As an Artist I have always been fascinated by two things; color, and faces full of character. Nowhere on the planet are these two elements brought more dramatically together than on the continent of Africa. From the Reds of the Maasai and Watutsi (or Watusi) to the wide range of color present in the Kente cloth of the Akan's of Southern Ghana and the Ivory Coast. This painting is a representation of the Tuareg tribe of North African and the Sahara Desert region. Tuareg are nomadic, monogamous, and have a matrilineal system of inheritance.
Most Tuareg are fully nomadic, residing in camps ranging from 50 to 150 people and live in tents of wooden poles covered with a red dyed goat hide tarp. During the rainy season, they move camp every three to four days in search for the greenest pastures for their livestock. During the dry season, they move often to find water, but prefer to stay in the vicinity of their "home territory", land passed down from one generation to the next.
Sedentary Tuareg villages grow more and more common as livestock herds shrink. This phenomenon is greatly due to climate change that has caused shorter and shorter rainy seasons and longer periods of drought, and hence fewer pastures for the animals to graze.