The Changing Resources of Sedentary Communities in Air, Southern Sahara

ASTORAL nomadism in the Sahara appears in the long run to lack a future, since it is unable to produce commodities that can command an assured market, at rising or stable prices, to sustain an increase in living standards. The adoption of a sedentary way of life seems to be a precondition for development. In Air, a region in the northern part of the Republic of Niger, the settlement of nomads has been officially encouraged since 1922, but it is complicated by a long-standing duality between the nomadic, pure-bred Tuareg camel herders and the formerly servile sedentary cultivators of mixed descent. Sedentarization emphasizes the economic future of agriculture, which is severely limited by natural conditions. Furthermore, the French conquest, half a century of colonial rule, and the economic changes in the twentieth century have initiated a process of continuing geographical change. It is in the light of these changes that an evaluation of the resources of the sedentary communities of Air must be made, with particular reference to the ecology of agricultural land use.1

Geography · Physical geography · African Studies and Geopolitics · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Animal Diversity and Health Studies

• Nomadisme chez les Touaregs

  Open Access•Helene Claudot-Hawad•Encyclopédie berbère•2012

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