Moussa sees the new visitors to his land with the perspective of countless millennia. This Amenoka—or chief—of a small population of Tuareg Berbers in southern Tunisia tells this reporter through translation, “We have wandered the desert from edge to edge since before time.  We have protected our language and way.   If they have come to the desert for their god so be it.  It will not upset us.  We call them kel Ataram because they are from the west. They call us Sand People.  We do not know why.” His face covered by a deep indigo veil, he takes our crew to the site of the massacre that has shocked the international community.

Moussa is referring the growing population of Star Wars fans who have migrated to this arid region to live their life in monastic purity on the same land used for filming several of the franchise’s most famous scenes. As a cattle herder and goods trader wandering the uppermost tip of the Sahara desert, Moussa has been witness to the birth of this new and little seen sect. It’s a group—it should be noted—not without its controversy here and at home.  “They never wanted much in trade, I sold them two, perhaps three, DSL modems,” Moussa says of the young people who called themselves the Rebel Alliance. “They wear brown robes. They are generally fat. Fat like boars and pale like milk. That is odd in the desert.”

Odd yes, but the group had odd beginnings.  In the early 1990s Lucasfilm Limited inaugurated the lucrative practice of guided tour packages to Tunisia. The company had re-erected many of its sets as expensive hotels, which thrilled fans and became a steady revenue stream for creator George Lucas. Then in 2002, just after the release of Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, a group of the fan tourists overtook their guides in the middle of a Wookie symposium, and claimed the resort as their own state. Eyewitness accounts stated that the group celebrated for days and nights, playing what they called “Ewok music” on primitive drums and small Casio synthesizers.