Wedding of Assadek

I was invited to a rather large wedding.  Tuareg weddings usually go for several days.  The modern adaptations don’t have the glorious camel parades of the bush, but they always have a Tuareg guitar.  Fashion changes and the traditional clothing is no longer worn by the women at many city weddings, but the men are fully decked out in Grand Bou Bou and Turban.  Many of the great Tuareg musicians were there to play, but as the guitar started, overenthusiastic guests, as is the tradition, started peeling off  money in small bills  and throwing it at the musicians to show their appreciation.  This created chaos as there were many young men there anxious to participate in the bounty.  When one guest fired his pistol into the air–I dove for the ground not sure if we were under attack…well after all the bullet has to come down sometime.

Best wishes to Assadek and his new bride–whom I never met as the women, in another Tuareg/African tradition are rarely visible at their own weddings.

Assadek, right, and friends.

Ladies in their finery.