God Made Me Tuareg By Nikki White | North Africa
Names have been changed for security reasons.
“My name is Ansar, and I am Tuareg.” Ansar belongs to a large ethnic group among the nomadic tribes of Berbers that live and trade across North and West Africa. He was born in Mali, in the city of Timbuktu, and grew up in Niger. As a Tuareg, he cherished his heritage among the Marabout tribes as warriors and royalty. As a Muslim, however, Ansar often felt conflicted. “Where I am from, there is only Islam,” he said, “and there are many things necessary to get close to God. You must read and recite the Qu’ran in Arabic, pray only in Arabic. But I did not know any Arabic. My mother tongue is Tamazight, and my traditional way of writing is Tifinagh. Is it right, I wondered, that I should swap these for others, with the hope of becoming closer to God?” Islam offered other means to draw closer to God, but they were equally unattainable for Ansar. He had heard of a holy place called Mecca. He knew that a good Muslim must face only east, toward Mecca, when praying. He knew that a pilgrimage to Mecca was every Muslim’s aspiration. “In Mecca, you can ask God for paradise, for money, and for health also,” Ansar said. “If someone was wealthy, and he was able to go to Mecca, it would fulfill his lifetime wishes.” 14 | witness
Ansar, however, was not able to make such a pilgrimage. “Still, I was sure I would remain in this religion,” he said. “I was sure that it was the only religion that led to God.” When Ansar was forty, he took a job and moved to Nigeria. There he saw Christian church buildings for the first time. With the doors open and full of worshipping believers, Ansar found this both attractive and alarming.
“Where I am from, there is only Islam, and there are many things necessary to get close to God.” “They were praising God,” said Ansar. “I thought they were having a good time, but I was told that this was an infidel mosque. I said to myself, ‘It is the devil’s place and God will be angry if I go there.’ So, I kept away.” Six years later, Ansar changed jobs and moved to Libya. While there, he became more disillusioned with Islam as the Imams chanted in a language that he did not understand. It felt meaningless. Before long, he gave up on religion altogether.
