153 The Tuareg Tribe (2/2)

The car stopped, following the direction of a black woman, Jiang Chen and Robert walked into the building of the central tribe.

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Tuareg tribe, a nomadic ethnic confederation mainly distributed in the suburbs of the Sahara Desert in Africa, and a branch of the Berber clan spread throughout the vast region of North Africa. Renowned for their writing, language, and unique nomadic life, which were substantially different from those of their surrounding neighbors. Instead of a matriarchal social organization, Tuareg was a matrilineal society. Although they believe in Islam, women were not required to wear a veil. On the contrary, men 25 and above must wear a veil in the Tuareg clan society.

What was more striking was its open marital values wherein women could have multiple marriage partners, and in case of divorce, all assets would belong to them.

Apart from these strange customs, they were naturally born warriors. There was a notable local motto: ”The desert holds no secret to Tuareg people.” In this desert, they knew how to fight better than anyone else. During the Mali civil war, Tuareg guerrillas delivered consecutive losses to the government forces.

Moreover, because of its strong combat ability, there were a lot of Mediterranean dictators and warlords who were interested in their fighting prowess. The most famous one was Gaddafi, who particularly favored Tuareg mercenaries. After the outbreak of the civil war in Libya, Gaddafi even offered the Tuareg tribe a lucrative remuneration of $1000 USD a day to help him quell an anti-government militant. Of course, no one knew if the money had actually been honored or true in the first place.

Robert had, in fact, recommend to Jiang Chen that since they chose Niger as the location for the base, recruiting Tuareg people might not be such a bad idea. However, after some consideration, Jiang Chen still rejected his proposal.

The main reason was Jiang Chen's lack of trust in their culture and religion and also to avoid potential issues that could arise in the future. At least those refugees who fled their hometown would not suddenly clamor to go home. In any case, the refugees were more reliable.

In the relatively spacious house, Jiang Chen saw the legendary tribal chief.

”Distant visitors, may your wealth be endless like the sands of the Sahara.” The dark-skinned Female chief nodded slightly, her hands clasped together.

Perhaps because she often dealt with French people, her French was rather fluent. But regardless of how fluent she was, Jiang Chen who only knew English could not understand a thing, so he simply stood there and kept mum while waiting for Robert's next move.

”Thank you for your generosity in sharing your land. May your tribe flourish and your camels grow in flocks,” Robert responded in fluent French. Even now, Jiang Chen could not figure out just how many languages this guy knew.

Upon hearing this, the elderly female chief cracked a smile, her wrinkles scrunching up together.

The following ceremony was quite simple. A man, whose head was wrapped in a frighteningly thick turban, carried two bowls of camel milk and placed them in front of them. According to the local's custom, the thicker the turban and veil were, the more respect they were showing to their guests.

It was said that in the past whenever a male guest visited here, he was also required to wear a headscarf, or at least his mouth must be covered. But now it appeared that they have made some concessions to foreign cultures in the process of adapting to modern times.

It was unknown whether the female chief was chanting a mantra or praying, but she spoke for a long time before she gestured to the two people with a smile.

Looking at that bowl of cloudy camel milk in front of him, Jiang Chen could not help but wonder if it was just freshly squeezed out. When he looked at Robert, the noticed that this man's eyebrows were furrowed as well.

”Is this really potable?” Jiang Chen whispered in English.

”Yes, but trust me, you won't drink it again after you have your first.” Although Robert expression was somewhat bitter as he attempted a herculean feat of downing the camel milk with his eyes closed.

From the looks of it, this was his second time drinking this awful stuff.

Jiang Chen was secretly speechless.

Seeing Robert's swift action, the smile on the female chief's face became more brilliant. The faster the guest drank, the more it reflected their respect for the host.

When she looked at Jiang Chen, however, her eyes grew even brighter.

Robert had not even put the bowl down, Jiang Chen had already put the empty bowl on the table.

It took Robert a while before he finally finished and placed the bowl on the table with a quivering hand. Thus when he saw Jiang Chen's empty bowl, his eyes almost popped out from its sockets.

After coming out from the tribal chief's house, the two men received a warm farewell.

Back in the car, Robert hummed as he wiped his mouth.

”Sh*t, I feel like I've got a layer of grease in my stomach,” Robert complained as he looked at Jiang Chen oddly, ”You okay with that strange smell?”

”What strange smell? It was okay.” Jiang Chen laughed loftily as he leaned back and then put his arms behind his head.

Other than the grease that barely touched his mouth, he didn't drink a single drop and all of it was sent to the storage dimension.

He was getting more adept at using this ability.

After their friendly interaction with the neighbors, the three Hummers returned to the road once again.

Finally, Jiang Chen saw a ”castle” in the middle of the desert - Future Security.