Paper short abstract:

The paper deals with the modern Tuareg society, called ishumar, and concentrates on social and spatial ephemerality in a modern nomadic society.

Paper long abstract:

"If one assumes an ashamur in Sebha (Libya), he emerges in Ghat (Libya). Here he remains for several weeks or month before he turns to Tamanrasset (Algeria), return somewhat later again, moves to Agadez (Niger) or Kidal (Mali) and works finally a couple of month in Benghazi (Libya). His property fits in a small bag. Accomodation he gets with other ishumar who live in family-similar structures. He is coming and leaving without large ennouncement, one day here, the other there." (Kohl 2007:99)

This is a typical description of the recent Tuareg youth, called ishumar. Their transnational and situational movements are the result of the uncertainity and disquiet in the Sahara. Global economic interests, political upheavals, local unrests, as well as climatic changes and natural crisis have turned the life in the Sahara into a challenging business. The Tuareg has been increasingly forced to switch from nomadic to urban lifestyles, pressed into sedentarization, pushed into making transnational border crossings, or left behind by respective states. The ishumar movement is the result. They are neither migrants, refugees or exiles, nor do they form a diaspora community. They are better described as a traveling culture (Clifford 1992), for whom moving is the rule.