- Title: LIBYA: Tuareg tribes hold festival in Sahara
- Date: 4th August 2010
- Summary: **NIGHT SHOT** VARIOUS OF TUAREG MEN DANCING WOMEN IN BLUE WATCHING AND WAVING LIBYAN FLAGS MORE OF DANCING MEN PLAYING LOCAL DRUMS
- Embargoed: 19th August 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
- Reuters ID: LVABA3SQZTJO5SGFNR2P510CBMPS
- Story Text: Libya's Tuareg tribes are holding a three-day festival to celebrate their nomadic desert culture in the southern desert town of Ubari.
The Tuaregs live in the vast swathes of the world's largest desert, the Sahara. They are spread across the deserts of Libya, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria.
Their lifestyle is a relative unknown to outsiders, even to fellow Libyans who live in urban centres in the country's north.
Men traditionally cover their faces for practical climate purposes with women enjoying wider freedoms than many other Arab women across the region.
The deputy chairman of the festival organising committee, Hussein al-Ansary, says the annual festival is now in its third year but says the future of the Tuareg lifestyle is now under threat.
"This festival is trying to shine a light on this Sahara region that has now become threatened by a number of negative factors in terms of terrorism, illegal immigration, drugs. This area is a gateway to the large desert and we have therefore decided to come up with a plan for all Libyans," he said.
The lack of control from central authorities in a number of countries across the Sahara has left a vacuum that has been exploited by al Qaeda militants as well as drug gangs.
The Tuareg are asking for Tripoli to speed up their integration into the rest of society, with housing and citizenship requests on the agenda.
Libya tried to encourage the tribes to settle in southern Libya in the 1980s and had limited success. Many of the tribes rely on livestock and the presence of water to survive, thus leaving some with no option but to stay on the move.
Local Tuaregs said the general perception by outsiders of their people is that many are impoverished and uneducated, an image Tuaregs are keen to counter.
"Now, thank God, the Tuareg woman in the (Libyan) Republic is living well, she has made large strides in education with many women graduating from university, Tuareg women are some of the most educated in Libya," said Haniya Abdu.
The festival, whichTuesday (August 3), has succeeded in gathering many Tuaregs from across the southern Libyan desert for the three-day event.
At the event, the tribes play music, dance and ride camels throughout the day and night. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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