Between Imajaɤen (Warrior) and Timogoutar (Helplessness)

This chapter is drawn from a much larger qualitative phenomenological inquiry into the Kel Tamashek of the Central Sahara and its Sahelian transition zone. The impetus for this larger research was driven by US Army Generals John Mulholland (Ret), James Linder (Ret), and US Navy Admiral Brian Losey. These senior military leaders foresaw the coming clash between this powerful ethnic community and the rapid spread of globalization into the vast spaces of the Sahel and Sahara Desert. This ethnic community lives in an alternate reality in the northern parts of Niger and Mali, and the southern parts of Algeria and Libya. This alternate reality is of their own design and is well over a millennium in the making. The Kel Tamashek are of extreme interest to regional and international security forces because of their tendency to resist political control. After fighting the French Colonial governments to a standstill in the 17th and 18th centuries, they went on to overthrow the African-based governments in Mali and Niger several times each.