Shluh

By John Beierle

Sous (pl. Swasa), Soussi, Shluh, Shleuh, Chleuh, Chleuch.

The Shluh (Chleuh) belong to the Masmuda branch of sedentary Berbers inhabiting the Grand-Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains and the plain of the Sous River Valley in southern Morocco. They are divided into a large number of relatively small named groups, of which the Seksawa are probably the best known. The Shluh originally extended throughout the coastal region now occupied by the Arabized West Moroccans. Islam penetrated the Shluh area by 1,000 A.D., and the Shluh became Muslim. At the end of the thirteenth century, the Shluh were subjected to heavy incursions by nomadic Maqil Arabs from the steppes of the Moulaya River Valley. However, because of the inadequacy of the land for extended pastoralism, these immigrant groups had either moved on or been absorbed into the population by the beginning of the sixteenth century. The Arab infusions were the strongest in the lower Sous River Valley, and today Arabs and Arabic speaking Berbers constitute one-third of the population, with many of the less Arabized Berbers also being bilingual in Arabic. The Shluh country was not fully conquered and brought under French administration until 1933.

Hoffman's estimate of the Shluh population of the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas around 1900 is three million people. Berque (1955: 42) estimated the Seksawa population to be about 12,000, located in 80 settlements and 11 districts or cantons (TAQBILTS).

The indigenous language of the Shluh is Tashilhait Berber, which is divided into three regional dialects: Shilha, spoken by the Shluh of the Western High Atlas, the lower Sous River Valley, and the region between the Anti-Atlas and the Saguia el Hamra; Es-Susi, spoken on the upper Sous; and Drawa, spoken by the Shluh on the southern slopes of the Anti-Atlas and High Atlas, west and north of the Dra (Hoffman 1967: 22).

The Shluh are a sedentary population and occupy permanent settlements. There are two basic house types, that used in the mountains and that used on the plains (in the Sous Valley and near the coast). Houses are arranged into compact villages or small hamlets, frequently surrounded by walls or a dense thorn hedge, and often equipped with high watchtowers. The town of Taroudant is the major commercial center for the area, with a population of about 8,000 inhabitants, mostly blacks, Arabs, and other non-Shluh peoples. There are several other towns in the Shluh area with populations of 1,000 or more. In general, the largest villages, containing 100 to 200 families, are located in defensible positions at the heads of ravines, with accessibility to pasture land on the plateau. In former times and even today in some areas, a number of hamlets tend to cluster around a central fortified granary (AGADIR). This is particularly characteristic of the Seksawa, where the granaries are elaborated into fortresses serving an entire tribe or subtribe. During the past century, as the power of the Sultan of Morocco and the great CAIDS has been extended into the region, the granaries have fallen into disuse, generally being replaced by forts and castles (CASBAHS) built by the chiefs and caids as protection against one another and especially from their subjects.

The economy is primarily agricultural, utilizing plow cultivation, irrigation, and the terracing of fields. The staple crops are barley and wheat, with subsidiary crops of sorghum, chick-peas, broad beans, potatoes, turnips, melons, gourds, hemp, henna, saffron, walnuts, almonds, apples, apricots, dates, figs, grapes, olives, oranges, peaches, pears, and pomegranates. Among the Seksawa, the staple crop is barley, followed by maize (formerly millet). Animal husbandry is second in importance, with large numbers of cattle, sheep, and goats being kept for meat and dairy products. Among the Seksawa there are some 4,000 head of cattle, 20,000 sheep, and 30,000 goats. These animals are milked, but the milk is not drunk, being made instead into butter. Donkeys and mules are employed as draught animals. The Shtuka division of the Shluh do much fishing and shell-fishing, while the various groups of the Sous Valley engage in a substantial amount of gathering, particularly of the Argan seeds (Argania sideroxylon), from which oil is expressed.

Trade is an important feature of the economy for many groups, and weekly markets are a widespread cultural pattern.

Cultivated land is privately owned and can be sold or leased. Individuals may acquire rights to land by cultivating it, and to wells by digging them. Grazing and forest lands, irrigation systems, and fortified granaries (AGADIRS) are all collectively owned by the community (or sometimes a larger group). In the mountain areas, people are freehold cultivators, but in the plains ownership of land is in the hands of fewer people, thus making sharecropping common.

There are a number of exogamous patrilineages called bone or IKHS among the Shluh, each consisting of from 10 to 50 families and headed by the eldest male member. At the core of each extended family is a minor patrilineage. The local community consists of a number of localized patrilineages or clan-barrios, each of which occupies a small hamlet by itself or a specific quarter in a larger village. These unite for common protection in a social unit called a MUDA. The MUDA is the basic land-owning and political unit, governed by a democratic assembly (JEMAA), which meets on Fridays at the mosque to discuss such things as irrigation policies, pasturage allotments, and dates of specific harvests, and to exercise minor judicial functions. The JEMAA is composed of all the arms-bearing men, but lineage and extended family heads exert the major influence in decision-making.

Marriages are arranged through a go-between and involve a bride-price in money or substantial presents, customarily given to the bride as a dowry, rather than retained by her father. Virginity of the bride is demanded and tested. Monogamy is almost universal. Although polygyny is legally permissible, there is generally a strong folk prejudice against it, and in recent times it has been practiced only by the very rich.

The Shluh household unit is a small, patrilocal extended family, consisting of a father and two or three married sons, their wives, and their families. Each component nuclear family occupies a separate room in the house. Even after the death of the father, the sons try to remain together as long as possible, although among the Shtuka there is a tendency to establish a new household nearby.

Inheritance is patrilineal by a man's sons collectively, with the eldest acting as an administrator for the undivided estate. Upon division of the estate, the land and half of the movable property are divided equally among the sons, while the remainder of the movable property is given in fifth shares to the widow and each daughter, with any remainder again being distributed among the sons. This type of property division prevails in the groups of the Sous Valley, while in other groups, the widow's and daughters' shares may be different and are often smaller.

Egalitarianism is a strong characteristic of the mountain Shluh, but in those areas more directly under the control of the Sultan of Morocco, class differentiation has taken place. There are six stratified classes; (a) the feudal aristocracy (e.g. the "grand caids" whose positions resemble those of the feudal lords of Western Europe); (b) the religious classes of CHORFA (alleged descendants of Muhammed) and MARABOUTS (holy and learned men); (c) commoners ('AMMA); d) Haratin (mixed descendants of the aboriginal black inhabitants and freed slaves, usually smiths and artisans, who form an endogamous, despised "caste"); (e) Jews (also a despised group); and, in former days (f) slaves (blacks imported from the Sudan).

Despite the variability of settlements in size and construction, the local community is socially very uniform. As noted previously, the community consists of a number of localized patrilineages or clan-barrios, each occupying a small hamlet by itself or a quarter of a larger village.

At the supra-community level, the most crucial political unit is the district or canton (TAQBILT), basically a petty state composed of perhaps a dozen or more communities that may act in unison, especially in times of war. Where traditional conditions prevail, the district is governed by a council called a JEMAA or DIWAN, composed of one representative from each lineage (IKHS) in the component communities. On occasion, a specific lineage or hamlet has the exclusive right to represent the community on the district council. The district council tends to be composed of more or less wealthy or influential men, thus giving an oligarchic character to the assembly, in direct contrast to the more democratic character of the MUDA council. The district council makes decisions on war, adjudicates disputes, and exercises administrative and legislative functions. Annually, one of the members, commonly from the component communities in rotation, is elected president (AMGHAR) of the council or presiding officer (MOQADDEM), whose powers lie primarily in the arbitration of disputes. From three to twelve districts constitute a "tribe," each of which possesses a common name, common culture, and common territory, but rarely any political unity. Occasionally, several tribes tenuously unite into a confederation. The LEF, a moiety-like aggregation of districts (but not tribes), constitutes dual alliances, representing the only political unit that transcends the districts. In practice, the districts of each tribe are normally divided equally between two LEFFS which are organized in a checkerboard pattern so that each district is adjacent to others of both its own and the opposite LEF. This dualistic arrangement often extends beyond the tribe so that the districts of a confederation or of a number of distinct tribes are distributed between two LEFFS. The districts of a LEF are allied with one another through treaties and bonds of hospitality, the effectiveness of which is directly noticeable at times of war, in trade negotiations, and in the mutual sharing of grazing rights. This LEF system thus preserves an equilibrium comparable to the balance of power achieved by modern political states. Among the Seksawa, evidence of LEFFS is barely discernible.

The LEF system is apparently quite old, and is found among the Jebala, the Rif, the Kabyle, and other Berber groups. It was widely practiced among the Shluh in the sixteenth century, and still exists in areas where the Sultan of Morocco's influence has not penetrated. The system has generally broken down in the last century and with it the district organization, council government and collective granaries. This disintegrative effect has been brought about largely by the expansion of the direct authority of the Sultan of Morocco into the Shluh territory, with resulting acculturative changes in the political structure of the native institutions (e.g. the establishment of "great CAIDS" in the latter half of the nineteenth century).

Warfare was a common practice among the Shluh long before the modern encroachments of the Sultan and the great CAIDS. Such wars usually involved two districts and were generally caused by blood vengeance or territorial infringements. The district that was attacked alerted its LEF allies who attempted to settle the matter peacefully. Failing this, the two LEF groups found themselves involved in a general war. Each district fought independently of its allies. War chiefs or leaders were never appointed by the Shluh in contrast to other Berber groups.

The Shluh collection consists of six documents, three are translations from the French, and three are in English. 1: Berque and 2: Montagne are the major works in the collection supplemented by the more recent data presented in 5: Hatt. 1: Berque is a lengthy monograph concentrating on the Seksawa, but bringing in comparative data from other groups in Morocco and North Africa. Although its focus is on the inter-relationships between law and religion, this work also includes much information on geography and environment. 2: Montagne deals with the history and political evolution of the Shluh, dealing in turn with the Sous region, with the political organization of the Berber republics, and with the rise to personal power of individual chiefs. 3: Dupas is a short description of the community storehouses in use among the Shluh. 4: Hoffman contains general information on the structure of traditional society, ecology, and economy.

In 1993, two additional documents were added to the collection, 5: Hatt and 6: HRAF. 5: Hatt updates the existing material on the Shluh through 1971. This work, a dissertation, deals with the Idaw Tanan confederation of the Shluh, and contains a wealth of information on economy, subsistence patterns, social structure, and social relationships. Of particular interest in this last aspect is the relationship between landowning tribesmen and the hereditary "saints" or MARABOUTS. 6: HRAF is an ethnographic bibliography on the Shluh.

The culture summary and synopsis were prepared by John Beierle in March 1993.

• AGADIR -- fortified storehouse -- categories 343, 712

• AGURRAM (IGWRRAMEN) -- marabouts; holy men celebrated for their learning -- category 792

• AMAZZAL -- water administrators -- category 624

• AMGHAR (sheikh) -- president of a district or tribal council -- category 634, 619, and sometimes 693

• ANNEZZARFOU -- an arbiter with a great knowledge of local law -- category 692

• 'AR -- a conditional curse for the purpose of compelling somebody to grant a request (associated with the seeking of asylum or sanctuary)-- categories 571, 754

• AYTARBA'IN -- category 625

• CADI -- judge of Koranic or canonical law -- category 693

• CAID -- great chief -- category 631

• Canton (TAQBILT) -- district (canton in the French and Spanish literature is equivalent to district; used by Shluh for both district and tribe; used by Coon and Hart in the Rif material for a major lineage or commune -- category 634

• CASBAH -- fortress (usually made by a great chief or CAID) -- category 712

• confederation -- a joining together of 20-30 tribes into a political unit -- category 631

• DIWAN (INFLAS) -- district councils -- category 634

• fraction (IFASSEN) -- a political unit composed of approximately 10 villages - - category 634

• FUQAHA (AFQIR) -- old man; a legal scholar -- category 693

• IFASSEN (pl. AFUS) -- a division of a tribe into smaller territorial units, usually equivalent to "fractions" in administrative terminology -- category 634

• IKHS -- lineage -- category 613

• IMZRAN -- investigator, inspector -- category 692

• JEMAA -- a democratic assembly at the community, district and tribal levels -- categories 623, 634, 619

• KHOMS -- a name for a tribal division; a "fifth" -- category 619

• LEF(F) -- a moiety-like (or pseudo-moiety) aggregation of districts -- category 616

• MARABOUT -- holy men celebrated for their learning -- category 792

• MARABOUTIC brotherhoods -- categories 795, 792

• MAXZAN -- the central government -- category 657

• MOQADDEM -- president of a council -- categories 622, 623, 634 (depending on the author's description of the role)

• MOUDA (MUDA) -- "sous-fraction"; a locality; a hamlet, ward or commune (depending on the author's orientation); a landowning unit and a basic political unit; also a collection of minor lineages to form a larger group -- categories 621, 632, 634

• 'O MAL -- a council of notables who see to the functioning, maintenance and security of the AGADIRS -- category 571

• rural communes -- categories 632, 634 (depending on context)

• "saints" (patron) -- category 792 (possibly 776 at times)

• SIBA -- a revolt of the population -- category 669

• SOFF -- an alliance of families -- category 571

• subfraction -- a union of 3-4 villages together -- category 632

• TADCHERT -- hamlet or village -- category 621

• TALEB -- public scribe -- category 212 (also possible 794, 875)

• TIGHREMT -- fortified houses -- categories 342, 712

• TIMECHERET -- category 474

• tribe -- a union of 3-10 fractions -- category 619

• village-congregations -- categories 621, 623, 794 (depending on context)

Berque, Jacques. Structures socials du Haut-Atlas [Social structures of the High Atlas]. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1955. 8, 493 p., illus.

Hoffman, Bernard G. The structure of traditional Moroccan rural society. The Hague, Mouton, 1967. 223 p., illus., maps.