African Wind
Chapter8
Touareg Accessories
There are things that keep increasing in my home every time I go to Africa. The answer is, accessories, textiles, statues, musical instruments and whatnot of Africa. They all have distinctive originalities in every aspect including color, shape & design, and such originalities differ according to each tribe. Their colors & shapes are especially imaginary & creative, which cannot be found in any other country. Most of the items I have are modern works. I’m not very interested in ancient things, I mean, ancient arts & crafts have high possibility to get deceived, so I try not to buy old stuffs. I actually experienced being sold imitations in the past as well…. Some of the sellers? that handle antiques in Africa, they have the knowledge that antiques can be sold in expensive price, so they smoke the crafts & bury them underground for over 6 months in order to make it look antique. I was told from my friend that if a person like me who have no knowledge in African antique crafts is to buy an antique craft, I have to determine that I may be sold an imitation. According to that same friend, antiques are originally a roman for men, thus it’s difficult for women to understand. That’s why currently, I only buy things that I can accept even if they are imitations, and to negotiate a discount as best as I could. …but including the fact that I may get deceived, to buy things in Africa is a lot of fun!!Now on this chapter, I would like to introduce you to Touareg accessories which will also be purchasable at “African Market Cafe” due to open from 28th of this month at the web shop “rumors.”
TOUAREG
Back in the old times, as you cross the Sahara Desert, you occasionally encounter a group of men wrapped in an blue indigo clothes, riding on camels & leading the caravan. Those blue men were called “The Blue Warriors,” and were the most fearful in Sahara back then…they are the tribe of Touareg. Today, Touareg have dispersed throughout West African Countries centered around Sahara & Niger, and have changed their lifestyle from desert nomad to permanent resident style. Nevertheless, their pride and strong spirituality continue to dwell even now within their mysterious eyes.
What I especially recommend are silver accessories created by the Touaregs. Some of you may remember but the first major attention that made Touareg worldly known was in 2003, when Cadena of Hermes released its Touareg model. There is no question in that model to be worldly acclaimed, the minute emboss & designs of Touareg accessories are simply amazing. I even wondered why they weren’t featured til now. Each and every one of them is handmade, so every design is different. Right now, Touareg accessories are extremely popular amongst stylish & fashionable people in Europe. It is also an accessory that Mile Davis loved and wore til his death….
What I have of Touareg accessories are mostly made by the family of a Touareg boy from Niger named Yussufur (boy with beautiful eyes). Aside from the silver accessories with minute & complex carvings, they make accessories combining silver & agates, silver & glass, as well as silver & camel leather. Some of them have lines drawn onto silver & plate them with colorings, etc,…all the accessories by him & his family are being made very carefully and beautiful.
Accessories by Yussufur & his family are expensive compared to the others. And difficult to negotiate any discount no matter how hard you try. But the fineness of the silver is extremely high, and the quality of the carvings is distinctively higher compared to others, so understandable…and I always end up accepting the price given by Yussufur. Still, a bit chagrined….
Negotiations with Yussufur always take place under a huge tree. Yussufur in French. Myself in English. We don’t understand what each other is saying at all. The only mutual language (?) is the calculator. Under the gentle sunshine, we usually continue to negotiate for at least 2 -3 hours. Time passes by very slowly. I just love the way time passes by in that place, I always wish Tokyo has such a nice way of time passing by…I think that by having such aspect of the city, people could become more thoughtful to others.
Yussufur said to me, “let’s travel through Sahara Desert together with my caravan”…. Being with a boy with such a beautiful set of eyes under the star-filled sky, traveling through Sahara, I can’t assure myself that nothing will happen…but definitely wish I could do that sometime in the future….
CHARACTERISTICS & THINGS TO BE CAREFUL OF TOUAREG ACCESSORIES
Touareg accessories mainly use silver. Although those using nickel-mixed silver & silver-looking nickel are also going around, not just a few. Nickel-mixed silver ones are usually yellow-ish in color & cheaper compared to fine silver. Fine silver is usually thin, nickel-mixed accessories are usually thick. Fine silver is obviously more popular than nickels, but sometimes, there are extremely nice designs made of nickel-mixed silver as well. The light gold color looking beautiful & has its own presence. If you’re not allergic to nickels, it’s something I would like everyone to try on.
A lot of necklace chains of Touareg accessories are normally made of glass beads. It? seems to disagree with the taste of a lot of Japanese people, but you could easily change it to leather laces too. Becomes more casual. When I change the chains to laces, I use those glass beads to make another accessory of my own.
Lastly, any and every Touareg accessories are handmade thus there’s nothing that designs are same. So don’t forget to check the carvings upon purchasing one!! They may look the same at a glance, but they’re all different. Some of them have rough designs & carvings as well, which you should watch out for! Take your time, and make sure you take the one that you like most. Some of them have colors on the carved lines, but they are a part of the designs, it’s not that they’re dirty or anything. And the colorings gets dissolved into silver polishers, so be careful upon polishing too!! (experienced, obviously…)
TOUAREG FOR MEN
There actually are quite a lot of Touareg accessories & crafts that can also be worn or owned by men. Starting off from the silver cross, silver rings & paper knives with ivory works, boxes made of camel leathers, etc, etc. All of them are original & unique. Crosses & rings can be purchased in a pair with girlfriends, paper knife would be real cool just to own one. The letter itself starts to look special when you open it with this knife somehow. It’s something that I would like “matured” or “attractive” guys to own…. So on this chapter, I shared a little bit about the Touareg accessories by West African/Saharan nomad Touareg, commemorating the opening of the online African accessory shop “African Market Cafe” in rumors online shopping mall. FYI, 20% of the sales of what you have purchased through “African Market Cafe” in RUMORS will automatically be donated to African JAG Project. rumors in African JAG Shopping Page(Japanese Only):http://rumors.jp/african_jag/list.html
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