UR TV CAST

That’s why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us,” she said at an education conference. Mrs Mlambo-Ngcuka’s remarks came shortly after a government summit to review South Africa’s land reforms opted to drop the willing buyer/willing seller policy in favour of a new policy yet to be spelt out.
“Land reform in South Africa has been too slow and too structured There needs to be a bit of ‘oomph’. “I do not know what will happen even tomorrow, let alone the day after. We are used to hard times, but now it seems we are living in cursed times.”. South Africa’s new Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has caused an uproar by calling for her country to copy Zimbabwe’s disastrous land reform policies in an attempt to speed up redistribution. Hamood Hanjan apologises that the feast is not as lavish as in the past. His son is named Ahmed Baturi, partly in honour of the visiting journalists- “baturi” apparently means foreigners.Ahmed Garidh, the ailing chief, is asked whether his grandson will continue the Tuareg tradition “How do I know what the future will bring?” he replies.

But we must do all we can, because it would be a tragedy for the world if this way of life disappears.”The egunda takes place with a communal meal of rice, pasta and goat stew. It is difficult to get to these people because of their lifestyle. Louis Belanger, a senior officer with Oxfam, said: “We pay what is a fair price under the circumstances, the equivalent of £40 a head for cattle.”If it is disease-free then we shall slaughter it, dry it and pack it, using local labour, and distribute the meat among the nomads. But if the foreigners give us help we shall make sure everyone gets what they need.”While organisations such as Save The Children are flying in aid and opening relief centres in other parts of the country, Oxfam has started a scheme with its local partner, Aren, to provide aid and buy cattle from the Tuareg for prices pitched at far higher than they will get from local traders. If things remain bad we shall have to move from here anyway.”We need help, we hear that people in other parts of the country are being given help, but we are not getting it You cannot depend on our government officials They are thieves, they will steal the food. I was carrying a bag and he must have thought I had money or food, but it was empty. He did not know how poor I am.”Mohammed Hameed is 30 years old and married, but unusually for this region, he does not have children “How could I feed them?” he asks “We shall see what happens and then decide what to do.

“I was attacked when I was returning from Bargas by a man with a cutlass. It is not just for tradition’s sake, cattle have been rustled and robbers ambush travellers on the road to the towns.Suleiman Azanouyis, aged 76, unwraps his headscarf to show a deep wound. The families left behind are now being cared for by the rest of the community.The crisis has also led to other fractures in this society. The men arriving in Zonghu wear takohos – swords with ornate, intricately cut handles – around their waists. Another was Iskr Ahmed, who cut his own throat with the knife he had used to kill his lead bull. I used to have around 200 cattle, now I have just 18 and I do not know how much longer I can keep them.

To us it is very important that we keep our herds, it is part of our tradition. When they lose them, some of the men are very badly affected, they think they have failed.”One such was Joluf Mohammed, from a nearby settlement, who threw himself into a well. Sometimes the children were so hungry they were eating leaves from the trees We have seen our children die We are men of the Kilguz, but we could not save them. Hamood Hanjan, 42, another son of the chief, said: “There are less than 100 people here for my son’s egunda For the last ceremony we had over 2,000. Our people have gone away because if they stayed here they will surely die sooner or later. It is very sad because we, the Kilguz, have stayed together for hundreds of years and now we shall not see many of these people again.”We have had terrible suffering. The women, in bright red and orange gowns come later, gifts balanced on their heads in pots.But it is a trickle.

Through the afternoon Tuareg men dressed in takakhat robes and tagulmas headscarves of blue, green and black, arrived for the naming ceremony – the egunda – from surrounding areas. Look around you, everything has gone, the pastures, the plants.”Most of the people have also gone, to seek work in nearby towns or across the border in Nigeria. Our crops failed, and then when we thought things could not get any more bad, the locusts came. “I have had to sell off or kill four-fifths of my herd – camels, cows, goats. Now we do not know what Allah wills for the future, but I am very fearful We have had bad seasons, but nothing as bad as this. Many of the remaining cattle were too weak or ill to survive and had to be put down.As the villagers described their hardship, sitting in a cluster on the hillside, their chief, 88-year-old Ahmed Garidh, was brought back from hospital, there being no funds left for treatment for his paralysed arm and leg.Musi Ahmed, his 55-year-old son, put his head in his hands. The Tuareg do not feature in any of the government aid schemes in the current emergency.For the people of the Zonghu, what little money they made was needed to buy essential food, especially for the children.