The Tunisian Village Of “People Of The Cave” .. The Filming Site Of “Star Wars” Is In Danger Of Extinction
A report by the New York Times shed light on a Tunisian village steeped in history, built by the Amazighs hundreds of years ago.
The village is called “Chenine” and it is located in the southern desert of Tunisia, on top of a high rock. Only a few families are left inhabited.
The American newspaper report estimates that only about 500 people, most of whom are Amazigh farmers and herders, still live in those rock-cut caves, where every night a few spots of light emerge in dilapidated houses.
Halima Najjar (38 years old), who lives in the village, expressed in an interview with the New York Times her regret over what happened to her village, and asked if there was a chance to save it from destruction, although “the prospects seem weak,” according to the report.
The old life in the village was focused on pressing olives and grazing sheep, but today it is faltering in the face of severe drought, according to what Najjar said, which is the reason behind the decision of many people to leave the village for other destinations, including Europe, which today they have no way to reach except death boats.
Halima says in this regard, “I want to leave for my future, I want to try something new, do something in my life, it was difficult for us here,” while her mother, Salima Najjar, 74, said, “We are together now, but every time one of them grows up, Then he leaves.” Before she sighed, "We're left alone here."
?How did the village arise
The residents of the village, located about twenty kilometers from the wilaya of Tataouine, believe that the story of the People of the Cave, which was mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, took place in their area, and that the shrine of the small mosque known as the “Seven Sleepers” is the place where the youth of the people of the cave were sheltered. They are buried in the cave at the top of a mountain there, according to popular beliefs.
But the truth is otherwise. Almost a thousand years ago, the people who built Shenini and the nearby cave villages decided to do just that, to protect their precious food stores from raiders (invaders).
They began building, using abundant golden stone for camouflage, erecting a granary on top of their fortified castle-like mountain, and then hollow cellars for living out of the mountainside just below.
After that, their livelihood prospered despite the harsh desert conditions, due to the abundant olive harvest for oil production, and the storage of food in the face of drought.
On the mountain, their cave dwellings protected them from the summer heat and the winter cold.
Today, some of their descendants still live in fairly modernized caves, sleeping inside and cooking and keeping livestock outside.
In the only café of Shenini, the villagers can see the concrete group that began to invade the area known as the “new Shenini”, which is one of the settlements built by the government after Tunisia’s independence in 1956 from France to attract the residents of the region from the mountain peaks to modern life.
In the new Xinyi, there is running water and electricity, amenities that the old mountain village lacked until a decade or two ago.
The 120 or so families who live in New Shenini can come and go via a paved road, while their relatives who stayed in the original area still haul everything up the mountain by hand or on donkeys.
But neither village had enough jobs or many recreational facilities.
Over time, many moved to Tunis or to France and other parts of Europe in search of work, while many other mountain villages in the region began to become depopulated, and their granaries turned into tourist attractions, especially since the region formed the filming location for the fictional movie. The famous "Star Wars" (Star Wars 1977).
However, in exchange for these shortcomings, the mountain provides clean air and stunning views.
In the area, a whitewashed mosque atop a ridge, its call to prayer echoes from the surrounding rocky outcrops.
“Life is hard, but life is good,” said Ali Dignishi, 28, a tour guide in Shenini. “Many people are rich, they have everything, but they are not happy. If we had everything, life would have no meaning. It is true that we need to work, but everything comes little by little.”
"We have ambitions, we want new house cars, but the epidemic wiped out everything," said Dignichi, who used to earn a living from the buses of tourists who used to take daily trips to the region, before all his ambitions were curbed by the Corona pandemic.
The impact of the Corona epidemic was strong on the entire tourism sector in Tunisia, then came the drought, which increased the suffering of the people of the region.
For the last four years, Shenini has barely had any rain, upsetting drought-tolerant farming methods honed over centuries of farming.
These days, the olive trees have collapsed, the five remaining olive presses in the village have been closed due to the lack of olives, the oasis is now shrinking, and the dates produced by the palm trees are now only fit for animals.
Therefore, the sheep that were grazing in the area had to be sold due to lack of fodder, and the vegetables could no longer grow, forcing the villagers to buy their own stuff rather than benefiting from the local agriculture.
To reflect on the situation, Omar Mousavi, 45, a Shenini resident, said: "One day, this village may be empty of people."
Source: websites