Mauretania: Field research on musical heritage of Mauritania

The culture of the Haratins – the former group of slaves in Mauritania, also called „black Moors“ - has never been studied intensely. Their music, their songs and dances have never been documented in a written form but have only been orally transmitted. Therefore some questions remain at the moment: What are the topics of the songs, what do the dances express and which instruments are still being played? What was the importance of the music and which importance is it still having today? Which traditions are still being followed and passed on to younger generations?

The same questions arise for the case of the „griots“, the „preservers of history“ who pass on this history in form of literature and music. This tradition is also at risk to get lost forever with the death of the old people. There remain still some of the peregrinating singers and players of the lute tidinit and there remain women who accompany their singing with the harp ardin.

At this point started the field research for documenting the musical heritage of Mauritania in April 2015. Supported by the Jutta Vogel foundation and by financial means of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the ethnomusicologist Edda Brandes and film maker Petra Buda have cooperated with Mauritanian partners. In the capital Nouakchott and the historical trading post Chinguetti in the north west of the country they have met artists practicing traditional and modern musical genres of the Mauritanian musical heritage.

The results of the research will be published on CDs and DVDs in order to recall something almost forgotten, to maintain current conditions and last but not least to get the young generation interested in passing on their own culture and make its musical richness become known far beyond the borders of their country.

Berlin: Mauritania’s Manuscripts – a critical evaluation former conversation projects and developing future strategies

Anticipated date: September 9 -10, 2015
Venue: ZMO, Kirchweg 33, 10829 Berlin

In today’s Mauritania the majority of the approximately 30.000 manuscripts are preserved in around 800 private family libraries. The majority of these manuscripts deals with religious topics mainly in the style of classical Islamic commentary literature. Furthermore, there are texts dealing with medicine, astronomy, literature, and history.

Despite these scholarly texts, personal family documents as well as sales contracts are stored. Therefore, the manuscripts represent an important part of the cultural heritage of the Sahara-Sahel-Region dating back beyond the 17th century. Manuscripts found in the regions of Southern Morocco, Southern Algeria, Southern Libya, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Chad and Darfur (Sudan), represent a cultural heritage documenting the realm of Muslim scholars and traders networks and intellectual production that remains until today not fully explored. Due to different scales of involvement in preservation activities driven by the involved governments, these important historical sources are partly at risk. This is especially true for documents stored in Mauritania’s private libraries. Such collections of diverse written documents spanning periods of several centuries are highly exceptional for the African continent and promise, once they are explored, to shed a new light on the region’s historical development. Therefore, action for their preservation is instantly needed.

The previewed two-days-workshop aims for recording the status quo of so far accomplished preservation activities during the last decades in Mauritania for developing a realistic action plan for future arrangements. Academic specialists for the region with expertise in manuscript preservation or historical research will contribute to the debate with the invited stakeholders of local manuscript collections. Of a specialimportance is to reach a strong commitment for future cooperation between the owners of private collections and state institutions in order to secure the success of future arrangements and in the end to attract potential donors who are urgently needed to maintain the precious manuscript collections of Mauritania.

The results of the workshop will be published by June 2016.

Namibia 2014: Ju/’hoansi Children’s Picture Dictionary

The Ju|’hoan Children’s Picture Dictionary is a collaborative project between the Namibian Ju|’hoan from the Tsumkwe region and academics from various fields. The primary aim of this dictionary is to provide Ju|’hoan children with a piece of mother -tongue literature that is locally inspired and that can also be shared with those from the outside world. Entries in this thematic dictionary are in the Ju|’hoan Tsumkwe dialect, Afrikaans and English. All the illustrations and artwork were created by Ju|’hoan people from the Tsumkwe region, who share their knowledge and insight into different facets of Ju|’hoan daily life. Great care has gone into the making of this dictionary, with members of the Ju|’hoan community leading the way in the selection of themes, lexical entries, design and layout to make this publication a community -driven project that highlights Ju|’hoan culture. Included is an interactive CD with a pronunciation guide for each entry provided by Ju|’hoan speakers, as well as a photo and video gallery, short biographies of contributors, interesting information about the Ju|’hoan people and a fun, printable language game. By buying this Dictionary you are helping to spread awareness about the Ju|’hoan language and culture, to stop this endangered language from disappearing forever. This unique and special book is a must for anyone with an interest in San life, the San people and their communities.

Further information: PDF | PDF

Cologne 2014: African Film Festival
Festival "Out of Europe - New films from Africa"

FilmInitiativ Köln e.V has been organising the "Out of Europe – Films from Africa" film festival since 1992. Across a period of time spanning more than two decades, more than 500 films from 40 African countries have been shown at the biennial festivals and the film specials held during the off-years, while cinema-goers have had the opportunity to get to know more than 100 film-makers.

FilmInitiativ is aiming to have all information about these films and guests available for film enthusiasts to read here on this website or via the database by 2015. The Jutta Vogel Foundation is proud to support the 13th edition of the festival which will take place from September 18th to 28th, 2014. For any further information please check the festival homepage:
www.filme-aus-afrika.de

www.filme-aus-afrika.de
Event poster as PDF

Namibia 2014: Research about Khwe family names

This research project deals once again with the cultural heritage of a San group, called Khwe who live in the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia’s West Caprivi. During the years of the Namibian War for Independence the Khwe were resettled by the South African Army from their residential areas to military camps as their region became a military prohibited area.

Many Khwe were then recruited by the South African Army which left the country in 1990 when Namibia gained independence. In 2000 the nature reserve of the Caprivi Game Park was declared National Park. Due to the resettlement the Khwe lost access to their hunting and gathering territory. The former structure meaning that family heads decided who had access to the natural resources of their territory became irrelevant. These developments also influenced the family organization. Before families were organized bilaterally meaning that every child belonged to the group of the mother as well as to the group of the father. So it had access to the hunting and gathering areas of the two families. This became also evident in the names which referred to both sides. This structure got lost during the years when the Khwe were recruited by the South African army and took over the patrilineal organization meaning to belong to the father’s family and carry only this family’s name. Today the Khwe know that they have already lost much knowledge about their own culture. Therefore they have started to collect information about the settlement history of different family groups and to write it down in their language in order to pass on the gained knowledge to younger generations. Dr. Gertrud Boden’s research is supporting this process in close cooperation with Kyaramacan Association which has recently been founded by inhabitants of the Bwabwata National Park. Her work will result in a booklet documenting the development and the meaning of 35 Khwe family names by providing texts in the original language with interlinear and English translations, complemented by further information on the family groups and illustrated by photographs or drawings. The book will be used in mother tongue education in primary schools as well as for the currently developing Traditional Environmenta Knowledge Outreach Academy (TEKOA), where elderly Khwe will pass on their cultural knowledge to younger generations and to foreign visitors to the park.

Please, klick here to see some pages of the final print version: PDF-Download

Mauretania 2013: Publication about the Haratines

The Jutta Vogel Foundation has recently supported the final editing of Professor Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem’s, University of Nouakchott in Mauretania, book “Prêcher dans le desert: Islam et transformation sociales en Mauritanie” (ISBN: 978-2-8111-0907-3) which has been published at Karthala (Paris) in July 2013. It is the first study which systematically examines the relation between Islam and social change in postcolonial Mauretania. The “Islamic Republic Mauretania” gained independence from France in 1960 and has experienced quite different political, religious and social developments since then. The Arabic speaking group of the Haratines which are said to be former slaves has developed its own theological and judicial norms leading to a distinction from their surroundings and other Islamic laws regarding questions of their roots, intraethnic and interhierarchical weddings. From this result different influences of mosques and imams. The focus is on life of the Haratines in and with an originally nomadic society. The author has examined these very complex relations. His analysis is meant as a contribution to understand the main transformations in individual as well as social life which will definitely influence future developments. Thus the support of this project can be seen as a contribution to the cultural preservation in the southwest Sahara.

Mali 2013: Imzad School in Kidal

The imzad is a one string violine. This instrument is an integral component of the Tuareg society and tradition. The sound of the imzad is a moral element in their culture.

In July 2010 the new Imzad school has been founded in Kidal, Mali, by the association Taghreft Tinariwen and the Jutta Vogel Foundation. An imzad player has started to teach ten women how to play this old and traditional instrument. The head of the school is a team of two Tuareg: Mister Mohamed Ag Erless and Ms Koci Walet M'Bareck.

As soon as the end of July 2010 the ten women and their teacher went to the camp of a very old imzad player 50 km away from Kidal to stay with her for two weeks. This very experienced player taught them some very old songs and also some knowledge about the fabrication of the instrument. The materials needed are one half of a calebasse, goatskin, hair from the tail of a horse and a special very soft wood.

On Febraury, 9th 2011 the new Imzad school of Kidal had the honor to play two songs in front of the President of Mali when he visited Kidal. Of course the performance has not been perfect but it helped to make the imzad school known not only in Kidal but also in Bamako the capital of Mali.

In December 2013 the IMZAD, the music as well as the knowledge and practices related to the instrument have become intangible World Heritage.

Mauritania 2012: Library “Ehel Taleb Mohamed” in Tidjikdja

Among the most important, albeit widely unknown, cultural treasures of mankind are the century old libraries in west Africa. The Science Centre in Timbuktu (Mali) is legendary. Yet few Europeans are aware that in the Mauritanian Tidjikdja oasis alone, there are 19 libraries with the most precious of Arabic manuscripts.

This oasis in the centre of the Sahara in Mauritania lies at the crossroads of several old caravan routes and is an ancient important station in trans-Sahara trade. Tidjikdja was founded in 1660 by a number of families who had left the Chinguetti oasis in the north of the country with all their belongings, which of course included the knowledge documented in their scripts. So Tidjikdja became, from the very beginning, a centre of Arabic-Muslim scholarship.

The inhabitants of the oasis are still conscious of this scholarly tradition. Every family tends and treasures its library, despite all the difficulties in politically turbulent times. Yet many of these precious scripts are in danger of decaying as they are still owned by families. Their funds are insufficient to guarantee their preservation.

The oldest and most important library in Tidjikdja is the “Ehel Taleb Mohamed” library owned by Lembrabott Ould Taleb Mohamed. This scholar is at the same time president of the Society of Library Owners for the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage in Tidjikdja (ligue des détenteurs de manuscrits et de la protection du patrimoine à Tidjikja) as well as the president of the Society of Scholars of Tagant (Tagant is the overall administrative district). In addition he is the imam of the Elargoub mosque. His direct ancestor, Taleb Mohamed Ould Khlife Ould Taleb Ahmed Ould Edge El Hadj, taught Sharia law (Fighe) in Chinguetti before he settled in Tidjikdja in 1660 to found a new academic centre where the traditions of Islamic law, scholarship and the moral rules of social life were to be taught and passed on.

The library, where the fruits of these century-old traditions are collected, comprises more than 600 manuscripts, books, legal documents and texts, and old Qur'an editions. The oldest book preserved dates from the 15th century and contains texts on medical topics. The wealth of this library has been the source of knowledge for many Mauretanian scholars since the 17th century, among them the famous Sidi Abdoullha Ould El Hadj Brahim.

The collection also comprises more recent texts – 20,000 documents and treaties concerning the city and its environs, and thus the history of the entire region.

Thanks to the commitment of the Jutta Vogel Stiftung, there is now for the first time support for the protection and preservation of these treasures. The most urgent aim is to protect the entire collection from sand, dust, rain and termites, and to store books, manuscripts and documents in appropriate conditions. Only then can the library be made accessible to visitors in order to spread this source of knowledge throughout Mauritania and beyond.

In this sense, the support of the “Ehel Taleb Mohamed” private library is an important pilot project, as there are more cultural treasures in Tidjikdja waiting to be discovered.

Namibia 2011: On the Traces of Namibia’s Prehistory

The archaeological project “Hunters and Gatherers of the Late Pleistocene in southern Namibia” focuses on the social environment of hunter and gatherer societies during the so-called Later Stone Age.This historico-cultural era includes the times from the extremely dry Last Glacial Maximum (about 24.000 - 17.000 years) until today. This cultural heritage is usually directly referred to San groups which have been documented ethnographically during the 20th century in particular. During his decade long excavations and documentation including the discovery of the oldest art in Africa the archaeologist Wolfgang Wendt compiled an extensive but endangered collection referring to the prehistory of Namibia. This project will study the collection and make it accessible to the public.

Final report here.

Algeria 2011: The History of Eharir (Tassili/Sahara) in the local perception of rock art
Analysis and interpretation from an ethno-archaeological perspective

The Tassili Mountains in southern Algeria are part of the World Cultural Heritage, particularly because of its rich rock art. Thousands of magnificent pictures are witness to a time when there was pasture where today desert prevails. The pictures show not only that cattle were herded there but they also show a pastoral life that seems so familiar to the local Tuareg. Accordingly the Tuareg use the same word for the rock paintings as for their writing: Tifinaqh. But what can the old Tuareg read from the art? What does it tell them about the life of cattle pastoralists before the severe climate change?

Issak Oukafi Cheikh is not only a trained archaeologist but also a Tuareg born in the Tassili Najjer. In an ambitious expedition on foot he accompanies an old Tuareg to the pasture of his cattle deep inside the mountains. Frequently they will stop at rock art sites along the way and Issak Oukafi will record what the old man – one of the very few cattle herders in the region – reads from the paintings. It is of particular interest which kind of information he can glean from the pictures with respect to herding cattle under arid conditions.

Namibia 2010: Empowering female guides at the Brandberg (Daureb)

The Brandberg, called Dâureb in the local Damara language, attracts an ever growing number of tourists who travel there largely to see the famed "White Lady". But also for the demanding hiking tours into the upper reaches of the mountain hundreds of visitors come here every year. The establishment of the Daureb Mountain Guides (DMG) by the National Heritage Council has enhanced the management of tourist flow to the "White Lady" in particular. Among the DMG, all young people from nearby Uis, there are a number of well qualified women but none of them has ever been to the upper mountain, mainly due to unjustified apprehension. In view of the higher income that can be generated through these hiking tours their male colleagues did never hesitate to subdue to the efforts this guiding demands. Under the headings of "empowerment" and "capacity building" this situation shall be changed in special training for the female guides. Under supervision of Angula Shipahu, the most experienced mountain guide of the Brandberg, Marie-Theres Erz and Tilman Lenssen-Erz the female guides will get an opportunity to gain the knowledge which makes a good mountain guide: special knowledge of the upper regions, acquired on the spot, knowledge of the life-saving water holes or of feasible ways to walk in a pathless mountain. Additional knowledge will be provided into communication skills, leadership, security, health, hygiene, ecology but, of course, also on archaeology, rock art and nature studies. The acquisition of such a rich fund of knowledge interwoven with an extraordinary physical experience will not only heighten the professional capacity of the young women but will certainly also strengthen their self-confidence.

Namibia 2010: The preservation of the culture of the San in the Kalahari desert

People throughout the world know the San – hunter-gatherers in southern Africa; they are known as a lightly built, supple people who once transported their water in ostrich egg shells, tracked large antilopes and extracted poison for their arrows from beetle larvae. The San evolved a way of life with which they were optimally adapted to the arid zones in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia including the Kalahari and Namib deserts. Archaeological research shows that the inhabitants of the Kalahari lived until the most recent past from foods found in the wild and thus preserved for millennia the ecological balance in an environment which today hardly exists. The San lived in small, widely scattered groups, whose number was precisely tailored to the specfic area and its resources. Among these were a multitude of large and small animals, tree fruits, nuts, berries, roots and the so-called tsama melon, the “mother” of the cultivated water melons.

A project, supported by the Jutta Vogel Stiftung in the years 2009 and 2010, is now intended to help preserve the culture of the San which is threatened with extinction and pass it on to the younger generation. The material, which needs to be compiled for this, includes old narrative traditions and current oral traditions, for example, in the field of medicine; these traditions also include the political demands of the San, which they raised in the context of the independence of Namibia (1990).

All this is being collected by specially trained young San, who use taperecorders and video-cameras to interview older members of their families and group in their own everyday environment. Some of these older people are greatly respected as healers who pass on their art orally and treat above all psychological disorders, for instance, by the laying on of hands or by inducing different states of consciousness in people. Others assume leading positions in the social life of their community; their memories are important, in order to understand the political process in which the San have become citizens of the modern state of Namibia.

This comprehensive project is headed by Megan Biesele. She is director of the Kalahari Peoples' Fund (KPF). Megan Biesele is an anthropologist and ethnographer. For 39 years now her work has been devoted to Ju/'hoan (Bushmen) and Khoisan their language, the so-called click-language spoken in the north east of Namibia and in north west Botswana.

The above-mentioned San workers transcribe the tape recordings and translate them from Ju/'hoan (pronounced “ju-twan) into English. The complex compilation of the San culture thus created will make it possible for young San to preserve an awareness of their own cultural heritage. Its roots, as evidenced by archaeological finds, go back at least 40,000, possibly even 75,000 years – a time span in which people lived in a almost the same way as the Ju/'hoan until very recently.

Meanwhile, many San have recognised how important it is for their children to speak their mother tongue for the first three years of primary school and be familiarised with their traditions. Only in this way are they in a position to secure and continue their literary tradition. At the present time there are only roughly 17,000 people in Namibia and Botswana who speak Ju/'hoan – a language which is thus massively threatened with extinction. However, since the independence of Namibia there has been the Village School Project (VSP) which is contributing to its preservation and at the same time is intended to guarantee equality for the San in Namibian society.

For further information visit: www.kalaharipeoples.org Final report here.

Sahara 2010: Collected wisdom of the Tuareg (Dictionary in two volumes)

Hans Ritter

Dictionary on the language and culture of the Tuareg Alqamus Talmant – Tamahaq – Tamashaq – Tamajeq
Volume I: Tuareg – French – German

Elementary dictionary with an introduction to the culture, language, script and dialect distribution
Volume 2: German-Tuareg

Comprehensive dictionary of the main Tuareg dialects with a description of the phonology, grammar and verb system and an annotated bibliography.
In collaboration with Karl-G. Prasse

Despite numerous studies on the Tuareg there was hitherto a lack of a supra-regional dictionary for general use. Hans Ritter, a specialist in tropical medicines and ethnographer, has now published a dictionary in two volumes of the dialects spoken today in Algeria, Libya, Niger, Mali and Burkina-Faso. He has compiled two complementary dictionaries which are in principle independent but which have a different structure and emphasis. The one is an elementary dictionary in three languages – Tuareg – French – German, the other is an extended dictionary “German-Tuareg”.

Apart from the vocabulary section in three languages, Volume I contains a comprehensive listing in tabular form of the distribution of dialects and a transcription of Tuareg script (Tifinagh), articles on the history of the language and script, the traditional calendar, almanachs, system of numbers, poetry and music. The material possessions of the traditional nomadic culture – utensils, tools and ornaments – are illustrated using explanatory graphics.

Volume 2 offers more extensive and detailed vocabulary with inter-dialectal entries from all the main and secondary dialects and transcriptions of the Tuareg script, in addition numerous related terms from the most important contact languages: Arabic, Hassaniya, Hausa and Songhay.

Apart from general vocabulary the themes emphasised include the definition of plants and animals, materials and foodstuffs, ornaments and equipment. Apart from terms from trade and economic life, the calendar, orientation and the names of the stars, the dictionary lists especially terms from traditional medicine and remedies. Systematic source references and bibliographical detail round off this comprehensive linguistic documentation.

The dictionary, for the printing of which the Jutta Vogel Foundation has given financial support, is intended equally for academics – ethnographers, Berberologists and Africa scholars – and overseas development workers. It is also suitable for the lay person interested in Tuareg culture.

Volume I: 1130 pages, 419 illustrations, ISBN 978-3-447-05886-5
€ 128.00 (D)/ Sfr 217.00

Volume 2: 1154 pages, ISBN 978-3-447-05887-2
€ 148.00 (D)/Sfr 250.00

Price for both volumes:
€ 228.00 (D)/Sfr 387.00

From July 2009 available at bookshops and from the Harrassowitz Verlag (publishers), Wiesbaden (www.harrassowitz-verlag.de)

Cologne 2009: Saving the Tuareg culture – presentation at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum - Cultures of the world

The latest contribution of the Jutta Vogel Foundation to ensuring the preservation of the endangered Tuareg culture which is threatened by extinction and to enhancing public awareness is a large-scale acquisition of objects of everyday life. These will be exhibited at the new Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum - Cultures of the world in Cologne from September 2009 onwards. They comprise garments, textiles, tea sets, jewellery and an impressive Quran tablet. These items, however, are experiencing a decline in their everyday use in Tuareg families.

Tourism has become a major source of income. The jewellery – modelled on traditional craftsmanship – is part of a thriving craft industry which as a result of tourism is gaining in importance.

The new design concept of the RJM as a “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (museum of the world's cultures) no longer presents artefacts in a geographical or chronological order, but arranges them according to the different ways of life of the various peoples. Visitors encounter the nomadic Tuareg in the section entitled “Human Habitation”. The traditional dwelling of the Tuareg is the tent. Between two and seven tents are enough to accommodate a clan – an extended family with close links. During the rainy season conditions for pastoral farming improve and “villages” consisting of up to 20 tents come into being. Today, as in the past, living conditions are extremely harsh and people are forced to walk long distances to find enough food for their animals. Yet, the Tuareg have adapted superbly to these conditions by not simply relying for their livelihood on their herds. For centuries they have controlled the trans-Saharan trade routes linking West Africa and the Mediterranean with their caravans of camels, which today have been to some extent replaced by lorries.

The original Tuareg tent at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum - Cultures of the world will reflect all the various different facets of Tuareg life. Objects which play a role in everyday life will be presented, ranging from items associated with cooking, eating, sleeping, and, in addition, those used on special occasions such as social gatherings, mourning and burial rituals.

The jewellery, which has long been appreciated in the Western World because of its artistic and technical perfection, is for the Tuareg not merely of aesthetic value, but is also a portable form of capital investment. Besides, the items of jewellery are believed to have the power to protect wearers against supernatural forces and dangers. The roughly 70 objects which have been acquired for the RJM with the support of the Jutta Vogel Foundation are testimony to these facets of Tuareg life.

Niger 2009: Renovation of the Heinrich Barth House in Agadez

During Heinrich Barth’s expedition from 1850 to 1855 Agadez was an important staging post for the German Africa explorer, who set out from here to explore Lake Chad. Before setting off he stayed for a time at the house of his guide. The latter’s descendants still live there and keep alive the memory of Heinrich Barth. There are also a number of objects from among Barth’s possessions, including the trunks that contained everything he needed and collected on his way through the Libyan desert. Although the owners of the house looked after these objects carefully and a few years ago transformed some of the rooms into a museum with the generous help of the German Embassy, the traditional clay building urgently requires renovation.

In order to make it possible to operate a proper small museum, which would at the same time secure the family’s livelihood, the house is now to be thoroughly renovated and electricity installed.
An important element in the renovation is the execution of all the work by local artisans and the restoration of the objects in cooperation with a local curator from the museum in Niamey. The project is headed by Prof. Dr. Klaus Schneider, director of the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum - Cultures of the world in Cologne and president of the Heinrich Barth Society.

In keeping with the aims of the foundation the Heinrich Barth House – in close co-operation with schools in Agadez and as an integral part of a programme for tourism – will ensure the preservation of the cultural heritage and further the dialogue between cultures. The project was warmly welcomed by the Sultan of Agadez.

The little museum is situated in the historic part of the city of Agadez which has been appointed world heritage by the UNESCO in June 2013.

Namibia 2009: Daureb/Brandberg – Rock painting project “Dome Ravine”

The Daureb or Brandberg (Afrikaans and German for “burning mountain”), on the edge of the Namib desert in Namibia is world famous for the many thousands of rock paintings, among them the probably best- known rock painting in Africa, the so-called “White Lady”.

Prehistoric rock art is a worldwide phenomenon with a history going back tens of thousands of years. For this reason, the forms and locations with which rock painting is associated similarly show wide variation. However, they all have one principle in common that almost always holds good: prehistoric artists did not mix the two fundamental techniques for the production of these paintings. Either they used painting with one or more colours or they engraved the rock surface by means of chipping, scratching or grinding. Apparently, the use of the one or other of the techniques was a “decision of principle”. However, there are a few exceptions where both techniques occur together or are even superimposed one upon the other. Such sites naturally arouse the special interest of scientists. One of these sites is located in the Daureb.

This is the small Dome Ravine which is very limited in area. It is still largely unresearched and now offers an opportunity to explore the relationship between painters and engravers.

The increase in tourism in the Daureb, which is desirable for the development of the area, makes it necessary to prepare a whole package of measures to protect a treasure of this kind from destruction and at the same time eventually make it accessible. This is precisely the purpose of this new project.

The first step beginning with scientific research is a management plan forming an integral part of a process whereby the entire Daureb is to be declared a UNESCO world heritage site. From the outset as many local people as possible are to be involved. Students from the University of Namibia are to take part in research into the rock painting and archaeology of the Dome Ravine carried out by Tilman Lenssen-Erz (Research Project Africa at the Institute of Prehistory and Early History of the University of Cologne) and by Goodman Gwasira (University of Namibia). Local tourist guides will also be involved, as evaluations and recommendations on infrastructure with access routes, camping sites, water supply etc. form a part of the project in order to make sustainable tourism possible. This will be carried out in close consultation with the National Heritage Council, the National Museum and the History Department of the University of Namibia.

All the research results will be submitted to the World Heritage Commission including a report evaluating the development of tourism. This overall package is intended to guarantee that the wealth of rock painting is made accessible to many visitors without jeopardising either the Daureb/Brandberg site or future excavation and research.

Additional film report here

Mali 2009: Traditional music from the desert region of Gao / Menaka

Anyone wishing to travel from Bamako, the capital of Mali, to Gao embarks on a long journey. It takes the traveller eastwards via Segou, the centre of the former Bambara kingdom, past Djenné with its world-famous mosque and via Mopti into the southern part of the Sahara. When the traveller has passed the imposing Hombori range, the ferry takes him across the Niger to Gao.

Gao has over 52,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Gao region. Lying at the intersection of important trade routes the town developed in the 15th century to become a centre of trans-Saharan trade. It was the capital of the kingdom of the Songhai, the oldest black African people in Mali.

In the 90s the music ethnographer Dr. Edda Brandes undertook the documentation of traditional Malian music in cooperation with the National Museum in Bamako. The recordings from the Gao/Menaka region, which are now to be released as CDs with the support of the Jutta Vogel Foundation, come from this collection.

The aim of the project is to preserve local musical traditions. To this end 250 CDs are to be distributed among the museums and libraries of the country. These venues are often visited not only by tourists but also teachers with classes of schoolchildren and students, so that the distribution of the CDs in these locations serves above all the local population.

Apart from the production of the music CD, the Foundation is also supporting the installation of three audio-points for the National Museum in Bamako, the Sahel Museum in Gao and a library in Menaka. In this way the musical heritage is made accessible to the local population in this region using technology adapted to their needs. The CDs will also be made available at these venues.

Here in the Southern Sahara near the borders of Niger and Algeria, Tuareg and Bella live alongside Moors and Songhai.

Each ethnic group has its own musical repertoire and characteristic musical instruments and songs. This wide variety is reproduced on the CD and includes the music of artisan castes, butchers, masons and shoemakers. At the same time the CD gives examples of the flute music of the herdsmen, lutes and water drums to heal illnesses caused by evil spirits and the one-stringed violin of the women for the feast in celebration of the birth of a first child and the new status of motherhood. Long poems set to vocal music form the most important part of this compilation.

When the best male and female singers gather round the tindé, or grain mortar, which serves as a drum, they weave a dense musical tapestry with their melodious song and rhythmic clapping.

Glorification TANGA - NIN with group SUPER 11

Namibia 2009: Brandberg Traditions – Local Knowledge, History, Names

In the course of more than 40 years, first Harald Pager and later Tilman Lenssen-Erz and Marie-Theres Erz have documented and published the rock paintings at the Brandberg mountain in northern Namibia, some of which are up to 30,000 years old. After its completion the entire documentation will be passed on to the state of Namibia.

A new dimension will now be added to the Brandberg Project. Based on oral tradition, the entire knowledge of the locals surrounding Brandberg, its natural and socio-political history, is to be compiled and recorded. Research will focus on the area around Uis, a village close to Brandberg. Locals, some of whom were already involved in the rock-paintings project, will participate in the new project on behalf of the "Tsiseb Conservatory" organisation. This means that for the first time Africans, rather than Europeans or North-Americans, will explore their native environment, the "Daureb" (or "Daures"), as the mountain is called in the Damara language. The name of the mountain peak, "Ganibeb" - honey mountain - shows the important role which the language plays as it indicates the place where people used to gather their honey.

The knowledge embedded in names and legends disappears with the old people because the younger generation no longer lives with the mountain in the traditional way. This means that we will also lose the knowledge of plants and animals, hunting and the extraction of raw materials, and the associated ceremonies and rituals.

The time schedule for the project is roughly one year. The results will be published in a bilingual brochure in Damara and English and will constitute a significant contribution to research on the Brandberg rock paintings. Above all, the knowledge compiled will be passed on, for instance, to students and future mountain guides within the framework of a sustainable form of tourism. Visitors to Brandberg will, with the help of experienced guides, be able to contribute to the cultural preservation of this area.

www.fits-training.de
Capacity building in community based tourism by Marie-Theres Erz.

Mauritania 2008: Support for the museum in Touezekt

The small oasis of Touezekt lies in the north-east of the Mauretanian Sahara, close to the provincial capital of Atar, which is roughly 500 km from the national capital of Nouakchott on the Atlantic. Atar has an airport and is thus an ideal point of departure for tourists on their trips to the famous desert city of Chinguetti. Most tourists, however, bypass Touezekt.

Yet it is there that El Khalil Sidi Dah has opened a small museum documenting the rich cultural heritage of Mauretania.

Originally, the founder of this museum was a businessman. Later, he studied archaeology so that he could use his expertise to explore and protect the numerous archaelogical sites in the area, which had again and again been looted and destroyed by locals and tourists alike.

Up to now El Khalil Sidi Dah has recovered roughly 4,000 archaeological objects. These include arrowheads, flint tools, stone mortars and ceramic objects dating from the neolithic period (c. 6000 BC) up to the most recent past.

His collection also comprises precious historic books and manuscripts – relics of the colonial past and records of the local tribal societies. All in all this unusual private museum, which owes its existence entirely to private initiative, documents 8,000 years of human history.

To create an awareness of this historic dimension among the local population and tourists alike and thus enlist support for the protection of archaeological sites still unexplored, the museum needs to be made known beyond the Touezekt oasis. The Jutta Vogel Stiftung provides support by funding the necessary road signs to be installed at strategic points. At the same time the Foundation is helping to create an information leaflet in Arabic and French.

Museum Touezekt www.maisondarts.org

Algeria 2008: Saving Tuareg culture in the Algerian Sahara

The Tuareg, the legendary desert people, are undergoing a process of cultural change as the modern world has impinged upon them and they have partly abandoned their traditional nomadic way of life. Their centuries-old culture is threatened with extinction.

This is also true of music played on the Imzad, the one-stringed Tuareg violin.

The Imzad consists of a halved calebash, covered with goatskin, often decorated with painted ornamentation or the Tuareg Tifînagh characters. The string of the instrument is like that of the bow made of horsetail hair.

The Imzad is played only by women who accompany the singing of either one or two men. They sing lyrics in Tamâhaq, the language of the Tuareg, which tell of love, the great battles of the past, nomadic life, the beauty of the desert etc.

At present only seven old women are able to play the Imzad in the entire Hoggar mountains in southern Algeria, whereas in the past almost every girl was able to play this instrument. Tuareg women occupy an important position in Tuareg society. It was the mothers who taught their daughters to play the Imzad and write the Tifînagh characters. Traditional Imzad music is an important part of Tuareg culture. The revitalisation of the music is synonymous with its preservation for future generations. This will also restore the important role of women.

In 2003 the association "Sauver l'Imzad" (Save the Imzad) was founded in Tamanrasset with the aim of preserving Tuareg culture in the Hoggar mountains. This includes a school where young women learn how to play the Imzad and also how make this musical instrument. This school also offers Tifînagh classes and its programme includes courses on other aspects of Tuareg culture and history, the origin and development of the Imzad, lyrics and chants for the Imzad, and also computer classes. Another important aim is to promote Imzad-making and the manufacture of other Tuareg products as a "cottage industry".

The projected cultural centre "Dar el Imzad" in Tamanrasset will house the Imzad school with all its courses and a media-centre where documentation on the Imzad, lyrics and chants will be archived and made accessible to the public. The Jutta Vogel Foundation is funding a documentary film on the Imzad alongside recordings of Imzad music and Tamâhaq poetry and is thus making an important contribution to the preservation of Tuareg culture.

For further information on "Sauver l'Imzad" visit: www.imzadanzad.com
Tuareg music from Hoggar mountains (Algeria)

Namibia 2008: Family histories in Fransfontein

So-called "ethnic conflicts" are hardly ever really ethnic even in Africa but are stirred up by those in power who conceal their own interests behind this lable. The objective behind the current project "Family histories in Fransfontein", directed by Dr Michael Schnegg and Dr Julia Pauli (Institut für Völkerkunde - Institute of Ethnography, University of Cologne) is to back up this insight with scientific research and to make the results accessible to the local population.

Genealogy is a research tool and can be used to decipher the history of a place or region in an exemplary fashion. In this case it is the village of Fransfontein in the north west of Namibia. For more than a hundred years people have lived there who came from other areas as a result of migration or expulsion.

Family histories show quite clearly that they did not remain exclusively in their ethnic group: most of the inhabitants have ancestors from two or three ethnic backgrounds. In many cases this is reflected in everyday life. For this reason, ethnographers are particularly interested in customs such as wedding customs and religious rituals. Developments in language and usage are equally revealing.

The results of this research will be made accessible to the local population in such a way that it can be combined with local history projects which are already in place. The pictorial and audio material acquired in this way and all the other reports will be published in such a form that they can, above all, be used in the schools in the region.

Thus, this project may help to strengthen a sense of multi-ethnic identity.

A brochure has been published which can be ordered from the Project’s homepage on www.fransfontein.org.

Namibia 2007: Apollo 11. The culture of early modern man in Africa – prospects for a new chronology

Roughly 27,000 years ago, a cavedweller in the Hunsberge mountain in the south west of Namibia drew animals on a number of hand-sized stone slabs. These paintings, together with stone tools, animal bones and the ash from fires were later covered up by sediment and the debris and deposits left behind by later settlements.

But what does this discovery have to do with space travel?
On 24 July, 1969, news of the successful return of the Apollo 11 space shuttle reached the archaeologist W.E. Wendt in a cave which up to that point had no name. He spontaneously named the excavation site “Apollo 11”, completely unaware of the fact that he was about to make a sensational discovery. The excavation provided a sequence of layers of human settlement spanning more than 100,000 years.

No other excavation site in the country reflects Namibia's prehistoric past more completely. The discovery of the painted slabs, the age of which can be put at 26-28,000 years by radio-carbon dating, is of outstanding importance. This makes these drawings not only the oldest works of art in Africa, they are among the oldest evidence of artistic activity worldwide.

The drawings were found in the most recent layer of the Middle Stone Age in the “Apollo 11” cave. The Middle Stone Age began almost 200,000 years ago in Africa at the same time as the earliest occurrence of modern homo sapiens, whereas in the northern hemisphere the ice age continued for several millennia. It was a period of numerous innovations such as fishing, use of coloured pigments and the manufacture of bone implements. On account of the first occurrence of art and jewellery – as the expression of the ability to symbolise – it is suggested that “modern” behaviour began in the Middle Stone Age. It is thus one of the most important periods in the history of mankind. However, we know comparatively little about this period. Very few sites have been excavated in accordance with modern standards and for a long time suitable dating methods for the older phases of the Middle Stone Age were not available. In the meantime new dating methods (electron spin resonance and optically stimulated luminescence) have become established which have closed this gap. For this reason the archaeologist Dr Ralf Vogelsang from the Africa Research Department of the Institute of Prehistory and Early History at the University of Cologne would like to revisit the excavation site. The main reason for the visit is to take samples for dating purposes. The combination of more sophisticated excavation methods, modern approaches to the evaluation of finds and the more accurate chronological classification of the various cultural layers promises to provide new insights into a period in which we all ultimately have our roots.

Sudan 2004: Measures to save archaeological sites at the 4th cataract on the Nile

Financial support from the Jutta Vogel Foundation was given to kick-start the project and permitted preliminary scientific research measures to begin in spring 2004, the aim of which is to explore the stretch of the Nile which is least known: the area of the 4th cataract in northern Sudan.

The project was triggered by plans of the government in Khartoum to build a huge hydro-electric dam by 2008, including a reservoir extending over a distance of 170 km. The waters of the Nile will flood not only the fields and gardens of the indigenous Manasir, but also thousands of archaeological sites from the Palaeolithic and the Middle Ages - first Christian and later Islamic - to the modern age. This means that a rich treasure of prehistoric and early settlements, burial sites and cave drawings will be lost and the last agricultural system in the cataract zone of a desert which is based on intensive irrigation will be destroyed.

The project, under the guidance of Dr. Hans-Peter Wotzka, is concerned with the exploration of an area of 40 square kilometres comprising the largest of the Nile islands which will disappear in the reservoir, and the stretch along the adjacent right bank of the river. The Africa Research Unit of the Institute of Prehistory and Early History at the University of Cologne will thus take part in an international programme after the appeal of the Sudanese Archaeological Institute to all the research groups and institutions which have been active in the country for years to save the area.

The DFG (German Research Society) has authorized the project which was supported in the first instance by the Jutta Vogel Foundation and which is scheduled for a period of three years. The project is part of the Special Research Field "Kultur- und Landschaftswandel im ariden Afrika" (cultural and geographical change in arid Africa) for which scientists from Cologne have been active in various African regions since 1995.

As a first result of the initial exploration, 210 new archaeological sites have been discovered. Experts in prehistory, archaeologists, geographers and Egyptologists will excavate and explore the sites and thus take advantage of the last opportunity to research this special ecological niche which has been inhabited from prehistoric times to the present day. 

The project will provide the opportunity to learn more about the natural environment and the way people have exploited and used it. So far, we know very little about the area of the 4th cataract, although it bordered on the Nubian kingdom of Kerma in the 2nd century BC and later on the territory of the Pharaohs.

An archaeological and ethnographic museum in El-Mutaga near Debba will at some point in the future make the research results of all the international research teams involved accessible to the public.