A HAUSA SLAVE WOMAN OF A TUAREG FAMILY
GRINDING WHEAT BETWEEN STONES
CHAPTER X
SERVITUDE
The Tuareg nomads of the Sahara consider themselves the superiors of all who toil with their hands, and there is a wide distinction between nobleman and serf.
The nomads are the overlords of the land. It is they who saw to it in the past that the oases were kept supplied with labour to till the soil and reap the harvest, promote bazaars and build towns, on which they might draw heavily for dates and cereals and other rare luxuries of their table; exacted as tribute for playing the part of guardians, or bartered for in more creditable exchange. The Tuaregs were ever cavaliers and soldiers of fortune, who scorned manual labour as an indignity. Nevertheless, it was an economic convenience for their country to grow food where the land could give of it, and to this end they acquired their workmen.
Slave-raids to Hausaland, slave-caravans, slave-markets in the heart of the Sahara, were the common custom of the land up till quite recent times, and were the outcome of the need for labour in the oases, and in the camps of the overlords.
The ideal society of the Tuareg is that which is without government of any kind, to permit that they may freely execute their turbulent authority unhindered, and exact homage at the point of the sword. But the old regime is passing; though the stock of the slave class remain, either as servants to their old masters or as sedentary tribes within themselves.