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204 CHAPTER 5important of these central Saharan towns is Tamanrasset. Centrally located inthe Hoggar Mountains, it became the administrative capital of the AlgerianSouth; the centre of Sahara tourism in Algeria; and of the Algerian oil industryin the South. The growth rate of this town is telling of the speed of urban developmentin the Sahara. In 1920, the city had 50 inhabitants. In 1973, there were8,000. In 1974 the city became the capital of the Wilaya Sud, the administrativeregion of the Hoggar. By then the speed of the population growth was almostout of control: 15,000 inhabitants in 1976 and 42,000 only a year later. By2003, the city had an estimated population of 180,000 inhabitants, with anunknown number of illegal immigrants on their way to the coast of the Mediterraneanliving on the outskirts of town. 29 At present, Tamanrasset is inhabitedby a plethora of at least 45 different nationalities from all over Africa, theMiddle East and South Asia, serving for many as a springboard to ‘FortressEurope’, but the first migrants to arrive in the city were the ishumar. The first toreach Tamanrasset were a number of Kel Adagh tishumarin, women who hadpreviously settled in Timiaouene and who occasionally prostituted themselvesto the Algerian employees of the SONAREM mining company who took themto Tamanrasset. 30 Their migration and professional occupation deserves emphasis.Most Kel Tamasheq moved to the city as refugees during the droughts.These refugees were mostly women, children and elderly persons, as the meneither stayed on to save the herds or had already moved to look for work.Young women travelled to the cities of Southern Algeria looking for a betterlife. They often travelled alone. The mobility and independence of these tishumarinmade many Algerian men look with disfavour upon the refugees. Particularlythe Kel Hoggar, the Kel Tamasheq inhabiting Southern Algeria, had adenigrating attitude towards the Malian and Nigerien newcomers, which wasexpressed in a discourse on the looseness of the refugee women, a discoursethat found its justification in the prostitution activities of some. 31In the 1970s a whole new shantytown arose after the drought, inhabited bythe Malian Kel Tamasheq. It was called Tahaggart-shumara, which would translateas ‘unemployed in the Hoggar’, the Algerian mountain range in whichTamanrasset is situated. Similar neighbourhoods arose in Djanet, Adrar, and inLibyan cities, such as Ghat and Ghadames. 32 Tamanrasset was the main destinationin Algeria for the Malian Kel Tamasheq. Djanet was the main destinationfor the Nigerien Kel Tamasheq. In Libya, there was a mix of all communities.In these neighbourhoods, the Teshumara developed. To the Kel Tamasheq, city29303132Based on Dida, B. 2007 and Nadi, D. 2007.Bellil, R. & B. Dida 1995.Bellil, R. & B. Dida 1993.Pliez, O. 2003.