Toumast - Entre Guitarre et Kalashnikov

Kalashnikovs were burned in public in Timbuktu in 1996. At that time the “Flame of Peace” stood as a symbol for the end of the Tuareg rebellion that was suppressed by means of bloody massacres. The rebels then put down their weapons. The government made promises and the exiled families returned from Mauretania, Algeria and Burkina Faso. Ever since, tradition and weaponry have stood in direct competition with each other in the fight for rights and for the survival of these people who have enjoyed their freedom for centuries in one of the most inhospitable regions of the world, the Sahara.