- Moussa, how old are you?
- What a beautiful turban…!
It is a thin cotton fabric: it allows you to cover your face in the desert when the sand rises, and at the same time you can continue to see and breathe through it.
- It is a beautiful blue…
We Tuareg were called the blue men because the fabric fades a little and our skin takes on a bluish tint…
- How do they make that intense indigo blue?
Made from a plant called indigo, mixed with other natural pigments. For the Tuareg, blue is the colour of the world.
- Because?
It is the dominant color: that of the sky, the roof of our house.
- Who are the Tuareg?
Tuareg means "abandoned", because we are an old nomadic people of the desert, solitary, proud: "Lords of the Desert" they call us. Our ethnic group is Amazigh (Berber), and our alphabet is Tifinagh.
- How many are there?
There are about three million of them, and most of them are still nomads. But the population is decreasing… “A village needs to disappear for us to know that it existed!” a wise man once said: “I am fighting to preserve this village.”
- What do they do?
We herd flocks of camels, goats, lambs, cows and donkeys in a realm of infinity and silence…
- Is the desert really that quiet?
If you are alone in that silence, you hear the beating of your own heart. There is no better place to find yourself.
- What memories of your childhood in the desert do you remember most vividly?
I wake up with the sun. There are my father's goats. They give us milk and meat, we take them to where there is water and grass... That's what my great-grandfather did, and my grandfather, and my father... And me. There was nothing else in the world but that, and I was very happy in it!
- Yes? It doesn't sound very stimulating...
A lot. At 7 years old you are already allowed to leave the camp, and they teach you the important things: to sniff the air, to listen, to sharpen your eyesight, to orient yourself by the sun and the stars… And to let yourself be led by the camel, if you get lost: it will take you to where there is water.
- Knowing that is valuable, no doubt…
-Everything there is simple and profound. There are very few things, and each one has enormous value!
- So this world and that one are very different, right?
There, every little thing brings happiness. Every touch is valuable. We feel enormous joy from the simple fact of touching each other, of being together! There, no one dreams of becoming, because everyone already is!
- What shocked you the most on your first trip to Europe?
- They were just going to get the suitcases, ha, ha…
- What abundance, what waste, right?
- As much as that?
Yes. In the early 90s there was a big drought, animals died, we got sick… I was about twelve years old, and my mother died… She was everything to me! She told me stories and taught me to tell them well. She taught me to be myself.
- What happened to your family?
- Where did this passion for school come from?
- And he succeeded.
- A Tuareg at university...!
- Yes… What do you think is the worst thing about here?
They have everything, but it's not enough. They complain. They spend their lives complaining! They chain themselves to a bench for life, and there is a desire to possess, frenzy, hurry... In the desert there are no traffic jams, and do you know why? Because there nobody wants to overtake anyone else!
- Tell me about a moment of intense happiness in your distant desert.
- Fascinating, of course…
It is a magical moment… We all go into the shop and boil tea. Sitting in silence, we listen to the boiling… Calmness invades us all: our heartbeats are in time with the pot-pot of the boil…
- What peace…
Here is a clock, there is time..
ES_ES 
EN