A Traveler in the Desert

I’m all checked in, 24 hours ahead of time, for the first of three flights for my 33-hour trip to Niamey, Niger. It’ll be my first visit to Africa; my first time doing intensive fieldwork on Tuareg music, a topic I’ve been following for several years from my vantage point in the United States; and my first extended solo trip without much of a pre-established day-by-day itinerary (I spent a few weeks alone in Europe last summer, but with the necessity of booking hostels and trains, and the amount of tourist infrastructure, things were pretty well set up ahead of time). There’s a lot to be nervous about, but more than anything, I’m excited to be making a long-held dream of mine become reality.

I really became enamored with Tuareg music with the song “Amassakoul n’Ténéré” by Tinariwen, one of the most famous and most important groups in contemporary Tuareg music. Translating as “A Traveler in the Desert,” it seemed an apt name for this blog, where I plan to provide updates on the upcoming seven weeks I’ll be spending in Niger.

Tinariwen – “Amassakoul n’Ténéré”

The normal day by day dosage prescribed to a important link tab viagra sound man is 50 mg. Right and effective medicine Through the first two years, chiropractic studies focus on manual order cialis on line and physical treatment protocols – such as manual adjustment, soft tissue therapy, and trigger point therapy – while medical students move on to individual specialties. Ideally you should note down the important points related to buy pfizer viagra ED, so we should again remember the golden words “Prevention is better than Cure”. Enriched with omega-3 cipla cialis fatty acids, they are ideal to include in the diet.  

I’ve always felt a special affinity for the desert, as I grew up taking a lot of road trips across the American Southwest. I was always content to just gaze out the window at the empty space beyond the highway; the contentment, pensiveness, and other mixed feelings I experienced during these trips seem to me to be encapsulated by the Tamashek (Tuareg language) word assouf. Although it’s a complex term with a lot of cultural significance I don’t begin to fully understand, at a basic level assouf expresses loneliness, longing, nostalgia, and homesickness—feelings one feels while in exile or when looking into the darkness beyond the campfire. Assouf comes up a lot in discussions of contemporary Tuareg guitar music, because this music had been first developed by Tuareg living in exile in Libya and Algeria, known as ishumar.

For me, my own experience of assouf is not a negative thing. (Of course, I haven’t experienced exile, but I don’t think the parallels I have identified between my emotions and those of ishumar are completely off-base. Perhaps some friends I hope to make in Niger will convince me otherwise.) At any rate, as I prepare to embark on this journey, I reflect on the significance of this concept for the Tuareg and grow excited to meet people for whom assouf, which has been so important in my own life, seems to be such a significant part of contemporary culture.