About Celia

Celia Jeffries' work has appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines including Westview, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Puerto del Sol, as well as the anthology Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper. She has received grants from Turkey Land Cove Foundation, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, and La Muse. Jeffries holds an MA from Brandeis and worked in news and educational publishing before earning an MFA from Lesley University. She has worked with writers at all levels, from elementary school to university both here and abroad, and in many different communities, including incarcerated, literacy, and ESL programs. Her own writing has been nurtured in the community of writers in Western Massachusetts, where she is on the steering committee of Straw Dog Writers Guild, and where she offers workshops at Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop.

About the Book

Who are the Tuareg?

The Tuareg once controlled the caravan routes across the Sahara, moving goods through an environment both breathtakingly beautiful and historically hostile. When European countries began colonizing Africa in the nineteenth century, the Tuareg dealt with French attempts to rule the desert, the eventual imposition of borders in the Sahara and then devastating droughts, all of which forced them to transform their way of life in the twentieth century.

The Blue Men

An indigo-dyed cotton, sometimes ten meters in length, is used as a veil and turban by Tuareg tribes in the Sahara. The material protects them from wind-borne sand and the indigo that rubs off from the material is believed to protect the skin. Because the dye can permeate the skin of the wearer, the Tuareg are often referred to as the “blue men of the desert.”

A Matrilineal Society

In the fourth century Tin Hinan is said to have travelled south from modern day Morocco to what would one day become Algeria, where she became the first queen of the Tuaregs. Every noble family is said to descend from Tin Hinan, whose name translates as ‘she of the tents.’ Integral to the Tuareg way of life are customs that would be considered progressive even today. Women are property owners and are allowed as much freedom as men.