Bought in Cap Skirring - Southern Senegal, after an hour and a half of spirited bargaining, interspersed with some fascinating insights into his home and family lifestyle, from my new Tuareg Nomad friend Mohammed, who lives in the far-off desert area near Gao in Mali.

This had been his first season in Cap Skirring, selling Tuareg jewellery to the tourists.
On hearing that I was looking for antique beads and jewellery, he offered to sell me his own necklace, which he had designed and made from a variety of antique beads found in Mali.

During the long discussions that followed, we compared the places in Mali that we were both familiar with and I asked him if he would be returning to his family soon, as the tourist season had just finished in Senegal and how would he travel ? Would he go by bush taxis and buses as far as Mopti and then 4 wheel drive taxis to Timbuktu ( as I had done ) and finally onto Gao ?

"Yes" he said, "and then I will ask the people where they last heard of my family, get on a camel and head off anything up to 150 kilometres into the desert to find them !"
He and his family are true nomadic Tuareg with a large herd of camels, living in a tent in the Malian Sahara Desert .. having to move to a new location every week in a search for fresh supplies of water and more of the sparse grazing for their livestock.

Having seen and experienced the extremely harsh conditions in the Timbuktu area myself,
I asked him which location did he prefer most ? He hesitated for a moment and then, with an extremely wistful look in his eyes, he told me that he obviously liked to be with his family, but really preferred the lifestyle in Cap Skirring. "Here we have fruit and vegetables, electricity, telephones, trees, grass, running water and cooling sea breezes. In the desert, we only have meat and rice, the hot sun and the endless sand. Sometimes for us there is little or no water !"

A superb guy of slight physical stature but great character. When we meet again ...
and we surely will somewhere in West Africa at some time, for despite the region's awesome distances and far-off places, travellers re-meeting is an unusually common occurrence ...
he has promised me some free camel-riding lessons. An occasion I really look forward to !

A 20 ins / 51 cm pretty necklace of ancient Mali Stone - Czech glass from the early 1800s - Antique Silver - Mediterranean Coral Stems and African "Amber" with a hook and eye clasp.
Largest Stone bicone 26 x 10 mm .. Central "Amber" bead 24 x 17 mm
In its own drawstring bag made from Senegalese batik.
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tbn 221  £64    Sold