Myth Of The Sahara Remains A Lure For France Today

Myth of the Sahara remains a lure for France today

Nouakchott, June 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Jun, 2020 ) :The Sahara: boundless dunes shimmering in the relentless heat, nomadic tribes following paths as old and inscrutable as time itself, fierce-eyed warriors on camel-back, clad in indigo...

These images of the great desert are familiar around the world, but in France they have a special allure.

France, say historians, has a deeply romantic notion of the western Sahara, forged in colonial times and tinged by the literature that emerged from it.

The honeyed perspective endures today but has been eclipsed by pragmatism as France pursues its military commitment to the Sahel.

"The French vision of the Sahara comes from camel-mounted French troops" of a century ago, suggests Thierry Tillet, a French archaeologist who has been exploring the Sahara for half a century.

This specialised corps of France's Army of Africa battled nomads for decades before emerging victorious in the mid-1930s.

From their adventures emerged a canon of literature about derring-do in the desert and the Tuareg, its hardy people.

Sahara novels flowed from the pens of Joseph Peyre, whose brother was in the camel corps, Pierre Benoit and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who later gained worldwide acclaim as the author of "The Little Prince," Tillet said.

Newspapers and magazines helped cement the romance, said Pierre Touya, of the Association of Saharans, a 64-year-old organisation in Paris whose membership of more than 800 includes archaeologists, geographers and other specialists.