Born and raised in the desert: childhood among the Tuareg

A childhood without partitions: not yet a girl, not yet a boy

Until the age of 6 or 7, children are not assigned a strict gender role. They move freely between masculine and feminine spaces, observing, imitating and experimenting. The distinction between boys and girls only becomes clear as they approach puberty. Before that, the blue tunic, short hair and protective jewelry are worn indiscriminately. The child is fed, cradled and guided mainly by the mother, but evolves in a tent where all generations participate in its formation.

Learning from experience: the pedagogy of observation

Tuareg education is essentially based on informal transmission. There is no question of rigid instruction. The child learns by watching: how to milk a goat, draw water from a well, drive a donkey, or grind medicinal plants. These everyday gestures, when repeated, become profound learning experiences.

Games are essential: running, falling and squabbling are all part of learning how to use the body. Adults intervene very little in these childish conflicts or cries. The experience, however rough, is formative. Around the age of 4-5, children begin to help out, often with others, in a joyful atmosphere. Tasks become games, and responsibilities are gently integrated.

Gradual detachment: becoming an adult

To help young people leave the family cocoon, they are often sent to live temporarily with relatives. Under the pretext of helping to herd cattle or take part in work, the teenager leaves the protective world of the tent to face up to other social relationships and other ways of life. Boys sleep among themselves, outside the home, while girls take their place in a more intimate area of the tent, reserved for adult women.

This pivotal moment marks a slow separation from the world of childhood. The youngsters continue to play, to laugh, to test themselves, but carefreeness gives way to responsibility. From now on, it’s their words, gestures and attitude to others that determine whether they’re ready to become active members of Tuareg society.

To be born and grow up in the desert is to experience a childhood close to the land, the animals and ancestral gestures. It also means growing up in a society that knows how to observe and transmit,
without rushing. Tuareg education is an art of connection: to the body, to the clan, to speech, to space, to silence. It does not separate play from learning, nor the intimate from the collective. It enables each child to become, at his or her own pace, an autonomous person, rooted in his or her roots and capable of opening his or her tent to others.