The Changing Nomadic Life of the Berber Tribe: Tuareg | Our World

The Tuareg are a nomadic tribe of Berbers living in the Sahara Desert of Algeria. This film explores the many ways in which the nomadic way of life is changing - through drought and harsh economic conditions, posing an existential threat to survival.

Groundbreaking and internationally acclaimed anthropological series featuring intimate portraits of tribal peoples and remote communities across five different continents. This film follows a group of nomadic Tuareg living high up in the Hoggar Mountains near Tamanrasset in Algeria. In 1962 the Algerian government banned the system of slavery and contract labour which had helped to keep the Tuareg camps supplied with grain. Now, instead of undertaking 500 mile long trading journeys to Niger, the Tuareg buy grain in Tamanrasset with money obtained form selling cheap leather goods to the burgeoning tourist trade. The film explores the ways in which the nomadic way of life is changing in the face of harsh economic conditions and the devastating effects of drought.

This film was first broadcast: 17 Apr 1972

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