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The collection of Saharan and North African dolls of the Musée de l’Homme
possesses only male dolls coming from Saharan populations. This situation cannot
be imputed to the collectors, as the authors mentioned in the bibliography do
not reveal male dolls from outside the Sahara. One exception, however, must be
made. An article published in 1917 in the periodical France-Maroc informs on a
Moroccan male doll representing the bridegroom. In 1921 Laoust confirms the
existence of bridegroom dolls among the Amazigh of the Haut Atlas and the
Anti-Atlas Mountains in Morocco. He relates this doll to the rituals for the °Ashûra
festivities at the beginning of the Islamic year. So this doll is to be seen
more as a ritual doll than as a doll for children’s play. A Moroccan author,
Mohammad Ibn Azzuz Hakim, mentions also, this time in 1959, that the girls of
Ghomara (Gumara el Haila) in the north of Morocco, make, next to their female
dolls, dolls dressed as a man. A description of this male doll is given in the
chapter on the Moroccan female dolls. Nevertheless, it is a fact that male dolls
are rarely found among Moroccan girls. On the basis of her observations between
1930 and 1940, Jeanne Jouin assured me during a conversation that took place at
the Musée de l’Homme on July 30th, 1980, that she never had seen a
male doll in Morocco, more precisely in the region of Rabat. She explained this
by stressing that the world of the women is strongly separated from the world of
the men.
However,
the information gathered during my research in Morocco does show that this
statement should be relativized as the girls of some regions use a bridegroom
doll for their wedding game. But in these cases the bridegroom doll is less
elaborated than the bride doll. On very few occasions I also saw a Moroccan boy
playing with a male doll.
Most
of the male dolls of the collection of the Musée de l’Homme have been found
among Tuareg children, as well boys as girls. Children or female servants of the
Moors, a child living in the Saoura Valley or Chaamba girls made the other ones.
To this the bibliography adds information on male dolls from Tuareg girls and
boys, Regeybat children, Teda boys, children from the city of Mopti, little
Belbala girls, Amazigh girls from the Haut Atlas and the Anti-Atlas and girls
from the Ghomara region. Among the Ghrib boys and girls and in some Moroccan
communities male dolls are also found.
The
oldest male doll of the collection dates back to 1934 and was bought from a
young boy of the Tuareg Kel Djanet (Tuareg Kel Ajjer). However, in the
collection of the Département d’Afrique Noire of the Musée de l’Homme can
be seen two Tuareg horseman dolls or dromedarist dolls collected near Rhergo on
the Niger in 1904. The first bibliographical reference goes back to 1907 and
talks about male dolls of the Tuareg Kel Iforas children.
According
to the information I have at my disposal, only Tuareg, Ghrib, and Teda boys and
those of the Aït Ighemour village in Morocco seem to have made male dolls and
to have played with them. The girls of the Tuareg, the Ghrib, the Moors, the
Regeybat, the Chaamba, the Teda, the Belbala, and in certain Moroccan
communities make male dolls. With the exception of the male dolls modeled by the
female servants of the Moors in the small city of Oualata, children have made
all the male dolls.
These
male dolls belong to different categories representing dromedarists, horsemen,
herdsmen, mule-drivers, warriors, notable men or bridegrooms. They are used for
games representing scenes of adult life. Bridegroom dolls are found among the
Tuareg, the Ghrib, the Chaamba, some Moroccan communities and probably also
among the Belbala.
The
frame of the male dolls of the Tuareg, Ghrib, Moors, Chaamba, Belbala and Aït
Ighemour children is often made from vegetal material and in the shape of a
cross, covered with rags. Tuareg children also play with dromedarist and
horseman dolls modeled in clay, just as the children of the Moors, the Teda and
the black children from Mopti do. The boys from Aït Ighemour model a
mule-driver and his mule with clay but they also use summer squash and pieces of
unpeeled potatoes.
Even
though in most cases the male dolls have been elaborated with vegetal material
and textile fabrics or with sun dried or burned clay, one also finds male dolls
made of a flat stone (Tuareg, Regeybat), of a cylindrical stone (Ghrib), of a
pluck of goat hair (Ghrib) or of plastified electric wire (Saoura Valley).
The
shape of the male dolls varies from very schematic, as in the case of those made
of stone or with a goat’s pluck of hair, to a detailed representation of the
typical attributes of Saharan men, as in the case of the Tuareg dromedarist,
warriors and notable man dolls made with vegetal material and textile fabrics.
The
smallest male doll measures 5 cm and impersonates a horseman on his horse
modeled out of clay in one piece. The tallest one is a male doll of about 100 cm
made by a boy of the village Aït Ighemour in the Moroccan Haut Atlas.
The
dress and the attire of the dolls either show only few colors, if not one color,
or are multicolored. With the exception of the three male dolls made by boys of
Aït Ighemour, none of the male dolls has facial features and when they are
dressed they wear the cloth of adult men.
The dromedarist dolls are without any doubt one of the toys preferred by the
Saharan boys. Nevertheless, it could be that the economic and social changes in
the last twenty or thirty years, especially the transition to sedentariness of
the nomadic and seminomadic Saharan populations will push the children of these
regions to leave the dromedarist dolls and toy-dromedaries in favor of toys
representing modern transport facilities. Such an evolution was already on its
way among the Ghrib children between 1975 and 1977.
Dromedarist
dolls have been observed among different Tuareg groups, the Ghrib, the Moors,
the Regeybat, the Teda and the inhabitants of the Saoura Valley.
In
1975, I have seen in the hands of a Ghrib boy from the Tunisian Sahara the
simplest form of a dromedarist doll. This dromedarist, who sits on a saddle made
with little branches put upon the jawbone of a goat, consists only of a pluck of
goat’s hair (fig. 2).
According
to Charles de Foucauld, there do exist other dromedarists of rudimentary shape
cut out of stone by children of the Tuareg Kel Ahaggar of the Algerian Sahara.
Although
captain Archier (1953: 39) declares that among the Tuareg Kel Ahaggar the word
‘tifersîtîn (sing. téfersit)’ is only used for dromedaries cut out of
stone, Charles de Foucauld writes in his Dictionnaire
Touareg-Français (1951-1952: 358) that this word signifies an animal or a
person cut out of stone and serving as a toy. As far as I know, Charles de
Foucauld is the only author who has declared that the children of the Tuareg
Ahaggar roughly cut flat stones in the shape of dromedaries, horses, men, women
and so on. Usually, the young boys, especially the shepherd’s boys, are the
ones who make the toy-dromedaries and the dromedarist dolls of stone.
With
respect to the Regeybat of the Algerian Sahara, Denis mentions that the children
play with dromedarist dolls of stone (1952: 32-37). Moreover, an informant of
the Saoura Valley, also in the Algerian Sahara, interpreted two objects of the
collection gathered by Denis as being dromedarist dolls and putted them on a
dromedary of stone.
In
the volume Saharan and North African Toy
and Play Cultures. The Animal in Play, Games and Toys the interested reader
can find detailed information on these toys in stone.
Among
the Tuareg Kel Ahaggar of the Algerian Sahara and the Tuareg Kel Ajjer of the
Algerian and Libyan Sahara, the boys and girls make dromedaries with the jawbone
of a goat or a sheep. These toy-dromedaries are often saddled and mounted by a
dromedarist doll. Figure 3 shows a magnificent toy-dromedary of 27 cm high,
mounted by a dromedarist of 16 cm high (catalogue 2.1, 41.19.113). Another
example can be found on plate 28 of La Vie
du Sahara.
An
information from the index cards of the collection tells about the same kind of
saddled and mounted jawbone dromedaries from El Oued in the Algerian Sahara near
the Tunisian border, and, as mentioned already, also the Ghrib boys do play with
saddled and mounted jawbone dromedaries.
The
frame of these Tuareg dromedarists mounting a jawbone dromedary is made of
tamarix wood, mrokba twigs or reed. The upper clothes of the Tuareg dromedarist
doll with vegetal frame are monochrome, with a preference for white and
indigo-blue. The bandoleer or shoulder belt and the girdle are made with
mercerized cotton threads. Some dromedarists wear a long white pair of trousers.
The neck and head have been wrapped round with varicolored woolen yarn. A more
detailed description of these Tuareg dromedarist dolls is given in the chapter
on the warrior and notable man dolls.
Using
these jawbone dromedaries and the dromedarist dolls, Tuareg children act out a
roundabout or other scenes of a nomadic life.
The
Kel Aïr Tuareg children (Sahara of Niger) make dromedarists with a frame of
twisted palm-fibers or palm-leaves. The dromedaries mounted by such dromedarists
have a frame consisting of a cushion stuffed with rags in which stick four twigs
serving as legs. The neck and head are of twisted palm-fibers or palm-leaves.
The
15.5 cm high dromedarist, shown on figure 4, wears a black hairdo with red and
green woolen yarn fixed by a safety-pin (total H = 48 cm; dromedary: H = 35 cm,
L = 20 cm; catalogue 2.1, 74.107.6).
In
the document “Vie des Touaregs. Enfance
et Jeux”, written by an unknown author probably during the 1950s, an excellent
description is given of the toy-dromedaries with a vegetal frame as well as of
the play in which they are used. In this play activity but also for making these
toys, girls and boys are collaborating.
The
most important figure, to whom all the other figures are related, is the
dromedary, the object of the desire of every young nomad and so equivalent to
the car for the French children. Its frame of pliable branches, preferably of
the acacia or ‘mœrua crassifolia’, is made by the boys, it is then dressed
with rags by the little girls who finally cover it with a nice piece of white
textile to give it the appearance of a chief’s mount. Sometimes, when the
sewing of this small masterpiece becomes too difficult for the little
inexperienced fingers, the help of a woman of the family is sought after, a
woman who does not consider it beneath her dignity to give help in making such a
toy. Every detail of the animal is scrupulously represented: the head is well
designed with little pieces of wood, carved and carved again by the artist of
the children’s group: eyes, ears, mouth, nothing is missing. The form of the
hump is often well executed. However, seen in profile, the dromedary only has
two legs that are stuck into the sand to keep it upright. It is another boy who
carves the saddle from a piece of softwood, preferably tamaris, so that it
totally resembles the ‘rahla tamzak’, decorated by burning the wood with
red-hot needles. Then the saddle has to be attached to the animal by means of a
little girth and its pompom, just as with the normal harness. Later on, the
whole group starts to cut out of pieces of skin: the bridle, the dabias, the
areg, the whip and the saddle carpet. Once the dromedary is finished, the
meharist must be made. Therefore the girls put onto a frame of wood the
luxurious gandouras while the boys make the two ‘chechs’ and the bandoleers
of nobility. Finally, the artist of the group takes a tin can and cuts out the takuba
or sword without which no noble Tuareg can travel. Now, bit by bit the rest of
the family is put in place around the toy-dromedary: the mother, with her large
dresses and whose feet of wood are strangely fixed into a clay ball so that when
put on the ground and pushed the doll swings what should represent the walking,
the children of every size and also the black servants. To these figures are
added the animals and objects commonly found in a camp: pack-dromedaries, goats,
dogs, mules, carpets, cooking-pots, water-skins and also the tent cut out of a
piece of skin. Once all the figures and objects have been made, the children
play at ‘tribal life’. While the boys, with the head of the family sitting
on his white dromedary and the pack-dromedaries loaded with sand sacks, follow
the trails designed in the sand, turn around the hills of little stones and
water their convoy at imaginary wells, this way covering thousands of kilometers
on a strange relief map where the proportions are far from being respected, the
little girls, who remained at the camp, mount the tent, send the rag black
servants to herd the clay goats, simulate a tasty and time consuming cooking and
finally realize an excellent dinner with three dates. When the boys, after a
long journey of hundred meters, come back to the camp, the whole group of
children plays at the joyful festivities that welcome the caravans coming back
from Sudan (p. 93-94).
The
Saharan children of the Tuareg, the Moors and the Teda model dromedaries in
clay, sometimes sun dried and sometimes burnt, mounted by a dromedarist made in
the same way.
One
of the sun dried clay dromedarists collected among the Tuareg Kel Ajjer children
(Algerian Sahara) is mounted by a dromedarist also modeled in sun dried clay
(fig. 5, total H = 14.5 cm; dromedary: H = 9 cm, L = 9.5 cm; catalogue 2.1,
37.21.104.1/2). The arms of the 7.2 cm high dromedarist form a cross with the
corps and the head that is just a tip. Two short legs make it possible to saddle
the dromedarist doll.
Two
10 cm high Tuareg of likely shape, modeled with clay and dried in the sun were
used to mount a dromedary or a horse (see 1.3. The Horseman Dolls). An
eleven-year-old Hartani boy, living among the Tuareg Kel Ahaggar at Tamanrasset
(Algerian Sahara) has made them.
In
the Sahelian region of Tahoua in Niger, the children of the Tuareg Iullemeden
also model clay dromedarists which they mount on clay dromedaries often
decorated with colorful rags and herbal sprigs representing the sacs or the
harness (Nicolas, 1950: 186).
The
children of the Moors in the North Western Sahara (Algerian-Moroccan border)
play with four-legged dromedaries that are saddled and mounted by a dromedarist
doll. All the pieces are in reddish burnt clay. The dromedarist is of the same
type as the horseman doll of the Moors children described below and showed on
figure 8.
The
Teda children living in the Tibesti massif in the Sahara of Chad model
themselves clay dromedaries. Peter Fuchs declares that these figurines are the
favorite toys of the Teda boys. They put their dromedarist dolls in saddle and
make razzias upon one another (1961: 47).
In
1956 Dominique Champault collected among the children of the Saoura Valley in
the north-western Sahara in Algeria, a dromedary mounted by a 6.5 cm high
dromedarist, both made out of plastified electric wire, yellow for the dromedary
and red for the dromedarist. The dromedarist has a span between both hands of 11
cm (fig. 6, total H = 15.5 cm; dromedary: H = 11 cm, L = 6.5 cm; catalogue 2.2,
62.60.29/30). The dromedarist is retained on the saddle with a bridle of red
plastified electric wire that ties him to the dromedary’s head.
This
example shows that although the used material is influenced by modernity, the
representation of the dromedary and the dromedarist remained vivid in the games
of the children. The toy-dromedaries and dromedarist dolls still found among the
Ghrib children in 1977 confirm this.
Among the Tuareg and the Moors of the North Western Sahara the toy-horses wear
most of the time a saddle and are mounted by a rider. The horse, the saddle and
the rider have been modeled out of clay. They form three separated pieces in
contrast with the mounted toy-horses of the Moors of Oualata made in one piece.
Three
saddled horses mounted by a Tuareg horseman were modeled in clay and then dried
in the sun. Two of these horses, however, could as well figure dromedaries
(catalogue 2.2, 41.19.152-154). These toys, named ‘aknar’, have been made by
three different boys from the Hartani, the black servants of the Tuareg Kel
Ahaggar, aging between eight and twelve years. Unfortunately, these objects are
missing in the Musée de l’Homme. The height of one of the horses was 8 cm as
indicated on the index card of this object.
One
of the horse-riders figures, according to the maker of the toy, the son of the
amenokal or ‘king’ of the Ahaggar.
These
are boys’ toys. Mounting horses being exclusively reserved to men, and
although the Ahaggar women mounted on dromedaries not one mounted a horse (de
Foucauld, 1951-1952: 1034).
In
1904 Desplagnes has seen figures in burnt clay found on the ground of the Sahel
plain near Rhergo on the Niger river in Mali, where the Tuareg Iullemeden were
wandering about (fig. 7).
They
represent horsemen in a sitting position. Their legs are oblong and the slightly
backward inclined trunk is provided with two lateral protuberances serving as
arms. The head is modeled out of a vertical protuberance and wears on one of the
specimens a helmet-like covering going down to its neck. Two lateral points mark
the eyes and traces of white and brown paint are still visible. The tallest
figurine measures 8.6 cm, the smallest one, wearing as a necklace a simple green
cotton thread, measures 5.7 cm (Lebeuf et Pâques, 1970: 53). These horseman
dolls could as well be dromedarist dolls, as the Desplagnes collection only
possesses one horse-saddle and no horses but one dromedary and two
dromedary-saddles.
The children of the Moors living in the North West Sahara also play with saddled
and mounted horses modeled in clay. The mounted horse of figure 8 is 26 cm high
and consists of four pieces, all in reddish burnt clay: the horse (H = 16 cm, L
= 17.5 cm), the saddle (L = 6 cm), the rider (H = 12 cm) and his hat (H = 3.5
cm). With the exception of the horse, the whole toy has been painted in red
ochre (catalogue 2.2, 38.141.83).
The
neck of this four-legged horse bents forward and the ears are modeled on a
little head. The tail is clearly delineated. The saddle imitates the type of
saddle with rounded pommel. The horseman remains in the saddle with his spread
legs. His arms are wide open and he wears a hat. As with all the other male
dolls, except those of the Moroccan village Aït Ighemour, there are no facial
features.
The black children of Mopti on the Niger river in Mali, model in clay horsemen
and horses that in no way resemble those found near Rhergo but very well those
of the children of the Moors of the north-western Sahara. These clay figurines
are either sun dried or burnt. J. J. Mandel and A. Brenier-Estrine show us two
saddled and mounted toy-horses in their article “Clay Toys of Mopti” (1977:
11-12).
Little sun dried clay horses serve as toys for the children of the Moors from
Oualata in the Mauritanian Sahara (catalogue 2.2, 38.48.81-83). Black female
servants model them. The horse, saddle and possibly the horseman are modeled in
one piece. These toys, already remarkable for their coloring, have moreover the
front legs assembled in one trunk. One of the horseman dolls of the collection
wears a colonial helmet.
The
native horseman of Oualata, shown on figure 9, rides a saddled horse. The neck
of the horse bents forward and the head is being almost unmarked. The two front
legs are joined into one protuberance. As tail serves a little cotton string.
The toy was covered with a white coat. The hoofs and the saddle have been
painted in ochre. The saddle-girth is also in ochre decorated with yellow and
black designs. The rider is painted in yellow. Ochre and blue lines indicate the
harness. In front of the breast of the horse a semi-cylindrical protuberance has
been embellished with a composed cross in ochre and black paint (H = 7 cm, L =
6.7 cm, B = 3.3 cm; catalogue 2.2, 38.48.82).
The
smallest toy of this series of horsemen measures 5 cm of height on 4 cm of
length. The tallest one measures 8.3 cm on 9.5 cm.
The
way in which the children play with these toy-horses and horseman dolls has not
been revealed. However, it is clear that they use them to interpret the life of
the adults and the behavior of the animals, just as they do it with the
toy-dromedaries and the dromedarist dolls.
In contrast to what one would suppose as it concerns populations living in a
socio-economic context where cattle play an important role, I have found very
little information on herdsman dolls in North Africa and the Sahara.
Denis
writes that the Regeybat children living in the Algerian Sahara also represent
the black herdsman by sticking into the sand Y-shaped stones that abound in
Mauritania and whereby the fork serves as the man’s arms (1952: 32-33).
Personally,
I have noted in the second half of the seventies that Ghrib boys of the Tunisian
Sahara play in their cattle game with a cylindrical stone of about 10 cm high
that becomes the herdsman, a smaller cylindrical stone serving as the
herdsman’s dog and goat excrements representing the animals (see Saharan
and North African Toy and Play Cultures. The Animal in Play, Games and Toys,
fig. 16).
Although the mule plays an important role in the whole area and mule-driving is
done by youngsters, I never found reference to a mule-driver doll until I found
some boys of the village Aït Ighemour in the province of Ouarzazate in Morocco
who made two mule-driver dolls in October 1992.
In
Aït Ighemour, a village of the Haut Atlas, Amazigh boys between six and about
ten years are looking for clay on a mountain slope to model several toys (fig. 10). If necessary, the clay is somewhat moistened with saliva so that the
different parts of the figurine adhere well. These mule-drivers and mules are
dried in the sun. With such rather crude toys the boys imitate scenes of
breeding and transport.
One
of these toys is a mule-driver with a cap, holding between his fat legs a mule
without a saddle (fig. 11, total H = 12 cm). In the oblong head of the mule,
with its to well marked ears, the boy indicated the eyes.
A
boy of the same village made another type of mule-driver and mule with little
branches and summer squash or courgettes (fig. 12, mule-driver: H = 32 cm, mule:
H = 21 cm, L = 20 cm). To shape the mule-driver the boy sticks a summer squash
at both ends of a little branch, one summer squash being the head and the other
one the pelvis. The two little branches that have been stuck into this pelvis
represent the legs and end in a piece of potato being the feet. In the summer
squash, serving as head, small pieces of potatoes, with the skin turned outside,
indicate the mouth and the eyes. The mule is composed of a larger summer squash,
the trunk, in which five little branches are fixed, four for the legs and one
for the neck. A smaller summer squash, stuck onto the little branch serving as
neck, figures the head of the mule.
The collection of the Musée de l’Homme possesses toys figuring Tuareg
warriors or Tuareg notable men used by children of the Tuareg Kel Ahaggar and
Kel Ajjer (Algerian Sahara), the Tuareg Kel Aïr (Sahara of Niger) and the
Tuareg Kel Iforas (Sahara of Mali) (see catalogue 2.3).
The
oldest specimen dates back to 1935 but Maurice Cortier noted their existence
among the Tuareg Kel Iforas already in 1907 (1908: 310).
According
to this author, the male dolls are one of the most important toys of the Kel
Iforas boys. Nevertheless, a girl made the two specimens of the collection of
the Musée de l'Homme representing two Tuareg Kel Iforas men in their finest
dress.
Among
the Tuareg Kel Ahaggar as well girls as boys make and play with male dolls using
them to act out scenes of the life of the adults, for the ahâl or galant meetings, for dromedary roundabouts etc. Bellin
affirms that the noble young boys are less interested in playing with these
dolls than in making them. This author writes: what is at stake is a creative
action; the young Targui sets up representations with a turning millstone or
with a burning branch. He cuts out and models figurines, men and dromedaries. In
their sense for performance and in their artistic creativity dreaming holds an
important place (1963: 100).
Foley
(1930: 47) concerning the Tuareg Kel Ahaggar and Cortier (1908: 310) concerning
the Tuareg Kel Iforas, mention that the male dolls made by the boys are married
to the girls’ female dolls in the customary way.
An
interesting photograph taken by Henri Lhote shows a young Tuareg Kel Ahaggar
girl playing in the sand with some male dolls dressed as warriors (fig. 13). On
the same picture one can also see a saddled dromedary carrying saddle-sacs
(1944: 113, plate VIII).
Figures
14 and 15 show a doll of 20 cm and 33 cm high representing men of the Tuareg Kel
Ahaggar (catalogue 2.3, 41.19.104-105). These warrior or notable man dolls
resemble the dromedarist doll mounting a toy-dromedary made of a jawbone of a
goat or a sheep (fig. 3).
The
frame in the shape of a cross of most of the male dolls is made of vegetal
material: twigs of graminaceous plants, pieces of wood, reeds, twisted
palm-fibers or woven palm-leaves. For the frame of two male dolls a bone has
been used.
Figure
16 gives an overview of the different shapes of the frames used in the
elaboration of the miniature warriors or notable men. The first type of frames
is made of a branch or a bone to which a little piece of wood has been tied up
to shape a cross, whereby the horizontal piece represents the arms. The second
type of frames is made with a reed cut out, up to the two thirds of it, in order
to form the legs. A little stick is horizontally introduced in the reed to give
arms to the doll. The third type of frames consists vertically of two, three or
five graminaceous twigs. Two or three twigs are horizontally fastened to the
vertical ones in order to figure the arms. The vertical twig in the middle
reaches only to the waist, while the two or four other twigs go further down to
make the legs. The twigs are fastened together with cotton threads. The
fourth type of frame is made with three or four graminaceous twigs whereby the
one(s) in the middle only reach(es) to the waist. A twig is horizontally
fastened to the vertical ones by fending it and putting it over the vertical
twigs, this way figuring the arms. The twigs are fastened together with cotton
threads. The last type of frames is manufactured with woven palm-leaves or
twisted palm-fibers, sometimes strengthened with an iron wire.
The
minimal height of the Tuareg warrior and notable man dolls is 7.5 cm, the
maximum height 40 cm.
In
addition to the warrior or notable man dolls with an armature of vegetal origin,
the bibliography refers to male figurines in burnt clay, dressed and armed by
the Tuareg Kel Iforas boys of the Sahara in Mali (Cortier, 1908: 310).
The
clothes and the ornaments of all these male dolls imitate, sometimes
unpretending but most of the time very completely, the dress and ornaments of
the Tuareg warriors or notable men. This dress consists of white or indigo
trousers, taken in at waist level and narrowed at the ankles, and of one or two
long blouses, even three in the case of rich people. On the top of this blouse
an opening is left in the seam to pass the head through. Following Tuareg
customs, the undermost blouse should be white and the one on top blue. A
detailed description of the Tuareg male dress can be found in Cortier (1908:
317), Foley (1930: 23-26), de Foucauld (1951-1952: 73-74, 98, 439, 995), Gabus
(1958: 282-289). For photographs or sketches of Tuareg men see Foley (1930: pl.
XVI-XVIII) and Gabus (1958: 282).
The
Tuareg male dolls of the collection of the Musée de l’Homme wear more often
than not a white trouser (fig. 17: H = 17 cm), once also a beige, indigo blue or
multicolored trouser.
Their
upper dress consists of one, two or three long blouses; it can be that there
even are four or five. Normally, the undermost blouse is white and the upper one
blue, as seen on the doll of figure 18, the dressed frame of figure
17
(catalogue 2.3, X.66.1.42). However, a blouse could be of another color too. One
of the male dolls wears a beige cloak with a cape. The children have used as
fabrics as well cottons as mercerized silk and white gauze.
Just
as the noble Tuareg who wear a bandoleer of nobility, most of the male dolls are
decorated with woolen or cotton threads crossed on the chest. These woolen or
cotton threads are white, red, blue, green, and yellow. When these dolls have a
belt, it is made with the same threads (fig. 3). The bandoleer and the belt are
rarely made of gauze (fig 19, H = 23 cm; catalogue 2.3, 34.52.43).
This
fashion of embroiding the neck with varicolored cotton or woolen threads is
found on many male dolls. Other dolls have the neck and the head enveloped with
monochrome fabric. Some miniature Tuareg wear a turban, others have their head
wrapped in cotton or woolen threads of different colors as shown on figures 3,
14 and 15. By winding the threads around the heads of the male dolls in this
typical way, the children imitate the specific hairdo of the Tuareg men with its
plaited hair brought back. For such a hairdo see Lhote (1944: 289, pl. XIV).
Two
Tuareg Kel Ahaggar male dolls have their head wrapped with silver paper
surmounted by the imitation of the hairdo (catalogue 2.3, 41.19.106/107).
None
of these Tuareg male dolls has facial features, in this way following the
general rule for the Saharan and North African male dolls.
A
few of the male dolls carry a sword. The
importance the takuba, as the Tuareg
sword is named, bears in the mind of the boy who made the doll of figure 14 can
be easily deduced from its length. Dominique Champault (1980) gives a detailed
description of the takuba.
There
also exist male dolls that represent the warriors of the Moors. Two male dolls
of 7 cm high, offered by G. Duchemin to the Musée de l’Homme, are mentioned
in the catalogue Poupées-jouets. Poupées
reflets (1983: 74). These dolls have been manufactured by children of the
Moors living in Oualata (Mauritanian Sahara) with graminaceous twigs covered by
the tunic and the turban of a warrior.
Jean
Gabus also talks about a male doll when he discusses the dollhouse of Oualata.
This doll is a stick wrapped in textile fabric, whereby the length of the stick
indicates the fact that the man plays a more or less important social role
(1958: 163).
Because
the two male dolls given by G. Duchemin to the Musée de l’Homme have
disappeared, a copy on a reduced scale of the two designs shown in Jean Gabus’
book (1958: 163, designs: 134) has been reproduced on figure 21.
Speaking
of the warrior dolls, I mentioned that according to certain authors the Tuareg
Kel Ahaggar and Kel Iforas children marry the male dolls made by the boys to the
female dolls made by the girls and this following the customary ceremonials.
Moreover,
Francis Nicolas gives information on male dolls in clay named ‘ashlu’, the
bridegroom, and played with by the children of the Tuareg Iullemeden of the
Sahara and Sahel of Niger (1950: 186).
Although
rather exceptionally in the second half of the seventies, the Ghrib girls made
from the age of roughly seven years onwards a bridegroom of about 15 cm high
with a frame consisting of two sticks tied together in the form of a cross (fig.
22).
The
girls dress this bridegroom, who lacks facial features, with white and colored
fabrics serving as male underwear and outerwear. On top of the head he wears the
kabbûs, a typical little red cap, and
possibly a piece of white or khaki fabric as a turban. More often than not, the
girls put in his belt a little pointed stick, figuring the sword, this
distinctive object that the bridegroom wears all through the wedding ceremonies.
The
little girls of the nomadic Chaamba from the North Western Sahara make a
somewhat similar bridegroom doll (fig. 23), named ‘asri’ just as the real
bridegroom (catalogue 2.4). On a vertical bone a little stick is fastened to
form a cross, in this way shaping the arms. This doll is dressed with a long
blouse, a turban and a man’s overcoat all in white fabrics. The belt and the
bandoleer are done with red and green woolen threads. The facial features are
not indicated.
Dominique
Champault notes in relation to the dolls of the Belbala girls from the Algerian
Sahara that very few dolls are male and in this case wear the burnus, a male
overcoat, the turban and a little wooden sword in their belt (1969: 345). In
November 1991, Dominique Champault explained to me that these Belbala male dolls
are made with a frame of a single bone and not in the shape of a cross.
It
is probably not too hazardous to relate these Belbala male dolls to the
bridegroom dolls of the Ghrib and the Chaamba girls.
The
scarce information on the spatial-temporal aspects of games and toys in North
Africa and the Sahara indicates that the Belbala believe that the manipulation
of dolls bring about rain and that therefore one should only play in principle
with dolls during autumn when rain is wished for (Champault, 1969: 140).
In
Morocco where the Arabic-speaking and Amazigh-speaking girls often play at
marriage, some girls and women say that a bridegroom doll is made. However,
others claim that this is not the case.
In
the sixties and according to the family Skouri, a family of teachers, the girls
of the popular milieu of the Kbour Chou neighborhood in the city of Marrakech
played with a male doll, the arîs or
bridegroom, made with two pieces of reed assembled in the shape of a cross and
dressed in the male fashion. A woman born in Marrakech some sixty years ago
confirms the existence of such a bridegroom doll. This woman says that, in the
1940s, she and the girls of her generation, made a bridegroom with reed to marry
him to their bride dolls. Such a bridegroom was dressed with an erza,
a turban, a jellaba and a selhâm, the
overcoat.
In
contrast to the above statements, young women from Douar Akioud, a really poor
outlying quarter of Marrakech, told me that they themselves and their friends
did not use a male doll to play at marriage. The bridegroom of their bride doll
only existed in their imagination. Around the same period, the beginning of the
eighties, and in the Amazigh families of the little town of Imi-n-Tanoute the
same situation existed. The wedding of the bride doll is played without a
bridegroom doll.
But
in the countryside surrounding Taroudannt, another small town in the South of
Morocco, the Arabic-speaking girls really did play at the marriage of their
bride doll with her bridegroom, the arîs,
represented by a doll dressed as a man. This information refers to the girls of
the Oulad Yahya of Taroudannt in the 1940s and the girls of today of the Hmar
rural area at some 10 km from Taroudannt. The bridegroom doll of the girls of
Hmar is dressed with a long pair of trousers and a white hooded jellaba
tightened with a belt. The Arabic-speaking girls of Aïn Toujdate on the road
from El Hajeb to Meknès also created bridegroom dolls about 1987.
An
unschooled Amazigh girl of about eight years, living in the village Aït Hmed ou
Yacoub near the town of Khemisset, made in October 1996 a bridegroom doll or isli
and a bride doll. With these dolls she plays with one or several playmates at
imitating a wedding. Between 1975 and 1985 Amazigh girls from the village Ksar
Assaka near Midelt used a bridegroom doll in their doll play imitating wedding
ceremonies just as the Amazigh girls of the village Magaman near Goulmima did in
1996. One of the dolls created by the girls of this village represents the
bridegroom. It only is a hastily made small frame of two pieces of wood covered
with a transparent rag (fig. 91 bottom right).
A
detailed description of these games of marrying a male doll to a female doll in
Morocco can be found in the chapter on the female dolls of Morocco.
The
possibly exceptional male doll of figure 24 was shown to me by a ten-year-old
boy going to the local primary school of the little Amazigh village Aït
Ighemour, located at 8 km of the Jbel Siroua Mountain in the Haut Atlas and at
2600m of height. The following notes, as well as all the other information
concerning the children of this village, were collected in October 1992 with the
help of an Amazigh teacher from Essaouira, Ihbous Nour-Eddine born in 1967, who
at that time was teaching at Aït Ighemour for two years.
The
male doll in question not only is remarkable because of its height and its head
of summer squash but also for the play activities in which it is used. According
to the boy who created this male doll, the boys use it to imitate the young men
who assist together with the young women at the nocturnal ahwash dance. The boys
would also celebrate the wedding of this male doll, called isli or bridegroom, with a tall female doll, named tislit
or bride. However, I mention this doll play with some reserve, as it remains
necessary to confirm and complete the information with that given by other boys
and girls of Aït Ighemour.
The
frame of this male doll consists of a branch of about 1 m to which is fixed in
the shape of a cross a reed of about 40 cm. Then a big summer squash, a takhsait,
is put on top of the vertical branch. In the summer squash the boy cuts
incisions for the eyebrows and little holes for the eyes, nose and mouth. The
incisions for the eyebrows and the hole for the mouth are blackened with kohl, a
beauty product. In the holes for the nose a yellow piece of the fruit of the iqurran
tree is placed. A red plastic round, used for counting at school, is stuck into
the mouth as tongue.
This
male doll wears a red undergarment and a white hooded upper garment that in
other situations is worn by a boy. A long rag envelopes the head and the neck.
So dressed the male doll represents a bridegroom or a young man participating in
the ahwash dances typical for the Ouarzazate region. Such dolls are made during
autumn, the period for harvesting summer squash and potatoes.
The existence in the beginning of the 1970s of male dolls with a head of a summer squash made by boys has been confirmed for Guelmim, a town in Southern Morocco that at that time still was a village. But according to an informant native of Guelmim this male doll was used as a scarecrow in the fields.
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