“Fifteen thousand years old?” Cassie repeated in disbelief.
Michel shrugged. “The dating of the ruin is still hotly debated but the fact that an ancient town exists where none was expected calls into question what we assume we know about this part of the world. No, no, there is a rich mine of artifacts to be found here. The Arkana considers much of it valuable since Berber culture is strongly matristic.”
Cassie peeked furtively at Erik and Fifi who were paying no attention at all to the conversation. To be fair, Fifi was doing most of the whispering. Erik merely listened and nodded. But then again, Cassie was in no mood to be fair. She transferred her attention back to Michel.
He was still speaking. “The Berber people are a loosely-affiliated group of clans. In ancient times, there was no overarching ideology which connected them together. They owed their loyalty to the members of their individual tribes and no one else. They jealously guarded their independence from one another and from the invaders who repeatedly plagued this part of the world.
“The most fiercely independent of all the Berber tribes were the Tuareg. They fought with one another as much as they did with everybody else until a remarkable woman united them. Her name was Tin Hinan which means ‘the mother of us all.’ Around 500 CE, this extraordinary queen was able to inspire the various Tuareg clans with a sense of tribal identity. She led them south into the Sahel where they settled and have remained to this day.”
“What’s the Sahel?” Cassie asked. “I’ve never heard that term before.”
“It’s the area just to the south of the desert proper,” Griffin explained. “There’s still a minimal amount of rainfall which can support life, so it’s possible to graze flocks and engage in agriculture there.”
“Yes, that is where Tin Hinan led the Tuareg,” Michel agreed. “The tribe remembers her with gratitude. She was considered a myth until her monumental tomb was found in Algeria. The remains inside were of an unusually tall woman whose bones showed the spinal deformity which had always been attributed to the queen. So, we are sure she existed. Her legacy to the Tuareg has been their strongly matristic social order. Descent is still traced through the mother’s line. Women maintain their own property. The tribe was nominally converted to Islam during the onslaught of the Ottoman Empire but, strangely enough, it is the men who wear the veil and not the women.”
Cassie laughed. “That’s something I’d like to see.”
“I have a picture right here,” the professor offered. He quickly thumbed through a volume on his desk and slid it forward. “Here is an example. The men wear a blue turban and cover the lower half of their faces. They never take the turban off in public. Because of the distinctive indigo dye of the garment, the Tuareg are sometimes known as the ‘Blue people.’”
Cassie leaned forward to study the photo, trying to block out the sound of Fifi and Erik laughing together over some private joke. She wasn’t the only one nettled by their behavior.
Michel turned to his daughter and said, “Perhaps, Fifi, you would like to catch up with your old friend out in the hall while we discuss business.”
Not at all fazed by the veiled rebuke, Fifi grabbed Erik by the hand and sprang up out of her chair. “That is a very good idea, papa. Come, Erik. Allons-y.” Without waiting for a reply, she dragged the surprised paladin to his feet and out of the room.
Cassie could hear the click of her heels as the couple retreated down the hall. Griffin darted a worried glance in her direction. Suppressing her annoyance, she turned her full attention back to the professor. “You were saying?”
Michel seemed relieved to be rid of the distraction. “Yes, we were discussing the strong matristic current in Berber culture. Though the Tuareg are the most obviously matristic tribe, the Berber group as a whole has a long history of female leadership. Take, for instance, Dihya. She was known as Al Kahina by the Arabs. It is a term which means something like ‘priestess-soothsayer.’ She was a Berber prophet and queen who briefly succeeded in driving the Arabs out of Northwest Africa. Unfortunately, she believed that the only way to keep the invaders from returning was to deprive them of the resources they sought.”
Griffin picked up the narrative. “I’ve read that she ordered all the coastal cities to be burned to the ground and the orchards and fields to be despoiled so that nothing would grow there again. Sadly, her actions may have hastened the desiccation of this part of the world. Also, she managed to alienate the town-dwellers whose property she destroyed. In the end, her plan failed to deter the Muslim hordes from returning, and her territory was recaptured around 700 CE.”
“So, what happened to her?” Cassie asked.
“There are various stories,” Michel replied. “Some say she took poison. Others say she was executed after her capture. Still, others say she died fighting the enemy with a sword in her hand. No one knows.”
“I don’t get it,” Cassie said abruptly.
Her two listeners regarded her with curiosity.
“If the Kurgans and Semites turned into male-dominated overlords because their homelands dried up, then why didn’t the same thing happen to the Berbers? The Sahara was drying up too. From everything you’ve told me, it sounds like Berber women still have a lot of clout in spite of that.”
Michel nodded approvingly. “That’s a very good question.”
“I think it has to do with migration,” Griffin speculated.
Cassie turned
