Mohamed ag Hamadida teaches
the Tuareg language to a child from Djebok in northern Mali.
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The Tuaregs have shed their longtime
reticence towards schooling but questions remain over how the system chooses to deal
with their nomadic lifestyle. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have come up with different
solutions
 “For the past few years, people in all the
settlements have supported and valued schooling,” says a representative of local
school parents. “Things are changing and our nomadic culture seems to be evolving.”
The pupils at the little schoolhouse at Imbassassoutène, south of Timbuktu,
include Peul and Tuareg nomad children. Its six classes offer both primary and secondary
education, catering to students from six to 18. In the evening, literacy classes
are held there for adults.
Not all schools in the region boast such a record. The school at Djebok, 40 kms east
of Gao, counts 254 children enrolled in four primary classes, but only 25 in its
five secondary grades. Mohamed ag Hamadida, the headmaster, says about 15 per cent
of the children drop out each year. The reasons: some settlements are far from the
school, while tradition stipulates that looking after cattle is more noble and worthwhile
than attending what is known as “the French school.”
The children are taught by the “convergent” method, which mainly relies on using
Tamazight, the Tuareg mother tongue, when they start school. The first year, three
quarters of the lessons are in Tamazight. French, Mali’s official language, takes
on increasing importance to become the only one used by the time the children reach
their sixth year.
Education in its “modern” form was introduced during the French colonial era and
coldly welcomed by the Tuaregs. The tribal chiefs refused to let their sons go to
school, sending children taken from serf families instead. After independence, distrust
remained towards an institution that was foreign to the traditional culture and threatened
to force nomads into adopting a sedentary lifestyle.
But recent events have revolutionized the lives of the Tuaregs. Major droughts in
1973 and 1984 and then armed rebellion in the early 1990s1 and subsequent repression caused large
migrations. The peace agreements in Mali (1992) and Niger (1995) allowed the displaced
people to return with the help of the UN High Commission for Refugees, but not until
1996. Many parents then changed their attitude and concluded that going to school
could help their offspring find jobs away from the world of nomadic cattle-herding.
Education had also proved useful during the peace negotiations and later to help
Tuaregs secure government jobs.
Many partners are involved in the education of Tuareg children, including the World
Bank, the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEP), USAID, the Islamic Development Bank, the French
group Volunteers for Progress and Dutch and French government aid bodies.
The host countries contribute too. Emmanuel Sagara, director of basic education for
the Gao region, held a seminar in the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, in January 2000,
that brought together education experts and officials from Burkina Faso, Mauritania,
Niger, Chad and Mali. Policies vary widely from country to country. Chad has travelling
schools, whose teachers move with the nomads. Niger has opted for a mixed system,
with children spending six months in a school and the rest of the year tending animals.
Mali has chosen to set up a series of “sites” which include a school and a nearby
well to attract and accommodate the nomads.
Sagara says school attendance by 6-12-year-olds is 36 per cent in the Gao region,with
girls accounting for 18 per cent of the total. But there are no figures on how many
nomad children are among them because language and ethnic origin are not seen as
relevant.
Souleymane ag Mehdi, who runs Télouét, an NGO specialized on economic
development in northern Mali, also notes a change of attitude among the Tuaregs that
he attributes to a post-rebellion re-evaluation. Despite the risk of educated young
Tuaregs becoming assimilated, he stresses the role that the most enlightened of them
could play in avoiding this outcome.The key is to support Tuareg culture, namely
through publishing, newspapers, museums and research and documentation centres. So
far, none of the above exist.
1. Following an armed rebellion and
ethnic strife in northern Mali between 1990 and 1994, over 150,000 Malians fled the
country. By mid-1995, due to the implementation of a peace agreement, and efforts
by the Malian authorities to secure national reconciliation, stability has been re-established
in northern Mali.
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