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208 CHAPTER 5molested at the Libyan border. As immigrant workers, only the lowest jobswere open to them and they were insulted in the streets. Legal papers remainedhard to get, which kept the ishumar in Libya in a precarious illegal situation.But Libyan citizenship was not popular, as Libyan citizens were not easily allowedto travel abroad. Even when it was available to them, most ishumarchose the hardships of a free migrant existence over the more comfortable statesupportedbut enclosed life of a Libyan national.Ishumar lifeAs the ishumar earned money, new consumer items became available to them.Dietary habits changed. To a pastoral Kel Tamasheq, the ideal repast consists offresh milk and fat meat, with three glasses of sweet tea for dessert. When freshmilk and meat are scarce this diet is completed with dairy products, cheese,buttermilk and butter; wild or cultivated grains; dates and gathered fruits. Foodtaboos exist. Fish is out of the question even when available. Poultry is onlyeaten by children who hunt them in the bush. This ideal diet was abandonedduring the droughts and again during the second rebellion, when the Kel Tamasheqwere even forced to eat fish, as canned herrings were shipped to thedesert as relief aid. But the diet also changed in exile. It can only be the irony ofhistory that the Kel Tamasheq now adopted the diet that they had at first refusedwhen forced upon them by the Keita Regime. As fresh fruits and vegetableswere available, they slowly adopted them. At present, many repatriated (if thisis the correct term) youngsters in Kidal relish the memory of fresh apples andgrapes, available at the markets of Algeria and Libya. Yams, potatoes, tomatoes,onions, cabbage and lettuce have found their way into Tamasheq dishes.Fresh dairy products were harder to get. Fresh milk was substituted with milkpowder and butter with olive or peanut oil. Even those Kel Tamasheq whostayed in Mali were now prepared to take up gardening. The Kel Adagh themselvesinvestigated the possibilities of horticulture in their mountains. In 1977,Acherif ag Mohamed, a Kel Adagh, graduated at the Ecole Normale Supérieurein Bamako on a thesis entitled ‘Les possibilités agricoles dans le Cercle deKidal’. His thesis is a plea for agricultural development in the Adagh, despitepossible resistance from the population.During the search for a theoretical solution to the social problem posed by thedrought and its consequences, I thought of the agricultural possibilities in the Cercleof Kidal. In fact, these possibilities exist and their exploitation is necessary to savethousands of human lives. 4343ag Mohamed, A. 1977: 41.