Abstract
We present a historicising ethnography of the most exoticized and proverbial of all Saharans: the Tuareg or Kel Tamasheq. We will outline the historical coming into being of the Kel Tamasheq as a people by describing the changes in the main markers of their collective identity as a people from the16th century onwards. We will give an overview of historical developments in the social, political, economic and cultural life of the Kel Tamasheq through their interaction with an expanding surrounding world.
