European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 5, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine tuareg Twilight nomadic herdsmen losing their Freedom Baymor Rosenblum associated press or  of Africa s fiercely Independent nomadic Herdsman. The tuareg who Junco Ihn cd among sub  dunes and Mon scan arc Long to Cir Freedom to drought tens of thousands of tuareg Sliff float Over trackless and. Perched on camels with i hair household goods rolled up behind them caravans Troad North to Exchange sat for Gold and matted dates but the Long draught and now government policies have Laken their Lull. Man of Iho nomads Cal lie and goats died of in isl 01 starved g i Cie s Are not anxious to restock their Trayle Range land. Even when rams Are Good Many to frogs now schist rolled to Carton cardboard tent m the cities poverty despondency and Crim nation have broken their nomadic spirit. N Mali and niger. Tuareg cling to bits of exhausted Farmland Given them by Sulho Pilios who pc uni thai they stay in one place we used to Gay Iho Only life a tuareg bends Down is to pick up his shoes remarked a Mahan journalist from a Titie once e Laved by tuareg with undisguised Celce. He adds now they Are bending Owr to cultivate their old ways of Hie Are finished says John Newby. An englishman who manages a Reserve Lor wildlife and tuareg in the Northern air mountains. They have completely lost their identity " tuareg inti i viewed m Iho cities and deserts generally agree bul Many say they will a Elvirn to their nomadic life if the Rains Are Lavorante maybe it s pie mater t to say hey Are losing the cultural expert nce and knowledge and won t go Back to what they were doing Newby acknowledges. But Here is certainly change in that  Youssouf a Mohammed for one. Is not going Back. Until 1973, he owned 20 camels 15 cows and 20 goats the equivalent of a fat Bank account. His Home was hundreds of Square Miles of malian desert. In 1374, his animals dead and his family dying you soul and a ragged band of survivors straggled into Niamey the capital of niger now with 11 children in a shelter made from . Food Aid Cartons he is still jobless. His oldest son Mohammed. 18, finished scr tool free years ago but that has been of no practical use. Some Days he puts on his Only shirt and looks for a Job. There is no work nothing Mohammed says with a shrug. Sometimes friends give us Millet. Sometimes someone gives Money. Every month and a half. Catholic Cliel gives a Littfe Millet a Hall-1 n of biscuits some sugar. Some Days we eat and some Days we Don  asked i the family would Ever go Back to the desert. Mohammed shrugged again. Maybe if we can buy some animals. But How in Mger and Mali aug Montios favor policies to Seden Lanze Tho tuareg. Encouraging them to bottle Down.  Sylla chid aide to the governor of Mali 5 mop i Region Sny 1 a o lend toward  in tiny. I lol of advantages you know where people Are and what they Are doing in niger there is the specific worry that libyan Leader col Moa mar Qadhafi a Ghl be inciting to frogs in soul Horn Libya to stir up trouble in niger s Remote Noil of in Region just Over the Border. By some estimates More than Hall of All tuareg now live in cities mainly n Amey and Bamako the capital of Mali some Are in Paris studying philosophy or driving taxis no one knows How Many tuareg there Are and the nomads prefer it Hal Way. In the Desorb tuareg shield themselves behind elaborate dignity men hide their in ski Tidlund u a Hajj of turban women Whin not working Sony in the incl Browing and serving , always three cups in a Row can like in Ille noon men can spend whole evenings by Iho fire discussing the finer Points of hobbling a Camel since the Middle Ages. Tuareg bands ruled the hinterlands to beyond Timbuktu and Agader appearing sometimes to plunder treasure and slaves bul mostly seen Only As just mysterious shapes in the distance they were known As the Blue men of the desert because their skin was often stained by the indigo Dye they favor for turbans arid Robes in 1893, tuareg Samors swept Over the dunes near Timbuktu and massacred a tuareg setting up his wares in a marketplace in Niamey niger. 20 a Rench Man my n naval Boal that had Ulca nifty up the n Gorlo take the City then flu hint is wiped out a Roli a column soon afterwards. Franco r3tcurd what is new Mich anal Nagr f ranch troops Cut deeply into Iho tuarcgs1 marauding bul lol Tho nomads move thur herds Ircul across the vast Sahel tuareg fought a wet War of secession alter Mali gained Independence Jim France tearing curbs on choir Way of life new governments passed Laws to control nomads but could not enforce them tuareg floated at will Over unmarked Borders during hard times they moved farther South or North. Bul drought has Mada Tho distances too far to travel thousands of tuareg who settled in Southern Algeria were expelled Luck of i ouch without even their meager packs of teapots Mats and Camel Lack even when in seemed  Ain herds would die few herders sold of Callic. Their Mark of Lalus and Wea la a first wave left the desert Wil h you soul a Mohammed in 1974. Some went Back and Irinod again during the following years of intermittent drought the Greal Dron Ghl of 1984 was Iho coup do Grace some african specialist regard the change As healthy for Africa s environment. Fewer cattle and goats on the land will help vegetation regenerate Many argue the contrary. Nomads Are attuned to the land and in left alone do not allow Over drawing Djibril Diallo. A senior United nations information officer and the senegalese son of a Fulani Nomad sees the change among tuareg As part of a shit affecting All tribes that roamed freely the whole nomadic Way of life is under threat he says. A Tot of governments Are putting nomads together trying to Moke them sedentary i see it when i go Home. Ii is really  Many africans and More outsiders worry Hal one of the world s last soil suf Lucienl hard suffering societies 15 disappearing. Others Are less concerned sure in is a loss the romantic Nolion of the Nomad is  says a  official in Bamako. But what Are you going to do weep for the boys the tuareg themselves have mixed feelings but their dominant mood is Clear. Near Segouin Mali a ragged clan has built Adobe hovels among their Goatskin tents they Are learning How to grow Beans. Mauler herdsmen lug cans of water from the Bam River for their tomatoes a woman named Fatima who was 40 but looked 65, Sal listlessly on a grass mat. In the old Days we were much happier  she says her voice trailing off farther North at tin to Loutt. Near Timbuktu tuareg have settled Down to farm. A 24-year-old schoolteacher named Mohammed a Adby. Hard boned and muscular boasted of his Zaulil lower we did not move around for the sheer pleasure of moving he says now Hal is impossible and our animals Are dead so we Are planting " bul Abby a Hamani. The Village chill says the tuareg of tin Tellott Havo come to terms with reality. The old Ulo to a  he says i would like to live it still the peace. The Solitude but Hal is gone " monday january 5, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 13