Ikelan

Ikelan

ⵉⴽⴻⵍⴰⵏ
Gathering of Tenerians of Ikelan background.
Total population
10,000,000
Languages
Tamashek
Religion
Tamddaism
Related ethnic groups
Tenerians Anahri, Fahrani, Tyreseian, Talaharan, Itayanan, M'birunan and Kembesan ethnic groups

The Ikelan (Tamashek: ⵉⴽⴻⵍⴰⵏ), also known as Ibenheren (ⵉⴱⴻⵏⵁⴻⵔⴻⵏ), are a socio-ethnic group found in Charnea commonly considered to be a subset of Tenerian ethnic identity. Although the term originally referred to the slave caste of the medieval society of the Kel Tenere, Ikelan today is a term used to describe those people who speak Tamashek and follow Tenerian cultural traditions and norms but are of non-Tenerian and often non-Amaziɣ origin and has become Tenerized over time. The foundation of this group can be traced to the Ihemodian wars of conquest waged by the early Charnean empire, which resulted in the enslavement of large demographics, numbering in the many hundreds of thousands or even millions by some estimates. These individuals were relocated across the conquered territory, often to the heartland of Charnea in the Achra region and settled in mixed communities. Ikelan slave communities were heavily divided and diverse, being made up of captives from distinct regions who spoke different languages and dialects or worshipped different gods as an intentional measure to discourage unity and disrupt communication among the slaves. Settlements of the Ikelan were often lightly supervised and existed in a state of bondage comprable to Serfdom and lacking the hallmarks of chattel slavery. A number of Ikelan served an auxiliary military role in the Charnean empire as Golam soldiers, earning an elevated status over their peers and eventually becoming freedmen through service under arms. Over time, the Ikelan lost their original languages and adopted Tamashek as the lingua franca of their communities as the only common tongue with which all of the fractured ethnic components of the community could claim some familiarity. As the Charnean empire aged, the Ikelan became heavily Tenerized as they had become almost entirely alienated from their original cultures. Tenerian clothing, wedding and funeral customs, clan structure and most of all Tenerian religion would be adopted by the wider Ikelan population of Charnea by the 19th century. When slavery was abolished in Charnea in 1855, there was little difference in the culture and practices of the Ikelan and their former masters except the lack of nomadism that the settled Ikelan always presented. Much of the Tenerian population would urbanize in the decades following the abolition of slavery, further blurring the distinction between the two groups such that the two are generally considered one and the same in the present day.

Origins

Pre-Ihemodian Era

The Ikelan slave caste originates in antiquity with the fall of Tamazgha, a pivotal event that caused the fracturing of the proto-Amaziɣ people and thus the foundation of the distinct Tenerian identity. The death of the Ninvite cities of Tamazgha through a collapse of the fossil water reserves they relied on led to the exodus of most of the Amaziɣ population of the Ninva northward to what is now Talahara. Those that remained in the Ninva desert adopted a nomadic way of life and became the first Tenerians. The hostility of what had previously been the heartland of Tamazgha forced the Tenerian groups to migrate south towards the Achra and Agala regions of modern day Charnea where the nomads would interact with the Sub-Ninvite Scipians, an interaction that would often take the form of violence and competition. The first Ikelan were a mixture of captives taken from these groups of outsiders as well as other Kel Tenere taken in struggles against rival tribes and confederations of the desert people.

Some Ikelan were employed as additional manpower for herding activities and became integrated into the family structure of the tribe, assimilating with their captors within a single generation. This was especially common with small tribes or those that had suffered recent losses to disease and warfare, becoming more amenable to full acceptance of Ikelan into their social order to bolster their ranks. Other Ikelan lived in permanent settlements, often without a permanent supervision by any members of the tribe. These were miners, blacksmiths and agriculturalists that supplemented the nomadic portions of Tenerian society with additional supplies and crafts that would be otherwise unavailable to them except through trade with an outside group. In pre-Ihemodian times, these settled Ikelan often consisted of entire villages that had been subjugated by a Tenerian warlord or even communities that had migrated into Tenerian controlled territory and intentionally settled as Ikelan to the local Tenerian confederation in exchange for protection. In this era, the ratio of free Tenerians to bonded Ikelan was between 1 to 5 and 1 to 7.

Ihemodian Era

The nature of the Ikelan changed dramatically as a result of the conquests of the 14th and 15th centuries that brough general turmoil and a state of violent upheaval to most of Scipia. The unification of the Tenerians under the single banner of the Charnean Empire quickly eliminated the practice of enslaving other Tenerians through raiding of rival groups, while the major long term mobilization of the desert society to warfare resulted in a militarization of society that reduced the role of herding and thus herder Ikelan, while creating a whole new function for Ikelan as manpower for logistical support of the nomadic armies. Most of all, the scale of the Ikelan settlements exploded as the empire swelled with captives from all across the continent. At its heigh, the ratio of Ikelan to free Tenerians in the Charnean empire was between 1 to 13 and 1 to 15. Ikelan were no longer subjugated in situ and kept in intact tributary communities and would instead be relocated long distances from their places of origin to far flung edges of the empire or to the heartland in Achra so that they would be unable to rely on local knowledge and ties with neighbors to resist the Tenerians. The changes of the Ihemodian era are largely responsible for the transformation of the Ikelan from a bonded caste within Tenerian society into an ethnic category wholly distinct from the original mother cultures of its members. The practices of relocating captives and intentionally founding ethnically and religiously fractured Ikelan settlements began as measures to reduce the likelihood of effectiveness of rebellion against the Charnean empire but would also result in the cultural alienation of those who became Ikelan. Tenerian culture and the Tamashek language filled the void left by this alienation.

As the Charnean empire's expansion slowed, so to did the flow of new captives into Charnean territory. The slowing and eventual halt of outside additions to Ikelan communities had a multitude of effects on their development. Firstly, it punctuated the cultural alienation as the decades passed and fewer and fewer among the Ikelan remained alive that could remember a homeland other than the Charnean empire. By the 17th century, the whole of the Ikelan population had been born as Ikelan and knew no other home than their communities in Charnea. The second effect of the halt of inflow was to accelerate the homogenization of the Ikelan as an ethnic and genetic population. Where the first generation of Ikelan had been captives with distinct and clear ethnic identities, these had begun to blur and loose significance the longer the populations remained in Charnea. Due to the high initial ethnic diversity of any given Ikelan settlement, it was virtually impossible for the distinct identities of the first Ikelan to be preserved and homogenization became inevitable which in turn further accelerated the alienation of the Ikelan from their ancestry. The third effect was to accelerate Tenerization of the Ikelan, as the bonded peoples were now alienated from their own culture and lacked contact with other outside cultures. The only group with which they retained contact were the Tenerians, resulting in the slow integration of the Ikelan into the broader Tenerian culture.

Tenerization

The most straightforward way through which Ikelan populations assimilated with the Tenerians was through marriage. It was relatively common for Tenerians, especially men, to marry an Ikelan individual. Such unions were considered equal in status and legitimacy to marriages between free Tenerians, but were subject to specific rules regarding the status of the Ikelan partner. For instance, any children born from the union would be considered free Tenerians and the Ikelan partner would themselves become a freedman if their Tenerian spouse were to die or divorce them. Ikelan were effectively but not formally elevated to the status of tribe member and equal to their new Tenerian relatives upon a marriage with a free Tenerian. Over time, this practice would create a constant flow of Ikelan individuals converting into free Tenerians through marriage and by birth to a Tenerian parent. Likewise, Ikelan who traveled with the nomadic groups of free Tenerians were integrated into the family structure as had been done since ancient times. Although they did not receive the same special status and treatment as those Ikelan who entered the tribe through marriage, they were nevertheless treated as a component of the tribal society and were thus more related to the free Tenerians than their settled Ikelan relatives. It was common for such Ikelan to eventually marry into the tribe, although it was possible for Ikelan attached to different families within the same tribe to intermarry as well and in so doing perpetuate a small contingent of Ikelan fully integrated into the nomadic society.

The process of Tenerization within the settlements of the Ikelan is less clear and relatively poorly understood by modern scholars. The general consensus is that Tenerization began with the almost immediate adoption of the Tamashek language, the tongue of the Tenerians, as the lingua franca of the Ikelan settlements. This was a product of the Ihemodian doctrine of linguistically fracturing the communities to disunite them, forcing Ikelan to communicate in tongue other than their native dialect in order to be understood in virtually any social interaction within their community. The natural choice for a common language was Tamashek, as the Tamashek speaking Tenerians were virtually the only group that any Ikelan no matter their place of origin could be guaranteed to have experience with. Tamashek had the benefit of also serving as the language of trade between the Ikelan and the Tenerian caravans that served as their main means of commercial interaction with other communities, as well as the language of their Tenerian overlords in which negotiations would be conducted. The adoption of the Tenerian language served as the first step in assimilation over the long term. In a more general aspect, the adoption of Tamashek first as a lingua franca and then as the sole language of the Ikelan illustrates the process of alienation that is believed to have facilitated Tenerization as the Ikelan lost ties with their mother cultures and could not rally around vestiges of their shared identity as very few aspects of their background were common to the whole of their communities. Tenerian culture was often the only point of reference that every Ikelan had in common with any other Ikelan, accelerating the assimilation of the Ikelan into the culture of the free Tenerians.

Contemporary Status

In the modern day, Ikelan are considered to be Tenerians of equal status to any other Charnean and Tenerian person. While the laws of Charnea affort the equal status of citizen to all inhabitants of the country, Ikelan in particular experience less informal social and economic discrimination than minority groups such as Deshrians, Gharibs and Zarma Charneans. Ikelan individuals enjoy comparable access to jobs, healthcare and education. Many of the wealthy capitalist families that make up the elite of modern Charnea are of Ikelan background, as are several prominent clans such as the current royal household. While the Ikelan are now considered Tenerian, so too are some non-Ikelan groups that have embraced Tenerization now also referred to as Ikelan as the term is used more flexibly to describe Tenerized people of non-Tenerian origin. Within Charneanist ideology and modern Charnean nationalism, the Ikelan are held up as the prime example of a people "not of the desert" that have become not only Tenerian but generally Charnean in nature, adapting to life in the desert by adopting the practices and customs of the Tenerians and becoming unique to their adoptive homeland. Charneanism holds that all Charneans should undergo this process as the common bonds of all peoples of the desert are used as a homogenizing force that transforms Charnea from an empire into a nation-state.