Beni Farah: The Heritage

The historical village

Ljamaa Lekbir or the great mosque stands majestically overlooking the old village of Beni Farah. This mosque at the top of a rocky and rugged peak, with the rocks of Thishoubar, are striking landmarks. Ljamaa Lekbir can be seen from most parts of the village. Its white colour amongst grey and fading houses stands it aside. Bellow it the houses are usually organised not as blocks but as double rows related by roof porticos (Thissakifeen). The most known row is probably Assrir. Unfortunately these roof porticos and their houses are decaying after being abandoned by their owners who moved to modern houses built of concrete.

L'jamaa Lekbir (the great mosque) at the top of the ancient village

Al Mahreb

Olive mills

There are probably three olive mills left in working order in Beni Farah. They are very traditional where the olive is first crushed by a heavy stone wheel that revolves in a large stony container. The wheel is turned around by a donkey or a mule. The resulting paste is then collected, heated and pressed to extract the oil. According to L'olivier et son importance economique dans l'Afrique antique by Henriette Camps-Fabrer the mills of Beni Farah have roots that go back two millennia.

Olive oil production in Al Maasserth n'Ah Al Hajambarek

Flour mills

Only ruins are left of old flour mills; two of them at Ighzer Nahamdafa. These are powered by water coming from springs. Aissa Ouammar (Aissa Benbrahim), a renewed flour mill builder, has built most of the mills along Ighzar n'Gueddili during the first half of the 20th century.

Fossils

Fossils of seashells can easily be found east of Beni Farah at the Ihrouress (the area beyond Thment Ashih on the old road to Djemoura). This suggests that long time ago this land was covered by water. Although I am very familiar with the whole area west of Thment Ashih, i.e., Lamsala, Thsersth and Alegh El Kalaath, I have never encountered any seashells here. Thus one may suggest that Ihrouress is probably the coast of the supposed Saharan sea of pre-historic times. The common fossil animals of this area are polenmita, orthocardium, pholadomya, ostrea, platystrophia and spirifer.

The fossiliferous sites of Mazzer valley and Ighzar Nah Wadda (between El Mahreb and Lakhnak) are different for they are remains of vegetation, mainly tree leaves and trunks. Among them one can clearly distinguish fig trees and Barbary figs. The fossils are found within an area of about 300m by 200m.

Fossilized tree branches and roots from Mazzer valley

Popular tales (Thinfas)

Tales grandmothers used to tell to their grandchildren while the family is around a fire during the cold nights of winter:

Ahmed Outaghyoult, Dabira (the Cinderella of Beni Farah), Abdelbahloul and Abdelmighis, Bazgen, Baghyay.

Traditional pass-time activities

M'Sabaa

Among the few traditional games and pass-time activities still practised in Beni Farah is M'Sabaa which is the equivalent of the chess game in other societies. M'Sabaa is played by two persons in on board of 49 positions (the intersection of 7 horizontal and 7 vertical lines) using 48 pieces. The pieces are 24 small stones and 24 date nucleus. The game starts from the very moment when one of the players puts his first piece in a chosen position on the board. This is an intellectual game based first of all upon a careful selection of the positions that the players wishes to start the battle from and supposes a pre-planned strategy. Positions are taken two by two in alternate turns and in many occasions the game is pronounced over even before the players have actually finished putting their pieces into position. Once the 48 pieces are on board each player tries to take away the adversary's pieces by corning them between two of his until one of the player losses all his pieces and declared a looser.

M'Sabaa is highly intellectual and needs planning ahead ones' own strategy as well as predicting the opponent's intentions. Interestingly, it's cheap to play for it does not need any special preparations or tools.

Laalameth

Boys showing their strength by throwing stones of 1 to 2 Kg weigh to targets 10-15 meters away.

Thakourth

Women's hockey minus ice! It's usually played at the beginning of thafsa (spring season). The book "Il était une fois l'ethnographie", by Germaine Tillion, provides a description of a thakourth match played between the rival clans of Ah Wammas and Ah Athman.

Ihadhren

This is a little girls' favourite where small rounded stones are picked up while throwing others single handled, etc.

Famous wishing tombs

Sidi Maaouche, Sidi Ali and graves in most of the old mosques. This unislamic habit of visiting wishing tombs is quickly disappearing from Beni Farah; it's almost exclusively retained by aging grannies only.

Famous wishing trees

These were usually olive trees but seems that this habit has gone for now.

Home