Exile, masculine honor, and gender relations among the Tuareg from Mali in Niamey, Niger

ABSTRACT

This article explores how adverse living conditions of relocation affect practices by which Tuareg men from Mali assert gender identity in Niamey. The argument is based on a two-step analysis. First, the article discusses the changing conditions of household economies and family relations and reflects on how men’s sense of honor has been affected; and, second, it delves into how women negotiate male honor in response to these adverse conditions. By examining these processes, the article places the empirical focus of a study of masculinity on women. It departs from men’s studies that focus on how men seek to control women or in other ways understand masculinity as a reflection of intergenerational dynamics and tensions among men. The analysis draws influence from scholarly works on shame and honor in African and Mediterranean studies, research carried out by social psychologists, and recent men’s studies.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article examine comment les conditions de vie défavorables de la relocalisation affectent les pratiques par lesquelles les hommes touareg du Mali affirment leur identité de genre à Niamey. L’argumentation repose sur une analyse en deux étapes. Tout d’abord, l’article examine les conditions changeantes de l’économie des ménages et des relations familiales et aborde la manière dont le sens de l’honneur des hommes a été affecté ; et ensuite, il se penche sur la manière dont les femmes négocient l’honneur masculin en réponse à ces conditions défavorables. En examinant ces processus, l’article positionne le focus empirique d’une étude de la masculinité sur les femmes. Il s’écarte des études sur les hommes qui se concentrent sur la manière dont ceux-ci cherchent à contrôler les femmes ou qui, d’une autre manière, comprennent la masculinité comme un reflet des dynamiques et des tensions intergénérationnelles entre les hommes. L’analyse s’inspire des travaux savants sur la honte et l’honneur dans les études africaines et méditerranéennes, des recherches conduites par des psychologues sociaux et des études récentes sur les hommes.

KEYWORDS:

• Exile
• shame
• honor
• Tuareg
• masculinity

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Exil
• honte
• honneur
• Touareg
• masculinité

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This article brings together data collected from 2012 to 2014 (published earlier) and unpublished material from research carried out between 2016 and 2020. The unpublished data informs subsequent developments of social processes observed between 2012 and 2014. Special thanks to Baz S. Lecocq, Karim Zafer, Giulia Gonzalez, Nika Senica and the two reviewers of CJAS for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.

2. There are also relocated former Tuareg slaves in Niamey. See Youngstedt and Keough (2019).

3. While the vassals and the nobles conceive of themselves as white and freeborn Tuareg, they consider the Bellah-Iklan unfreeborn.

4. Adinat n bànan is plural, and can be translated as “useless persons” or “nothing”; the singular form would be awadim n banan.

5. Ethnographies on nomadic pastoralism before the 1970s stress the participation of mother and children in household economic activities. Thus, the idea that a male head of family is solely responsible as provider is actually something that came into being after the droughts of the 1970s and the move to urban lifestyles.

6. For example, Tuareg with sufficient education in Niamey are successful. Some of them work for transnational non-governmental organizations and have better living conditions compared to those without professional skills. I use the term Tamasheq here for Tuareg.

7. The main donors were countries such as Qatar, Turkey and South Africa.

8. I use pseudonyms for all informants throughout the article.

9. In French: “Je vais mourir comme je suis né sans rien réussir.”

10. About €123 in 2020.

11. About €62 in 2020.

12. About €30 in 2020.

13. About €43 in 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Souleymane Diallo

Souleymane Diallo is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Münster, Germany. He earned his PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from the University of Cologne. His publications include the monograph “The Truth about the Desert”: Exile, Memory, and the Making of Communities among Malian Tuareg Refugees in Niger (Modern Academic Publishing (MAP), 2018); “The Truth Is that We Are Not Tuareg: Exile, Memory, and the Making of Bellah-Iklan Community in Niger,” in B.S. Lecocq et A.Niang (eds), Identités sahéliennes en temps de crise, Histoires, enjeux et perspectives (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2019); and several articles on changing social identities among Tuareg refugees in Niger.