The term of “nomad” has become recently popular in modern fields. It is used excessively in diaspora, human rights, gender studies, and migration as well. Several researchers and practitioners consciously or unconsciously utilize it to mean various ends. Of these purposes, one is to convey the sense of a constant movement at a venture from one place to another, or from time to time. Indeed, nomadism is a major trait of Moroccan culture. Therefore, the essay expounds nomads in the first point. The second point is to highlight tribalism correlation with nomadism. The third and last focal point to tackle is nomadic contributions to the economy of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Who are nomads at large ?

Normally this questioned can be simplistically answered as follows. They are people residing in complete isolation from the cities, towns, and populated areas. So insufficient is this answer that lacks understanding of the fait accompli. Whenever a nomad is asked who are you in your country? I am my boss of myself. With this word, the answer communicates something very significant. It is their utter independence upon their own means and intellectual abilities in the service of their basic needs. For instance, they still use very old ways of treatment and medicine. Their body is usually devoid of chemicals and recent health problems disseminating among categories of children and old peoples. Their eating habits save their energy and resources to invest in more benefiting tasks, like bringing water from wells and collecting sticks and woods for cooking and heat and warm purposes.

Nomads

Nomad Lifestyle

Their total isolation from the whole world has made them cognizant of their merciless destiny, unless they do not adopt and adapt their own working strategies for making living. Namely, they live on what they usually breed and look after cattle yearly and quarterly, such as camels, sheep, goats, and other kinds of animals. They sell the cattle in its due time to make money and do business. Mostly, they do not pay bills of electricity and water because they rely on their own selves. This is one reason behind the state’s ignorance, not to mention they appeal the concerned authorities to finance and support them during hard times. Sometimes, the state provides the sustenance to feed and rid them of temporary famine, such heavy snow in winter. Ultimately, nomads are best called self-dependent and tax-exempted citizens. They seem to be very conscious of their demanding role to uphold in a harder life although they are uneducated.

Nomads Life

Book Your Morocco Tour

Book your Morocco trip with FriendlyMorocco expert team. We have wide selections of tours to choose from. The tours we provide are are well-organized to suit every passenger’s needs. It is also possible to customize your tours. Feel free to contact us to get a quote or for more info!

Discover our tour Packages

Tribalism and nomadism

The second point is to highlight tribalism correlation with nomadism. Nobody can deny this historical fact. The changing and compelling circumstances hold sway over the concept of tribalism and nomadism. Here, Moroccan tribes are dissimilar compared to Arab tribes or Latin tribes or elsewhere. The first and primary factor is the perception and weight of culture upon its own carriers. Moroccan nomads in Morocco are changing to be urban (civilized) people. I said in Morocco, because there Moroccans in other countries still bearing the nomad values and culture within urban settings. They shift from rural world to urban areas in order to benefit from urban facilities and drought of major green rural areas.

Nomad Ait Atta -Morocco Tribe

Nomad’s Amazighness or arabness

The Moroccan Nomads are seemingly Imazighen / Berbers or descendants of Arabs of Saudi origins. This reason makes difference between Moroccan nomads. The tribes differ from one to another, so that they can stand out among tribal categories. The culture of Arab tribes is mainly patriarchal; whereas, Imazighen /Berbers’ culture is matriarchal. In a word, the principal role of woman in these tribes is crystal clear. It ranges from sex object to self agent and self-reliant. Nomads are also culturally-driven; nomads impose their ancestors’ cultures on their family members. If you are not like us, you are not ours. That is to say, tribalism within the group is so strong. Modes of thought are ingrained since the childhood in connection with nomadism and tribalism. The sense of belonging to tribe and nomad family has been already absorbed and brought up with. Finally, nomad offspring fail to efface the memories of the past even though they seek out to rebel against tribal and nomad values and culture. This said that the corrupting influence of tribalism is hardly exempted from. It has become penetrable and invisible as well as powerful though.

Amazigh Nomad

Arabic nomad

Nomad’s economical contributions

Nomadic promising contributions to the economy of the Kingdom of Morocco are inevitably undeniable. To initiate this interesting point, the nomad looks like as an uneducated, which means nationally unable to read and write, but, so to speak, is an uncertified engineer. The intellectual and mental capacities are always dormant. The countless majorities of rocky and rough areas in Morocco have previously been paved by nomads using donkeys or mules or other means of pavement the ways. The best examples are the pass of She-camel (Talghmt) and the pass of Tishka (vanished or rough). Thanks to nomads living in the area, these passes come to see light in modern era. They inspire educated engineers to plan and study the possibility of road success in a certain direction with reference to segment of the weather and site nature.

pass of tichka

Nomad’s role in tourism

Nobody can deny the fact that nomads are vital part in the Moroccan touristic sector. Everybody seeks out to experience the nomad lifestyle in one way or another. Tourists and Moroccans sometimes organize campaigns to pay a visit to the nomad cottage and living sites. The purpose is to commiserate with them and prove the inability and fiasco of the local authorities. There are many initiatives and concerted efforts to lift them up and hone their living conditions; sometimes they reject them otherwise they fear to be exploited and wronged. This state of uncertainty renders many nomad families very uncommunicative and reserved in connection with official negotiations. The authorities following bureaucracy in issuing orders and system of hiarchy complicates the administrative measures to follow. The tourists and other visitors are good partners to deal with, if asked. Therefore, tourism is an integral part of nomad’s living resources, as well as the paramount contributors to bolstering the sector in question.

Nomad tent for tourists

Book Your Morocco Tour

Discover our tour Packages

Nomad’s Prowess

Mountainous areas remain till now the ideal site to eyewitness the tangible prowess of usually Berber nomads. This is reason that the vitality of their health is ascribed to their selected locations full of clean air and potable water. They sometimes use their homes to receive foreigners doing research into such relevant topics. Nomads are often fully aware of the Moroccan State’s official’s attendance in the area for specific reasons. To understand this, the Imilchil festival has recently witnessed a radical change in its organization. Many ones attend to get married towards the end of September. The state has started to directly intervene in lifestyle of the nomads. This occurs through officialzing and documenting the marriage through issuing a marriage certificate.

Imilchil festival

nomads and weather forecasting:

Nomads are great experts in weather forecasting. They expect the weather cases from their morning and stars movement or stars appearance / stars disappearance. In this way, they teach others that the shift from self-reliance to forecast the weather to TV/ Radio and other means of communication is a passivizing or malfunctioning process of the mind. The human mind is best used by nomads to the fullest. The rain, for instance, is deciphered by the changing clouds into a brown color or windy days are concomitant with the season of summer or spring. The kinds of wind blowing can be predicted in specific times throughout the year. This process of wind blowing plays an important role in inseminating flowers and plants to fertilize and sprout to flourish and bear fruit at the end.

In conclusion, in a manner of speaking, a nomad is a tribalism-loaded and nomadism-driven culture. This refers to the learning strategies they follow to spoon-feed their coming offspring the nomadism. It is taught to them as a culture, a mode of thought, and lifestyle to adhere and emulate. In gender studies a woman is comparatively seen as a sex object, but in nomad culture a woman is seen as bread winner every day.

What are you waiting for!?

If you visit nomad people’s living ways and conditions, you are to realize how beautiful life you live. They are sometimes upbringing bare-foot children and amply unclothed individuals. It is not their own choice to live in remote areas, but because of their providence resources. Any comment or remark or suggestion or further information is highly appreciated.