Gaw Culture ID

The Gaw culture belongs to the peoples of the Sahel, the broad belt of semi-arid land that stretches across Africa between the Sahara to the north and the savanna to the south.

Life in the Sahel demanded adaptation to a dry and variable land, and its peoples combined the herding of livestock with farming where water allowed, and with participation in the trade that crossed the region.

Communities were bound by kinship and custom, and the Sahel lay along the great routes that carried goods, people, and faith between North Africa and the lands to the south.

Living at the meeting of desert and savanna, the Gaw formed part of the web of Sahelian peoples linked by trade and movement.