Transport in the Algerian Sahara

TRANSPORT IN THE ALGERIAN SAHARA· Benjamin E. Thomas University of California, Los Angeles The conquest of Algeria by France during the 1830's was halted at the margins of the Sahara by the local resistance of tribal populations, in combination with the difficulties of travel across the great expanses of barren desert. Transportation was one of the problems the French had to solve before they could complete their territorial control of all the desert country. The old trans-Saharan camel routes were used only by the native inhabitants . The caravans were slow, and they were subject to attack by interior nomadic tribes. Their main function had been to carry goods between the Sudan and North Africa. When the disease -infested forests of the Guinea Coast were penetrated by the French and the English and the country was pacified, the Sudan could be reached from the coasts. Therefore the transSaharan camel caravans disappeared. As a means of native transport for shorter distances, the camel has, of course, persisted to the present. By 1870, France held territory in both North and West Africa, and the railway age had arrived. A Trans-Saharan Railway to link the possessions of Algeria and the Sudan was considered. In strategic value and length, the Trans-Saharan would be in the same class as the transcontinental lines in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Siberia, which were being discussed or constructed during this period. But such a Sanaran railway would cross the greatest of all deserts with the prospect of the smallest economic returns from freight and passengers. There were two possible routes for a railway. An eastern route would pass through a number of large oases which could supply water for the railway and probably contribute some freight and passengers. However, this route would lead through the Hoggar mountains, requiring difficult and costly construction. Also, the fierce Tuareg mountain tribes had traditionally preyed upon travellers through the Hoggar, and had not yet been conquered. A western route would cross no mountains south of the Atlas, but would have to penetrate the Tanezrouft, the flat, terrible land of thirst, which stretches for hundreds of miles without wells, oases, vegetation, or animal life of any kind. The French, therefore, decided at first to avoid the Tanezrouft, and started exploring the eastern route. The project was abandoned when Colonel Flatters and his party were ambushed and killed in the Hoggar Mountains in 1881. Since that time, plans for a Trans-Saharan railway, along both eastern and western routes, have been revived and dropped many times. For the last two decades, the western route has been favored. Although both the northern coast of Algeria and parts of the Sudan are now served by railways, the great cost, the physical difficulties, and the small economic returns have thus far made a railway across the desert impracticable. By the end of World War I the Algerian Sahara was completely pacified and there was the possibility that improved types of automobiles or airplanes might provide transport across the desert. * This article is largely based upon field work in the Sahara during January and February, 1951, under research grants from the Office of Naval Research and the University of California, and constitutes a first summary of a larger project concerned with transportation in North Africa. 20 Yearbook of the Association VOL. 13 The early attempts to penetrate the Sahara by airplane resulted in a series of tragedies. Planes could fly only short distances without refueling. Both speed and dependability were low, according to present standards. When a plane was caught in a violent sandstorm, it often crashed or lost its way and was forced to the ground as fuel became exhausted. Whether the crew remained with the plane, or set out on foot to find water, the chances for survival and rescue were slight. The remains of plane and crew might not be found until a year or two later. The automobile, however, had marked success from the first. The French Army had already used trucks in the northern Sahara in putting down native uprisings during the first World War. A road net soon served the northern oases. Then, in 1922, the first crossing...