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Tuareg people facts for kids

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Tuareg
Kel Tamasheq
ⴾⵍⵜⵎⴰⵣⵗⵜ
طوارق
Targui
A Tuareg man
Total population
c. 3 million
Regions with significant populations
 Niger 2,116,988 (8.7% of its total population)
 Mali 536,557 (2.6% of its total population)
 Burkina Faso 370,738 (1.85% of its total population)
 Algeria 25,000–150,000 (0.36% of its total population)
 Tunisia 2,000 (nomadic, 0.018% of its total population)
Languages
Tuareg languages (Tafaghist, Tamahaq, Tamasheq, Tamajeq, Tawellemmet), Maghrebi Arabic, French, Hassaniya Arabic
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Other Berbers, Hausa people

The Tuareg (Arabic: طوارق, sometimes spelled Touareg in French, or Twareg in English) are a Berber ethnic group. The Tuareg today lives mostly in West Africa, but they were once nomads that moved throughout the Sahara. They used their own writing known as the tifinaɤ.

Today most Tuaregs are Muslims. Their most important leader was a woman. Tuareg men use veils, but not women. Their families are matrilinear.

Images for kids

  • COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van Sidi Amed een Tuareg vluchteling uit Mali te Dori TMnr 20010117

    A Tuareg man in Mali

  • Tuareg area

    The traditional distribution of the Tuareg in the Sahara.

  • 2 - La reine Tin Hinan, 125x150cm, huile sur toile

    Tin Hinan, ancient Tuareg Queen of the Hoggar (south Algeria).

  • Mali1974-151 hg

    Tuareg in Mali, 1974

  • COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Tuareg tijdens het verrichten van het islamitisch avondgebed (maghrib) TMnr 20010320

    Tuaregs in prayer.

  • Tuareg

    A Tuareg from Algeria.

  • Tuareg2

    Tuareg man from Algeria.

  • Tahouapaysantouareg

    A man from the peasant caste of the Tuareg near Tahoua, Niger.

  • Touareg-blacksmith

    A Tuareg blacksmith.

  • Nomad-Tuaregs

    Tuareg nomads in southern Algeria.

  • Tuareg woman from Mali January 2007

    Tuareg woman in traditional garb.

  • Tuareg woman from Mali, 2007

    Tuareg woman with face veil.

  • Mariage Touareg Niger10

    A Tuareg husband and wife wearing traditional jewelry.

  • Tinariwen

    Tinariwen (Tuareg band) from Mali, taken at the Nice Jazz Festival in France

  • Othmane Bali-Algiers

    Tuareg singer Athmane Bali from Djanet, Algeria

  • Sebiba Touareg Exhibition, Djanet (Algérie)

    Tuareg celebration in Sbiba. Most of the men are wielding the takouba, the Tuareg sword.

  • Touaregs at the Festival au Desert near Timbuktu, Mali 2012

    Tuaregs at the January 2012 Festival au Désert in Timbuktu, just before the MNLA launched the Azawadi rebellion later in the same month.

  • Touareg-craftmanship

    uareg selling crafts to tourists in the Hoggar (Algeria)

  • 1997 277-31A Tuareg

    Tuareg men in Niger

  • MousaAgAmastane-Paris

    Tuareg chief Moussa Ag Amastan arriving in Paris, 1910

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Tuareg para niños

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