human
But your women, your families, where are they?
gpt
On the big projects, one can find employment only if he allows his children to attend the new schools. So our wives and children remain near Tamanrasset while the children learn the lore of books.
human
Rouma schools!
gpt
Oh, no. There are few Roumas remaining in all the land now, the smith said easily.
human
Those that are left serve us in positions our people as yet cannot hold, in construction of the dams, in the bringing of trees to the desert, but soon, even they will be unneeded.
gpt
Moussa-ag-Amastan rumbled ungraciously.
human
You are smiths. The smiths have no people. You are neither Kel Rela, Tégehé Mellet, Taitoq, nor even Teda, Chaambra, or Ouled Tidrarin.
gpt
In the great new construction camps, in the new towns, with their many ways to work and become rich, the tribes are breaking up. Tuareg works next to Teda and a Moor next to a former Haratin serf. He added, as though unthinkingly, even as he displayed an aluminum pan to a wide-eyed Tuareg matron,
human
Indeed, even the clans break up and often Tuareg marries Arab or Sudanese or Rifs down from the north ... or even we Enaden.
gpt
That cannot be true!
human
Why should my follower lie?
gpt
I do not know, but we will talk of it later, away from the women and children who should not hear such abominations. The chief switched subjects.
human
But you have no flocks with you. How are we to pay for these things, these services?
gpt
With money.
human
We have little money in the Ahaggar.
gpt
But we are short of meat and will buy several goats and perhaps a lamb, a chicken, eggs. Then, too, as you have noted, we have left our women at home. We will need the services of cooks, some one to bring water. We will hire servants.
human
There are some Bela who will serve you.
gpt
Verily, El Hassan has stated that the product of the labor of the slave is accursed.
human
El Hassan! Who is El Hassan and why should the work of a slave be accursed?
gpt
I have heard of this El Hassan. Rumors of his teachings spread through the land. He is to lead us all, Tuareg, Arab and Sudanese, until we are all as rich as Roumas.
human
It is well known that the Roumas and especially the Americans are all rich as Emirs but none of them ever possess slaves. The bedouin have slaves but fail to prosper. Verily, the product of the labor of the slave is accursed.
gpt
Madness, Moussa-ag-Amastan muttered.
human
If you do not let our slave women do your tasks, then they will remain undone. No Tuareg woman will work.