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Mali ethnicities [message #2420] Tue, 17 June 2014 05:39 Go to next message
mledger is currently offline  mledger
Messages: 8
Registered: June 2014
Location: Southampton
Member
I am working with the Mali data set and I'm trying to better understand the ethnicities but looking them up online to understand the background of them and whether there are similarities between the ethnicities in Mali and also some other West African countries. However I am not finding any information about the Tanachek people. Can you help me understand why this may be happening? Is this the French name for a different ethnicity?

Thank you.
Re: Mali ethnicities [message #2433 is a reply to message #2420] Tue, 17 June 2014 16:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Liz-DHS
Messages: 1516
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Dear User,
We are currently researching your post and will get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you!
Re: Mali ethnicities [message #2440 is a reply to message #2420] Wed, 18 June 2014 10:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bridgette-DHS is currently offline  Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3199
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Following is a response from Mali Country Manager, Soumaila Mariko:

The name of the ethnic group is misspelled in your posting, which explains why you can't find it in the data. The name of this ethnic group in our data and the reports is spelt: "Tamachek" or "Tamacheck", depending on what was adopted in our early DHSs in Mali, but not "Tanachek" as spelt in the posting.

For instance, in the 2006 report, the table 3.1 shows "Tamachek" 4.1% for women and 2.1% for men in the national survey sample. So data exist on the "Tamachek" ethnic group in the DHS data for Mali, but for very few cases. With only 4.1% of women and 2.1% of men in the national representative sample, you should not expect to find cases in this ethnic group, for each and every variable in the dataset.

[Updated on: Wed, 18 June 2014 11:48]

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Re: Mali ethnicities [message #2441 is a reply to message #2440] Wed, 18 June 2014 11:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mledger is currently offline  mledger
Messages: 8
Registered: June 2014
Location: Southampton
Member
Thank you for the response. You are right about the spelling mistake. I looked further into this and I believe this was made because in the coding in the 'all woman data set for Mali 2006' this group has been coded as 'tanachek'. Various other sources have also used this spelling in their write ups and I just couldn't understand why there was no information on this group from ethnic sources.

Additionally now I have been able to look up the Tamachek (with the correct spelling) I have found that in the ethnic literature they are more likely to be referred to as the Tuareg, which is why I could not discern my mistake alone.

Thank you so much for the clarification to the mystery.
Re: Mali ethnicities [message #2442 is a reply to message #2441] Wed, 18 June 2014 11:30 Go to previous message
Bridgette-DHS is currently offline  Bridgette-DHS
Messages: 3199
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
You are welcome.
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