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206 CHAPTER 5but to take up manual labour, which they saw as degrading. These occupationalrestraints did not hold for former slaves who were free to take up any jobavailable. At present, for instance, a community of bellah (and some imghad) issuccessfully retailing fish in Abidjan, an unimaginable occupation for other KelTamasheq. 35 Since Kel Tamasheq of free origins perceived manual labour to bedishonouring, they saw themselves forced to ask their protégés for economicassistance, thus involuntarily reversing social relations and still dishonouringthemselves. In the eyes of the deprived free, the choice was between dishonourthrough accepting menial jobs – which would mean public humiliation – andprivately asking their former dependents and slaves for assistance, which was aprivate humiliation that could be personally justified as ‘enforcing one’s rightsover one’s bellah’. However, former slaves perceived this strategy of theirformer masters as trying to live on their backs, something they had done in thepast too. They believed that their former masters should take up work as theythemselves had done. Thus, the discourse on the absence of honour and shamewas turned to the advantage of the unfree in a circular way. Their lack ofhonour and shame ensured their economic survival, and the free should take thisexample, abandoning their honour in favour of work, instead of dishonouringthemselves by living at the expense of their former slaves. 36 This radical changein relations between bellah and free Kel Tamasheq, and the shift in attitudestowards work, was quickly settled in the lands of migration.A more profitable, but far more dangerous occupation many ishumar tookup, was trafficking between Algeria, Libya, Mali and Niger. The Algerian andLibyan states subsidised basic goods, such as flour; bread; sugar; oil; tea; dates;and petrol under world market price levels, whereas they were often lacking inMali and Niger. 37 The ishumar smuggled these goods southwards to Mali andNiger on foot or on the backs of donkeys or camels. They were then sold forCFA Francs in Mali and Niger, which were taken back to Algeria. 38 As Algeriasuffered from a lack of foreign currency and as the CFA Franc was easilyexchanged for French Francs at fixed rates, CFA Francs were in high demand,often going for six times their official exchange rates at the Algerian blackmarket. The profit in smuggling was thus doubled. Goods were sold in Mali andNiger, and the small profit made was then quadrupled in Algeria. 39 A third3536373839Bouman, A. 2003: 253-259.Tidjani Alou, M. 2000: 281.Kohl, I. 2007: 169.The Malian Franc was first devaluated and coupled to the CFA Franc in 1967. In1984 Mali re-entered the CFA franc zone.ag Ahar, E. 1991. Ag Ahar is an alias for the Tamasheq poet Hawad, who wrote thisarticle in interview style. However, his statement is no less valid of ishumarpractices.