He is sitting on the floor in his own shop, surrounded by his prestigious craft tools, a hammer, a mace, a small anvil driven into the ground, pliers and a blowtorch powered by a gas cylinder to heat and forge iron. Nouh Azaoui, this talented blacksmith artisan, says with an incredible dexterity that "the making of targui jewelry is a secular tradition well protected by the Mâalims. It is our pride in particular and of the entire Algeria", before adding:" We make targuis jewelry such as Tissghine (rings), Tizabatine (earrings) Tihoukaouine or bracelets, the Takoba, the sword, Khomeïssa (necklaces), Tinalkamine: a triangular silver jewel, Tijibawin, a semi-circular jewel that targui women put on the hair". We can also mention, Ihebjène, a bracelet adornment Guattara, also a set of collars and the Assarou wan Afer.
While craftswomen, Tinaden, make all kinds of handcrafted leather products, especially those made by the aunt, such as: Ighatimen (or Temba) which are sandals, Timetredjin (or Akhraytabèn) or turnkeys, Tamenalt a belt that men put in their pants (Akerbaï), quoting also Abelbor, Tasghalt, Tiraouet and Teghalaft.
According to our interlocutor: "The handicrafts marketing is a major problem in this remote village in the far south, which deserves to be the subject of meetings and especially of workshops and visits of experts in order to provide a suitable solution to our major issue, especially when we know that the 1st edition of Bordj Omar Driss Handicraft fair was in June 2014!" Some people suggest that the Chamber of Crafts and Trades (CCT) develops commercial intermediaries to enable artisans to focus on production rather than looking themselves for markets, as marketing difficulties are mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the market system by these artisans, despite the fine and splendid products they create.
Bordj Omar Driss is, indeed, a region for tourism by excellence. It hosts very beautiful sites, historical monuments, carvings and cave paintings, which show the richness of the Tassili civilization. The enhancement of the tourism sector by the Ministry of land Planning, Tourism and Handicrafts, within the framework of tourism development Master plan (SDAT), will build up the tourism identity of this region, rich in underexploited potentials, which are even unknown to Algerians and will help attract crowds of tourists to this potential market that should be enhanced.
