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Haratin
The Haratin (, singular ''Ḥarṭānī''), also spelled Haratine or Harratin, are an ethnic group found in western Sahel and southwestern Maghreb. The Haratin are mostly found in modern Mauritania (where they form a plurality), Morocco, Western Sahara, Senegal, and Algeria. In Tunisia and Libya, they are referred to as Shwashin (''Chouachin'', ''Chouachine''; singular: ''Shwashin'', ''Chouchan''). The Haratin speak Maghrebi Arabic dialects and Berber languages. They are believed to largely descend from native black populations that inhabited the Sahara. They form the single largest defined ethnolinguistic group in Mauritania where they account for 40% of the population (~1.5 million). In parts of Arab-Berber Maghreb, they are sometimes referred to as a "socially distinct class of workers". The Haratin have been, and still commonly are socially isolated in some Maghrebi countries, living in segregated, Haratin-only ghettos. They are commonly perceived as an endogamous group of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beidane
Beidane or Bidān, also spelled Baydan or Beydan (), is an Arabic term used in Mauritania to refer to lighter-skinned or "white Moors", in contrast to the term Haratine, which refers to those with a darker complexion or "black Moors". The Beidane, who are of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry, represent 30% of Mauritania's population. The language of the Beidane is Hassaniya Arabic. Al-Bidān (which literally translates to "Land of the whites") is an endonym used within Mauritania and Western Sahara by the Bidān people to refer to themselves. The name used by outsiders to refer to the Beydane is Moors from which the country of Mauritania derives its name from the Latin designation of their inhabitants (Mauri) as the Bidan form the majority of the population. "Moor" is not the term for a specific ethnic group, but rather the term used by the European Christians in reference to the Arab populations that hailed from North Africa in the medieval period and took control of parts of Malta, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauritania
Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, Algeria to Algeria–Mauritania border, the northeast, Mali to Mali–Mauritania border, the east and southeast, and Senegal to Mauritania–Senegal border, the southwest. By land area Mauritania is the 11th-largest country in Africa and 28th-largest in the world; 90% of its territory is in the Sahara. Most of its population of some 4.3 million lives in the temperate south of the country; roughly a third of the population is concentrated in the capital and largest city, Nouakchott, on the Atlantic coast. The country's name derives from Mauretania, the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic. Berbers occupied what is now Mauritania by the beginning of the third centu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocco border, the east, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to Morocco–Western Sahara border, the south. Morocco also claims the Spain, Spanish Enclave and exclave, exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and several small Plazas de soberanía, Spanish-controlled islands off its coast. It has a population of approximately 37 million. Islam is both the official and predominant religion, while Arabic and Berber are the official languages. Additionally, French and the Moroccan dialect of Arabic are widely spoken. The culture of Morocco is a mix of Arab culture, Arab, Berbers, Berber, Culture of Africa, African and Culture of Europe, European cultures. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city is Casablanca. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sahrawis
The Sahrawis, or Sahrawi people ( '), are an ethnic group native to the western part of the Sahara desert, which includes the Western Sahara, southern Morocco, much of Mauritania, and along the southwestern border of Algeria. They are of mixed Hassani Arab and Sanhaji Berber descent, as well as West African and other indigenous populations. As with most peoples living in the Sahara, the Sahrawi culture is a mix of Arab and indigenous African elements. Sahrawis are composed of many tribes and are largely speakers of the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic. Etymology The Arabic word ' () literally means "Inhabitant of the Desert". The word ''Sahrawi'' is derived from the Arabic word ' (), meaning "desert". A man is called a Sahrawi, and a woman is called a Sahrawiya. In other languages it is pronounced in similar or different ways: * Berber: ''Aseḥrawi'' or ''Aneẓrofan'' * English: ''Sahrawi'' or ''Saharawi'' * Spanish: ''Saharaui'' (''saharauita'', ''saharauiya'') * Fren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berbers
Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connections are identified by their usage of Berber languages, most of them mutually unintelligible, which are part of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They are indigenous peoples, indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger. Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa Oasis. Descended from Stone Age tribes of North Africa, accounts of the Imazighen were first mentioned in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Ancient Egyptian writings. From about 2000 BC, Berber languages spread westward from the Nile, Nile Valley across the northern Sahara int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnawa
The Gnawa () (or Gnaoua, Ghanawa, Ghanawi, Gnawi'; ) are an ethnic group inhabiting Morocco, that had been brought as slaves from the West African Sahel. The name Gnawa originated in the indigenous language of North Africa and the Sahara, Sahara Desert. The phonology of this term according to the grammatical principles of Berber languages, Berber is ''agnaw'' (singular) and ''ignawen'' (plural), which means "black person." Gnawa music was inscribed in 2019 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. History The Gnawa population is generally believed to originate from the Sahelian region of West Africa, which had long and extensive trading and political ties with Morocco. The Gnawa are an ethnic group who were brought to Morocco as slaves, and their ancestry is traced to parts of West Africa. After the abolition of slavery, they became a part of the Sufi order in the Maghreb. While adopting Islam, the Gnawa continued to celebrate ritual possessio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afro-Arabs
Afro-Arabs, African Arabs, or Black Arabs are Arabs who have predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry. These include primarily minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The term may also refer to various Arab groups in certain African regions. Overview From the 7th century onward Muslim communities were established along the coast of Eritrea and Somalia, subsequently spreading inland. The Arab slave trades, which began in pre-Islamic times but reached their height between 650 AD and 1900 AD, transported millions of African people from the Nile Valley, the Horn of Africa, and the eastern African coast across the Red Sea to Arabia as part of the Red Sea slave trade. Millions more were taken from West Africa and Central Africa across the Sahara as part of the trans-Saharan slave trade. By around the first millennium AD, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb also includes the territorial dispute, disputed territory of Western Sahara. As of 2018, the region had a population of over 100 million people. The Maghreb is usually defined as encompassing much of the northern part of Africa, including a large portion of the Sahara Desert, but excluding Egypt and the Sudan, which are considered to be located in the Mashriq — the eastern part of the Arab world. The traditional definition of the Maghreb — which restricted its scope to the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya — was expanded in modern times to include Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara. During the era of al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula (711–1492), the Maghreb's inhabita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Algeria–Niger border, the southeast by Niger; to Algeria–Western Sahara border, the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to Algeria–Morocco border, the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The capital and List of cities in Algeria, largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast. Inhabited since prehistory, Algeria has been at the crossroads of numerous cultures and civilisations, including the Phoenicians, Numidians, Ancient Rome, Romans, Vandals, and Byzantine Greeks. Its modern identity is rooted in centuries of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arab Muslim migration waves since Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the seventh century and the subsequent Arabization, Arabisation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is military occupation, occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. It is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa and the list of countries and dependencies by population density, second most sparsely populated territory in the world, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at 618,600. Nearly 40% of that population lives in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city of Western Sahara. Previously occupied by Spain (Spanish Colony) as the Spanish Sahara until 1975, Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963 after a Moroccan demand. In 1965, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonization, de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senegal
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea to Guinea–Senegal border, the southeast and Guinea-Bissau to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, the southwest. Senegal nearly surrounds The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, which separates Senegal's southern region of Casamance from the rest of the country. It also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegal's capital is Dakar. Senegal is the westernmost country in the mainland of the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia. It owes its name to the Senegal River, which borders it to the east and north. The climate is typically Sahelian, though there is a wet season, rainy season. Senegal covers a land area of almost and has a population of around 18 million. The state is a Presidential system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tafilalt
Tafilalt or Tafilet (), historically Sijilmasa, is a region of Morocco, centered on its largest oasis. Etymology There are many speculations regarding the origin of the word "Tafilalt", however it is known that Tafilalt is a Berber word meaning "jug", which is specifically a pottery jar used to store water. History Although previous settlements existed, especially during the Roman period, the first continuously inhabited town in the area after the spread of Islam was Sijilmasa, founded by the Midrarid dynasty. It was on the direct caravan route from the Niger River to Tangier, and attained a considerable degree of prosperity. In the 17th century, the Alawi dynasty of Morocco first achieved political ascendancy in Tafilalt, and in 1606, Sultan Zidan Abu Maali hid in Tafilalt, where he made a profit off of gold mined in the area, built an army, eventually taking control of the city of Marrakesh. A few years later in 1610, Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli also built up an army in the Tafi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
