You are a tree, but without roots...Gypsies of Algeria
Officially absent, they are not affected or affected, they live as strangers and die as strangers, there is no stable house they can return to, and there are no official or unofficial statistics about their number, because they do not enter schools, the Koranic schools, and they do not register themselves in the civil status records, they are simply They do not have a birth certificate, a national identity card, or a family book that proves the marriage of the spouses.
gypsy
The name "Ghajar", or as they are called locally as "Bani Adas", "Bani Hejres", and "Al-Omariun" in eastern Algeria, has been heard by me since I was a little girl, when I traveled many kilometers with my family to visit my aunt Malika, who lives in the city of Guelma (located in the north-east of the country, 537 km from the Algerian capital), as well as Beit Jedi, located in the town of Dra' El Mizan (west of the province of Tizi Ouzou, located 100 km east of the capital Algiers).
On the edges of forests and lands, where farmers leave harvest residues, such as wheat straw, corn stalks and chickpeas, gypsies set up their tents made of burlap, and the remains of plastic and wood. and they departed.
Mom's stories
My mother asked curiously: Who are they? And what are they doing here? She replied: "It is a wandering people, whose harsh nature is based on the struggle for survival. They eat the remnants of the harvest seasons of the land, where they prefer to settle in the summer, especially wheat and barley, where they collect and filter it from the dirt stuck to it, then they grind and cook it over traditional stoves, which consist of of combustible materials such as wood.
They settle for a while in these yellow plains, then leave while they are saturated with the remains of the grain they collected, leaving it similar to the arid desert, and they return in a scene that is repeated every season, they have no state, no map, nor sovereignty, they comply with special customs and traditions, such as: customary marriage, and herbal medicine and practicing magic rituals.
I still remember what my grandmother said about them: “They are Gypsies, but they are much richer than us, because they are skilled at begging in the big cities, to which they migrate in the winter.”
A young girl in her twenties, a beautiful face, clear eyes, tattoos above her eyebrows and below her mouth, her hair covered with a black scarf, and the smell of burning smoke wafting from her clothes, told me that they were "people" like trees but without roots.
One of the distinguishing signs that distinguishes them from the rest of the Roma in the world is their tendency to loose and light black fabrics, in contrast to skirts, and long dresses embossed with flowers, frills, and stripes that reveal the charms of the female body, and their obsession with adornment, and ornaments such as coarse copper rings, and their brown skin that shows red gradations The blatant, making them different from us and eye-catching, and the tattoos and drawings that cover the bodies of women and men together as a social manifestation, reflecting their identity in light of their continuous travel in the wilderness.
Those images remained engraved in my memory until I grew up, and I knew that they were the “outcast” gypsies of Algeria, reading the palm or the cup, writing incantations and decoding incantations, and they were called by different names, such as: “Bani Addas”, “Al-Jitano” and “Al-Omarion”; They are widely spread in the plains and hills of the province of Setif (an Algerian state located in the north-east of the country), because this city is well known for the cultivation of hard and soft wheat, as well as barley and oats (oats), and they are distributed outside the city of Sidi Issa, or as some like to call it "Awwas". (An Algerian town located southeast of Algiers, 171 km away from it).
gypsies
I got to know their women more on the trains, their outward appearance aroused my curiosity, and reminded me of the customs and traditions of women in African tribes, as they would put their children on their backs, and tie them on their bodies with one piece of cloth, as if they were displaced refugees, adjusting the rhythm of their daily lives to the timing of trains, taking them more than Five times a day, some of them are professional begging, others use clever tricks to make money, such as selling wet, scented tissues and mineral water.
I still remember that girl who was in her twenties, with a beautiful face, bright eyes, and clear eyes. There are tattoos above her eyebrows and below her mouth, covering her hair with a black scarf that reflects the difficult circumstances she is living in and the pressures of marginalization and contempt, and the smell of burning smoke emanating from her clothes.
She told me that they are forcibly inclined to isolation, as society rejects them, and considers them to be outside the values, customs and traditions, so her "people" are known for their instability in one place, and they remained wandering on their faces, as they are like a tree without roots, but what distinguishes them is their strong passion, which They include all of them, for feelings of affection, harmony and brotherhood are a human characteristic for them.
It became clear to me by talking to her that women have a great affair with them. They prefer women over men, contrary to what is common in our society, and their marriage ceremonies differ greatly from our customs and traditions. Marriage to them occurs at the age of less than eighteen, and it may be in Four or thirteen years old.
fictional fiction
Many of the popular examples that our tongues use highlight their social presence, the most prominent of which is: “You permit Zarqa and ride you to Bani Addas,” a proverb that is frequently used by the inhabitants of the Algerian East, and it symbolizes the precious thing that is expensive when it is licensed, and becomes accessible to the “rabble” of people.
And very limited are the novels that dealt with the life of the gypsies, including “The Circles and the Doors” by the Algerian novelist and narrator Abdel Wahab Issawi, which was issued by Meem Publishing and Distribution House, and it won the Souad Al-Sabah Award in 2017.
The protagonist of the novel is the young "Baba Ahmed", the son of one of the lowly Ibadi families residing in the "M'zab Valley" (originally an oasis located in a deep and narrow valley, consisting of five walled cities, located within the desert, about 600 km south of Algiers), The civilization of this region is manifested in the adherence of the inhabitants to their religion, originality and customs.
Ahmed "Lamzabi" is the only son of his father Abdelkader, the imam of the mosque in his area, and one of the sheikhs of the Tijaniya Zawiya Si Abdel Rahman Baba. Abdul Qadir strived to be Ahmed the heir of this religious family, but he split the stick of obedience, and rebelled against the internal order of the palace, he did not like anything except his mother, "Lala Zahra", and the edges of the oasis where the gypsies of Algeria or "Bani Addas" reside, so he has relations with the sons of This world, so he accompanied the gypsy “Agil” and got addicted to their strange dance. He fell in love with the gypsy girl “Gala” and was attached to “Al-Laqmi” (gray-colored juice that comes out of palm trees, very similar to pineapple juice, and is formed inside a stem The palm tree is very rich in minerals.
But Ahmed's dream of marrying the gypsy "Gala" did not come true, because she mysteriously disappeared on their wedding day, and on that day Ahmed separated from this world and decided to leave without return. It was she who was looking for her, as she embodied the image of the first gypsy that he loved in his childhood.
History of the gypsies of Algeria
Finding accurate information about the gypsies of Algeria is not easy. Very little attention is paid to documenting this world, which makes general and superficial excerpts available about it in books and postgraduate research, and perhaps the main reason for this is history, which pronounced the life of a people without an identity Or nationality, and his life is not without wandering and homelessness in the deserts and plains, which was confirmed by many researchers, such as a study by Ashraf Saleh Muhammad Sad, historian and academic specializing in medieval history and civilization, and Ola Al-Toukhi Ismail, in which: “Gypsies have a presence in Arab history, but they Throughout this history, they have lived marginal lives, distinct and mysterious, rich and unknown, which has made them an unsolvable mystery.”
There is a difference between the Gypsies of the Iberian Island or the Iberian Peninsula, which was formerly called the Andalusian Peninsula or the Andalusian Peninsula, and the Gypsies of the Algerian East, who came as immigrants from border areas or descended from other origins. They fled to the mountains, and mingled with the rest of the gypsies.”
Who are the gypsies? Where did they come from and where did they settle? Anthropologist Murad Saadoun considers that they "live without a homeland, but all homelands are theirs, so every place can be stable for them."
“Gypsies are not indigenous people, they came to Algeria by nomadism, and they do not have official documents or Algerian citizenship. They are a group of people who live far from the prevailing censorship and restrictions and the guillotine of the law.”
There are other accounts related to the origin of the Roma, as mentioned by the Algerian university Salim Bouajja, from the Faculty of Arts and Language, and a former professor of anthropology, in his interview with us: “There is a difference between the Roma of the Iberian Island or the Iberian Peninsula, which was formerly called the Andalusian Peninsula or the Peninsula Andalusian, and the Gypsies of the Algerian East, who came as immigrants from border areas or descended from other origins.
A study entitled "The Marginalized Roma in Arab Societies...History and Identity" revealed diverging opinions about the origin and source of the Roma, even about the dates of the start of their migrations. But everything that is said about the gypsies may seem similar to what can reach us, if we look at ourselves and our societies, not as unified, fixed blocks, but as separate groups, formed by nomadism and still formulating their identity, shrouded in mystery and forgetting most of the details of their lives.
Source: websites
