The Idaksahak are a former dependent faction of local TuaregIwellemmeden, formerly serving as maraboutic (religious experts) and livestock minders for higher caste Tuareg factions.[7] Despite this history, they predated the Tuareg in the region, and even the Songhay Empire, from which they took their language. They are still sometimes referred to as a tewsit (clan) of the Iwellemmeden Tuareg. The Idaksahak, like the related Igdalan "were among the first Berbers to migrate to sub-Saharan Africa, sometime between the 8th and 9th centuries"[7] and were among the first Muslim groups in the area.[7]
The Daoussahak remained detached from, and sometimes in conflict with, French colonial rule as late as the 1950s.[9][10] They were among the first of the rebels who rose against the Malian government in the 1963-64 rebellion, an insurgency which was met with brutal suppression across the north of the country.[11] Daoussahak men also formed armed groups during the 1990s rebellion. The Popular Liberation Front of Azawad(1991-1993)[12] and the later splinter group the National Liberation Front of Azawad (1993) contained fighters drawn from the Daoussahak, the later being majority Daoussahak.[13]
Daoussahak livestock raiding and conflict with rival Fula pastoralists and farmers continues today, with occasional armed conflict over land, grazing, water, and animals periodically spilling over into the Ouallam DepartmentofNiger.[14][15]
They now include both sedentary pastoralists and town dwellers, as well as seasonally nomadic pastoralists, herding cattle, goats, and camels from Mali through southern Algeria and northwest Niger.[4]Transhumance patterns continue to take them northeast into the area of Niger inhabited by the Igdalen related Isawaghan: sedentary Northern Songhay speakers of Ingal Niger. The Idaksahak also have a history of transhumance patterns to the southeast, taking them into what is now the Ouallam area of Niger.[3]
The Malian population of Idaksahak is estimated at 30,000.[4] Idaksahak share with Tuareg a three part caste system of "free masters" (i-dáksahak), "craftspeople" (ʒeem-án) and the "captives/slaves" (ṭaam-én).[6] One study suggested that of North Songhay speaking communities, the Idaksahak are closest to Tuareg. While culturally similar, Igdalan do not intermarry with Tuareg, while Idaksahak intermarry with both communities.[8] The name i-dáksahak means "sons of Issac".[4] The Idaksahak are Muslim, although many maintain pre-Islamic beliefs and practices. In Menaka and Ansongo, the Idaksahak live amongst populations of the Igdalan, the Kel Essouk Tuareg, Ihatan Songhay, and Berberiche Arab factions.[4][6][7]
^ abEdmond Bernus (ed.). Art of being Tuareg: Sahara nomads in a modern world. Indiana University Press (2006) ISBN978-0-9748729-4-0 p.291
^ abJeffrey Heath. A grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali), Volume 35 of Mouton grammar library. Walter de Gruyter, (2005) ISBN978-3-11-018484-6 p.9
^ abCatherine Taine-Cheikh. [Les langues parlées au sud Sahara et au nord Sahel http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00456346/]. De l'Atlantique à l'Ennedi (Catalogue de l'exposition « Sahara-Sahel »), Centre Culturel Français d'Abidjan (Ed.) (1989) 155-173
^ abcdeDavid J. Phillips. Peoples on the move: introducing the nomads of the world. William Carey Library, 2001 ISBN0-87808-352-9 pp.146-147
^ abcdeCM Benítez-Torres. [www.lingref.com/cpp/acal/38/paper2136.pdf Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphology in Tagdal: A Mixed Language] In Selected Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, ed. (2009)
Cyffer, Norbert (Ed) (2000). Michael J Rueck; Niels Christiansen. Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger, a sociolinguistic survey. in Trends in Nilo-Saharan linguistics: proceedings of the 7th Nilo-Saharan linguistics conference, Vienna, Austria, 2–6 September 1998. Cologne : Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
