides formed part of the dangers of the road which the ancient caravans had to negotiate in order to reach the mythical cities of the Gold Route. The lost cities of Mauritania. The mosque is the most important building in Chinguetti and perhaps in all of Mauritania. Every year, below its minaret, of dry-stone masonry and reconstructed several times, thousands of the Turab al Bidan faithful gathered to set out on the pilgrimage to Mecca.
For this reason, Chinguetti was considered the seventh holy city of Islam.

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Nelson Mandela commencement speaker at Southern University A & M College Baton Rouge [2000]

Sudan, the biggest country in Africa. In the south the Nile with its feeder rivers dominates an almost impenetrable swamp landscape. Towards the north begins the Savanna, which blends into the Egyptian desert farther on. Since time immemorial camels have marked the dry areas of the land and determined the lifestyle of the various nomadic tribes.