Large Tuareg Iwellemmeden Kel-Air Wedding Cross – EGERU / AGERU – Niger

1970′. Silver, glass and silver beads gr 69,2 (2.44 oz). The cross is cm. 8,5 x 8,2 (3.34” x 3.22”). The necklace is cm. 48,5 in leght(19.09″). . Lost-wax casting. The Egeru it’s a pendant that has the shape of a diamond with the concave sides having a central tubular ridge; both ends of the side tips are conical. It’s traditionally offered by the husband to the wife at marriage; from this the name of “wedding cross”. For a similar example, see p. 211 of “Africa Adorned”, by Angela Fisher. 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 same typical turban – the litham – that completely covers the face of the Tuareg except the eyes, has the primary function of protecting the “gates of the soul” (mouth and nostrils ) from the Jinn.