Images of loneliness in Tuareg narratives of travel, dispersion, and return

Abstract

This article examines how social, economic, and political upheavals in the Sahara have stimulated re-thinking about loneliness in relation to trauma from mobility, dispersion, and return home in communities of Tamajaq-speaking, Muslim, and semi-nomadic Tuareg in northern Niger and Mali. How do Tuareg, sometimes called Kel Tamajaq after their language, draw on and re-formulate longstanding and new ways of coping with loneliness in regional droughts and wars, which have driven many to alternately disperse from their communities and return to homes that are no longer the same? What is the connection between changing modes of travel, concepts of loneliness, and ways of coping with this experience? In these communities, loneliness is a recurrent theme in personal life histories—in particular, in narratives of both geographic travel and spiritual travel in medico-ritual healing—and is alluded to in poetry, song, and everyday conversation. This article explores the meanings of loneliness and ways of coping with it in this society through analysis of this emotion in symbol, subjective perception, and social experience. The focus is upon representations of loneliness in narratives by travelers who have confronted this emotion, and upon relevant Tamajaq terms often used to express loneliness: namely, essuf (the wild, solitude, and nostalgia); tamazai (approximately, a depression); and tarama (unrequited love), illustrating with cases and examples. More broadly, the article is guided by and builds on insights in psychological anthropology into emotion and affect as well as suffering and subjectivity.

Toward an anthropology of loneliness

“…At teatime gatherings and group calisthenics, survivors of the disaster, or persons directly involved ( tōjisha ), created naturalistic and humanistic psychosocial care, in contrast to more depersonalized clinical care. Although Gagné’s research does not directly address the COVID-19 experience per se, his ethnographic work, like Pike and Crocker (2020) and Rasmussen (2020) in this special issue, shows the psychological and social effects of prolonged dislocation and social isolation when ongoing lives are put “on hold”. A key to increased positive mental well-being and resilience is gaining a sense of agency through social, rather than psychological, rehabilitation.…”

“…The articles in this issue and earlier work by these authors reveals the multi-faceted nature of loneliness. Some forms of loneliness are constructive and conducive to creativity (Ozawa-de Silva, 2007; Rasmussen, 2020), while others are debilitating. For example, Parsons (2020) notes that existential philosophers such as Weiss (1973) and Moustakas (1961) have suggested certain typologies of loneliness that include both constructive and negative forms.…”

“…Based on over 35 years of ethnographic work in North Africa, Rasmussen’s (2020) article explores loneliness among semi-nomadic Tuareg in northern Niger and Mali in the context of regional droughts, war, and the dispersion and return of labor migrants and political refugees. Through selected travel narratives, Rasmussen shows how mobility is related to loneliness, depression ( tamazai ), and unrequited love ( tarama ).…”

“…Experiences of relational lack are not always directly conveyed, but often alluded to euphemistically or metaphorically, particularly in societies where indirect expressions of emotion are valued. Authors in this issues explore concepts and expressions of soledad (loneliness) among youth in Tijuana (Jenkins, et al., 2020); nikomu ne nuzhni (being unneeded) among midlife post-Soviet Muscovites (Parsons, 2020); ikiru imi (meaning in life) and ikigai (what makes life worth living) among Japanese college students (Ozawa-de Silva, 2020); essuf (the wild, solitude, and nostalgia), tamazai (depression), and tarama (unrequited love) among semi-nomadic Tuareg in North Africa (Rasmussen, 2020); the epayane (loneliness) of losing wives and having too few children among Turkana pastoralists in Kenya (Pike & Crocker, 2020); and cultural categories of NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) and hikikomori (social withdrawal) (Ismail, 2020), kasetsubyō (temporary housing syndrome) (Gagné, 2020), kodokushi (solitary death) and muen shakai (de-relational society) in Japan (Ozawa-de Silva, 2020). These articles suggest there may be differences in the experience of loneliness across societies, as expectations of sociality and senses of selfhood vary.…”

“…Immigrants are separated from extended family and hindered from integrating into new communities (Pike & Crocker, 2020). People lose access to neighborhoods, nature, wild foods, traditional medicine, and watering holes (Jenkins, et al., 2020; Pike & Crocker, 2020; Rasmussen, 2020). Culturally specific forms of social exchange – blat in Soviet Russia (Parsons, 2020) and livestock exchange among Turkana pastoralists (Pike & Crocker, 2020) – are transformed or restricted.…”