When it comes to African nomads, many people think of the Tuareg tribe, the «blue men» of the Sahara. Indeed, their caravans have become a hallmark of the desert, adorning many journalistic materials.
But there is another tribe in the hottest place of the African continent, which also prefers to lead a nomadic life. These are the Tubu, a people characterized by extraordinary endurance, health and longevity. They easily walk 80-90 kilometers a day under the scorching sun and at daytime temperatures of up to 50°C.
Tubu nomad
Spines and dates
This tribe has always been legendary. The place of their temporary residence resembles a lunar landscape. On the harsh Saharan plateau of Tibesti, there is not only no water, but even no sand, because it is carried away by the hot desert wind. Lifeless craters and red-brown rocks — that’s the whole landscape of these places. It is impossible to live here, but the Tubu have somehow managed to make these places their home. They have no villages and settlements, they lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle, making shuttle runs from the north to the south of the Sahara and back.
In fact, in these transitions lies the mystery of the tribe, which scientists can not understand. How in the extreme conditions of the hot desert can make such long journeys on foot, how the body is able to endure prolonged hunger and lack of water?
The Toubou people live in Chad and Libya
Indeed, the Toubou’s diet is more than modest. In the morning, they drink a decoction of herbs and roots gathered in advance. At lunch they eat steamed millet with a little maize oil, and for dinner they eat a handful of dates. And so on from day to day. At the same time no meat — their tuba are not eaten as a matter of principle. Maybe this is the secret of their endurance and longevity?
Scientists began to communicate tubu since the middle of the last century. As they studied them, amazing things were discovered. This people never get cancer, they have no infant mortality, and in terms of life expectancy, the Tubu are African record holders. On average, they live 75-80 years, which is simply unfathomable for Africa. Suffice it to remember the Pygmies, where a 40-year-old man is already a profound old man. And here in the center of the Sahara live tall, gaunt people with lively black eyes, which contrast sharply on an oval face with a wide white-toothed smile.
A girl from the Toubou people
On an all-terrain vehicle alongside the caravan
To test the myth of the Toubou’s endurance, the scientists spent a day with them, accompanying the caravan. The Toubou traveled on foot and on camels, while white people rode alongside in air-conditioned all-terrain vehicles. They kept video surveillance and remotely monitored body readings through sensors that the nomads had agreed to put on themselves. The air temperature in the morning was +27°C, then rose to +35°C, and by the middle of the day reached an unthinkable mark of +48°C. The air conditioners could barely cope with cooling the air. «From the pressing fatigue we could not sit behind the wheel» — recalled one of the observers. And the tubu continued to move forward at a measured pace, with only a 20-minute break in the middle of the day.
The Tibesti Plateau, where the Toubou caravan was traveling
Yet all their health indicators — heart rate, pulse, blood oxygen saturation — were normal. Both in the middle of the crossing and at the very end, with 70 kilometers left behind.
This mystery is yet to be solved by scientists. But several hypotheses are already being proposed. The first of them is connected with the lack of meat diet. Tubu are not familiar with the taste — broth offered to them by Europeans, they disgustedly poured out on the sand. At the same time, the Tubu do not completely abandon animal food. They gladly drink milk, which is milked from goats and camels. That is, thinly or not, but animal proteins enter their organism.
The second version is connected with some special functions in the body of nomads, which «turn on» in them during long caravan passages and allow them to save strength. But this is already some kind of mysticism, because if it is so, then tubu can be recognized as a special kind of man.
A small tubu trying to cope with a camel
Genes, food, lifestyle?
Researchers compared the genes of the Toubou and the Tuareg. They found no fundamental difference. But the difference between these two nomadic tribes is huge. The Tuaregs travel 40-50 kilometers a day with their caravan. They often make breaks, eat meat and in general their route is built from oasis to oasis, so it is winding and long. And Tubu go straight through the shortest way. They do not care about oases and water, they do not care about the scorching sun. From food they have only roots and dates and at the same time nomads manage to pass a day up to 90 kilometers. How this can be — a mystery.
Not all Toubou lead a nomadic lifestyle, some have settled in cities, and most roam only twice a year
Why they don’t get cancer, where they have the longevity gene «hiding» in their body — there are no answers to these questions. Maybe it’s really all about nutrition, because if you accustom your body to a meager diet from childhood, it will bring results. Who knows, suddenly this way of life has led to some bizarre mutation.
Especially it is only at first glance the food of the tubu seems poor and unsightly. And in fact, dates and those roots, decoctions from which they drink, contain a lot of substances and microelements necessary for the body. Maybe it’s really all about the right balance, to which the Tuba came experimentally, leading such a way of life from generation to generation?
The mystery of the «desert supermen» is yet to be unraveled. By the way, this people is not a small number. Toubou in the Sahara number 350,000 people. They live mainly in the north of the Republic of Chad and in the south of Libya, forming such an interstate agglomeration. To be fair, not all of them are nomadic. Many lead a half sedentary lifestyle. But nomads are the most respected caste in society. The point of their movements across the Sahara is to transport salt, which the Toubou extract in the middle of the desert and then sell to their neighbors.
Toubou mine open salt in the center of the Sahara
The remaining people live on the Saharan plateaus, raise goats and camels, and migrate twice a year to more suitable habitats. But endurance and longevity are characterized by all members of the tribe, not only those who spend time in constant transitions across the lifeless desert. So it’s genes, isn’t it?
Neighbors Tuba Tuareg lead a nomadic way of life for not one hundred years. They are called «blue» because of the characteristic color of the long shawl they use to cover their heads and upper bodies