Tea in the Sahara

Paul Bowles, in his novel The Sheltering Sky, illustrates a haunting and disturbing tale of illusion, mystery, and eventual tragedy when he discusses the folklore that inspired this entry, a fiction of his own mind as much as it is a paradox, hallmark, and reminder of the diversity and traditionalism which play into each other in Algeria’s unique food culture. He writes of two women drinking tea in the Sahara, in search of impossible dreams, which turn to mirages, which eventually turn to dust. The results of a journey into the desert, however, yield much more than dust when it comes to the role and changing landscape of tea culture in Algeria -- and in fact, across North Africa. Distinct and delicious, the rituals and traditions surrounding the consumption of tea are one of the few aspects of Algerian cuisine culture which do not vary drastically across regions within the country. The largest country in Africa by land area, Algeria is difficult to generalize even in terms of its food.

In terms of its tea, however, such generalizations are possible.

For all the sectarian and political divisions which have plagued the country in its postcolonial history, there is a sense of comfort when it comes to tea. From the Mediterranean coast to the farthest reaches of the Sahara Desert in the South, thousands of miles distant from one another and unable even to speak the same language, two Algerians can meet and be certain of their common ground over tea. It’s usually steeped extensively, then boiled or poured between pots three times, then served by a performance that usually involves a skilled woman -- those who prepare the tea usually are -- with a  teapot anywhere from a foot to several feet in the air above the glass. It may differ slightly in taste, but not in character. Tea is the first offer of hospitality when inviting guests; it is hope in the desert. Even the Tuareg nomads of Algeria’s water-barren deep south are regular consumers of it in this manner. It transcends class, and can even begin to transcend usually-fixed gender dynamics. Women prepare and serve the tea, as is expected of them. It’s cooking, after all, which in Algeria denotes women’s work. But tea is special in that it is as much the work of the man as it is of the woman -- neither receives social scorn for undertaking the act of teamaking, because it is a gift as much as a ritual. They pour for all, for men and women, for children and elders. It grants them an escape from sexual segregation in a society where such segregation is the basis of most cooking culture. Traveling into the Sahara, the role of the woman as housekeeper-teamaker deepens, as she also takes on the role of matriarch in the tradition of her forbears, the Tuareg queens of legend and history. Traveling northward into the metropoles of Algiers and Oran, teamakers transcend class. The women and men who pour the tea may be the poorest or the richest in the city, governors of the desert or subjects of Islamist factional rule, but they are bound by the leaves they steep in water, and the subtle athleticism of pouring it out.

Tefori has published an excellent piece on Maghrebi tea culture here.