Indigo Robes

I once turned blue in the desert.  A dark purplish blue - indigo to be precise.  I didn’t really notice until I was back in the UK in a bath, but I was so pleased with my new skin tone that I couldn’t bear to scrub it off, for it meant erasing the desert, and the time when I felt like one of the Tuareg. 

 I had been walking in the Algerian Sahara.  Our chief guide Mohammed had given me a beautiful set of indigo Tuareg robes - a gift for bringing a small group of intrepid adventurers with me on this Expedition.  The aim was to find an ancient impact crater called Amguid located deep within the Immidir desert region in southern Algeria.  I’d coveted a set of Tuareg robes ever since starting to work in North Africa and had always been struck by the distinguished ‘blue men of the desert’ - the Tuareg.  Mohammed wore his blue robes elegantly and his indigo chech off set his kohl-rimmed eyes. Our Expedition was a trek, led by a team of four Tuareg men and five camels.  We set off at dawn each morning and walked all day across desert, through valleys, wadi’s, and stony escarpments, stopping to swim in guelta’s and marvel at rock art en route.  We slept under the stars at night and soon fell into the rhythms of desert night and day.  Our local guide Yah-yah wore a simple yellow robe over loose trousers, a waistcoat over the robe and a black chech – a length of cloth worn like a turban that can be up to seven meters long (it’s unusual to see a Tuareg with a bare head).    

Yah-yah in a canyon, Immidir, Algeria by Jon Bugge

 My Tuareg robes consisted of a cotton overgarment – an indigo tent like tunic reaching my ankles with deep pockets, and wide three-quarter length sleeves.  Underneath this I wore matching cotton wide legged trousers elasticated at the ankles, and a three-meter-long chech wound around my head.  But It hadn’t occurred to me to walk every day in the robes up until nearing the end of the tour, when my own western clothes could, by then, walk by themselves.  Wearing the robes in the desert is a wonderful feeling; the soft fabric billowed around my limbs and didn’t stick to my skin in the Saharan heat.  There’s no faffing with zips, belts, or hidden panels - although admittedly I was never much into the wicking, tight weaving, fully adjustable, modular, zip off and on, beige trousers and matching shirt stuff– I wanted to be blue all the way.  I’d been given men’s robes, although the intention was not to be disguised as a man as it is in Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky when Kit is presented with a set of Tuareg robes by her lover Belqassim in the desert:  

‘Kit was asleep, but he woke her and spread the garments out on the blanket in the ambiguous shadow of the thorn trees, indicating that she undress and put them on.   She was pleased to lay aside her own clothes, which were in an unrecognisable state of dishevelment at this point, and it was with growing delight that she pulled on the full soft trousers and got into the loose vest and the flowing robe…He beckoned her to him, took up a long white turban and wound it around her head, hiding her hair completely…Suddenly she understood that these were men’s garments and that she was being made to look like a man.’ Extract taken from The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles  

Tuareg women look as elegant, if not more so than the men.  In the Sahara younger women sometimes wear a colourful dress underneath a wraparound robe which covers their head. All women wear indigo, particularly the elders, and the colour stains a beautiful damson on their skin offset by silver jewellery in ears, and on wrists and fingers.  In the desert near Timbuktu in Mali, I was mesmerised by a line-up of women in blue, so graceful in poise and stature as they clapped and swayed to the rhythm of drums. 

The leading authority on indigo Jenny Balfour Paul, has studied the colour for most of her life and is the author of three books on the subject.  Indigo is the only natural blue colour in the world and up until 1900 there was no blue in textiles.  This is because it’s an invisible substance – a molecule within a leaf, that when extracted and combined with oxygen produces indigo.  It’s an incredible skill just to produce the dye, but it’s one that’s lasted for centuries.  I've read that both power and dignity are attributed to indigo and can think of no better vehicle than the Tuareg to honour that. 

 For more on indigo see Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans by Jenny Balfour-Paul 

Wearing blue in Timbuktu, Mali

Mohammed stirring, Immidir, Algeria by Jon Bugge

Mohammed and Yah-yah, Immidir, Algeria by Jon Bugge