3 Tuareg Talismans – TCHEROT – Niger

Mid 20th century. Front side manufactured from silver sheet, rear side of iron sheet. Each tcherot is approx. cm. 7,3 high x cm. 7,4 width (2.87” x 2.91″); gr. 74,4 (2.62 oz.). These talismans are attached to tagelmoust, a strip of cloth 20 feet long, protects them from the heat of the desert and the blowing sand. The tagelmoust has the primary function of protecting the “gates of the soul” (mouth and nose) from evil spirits. The Tuareg live in one of the most inhospitable areas of the planet: the central part of the Sahara Desert. Their whole existence, difficult and precarious, is dominated by an overriding concern to protect and defend themselves from hostile supernatural forces that inhabit the surrounding environment – the ” Jinn ” (evil spirits, from the terrible Ghul to the Ifrit, no less cruel in tending traps to travelers) – and gain the protection of beneficial genies. The Tuareg people inhabit a large area, covering almost all the middle and western Sahara and the north-central Sahel. They are probably descended from the ancient Libyan people of the kingdom of the Garamantes, described by Herodotus. Tuareg are mostly nomads. For over two millennia, they operated the trans-Saharan caravan trade connecting the great cities on the southern edge of the Sahara via five desert trade routes to the northern coast of Africa (Mediterranean). For similar examples: “Africa Adorned” by Angela Fisher, p. 198 and p. 201.