- Rabīʿah Jalṭī (1964-, Algeria) – Nādī al-Ṣanawbar (‘Pine club’, 2016). When celebrating her divorce, an Algerian Tuareg woman named ʿAthrā chants a Gulf prince who came to the desert to hunt. The two get married and the prince buys her a villa in one of the finest neighbourhoods of Algeria’s capital city: Nādī al-Ṣanawbar. Despite the luxury of the villa, ʿAthrā chooses to live near the apartments she rents out to ambitious Algerian women. Through ʿAthrā’s narrative, the novel sheds light on the relative independence of Tuareg women compared to the other Algerian women (reference). Through the characters, the novel also discusses Algeria’s political corruption.
- Ibrāhīm al-Kūnī’s (1948-, Libya) novels mainly concern the Tuareg community. Three examples are Nazīf al-Ḥajar (1992, English trans. The Bleeding Stone, 2002), ʿUshb al-Layl (1997, English trans. Night Grass, 1997) and Nāqat Allah (‘Gods camel’, 2015).
Nazīf al-Ḥajar depicts the relationship between the waddān, a breed of sheep wanted for its meet, and humans. The Tuareg are represented through its main character al-Sūf, a herder living in the mountains of southern Libya. While al-Sūf treats the nature and the waddān respectfully, he is confronted with tribes who brutally hunt animals and demand from him to guide them towards the waddān (reference) (also in N: Nature: Desert and R: Religion and Sectarianism: Islam: Sufism).
ʿUshb al-Layl is set in the remote regions of the Sahara in a traditional Tuareg society, where the main protagonist, Wān Tīhāy, in his pursuit of immortality and wisdom, places himself in opposition to the customary practices of his fellow tribesmen. Examples include his devotion to darkness and his night-time wanderings (in which he presumably communicates with djinns), but also by allowing his third wife, who was a slave, to wear indigo-coloured clothes, which went against the tribe’s colour hierarchy. A central example of his violation of costumery law is his incestuous relationship with his daughter and granddaughter (reference) (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Pre-Islamic Literature: Ṣaʿālūk and L: Lust and Sex: Incest).
Nāqat Allah is set in the 1960’s shortly after the Tuareg were scattered over four different countries which had become independent from France: Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, and Mali. It tells the story of a female camel, Tāmlālit, who longs for her homeland so much that she flees from her owner to try and to return to the ‘lost paradise’ (reference). Similar to many of al-Kūnī’s novels, the desert takes on a central role in this story as it is the scene in which the novel asks questions of belonging, exile, alienation, and one’s relationship with land (also in N: Nature: Desert).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Ibrāhīm al-Ḥajrī. 2012. “al-Riwāʾyah Rabīʿah Jalṭī Taqtaḥim ʿĀlim al-Ṭuwāriq” www.aljazeera.net, 10 September 2012 https://www.aljazeera.net/news/cultureandart/2012/9/10/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B7%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%85-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85 (last accessed 14 November 2021)
- Faryāl Jabūrī Ghazūl. 1997. “al-riwāyah al-ṣūfiyyah fī al-adab al-maghāribī.” AJCP 17: 28-53, p. 32
- John Joseph and Henry Rossetti. 2011. “Darkness in the Desert: Traditional and Transgression in Ibrāhīm al-Kūnī’s ‘ʿUshb al-layl’.” JAL 42: 49-66
- FayyizʿAlām. 2016. “Murājʿah li-Riwāyah ‘Nāqah Allah’.” www.raseef22.net, 28 May 2016. https://raseef22.net/article/38358-book-review-naqat-allah-ibrahim-al-kawni (last accessed 28 July 2022)