Berber Nomads

On this day, we drove out of Tunis going east. About ten miles out of town, we stopped right along the highway. This was an unscheduled stop that our guide decided would be worthwhile. It was. A group of Berber nomads were camped right next to the highway. The Berbers, self-named Amazigh, are the indigenous inhabitants of north Africa. They have lived there since perhaps 3,000 BC. They are still scattered in small communities across Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and the rest of north Africa.

     This family had eight or nine members. Their camp had one tent, camels, dogs, and a few other things. They were tending two herds of sheep that are owned by other people. They said that they live here for six months and then move to another location for six months. They tend the herds of sheep for a season and then receive a portion of the sheep herd for their work raising the sheep.

The first photo shows some of the nomad family plus one of the sheep herds, and part of their camp.

The second shows a couple more family members, the other herd of sheep, and some of their camels.

They had one tent which everyone shared. I asked her why the dirt was so high under the tent and she said it was to keep them from getting wet in a big rainstorm. Also notice the hard ground and rocks. This woman seemed to be in charge of the family and was our main source of information.

A car stopped on the highway and asked the nomads for some camel milk. One of the camels was nursing its baby and the nomad woman pulled the baby camel off and milked the camel’s milk into two bottles and then sold them to the people.

The camels eat cactus leaves as you can see in the last photo. That was all the food for the camels that I could see.

     Some people in our group seemed upset about this nomad family since they have nearly no possessions. They gave them some money to help them out. I won’t argue that by most standards, these nomads are poor. But, they are following in the footsteps of thousands of years of Berber nomadic history, and they seemed to be incredibly happy people.