The Salt Road (57 page)
Authors: Jane Johnson
Author’s note
This novel came out of the conjunction of two inspiring stories. The first was the discovery that my husband’s family roots lie amongst the nomads of Mauretania who brought silver, spices and salt from sub-Saharan Africa through the desert by camel caravan to trade in the markets of Morocco.
The second was meeting a Frenchwoman who had come to the remote Berber village in which we live seeking her father: a Tuareg trader with whom her Parisian mother had had an affair in the 1960s. She had discovered the truth of her paternity only on her mother’s death-bed: all her life it had been a mystery, a shameful secret. In contrast to Abdellatif, she had spent her life feeling rootless and confused about her identity, existing as only half a person, never really fitting into the world in which she lived. The rest of her story is not mine to tell; but I must thank her for the inspiration, because without it I would never have written this book.
Sources and bibliography
Enfants des sables
, Moussa Ag Assarid and Ibrahim Ag Assarid (Presses de la Renaissance, 2008)
Amazigh Arts in Morocco
, Cynthia J. Becker (University of Texas Press, 2006)
Art of Being Tuareg
, T.R. Seligman and Krystine Loughran, eds. (University of Washington Press, 2006)
Men of Salt
, Michael Benanav (Lyons Press, 2006)
Those Who Touch: Tuareg Medicine Women in Anthropological Perspective
, Susan J. Rasmussen (Northern Illinois University Press, 2006)
Tuareg Jewelry
, Helene E. Hagan and Lucile C. Myers (XLibris, 2006)
Call of the Desert
, Philippe Bourseiller (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004)
Tikatoutin
, Marceau Gast (Éditions de la Boussole, 2004)
Contes et legends Touaregs du Niger
, Laurence Rivaille and Pierre-Marie Decoudras (Karthala, 2003)
In Quest of Lost Worlds
, Byron de Prorok (The Narrative Press, 2003)
The Sword and the Cross
, Fergus Fleming (Granta, 2003)
Veil: Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance
, Fadwa El Guindi (Berg Publishing, 2003)
Civilizations
, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (Free Press, 2002)
Desert Divers
, Sven Lindqvist (Granta, 2002)
Sahara
, Michael Palin (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2002)
Sahara
, Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle (Walker, 2002)
Les Touaregs
, Edmond Bernus (Éditions Vents de Sables, 2002)
Touaregs
, Helene Claudot-Hawad (Gallimard, 2002)
Sahara Man
, Jeremy Keenan (John Murray, 2001)
Touareg: la tragédie
, Mano Dayak (Hachette, 1998)
The Pastoral Tuareg
, Johannes Nicolaison (Thames & Hudson, 1997)
Desert Travels
, Chris Scott (Traveller’s Bookshop, 1996)
The Blue People
, Karl G. Prasse (Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, 1995)
French Lessons in Africa
, Peter Biddlecombe (Little, Brown, 1994)
The Tuaregs
, Karl G. Prasse (Copenhagen, 1985)
Africa Adorned
, Angela Fisher (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1984)
The Tuaregs
, Kenneth and Julie Slavin (Gentry Books, 1973)
Sahara
, Rene Gardi (Harrap, 1970)
The Sheltering Sky
, Paul Bowles (Penguin, 1945)
‘Unrest in the Sahara: Niger’s Nomads Fight for Rights’, Alex Sehmer and May Welsh (report, Al Jazeera, 2008)
‘Mali’s Peace Process: Context, Analysis and Evaluation’, Kåre Lode (report, Conciliation Resources, 2002)
‘The Rise of Amazigh Nationalism and National Consciousness in North Africa’, Dr Larry A. Barrie (assessment, Strategic Studies Detachment, 4th Psychological Operations Group, Airborne, 1998)
Written to a soundtrack of music by Tinariwen, Tidawt and Etran Finatawa
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my husband, Abdel, for helping me to shine a light upon a mysterious culture I would never otherwise have had a chance to comprehend, and for giving me the ancient Tuareg amulet on which the story is based; to Mohamed and the school at Tiouada; to Hassan, our desert guide, and the camels who bore my weight and shocking inexpertise without too much complaint; and to everyone who patiently answered my many dense questions about the nomadic life. To Emma, Karen and Philippa for their support through the writing of this complex book; to Venetia and Jenny at Viking Penguin for their determination and passion; to Danny Baror for his unflagging faith and encouragement.
Being neither an anthropologist nor a linguist, I owe a great debt to my written sources; but any errors of interpretation are almost certainly my own. I’ve listed my main sources above for any who wish to pursue this fascinating subject further.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents