Going global: Tuareg jewelry in the international marketplace.

Over the last thirty years, the silver jewelry of the Tuareg has gained increasing recognition in Europe and America as missionaries, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, and tourists visited Mali, Niger, and southern Algeria. They often returned with souvenirs and, on occasion, sufficient quantities of jewelry to sell. Tuareg inadan (male smiths) have also occasionally traveled to the West to sell their jewelry and have established commercial relationships with "ethnic" jewelry shops in some Western cities (especially Paris and New York).

Tuareg jewelry has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in France, Germany, Belgium, and Spain, such as "Touaregs" at the Musee de l'Homme (1993), "Touareg" at the Musee royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren (1994), and "Tuareg, Nomades del desierto" exhibited at several museums in Spain under the sponsorship of Fundacion "la Ciaxa" (2001). Tuareg jewelry, leather and wood objects, and other pieces such as camel saddles have entered the collections of several museums, such as the Musee d'ethnographie, Neuchatel; Musee du Quai Branly, Paris; Bardo Museum, Algiers; and UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Jewelry has also been the subject of books and articles over the last three decades (Creyaufmuller 1983, Gabus 1982, Gottler 1989, Loughran 1996, Mikelsen 1976, Rasmussen 1997a) and is a significant component of the upcoming exhibition "Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World" (UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, October 15, 2006-February 26, 2007; the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, May 30-September 2, 2007; and the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, October 10, 2007-January 27, 2008).

The Tuareg are a loose confederation of groups of pastoral nomads, settled agriculturists and, today, city dwellers, who speak a Berber language known as Tamasheq or Tamachek. They live in southern Algeria and are most numerous in the eastern region of Mali and southern Niger. The four main groups of Tuareg are Ahaggar, Tasile-n-Ajjer, Adrar des Ifoghas, and Air (Nicolaisen 1963, Nicolaisen and Nicolaisen 1997). While there is considerable variation among these groups, the social groupings--often referred to as castes in the literature--of the nobles (ihaggaren or imajeren) dominate political organizations. These nobles are the descendants of the camel breeders who, in the first millennia AD, dominated the earlier vassal groups of goat breeders known as imrad. The nobles, who controlled the caravan trade routes, undertook raids for camels and sometimes took slaves (iklan) from the south. Other sub-Saharan peoples, izeggaren, who were settled agriculturists, provided part of their crops to the nobles in return for protection. Two other social groups had special relationships to the nobles and other Tuareg. One was the inselemen, Islamic teachers who achieved their status through training and religious practice. The other was the artists or smiths known as inadan (sg. enad), who are the main focus of this essay. (See Keenan 1977, Nicolaisen 1963, and Nicolaisen and Nicolaisen 1997 for additional historic and anthropological background.)

Since the peace treaties ending the Tuareg rebellion against the governments of Mali and Niger of the late 1980s to mid 1990s, there have been numerous developments that have taken Tuareg jewelry much further into the global marketplace. This essay will focus on two different dynamics--one of the Koumama family of Agadez and their international partnerships, and the other of the French fashion empire Hermes and its relationship with a guild called A l'Atelier, formed in Agadez by Jean-Yves Brizot. These two enterprises illustrate very different approaches to the design, financing, production, and marketing of Tuareg silver jewelry. The Koumama family exemplifies Tuareg inadan actively taking their wares into the global market place. A l'Atelier and Hermes represent more typical Western commercial enterprises seeking new sources of inspiration and production.

The Koumama Family

Born in the first decade of the twentieth century, Mohamed Koumama was raised in the Air region of northern Niger (Fig. 2). He was a young man during the French colonization of the region and was subject to the same pressures of the changing social and political environment as the other nomadic Tuareg. (1) Mohamed Koumama apprenticed to his inadan (smith) father, from whom he learned woodcarving and metalworking. While still young, his talents were well recognized within his region, and he pursued opportunities to advance his skills and reputation. He married three times. His first wife, Shitna, who died in the late 1960s, was a tinadan (female smith), who in this case specialized in leather working. His second wife died after bearing one child, and subsequently Mohamed married Hadjita, who survives him today. Mohamed, who died in 2004, fathered fourteen children, of whom twelve survived, and all of them were apprenticed and trained to become inadan or tinadan (Fig. 3).

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During the period of French colonization, Mohamed entered his silver work in several competitions organized within the colonial area of French West Africa and in the 1950s he won a very prestigious first prize in the Ouagadougou competition, a framed certificate of which still hangs in the family home in Agadez. He won two additional competitions in the 1970s and those silver pieces are in the collection of the National Museum in Niamey, the capital of Niger. Also in the 1970s, because of the persistent drought that ravaged the Tuareg herds and further disrupted their economic and social system, Mohamed and his second wife moved the family to Agadez, where they built a house and compound using funds from the sale, primarily to Western clients, of their skillfully wrought jewelry and leather work (Fig. 1).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

In 1968, Elhadji, the eleventh child of Mohamed and his first wife, was born on the day of the start of the Hadj to Mecca (thus his name). Shitna died shortly after Elhadji's birth, and when Mohamed remarried and the family moved to Agadez, Elhadji moved with them. He attended French school for eleven years and also briefly went to the Koranic school. Around age eight or nine, he began his formal training as an inadan with his father and five older brothers. He recalls that the first piece of silver jewelry he made was a ring, which his father helped him engrave by explaining how to arrange the design, noting which elements could go together. As is typical among inadan families, Elhadji worked alongside other family members, making jewelry commissioned by Tuareg and from the increasing numbers of Westerners coming to Agadez. Mohamed, as the patriarch, did most of the selling, but by the mid 1980s Elhadji was demonstrating useful linguistic skills, including fluency in French and the ability to speak some English and German, in addition to Tamasheq and Hausa. (2) It also became apparent that while he had considerable skill as a jewelry maker, he could better serve the family's interests as their ambassador to the outside world. As his father declined in health, Elhadji took on more responsibility for the family's livelihood, assuming primary responsibility for selling the family's production (Figs. 4-5).

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In 1993 Elhadji went to Lagos, Nigeria, to present an exhibition and sale of his family's silver jewelry at the German Cultural Center. Elhadji sold everything, went back to Agadez to restock, and returned to Lagos. He continued on to Cotonou, Republic of Benin, for another successful sale, this one at the Canadian Cultural Center. Elhadji noted that for all these sales to a non-Tuareg clientele, he realized it was most effective to be dressed as a "traditional" Tuareg in a gown and tagulmust, the indigo-dyed head turban and face veil worn by Tuareg men. (3) This "traditional" appearance works well, affirming the foreign stereotyping of the Tuareg as "exotic" and seemingly helps sales of their jewelry.

In 1994 Elhadji made his first trip to Europe. He went to Germany to sell jewelry and, as he told me, had a very hard time being there due to the differences in climate and cuisine, as well as homesickness for his family and Agadez. He suffered emotionally so much that he pretended to be physically sick so he could return home. Despite his travails, the jewelry sold very well, so he has gone back to Germany, Austria, and France at least twenty times over subsequent years, but for shorter, more focused periods of time.

In 1997 a visit to the Koumama family shop in Agadez by a California attorney, Lawrence Lossing, a member of the London-based 153 Club, (4) started a new dimension of international marketing for the Koumama family. Lossing made a modest purchase and a vague promise to return. He did indeed return in 1999 and purchased more jewelry from Elhadji. Lossing was later approached by another American, who was working in a nongovernmental organization in Niger; on Elhadji's behalf, he suggested that Lossing offer support for the Koumama family. This long-distance conversation resulted in Elhadji visiting San Francisco in 2001, where he met Lossing's partner, Ann Elston. Lossing and Elston hosted an open house at their downtown law office to sell Koumama's jewelry. Elston also took Elhadji to various jewelry and "ethnic" stores, where he tried to sell jewelry with little success, although it was a start: he found "a schoolteacher who bought many pieces." The jewelry the Koumamas sent to the United States for sale was made primarily in established Tuareg jewelry styles adapted to Western tastes--especially smaller and lighter-weight earrings, bracelets, and rings--as well as elaborate necklaces integrating new design elements and imported glass beads (Figs. 6-7). The jewelry was very well designed and made--stylish and modern yet with a distinctive "ethnic" character.

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Elston was intrigued enough by Elhadji and his family to go to Agadez in late 2001, where she stayed with the family. (5) She became a good friend, and as she was interested in reducing her legal work, she became determined to help promote their jewelry in America. As their website, created in 2001, states:

   This website venture into 21st century
   technology is sponsored by
   Ann Elston and Lawrence Lossing,
   San Francisco attorneys who are
   friends of the Koumamas. All of
   the proceeds of the sales go directly
   back to the Koumama family.
   Lossing & Elston are acting as the
   US contact for the Koumamas. (6)

As a result of this new and productive relationship, Elhadji has come to California to spend several weeks each year going to cultural fairs, commercial jewelry shows, and workshops to sell the family's jewelry. Lossing and Elston maintain the large inventory of jewelry that Elhadji sends or brings to them, and they sell it throughout the year from website orders and at other retail occasions (Fig. 8). Clients have become more diversified and sales are continually increasing. It was expected that in 2005 gross sales might reach $100,000, which is by far the largest part of the family's total sales. This relatively large volume of sales is due, in part, to less exposure to Tuareg jewelry in the United States compared to Europe, as well as to Elston's determination to sell as much as possible in support of the Koumama family. Elhadji's hope is, with Elston and Lossing's support, to build a good school in Agadez.

[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]

Elhadji continues to sell from the family's leased boutique in the newly built Hotel de la Paix in central Agadez (Fig. 9), as well as on trips to Germany and Austria. To create the necessary amounts of jewelry, Elhadji buys large quantities of sterling silver in Europe or Nigerian silver from a reliable Hausa supplier in Niger for use by the approximately thirty inadan in his family (Fig. 10).

[FIGURES 9-10 OMITTED]

Ann Elston now sells to clients in Australia via an Internet contact as well as to a thriving clientele she has developed in tribal jewelry circles as well as the international belly dancing community. She has also engaged friends and relatives who sell the jewelry in other parts of the United States and in England.

During a videotape interview that I conducted in November 2004 in the Agadez boutique, Elhadji explained the considerable pressure he is under to keep up sales to support his burgeoning extended family, including his own wife and five children. The strains of organization and travel and the logistical aspects of the business are considerable, yet the benefits are substantial in a country such as Niger, which at this writing is in the grips of a terrible famine and where the average person earns about one dollar per day.

The Koumama family, with the active encouragement of its business partners, has understood that the finest quality of silver, design, and fabrication are the keys to success. Their jewelry forms range from older styles worn by Tuareg to newer creations adopted from and expanding upon "traditional" Tuareg jewelry (Fig. 11). Due to the low cost of living in Niger and the relatively low cost of high-quality silver compared to that of gold, the production costs allow for a good profit margin even at the reasonable prices charged for the pieces in America and Europe. (7)

[FIGURE 11 OMITTED]

A l'Atelier

The Tuareg people and the Sahara desert have an almost mythic quality within French history and culture. The Tuareg are alluring to many young French people; they embody the spirit of the exotic noble warrior, masters of one of the harshest environments on Earth that, in the early years of the twentieth century, withstood French military and colonial conquest for almost twenty years. The Tuareg have a reputation for being fiercely independent, unconstrained by imposed rules or the borders of modern nation-states.

Jean-Yves Brizot, a young French adventurer (b. 1964) who made his living as a guide to rigorous destinations worldwide, came to Agadez in the early 1990s and in July 1992 formed a partnership with a young Tuareg inadan, Kamsou Anjirou Intinikar. Their intention was to form a group of inadan into a silver-making guild to engage inadan in their artistic traditions and maintain the knowledge of silverwork production and the meaning of design motifs in Tuareg culture. To accomplish these ends, the guild produced silver jewelry to sell in Niger and France. (8)

This guild had very limited success, but the project introduced the energetic and ambitious Brizot to clients and outlets in Europe. In 1996, Alison Mezey, an artist and designer, met Brizot in France and was intrigued by his passion for the Tuareg and the work the guild was doing. (9) She went to Agadez for the first time in July 1997 and spent the next two months in the inexpensive, run-down Hotel l'Air, designing jewelry that was derived from Tuareg designs, but clearly "modern" in its simplicity.

Brizot and Intinikar's guild was not faring well economically due to the armed Tuareg rebellion that curtailed most commercial activity in Agadez, and in 1998 they went their separate ways. Brizot and Mezey joined together in spring 1998 to create Exote, owned 51% by Brizot and 49% by Mezey. Mezey designed and made prototypes (Figs. 12-13) and marketed at jewelry shows, craft fairs, and via the Exote website. (10) Mezey indicated that her designs began as approximately 20% replicas of older Tuareg jewelry, 40-50% traditional motifs configured in a different fashion, and the balance new designs, such as hairpins, which Tuareg women did not use in the past but are used today by some urban Tuareg women and by Westerners. During our 2001 interview, Mezey indicated that by that time, only 10% were replicas, 20% "transformations," and about 70% were original, new designs. Brizot managed the production of the jewelry and in 1998 formed a new guild solely under his control that he named A l'Atelier. To comply with Nigerian government regulations, he became a legal "negociant en bijouterie" in 1998.

[FIGURES 12-13 OMITTED]

Key to the commercial success of A l'Atelier was the relationship established and developed with Hermes-Paris, the famous French design house and maker of fine leather goods and accessories. The chief executive officer of Hermes, Jean-Louis Dumas, and his son, Pierre-Alexis, were interested in developing relationships with artists and crafts people throughout the world with the goal of finding new designs, fabricators, and suppliers while returning resources to small-scale artisans. (11) As part of this experiment in intercultural exchange and learning, Brizot had shown Pierre-Alexis a large group of old pieces of Tuareg jewelry. The younger Dumas then convinced his father to begin to experiment with working with Tuareg artists, as well as artists from other parts of the world. These experiments with different artists included workshop residencies in Paris, where form, technique, and ideas could be exchanged between Hermes' artists and those from other parts of the world.

Patrick Jeandel, director of product development within Hermes' leather department, first went to Agadez to meet the inadan and to experience the Sahara in 1993 and has returned several times since. Dumas and Jeandel determined to forge a relationship with Brizot and A l'Atelier to supply Hermes with specific high-quality silver items, such as beautiful purse clasps and belt buckles, according to precise characteristics of size, form, weight, and any technical details determined solely by Hermes (Figs. 14-15). (12)

[FIGURES 14-15 OMITTED]

Brizot and Hermes were also interested in trying to reacquaint Tuareg inadan with older designs and forms. Over time Brizot showed photographs of old Tuareg jewelry to the inadan in A l'Atelier and discussed different silver-making technologies and techniques. They hoped that exposure to these old and presumed lost designs would enlarge and stimulate the "inventive capacity" of the inadan and give them greater inspiration as they worked on the Hermes commissions. This notion seems a bit patronizing and ill founded, as there are still many pieces of old jewelry kept by Tuareg women and well known to the inadan. What many inadan have apparently lost is specific knowledge of the meanings of engraved designs, but this knowledge was also unknown to the Hermes staff and only to a very limited degree known to Brizot (see Seligman 2006 for fuller discussion of knowledge transmission of designs engraved in silver).

Infused with enthusiasm by the commercial relationships with Exote and Hermes, Brizot bought and outfitted a building in Agadez to serve as the workshop for A l'Atelier (Fig. 16). He hired Atobeul N'Gatan (b. 1978) from his former guild as the business head of A l'Atelier; as head of the workshop, he hired Hani Abdourachman (b. 1974), who was, by general consensus, the most skilled inadan and a well-respected person in the community (Fig. 17). Over time, the number of inadan and their assistants grew so that by fall 2001 there were twenty-two inadan, each with an assistant.

[FIGURES 16-17 OMITTED]

Brizot provided the workshop buildings, the silver, the prototypes and specifications, the tools, charcoal, and bottled gas for the inadan. As Hermes was advancing payments to Brizot of 50% of the value of each order, he was able to advance each inadan and assistant 50% of their payment for each piece they were to complete. When I conducted interviews in the guild in September and October 2001, Hermes had an order for 400 rectangular belt buckles and all inadan were at work on their allotment. Production allotment was not equal, as some inadan were more experienced and proficient than others. Hermes had provided the exact dimensions and specifications, but each inadan was expected to creatively engrave the flat, rectangular surface of the buckle in a different way so that each of the 400 buckles would be unique (Fig. 18). Samples had already been produced and approved by Hermes, and work on the total order had begun in earnest on September 17, 2001, with an expectation that the buckles would be ready to ship to Paris in a month.

[FIGURE 18 OMITTED]

In order to maintain quality and build experience and expertise in the guild, especially for Atobeul and Hani, Brizot frequently came to critique the work (Fig. 19). He offered specific observations about the quality of surface design and engraving, as Atobeul had already verified that the Hermes-specified dimensions and weight were correct. Brizot tried to get various inadan to be self-critical and also to comment on one another's work. (13) He also sketched ideas for design patterns combining "traditional" designs in ways that were essentially foreign to the Tuareg design repertoire. The inadan considered these new design ideas and some were executed. For instance, Brizot suggested leaving large areas of the surface blank, an idea generally not conceived of or appreciated by the inadan, whose traditional aesthetic dictated an overall surface pattern. Also, some inadan resisted juxtaposing certain design motifs, as they were not traditionally supposed to be together. When poor quality engraving or other imperfections were found the buckle was "rejected" by Brizot and sent back to its maker for reworking. A very few cases involved re-melting the silver and starting over.

[FIGURE 19 OMITTED]

The timing of this production allowed me to see all of the 400 completed buckles (Fig. 20) and briefly discuss the works with one of the older inadan, Adam Moussa (b. 1960; Fig. 21). Adam made twenty buckles and earned the equivalent of $300 for his work, and his assistant Elhadji earned $50. I was also able to question Atobeul and asked both men to independently rank the twenty buckles Adam made from best (#1) to worst (#20). This proved to be very difficult for both, yet ultimately their separate results correlated to a remarkable degree (Fig. 22). Both men indicated that the best work was characterized by precise contours of the engraving. They concurred that the overall design is "good" if the relationship between the rectangular shape of the buckle and the engraved design is "harmonious," showing balance and symmetry. The engraving must also be "fine," that is, straight, regularly spaced, and uniform in depth. Both men chose a more "modern" design as their first choice, possibly to correspond with what Brizot had been encouraging them to do, but also because it showed a "new" idea with a slightly different design, and the inadan appreciated this creativity. The buckle with the lowest rank (#20) suffered in each inadan's judgment because of the large amount of unengraved, open space and because the designs were less dynamic and poorly balanced.

[FIGURES 20-22 OMITTED]

Finally, I asked Hani to evaluate the buckles, but as he had little time, he simply told me that Adam's choice #2 was best as it was "regular, rich, with subtle engraving which is not entirely traditional nor entirely modern." As worst, he chose Atobeul's #20 saying that the "aesthetic reflects nothing, it is just engraving without real form." (14)

As the inadan completed their buckles they signed them by engraving on the back both their self-invented mark and their name in tifinar (Fig. 23). (15) For instance, Hani signed his pieces in tifinar as followed by his mark:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[FIGURE 23 OMITTED]

Upon acceptance of their work by Atobeul, Hani, and Brizot, the inadan either took time off while waiting for a new commission or were assigned to work on prototypes designed by Mezey for Exote (Fig. 23). As Exote effectively had no working capital, the prototypes were sent to Mezey, who showed them to her customers, including jewelry stores and indiviual clients, so they could place orders for pieces. Once orders were filled and sold, the funds would be remitted to A l'Atelier and the inadan and their assistants would be paid. Obviously, this means of doing business was difficult for everyone involved, but Hermes' partial advance payment for orders was sufficiently lucrative to keep the inadan tied to the guild.

As a matter of policy, the inadan had to agree to what amounts to a nondisclosure agreement, to never allow information about the Hermes or Exote designs or orders to be known by inadan outside of the guild, even in their own families. This was due to the well-founded concern that other inadan would imitate the designs and there would be "knock-offs" flooding the market. (16)

Hani was often responsible for the most complex and challenging prototypes and he referred to Mezey's precise drawings and paper cutouts as "gifts from God" in enabling his work. (17) He told me that the most difficult part was making new shapes and forms, while the engraving was easy. Brizot used the magazine Modern Jeweler and other fashion magazines to show the inadan what others in the world were making and how their work for Exote fit into the larger market. This enabled the inadan to understand their relative position within the global jewelry world and also enabled Brizot to convince them that it was a very exacting and competitive business.

After the silver made by the inadan of A l'Ateleir was received by Hermes in Paris it was acid-washed and given an electrolysis application to inhibit scratching and inadvertent staining of clothing. Then the Hermes artists assembled the pieces onto belts, purses, or other items (Fig. 25) and they were prepared for sale.

[FIGURE 25 OMITTED]

Hermes adapted designs for their famous carre (square) silk scarves (Fig. 26) with themes such as "parures des sables" or "cuirs du desert" and marketed Tuareg items in its publication Le Monde d'Hermes (1994, vol. 2; 1997, vol. 1). (22) These scarves borrowed designs from Tuareg jewelry traditions, and while they had no relation to A l'Atelier, they helped create more awareness of Tuareg designs.

[FIGURE 26 OMITTED]

Hermes priced its product for the wealthy customers who are its patrons. For instance, in their flagship store on Rue Faubourg St. Honore in Paris, leather belts with buckles made at A l'Atelier were priced in 2001 between 1720 and 2830 French francs, or between $350 and $500 US (Fig. 27). Necklaces of leather and silver pendants sold for between 3100-5250 FF ($500-875 US). As I have no knowledge of other costs incurred by Brizot or Hermes, I am not able to form more particular conclusions with this data, except to note that the inadan of A l'Atelier were very well paid relative to other skilled inadan working in Agadez at the same time. What was problematic for the guild's inadan was that they were highly dependent on Brizot's ability to obtain commissions from Hermes and Mezey's ability to market Exote's prototypes to obtain orders.

[FIGURE 27 OMITTED]

This dependency became difficult for the inadan when Brizot and Mezey dissolved Exote in 2002 over personal differences. In addition, Brizot was engaged in various other ventures, such as selling traditional African art, that took his time and attention. Hermes experienced internal difficulties, as Jean-Pierre Dumas had become quite ill and the business leadership was in transition. A l'Atelier missed a delivery of at least one order from Hermes in 2004 because a significant increase in the number of orders and the quantity of pieces required by Hermes effectively overwhelmed the inadans' production capacity. This delivery problem caused Hermes to rethink their relationship with Brizot, and the future of the relationship is far from certain. Hani has left the guild, as have some of the other inadan, leaving Atobeul fully responsible. Brizot has begun guiding tours in Libya to augment his income. As of this writing, in fall 2005, Brizot and A l'Atelier are rebuilding Hermes' confidence and are receiving new orders while also producing work of Brizors own design (Fig. 28).

[FIGURE 28 OMITTED]

The Future

Each of these two systems of creating and marketing silverwork made by Tuareg inadan represents an effort to find the means to make a living and to explore sales possibilities in the global market place. Both systems rely upon allies from abroad, and both have vulnerabilities beyond the inadans' control.

In the case of the Koumama family, control of design and production belongs completely to the family, while the marketing is shared with foreigners. The Koumama family's profitability is also significantly dependent upon Ann Elston's generous contribution of her time, expertise, and connections. However, Elhadji Koumama is learning about international marketing systems, and it is very possible he might one day be able to run the entire enterprise. The Koumama method may have a strong chance of surviving over the long term (Fig. 29).

[FIGURE 29 OMITTED]

In the A l'Atelier/Hermes situation, the inadan are almost entirely dependent upon Hermes, Brizot, and Mezey for their orders and livelihood. If any or all of these three actors leave the scene, the inadan are likely to be very vulnerable. Of course, they have acquired production skills and new design ideas from their experience within A l'Atelier, but if for some reason the guild fails, the inadan will have to either regroup under their own leadership or go off independently.

In either case, the inadan must compete with thousands of others in Niger and Mali, as well as makers of silver jewelry worldwide. What these particular Tuareg inadan have achieved is to have brought their attractive and distinctive designs onto the world stage, influencing other jewelry creators as well as beautifying the bodies of countless men and women across the globe.

Special thanks to Jean-Yves Brizot, Ann Elston, Larry Lossing, Elhadji Kounzmama, and my wife and partner Rita Banda for their help.

References cited

Bernus, Edmond. 1983. "Agades Cross Pendants: Structural Components and Their Modifications. Part 1." Ornament 7 (2): 16-21, 60-61.

Gabus, Jean. 1982. Sahara: Bijoux et techniques. Neuchatel: La Baconniere.

Gottler, Gerhard. 1989. Die Tuareg: Kulturelle, Einheit und regionale Vielfalt eines Hirtenvolkes. Cologne: DuMont.

Keenan, Jeremy. 1977. The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar New York: St. Martin's Press.

Loughran, Kristyne S. 1996. Tuareg Jewelry: Continuity and Change. PhD diss. Indiana University.

Mickelsen, Nancy R. 1976. "Tuareg Jewelry." African Arts 9 (2):16-19.

Nicolaisen, Ida, and Johannes Nicolaisen. 1997. The Pastoral Tuareg. Carlsberg Foundation's Nomad Research Project. Copenhagen: Rhodos International Science and Art Publishers.

Nicolaisen, Johannes. 1963. Ecology and Culture of the Pastoral Tuareg: With Particular Reference to the Tuareg of Ahaggar and Ayr. Copenhagen: National Museum.

Rasmussen, Susan. 1997a. "Between Ritual, Theater, and Play: Blacksmith Praise at Tuareg Marriage." Journal of American Folklore 110:3-26.

--. 1997b. The Poetics and Polities of Tuareg Aging: Life Course and Personal Destiny in Niger. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.

Seligman, Thomas K. 2006. "The Art of Being Tuareg." In Art of Being Tuareg; Sahara Nomads in a Modern World, eds. Thomas K. Seligman and Kristyne Loughran, pp. 212-37. Los Angeles: Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Trotha, Desiree V. 2000. Die Enkel der Echse: Eine Frau inz Land der Tuareg. Munich: Goldman.

Notes

(1.) Information about the Koumama family has primarily come from several conversations and interviews I conducted with Elhadji Koumama in San Francisco, California (May 2002, June 2005) and Agadez, Niger (November 2004). Additional information on the Koumama family can be found in Trotha 2000.

(2.) The language of the Tuareg is tamasheq, and the Tuareg are known as Kel Tamasheq, people who speak tamasheq. As Agadez has always been a major trading center, the lingua franca of Agadez has become Hausa, and Tuareg of Elhadji's generation speak primarily Hausa.

(3.) The tagulinust is made from the aleshu, a 5m long (16 1/2') cotton cloth woven and dyed by Hausa people in and around Kano, Nigeria (the Tuareg do not grow cotton or weave). Hausa traders import the tagulmust to markets in Niger, Mall, and southern Algeria for sale to Tuareg. The tagulmust is seen as a distinctive identifier of the Tuareg. Because the indigo dye comes off on the wearer's skin, the Tuareg are often referred to as "the blue people."

(4.) The number 153 is the old number of the Michelin map of West Africa and the organization is made up of people interested In exploring the Sahara Desert.

(5.) Elhadji was married to Kola and they were living in their own house in Agadez with their young children when Elston visited.

(6.) See www.tuaregjewelry.com, which at this writing is the first site that appears when doing a Google search for Tuareg jewelry.

(7.) Prices for work sold via Lossing and Elston range from $25 US for earrings and small pieces to more than $200 for very large and elaborate necklaces.

(8.) Information provided by Jean Yves Brizot during fieldwork in Niger, September to December 2001, and In numerous subsequent meetings through August 2005.

(9.) Information provided by Alison Mezey in an interview December 11, 2002, in San Francisco.

(10.) The Exote website no longer exists, as Brizot and Mezey have terminated their business relationship. Mezey has incorporated the past of Exote into her new website called Alison Mezey Collections, www.alisonmezey.net/retail/.

(11.) The terms "artist," "craft person," and "artisan" each have differing connotations depending upon the experience and bias of the reader. I choose to use all these terms to refer to the Tuareg inadan to create an awareness in the reader that the inadan are creative (in the sense often implied by the term "artist") but also work with technologies and materials that are normally associated with craft work and their nonindustrial production is at an artisanal scale.

(12.) Information from Jean-Louis Dumas, Patrick Jeandel, and others at Hermes was obtained in interviews conducted at their atelier in Pantin (Paris) November 14, 2001.

(13.) The inadan were very reluctant to actively critique each others' work, preferring to make general observations. Brizot had to push very hard to engage them in dialogue about quality, although privately several inadan told me their opinions about others' pieces.

(14.) Interview conducted at A l'Atelier, Agadez on October 17, 2001

(15.) Tifinar is the twenty-four sign script developed and used by the Tuareg for writing things of a transitory nature or as an ornamental element.

(16.) To obtain access to A l'Ateleir and be able to photograph and interview the inadan, I had to assure Brizot that I would not make public images of works until they had been made commercially available by either Hermes or Exote.

(17.) Interview at A l'Atelier October 18, 2001.