Word: adame
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High up on his camel, Adam Mahamoudane surveys the scene below him. The dry, sandy riverbed is a sea of color. Some 60 camels mill about, stirring up the dust and leaving apple-shaped footprints in the sand, while riders rest on their haunches in the shade of acacia trees. Most of the men - Tuareg nomads from the small oasis town of Timia in the West African nation of Niger - wear loose fitting, black trousers, with yellow or white edging around the hem. Over the trousers hangs a cotton robe held at the waist by a colorful belt. Many wear...
...couple of men collect names of the riders entering the big race. Adam is on their list. At age nine, he is the youngest competitor. The race will be a rite of passage for Adam, into the traditions of the Tuareg people of the central Sahara. The competition is both a demonstration of skill, and an opportunity for the village of Timia to celebrate the wedding of Adam's sister. A cry goes up and all the camels rise at once. One lets out a low growl. Women ululate and clap...
...small crew of English filmmakers is in Timia to capture the race and wedding for an episode of a new Thirteen/WNET New York and National Geographic Television documentary series called 'Africa.' The series, premiers on Sunday September 9 with a look at life on the Kenyan savanna. (Adam appears in episode two, entitled 'Desert Odyssey.') The series aims to show aspects of Africa far-removed from the famine, war and disease of popular perception. "So few people in America really know about Africa," says co-executive producer Jennifer Lawson. "I wanted to give people a better view, a more complex...
...stick, but before he can drop it, a huge cheer sends the camels lurching forward in one heaving mass. Their long legs kick forward, riders bobbing to and fro atop 60 dancing humps. The race comprises two laps of Timia's valley floor - less than 4 miles in total. Adam comes in second to last, and finds a group of sweating men arguing over which of them finished first. The camels buck and bray, feisty as ever...
...Reported by James Carney, Douglas Waller and Adam Zagorin/Washington and Steve Barnes/Little Rock