Submission to Academia Letters
Preserving the Amazigh Fortified Granaries
Christian Sorand, Researcher
Preserving the Amazigh Fortified Granaries
One common feature that characterizes the Amazigh (Berber) civilization
of North Africa is their overall sense of community life. Food and water are of course important social features, particularly in the mountains or in the desert. In the Djurdjura Mountains of Algeria, the Kabyles keep huge clay jars [‘ikufan’] for this purpose, a bit like the Minoans did in Crete [‘pithoi’, ]. In the Sahara Gourara region, the Zenete invented an intricate irrigation system to distribute the phreatic water supply to turn the desert green. This water distribution system is called foggara. And there exists a tentative attempt to have it recognized by Unesco. In the past, Mouloud Mammeri (1917-1989), the Algerian writer and sociologist had fought already to preserve the Ahellil, a local performance of poetry, polyphonic chant, music, and dance. In 2008, it was declared a Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Today’s paper is dedicated to the fortified granaries, an architectural Amazigh conception. It is a social community food storage as well as a village defensive retreat against potential attackers.
What makes these granaries even more peculiar is that they can only be found according to a transversal line that goes from Agadir in the West to Fezzan in the East, roughly following the Saharian side of the Atlas Chain.
Their features as well as their names differ according to the area they have been built. In the Moroccan Sous region, the granaries are called ‘agadir’ [mean- ing ‘wall’ in the Cheuh language]. This accounts for the name of the seaside town of Agadir. In the Aures Mountains of Algeria, they are called ‘Guelaa’ or ‘Kalaa’ (Arabic for ‘citadel’) or ‘taq’liath’ (Chawi Berber). In the mountains of southern Tunisia, the granaries are known as ‘ghorfa’ , ] a room]. But when
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they form a complete construction having several levels, the monument is called a ’gasr’. There are also granaries in the Jebel Nefussa, in Tripolitania (Libya). But unfortunately, we know little about these apart that they are similar to the other existing Berber granaries.
The granaries share an identical concept. They are an assemblage of cells, each belonging to a family, forming a massive construction. To protect the food items, the cells open in an indoor yard or alley. The outside part of the granary is a plain wall used as a means of protection. Depending on where they are located or how many families own a cell, there are several floors. The upper levels can be reached either by a steep stair or a wooden ladder. In the south of Tunisia, the ’ghorfa’ has a rectangular shape crowned with a curved roof. One way of shaping the curve on the roof was to fill the empty cell with sand and then build the elongated roof dome.
In the Aures, the ’taq’liath’ is mostly built with stones and the roof is rein- forced with palm-tree trunks. Here, the cells are more or less square in shape but sometimes they have an opening to let the air in and to let some light inside. Sometimes, these openings use symbolic decoration.
The fortified granaries have much to reveal about the ‘Imazighen’ (pl. form of ‘Amazigh’). Too often, modernity or also politics, have incited to neglect the preservation of this amazing Berber legacy. Some have completely disappeared, while others have been abandoned. However, a few individuals are trying hard to keep the heritage alive. Recently, an Algerian FaceBook site called Tamaz a made an appeal to save the fortified granary nicknamed ‘El Kalaâ’ near the village of Kheirane, in the Aures. The comment said that ‘the Amazigh ancestors used to build the granaries at the foot of hills and mountains, on the southern side of the Aures to protect them from enemy attacks as well as to keep an eye on their orchards’.
Obviously, not enough has been done so far to preserve fortified granaries. It is not simply another way to keep an endangered heritage. We still have much to learn about these constructions. For instance, for the two areas best known by the author of the article (the ’ghorfa’ and the ’taq’liath’), it is still possible to collect useful information locally. In the Aures Mountains, the granaries display interesting architectural symbols that are in keeping sometimes with the signs found in traditional pottery. The wall openings reveal triangular friezes.
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Sometimes, a cross figure in a circular pattern stands for a figurative Sun. These communities are essentially agricultural and the designs reveal an old link to Mother Nature. Similar patterns adorn pottery, jewelry, or even tattoos.
There is a need also to work collectively in order to gather more substantial data along the Atlas Saharian side from the Jebel Nefousa in Libya to the Sous region of Morocco. Undoubtedly, this is another potential area for a Unesco World Heritage site.
Christian Sorand
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References
Bibliography:
Encyclopédie Berbère, Edisud, Aix-en-Provence, France
Sorand, Christian - La Guelaa aurassienne, AWAL, Cahiers d’études berbères, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, 1987, ISSN 0764-7573, pp.139-146 & https://www.academia.edu/32770483/La_Guelâa_aurassienne
E.B., M. Peyron and J. Vignet-Zunz - Greniers, p. 3213-3222, https://doi.org/ 10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.1780
M.-C. Delaigue, J. Onrubia-Pintado, A. Amarir, Y. Bokbot - Une Technique
d’Engrangement, Un Symbole Perché: Le grenier fortifié nord-africain, https://www.academia.edu
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