TUAREG LEATHERWORK ARCHIVES, Niger

Note: Leather pieces 1 -5 are photographed folded in half, approximately the way they were used. ( See front and back views on individual pages.) They can be stretched out flat, making them twice as long, with fringe at both ends. ( See panel 5 page.) The underside is also leather but much plainer.

Leather aprons 61 -62 have been embellished with Kirdi beadwork and were probably used by the Kirdi, not the Tuareg.

The Tuareg are fiercely independent nomadic people. On the move with their herds and camels over vast areas of the southern Sahara, they create an impressive world of traditional, functional objects of leather which was their primary material due to its durability, lightness and flexibility. Masters of geometric abstract design, the Tuareg fashioned objects ranging from saddlebags to cushions to tent mats that were painted and molded, embroidered, engraved and fringed.