Le dromadaire et l'oasis: du caravansérail à l'élevage périurbain

Abstract

Relations between dromedary and oasis belong to a certain ambiguity because the dromedary, animal of the nomad, marks the desert by its mobility while the oasis is, by essence, a point of attachment. If, throughout history, the camel was entering in the city for the caravan steps (caravanserais), he remained rarely inside except to play the role of auxiliary in the oasis agriculture. Change in production systems, increase in demand for animal proteins to supply a growing urban population, and social expectations of the nomadic pastoralists in education and health have contributed to change the relationships between the camel farms and the oasis city. The development of periurban camel farming system both for milk and meat supply has upset the former links between nomads and sedentary people, resulting in an increasing interpenetration of the activities brought by both. The paper relies on several examples of development in Saharan Africa (Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia), Sahel Africa (Chad, Niger), Middle East (Saudi Arabia) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan).