Ait Waghlis

Ait Waghlis At Weɣlis
Kabyle tribe
Landscape in the surroundings of Sidi-Aich.
Ethnicity	Kabyles
Location	Soummam valley, Kabylia
Parent tribe	Tindenses?
Branches	Imzalen Assameur
Language	Kabyle language (taweɣlist var.)
Religion	Islam

Ait Waghlis (Kabyle: At Weɣlis) is a non-confederated Kabyle tribe based in the Soummam valley, on the west side of the Soummam river and the east side of mount Akfadou, in Algeria. It is the biggest tribe of the Soummam valley in term of population.

Etymology

The name 'Waghlis' (Kabyle: Weɣlis) comes from the Kabyle name for the panthera, which is the Berber root γls. Three hypothesis exist for the origin of the name:

According to one of the hypothesis, the name comes from the spots of the panthera, which were found on the clothing worn by the tribe members. According to another, it comes from the bravery of the same animal, which is said to be an attribute of the tribe members. A third hypothesis makes it derivate from the name of an eponymous founder named Aghiles.

Later, the name of the tribe gave patronyms such as Al-Waghlisi, notably worn by Abd al-Rahman al-Waghlisi and Oughlis, worn by Yasmine Oughlis.

During the French colonisation, various spellings were used to write the name of the tribe, most of them using an arabization form of the prefix Ait rendered as Beni. These variants include "Beni-Ourlis", "Beni-Oughlis", "Beni Oughlice", "Beni Ouarghlis", "Beni Ouglis", "Beni Ouaglis", "Beni Oualis", "Beni Oughlice" and "Aith Ourlis".

Origin

During Antiquity, the territory of the tribe was inhabited by the Tindenses, a Libyan people. However, it is unknown whether the tribe descend from them.

Two origin legends also exist regarding the tribe. However, these accounts lack a historical basis and are not supported by historical sources.

According to the French colonial administration, the tribe was formed when a marabout, El Hadj Hassem, migrated from present-day Morocco to the region in the 12th century, after the Arab migration. His descendants later divided into three groups: the first one settled in the Sebaou river basin, the second integrated among the Ait Raten and the third was a family known as the "Zerarka", which became the Ait Waghlis

A local legend claims that the Ait Waghlis descend from a Greek sailor named Ulysses or Achilles, who is said to have settled in the region and given his name to the tribe.^{[citation needed]}

History

During the 11th and 12th centuries, the Soummam valley was under the rule of the Hammadid dynasty, and a road, the abrid n'soltan, linking the former capital, Kalâa of Ait Hammad, to the new capital of the kingdom, Bejaïa, was built. The road crossed the tribe's territory along the Soummam river and corresponds today to the N26 road.

The Ait Waghlis were known to be a tribe of Islamic science because of the amount of scholars who originate from the region. The tribe historically had four zawiyas , founded in the 14th and 15th centuries and located in Izzeruken, Sidi Hadj Hassiene, Sidi Moussa (Tinebdar) and Sidi Yahya, around sixty mosques and heighteen quranic schools.

From the 16th to the 19th century, the tribe was intermittently part of the kingdoms of Koukou and Ait Abbas. and was never submitted by the Turks.

In the 16th or 17th century, a conflict broke out between the Ait Waghlis and Ait Djennad tribes after merchants from the tribe were robbed by them. To calm the conflict, Youcef Ou Kaci, a poet from the Ait Djennad, wrote a poem about the Ait Waghlis, with the following verses:

These verses were recited by Youcef Ou Kaci in the village square and, when the man who hosted him for the night revealed his identity, tension rose but the host protected him under his burnous.

In 1846, the tribe had 2,500 infantrymen, a considerable number compared to their neighbors, the Ouzellaguen and Illoulen Oussammeur who had 150 and 800 respectively. It also possessed 785 riffles, 435 of which belonged to the Imzalen fraction and 350 to the Assameur fraction.

The tribe submitted to the colonial troops of general Jean Thibaudin on July 2, 1871, after having resisted the troops of Maréchal Bugeaud in 1841 and took part in the Boubaghla Revolt in 1952 and the Mokrani Revolt in 1871.

The mixed town (commune mixte) of Sidi-Aich is founded on April 13, 1872 and established on August 25, 1880 by the governor-general.

In 1907, the tribe was one of the most educated of Algeria with 9 schools and 22 classrooms for 17,000 inhabitants.

In 1909 or 1910, the Jeunes Oughlissiens (Young Oughlissians) association was founded and proposed the installation of street lamps in villages.

On May 12, 2012, a museum of the Ait Waghlis in inaugurated by the GEHIMAB association.

Geography

The tribe is established in the Soummam valley, on the souther slope of Mount Akfadou, part of the Djurdjura range. Its territory forms a triangle bounded to the north by the Remila river, which marks the border with the Ait Mansour and Tifra tribes; to the east by the Soummam river and the Babors (bordering the Fenaia, Ait Immel, Ait Sidi Ayad and Imsisen tribes); and to the west by the Akfadou pass (border with the Ouzellaguen and Ait Idjer tribes). It also shares a border with the Ait Aidel tribe.

Population

During the 20th century, the territory of the Ait Waghlis eexperienced significant migration flows to the Mitidja region. Around 1930, it is estimated that 15,000 Ait Waghlis people migrated to the Mitidja during the harvest season which corresponds to 1 adult out of 3.

In the 1950s, migrants from the tribe made up 63% of the male working-age population or 2 out of 3 working-age adults (15.7% of the total population).

The Algerian War accelerated the rural exodus due to the destruction of villages. Until the 1960s, 10,000 to 12,000 people left the Ait Waghlis territory to settle in Algiers or Bejaïa, while other moved to Sidi-Aïch.

Culture

Language

The Ait Waghlis speak a variety of the central-eastern dialect of the Kabyle language known as Taweɣlist. They are characterized by the use the Voiceless bilabial plosive [p].

This variety shows internal variation linked to the historical division of the tribe. The Assameur, closer to the Igawawen, have a variety characterized by the use of voiceless plosives (e.g. tappurt, heggi, axxam k yemɣaren, axxam-aki), whereas the Imzalen use forms closer to those typical of the Soummam valley (tawwurt, heyyi, axxam yemɣaren, axxam-ayi).

Customs and traditions

The Ait Waghlis were known in the region for their ability to heal bone fractures, a skill traditionally attributed to them by the local custom. Today, this practices continues within a family of the village of Ath Soula (axxam n’tbib). The tribe are also renowned masters in the craftwork of dwarf palm (Kabyle: ddum, igezdem).

They are also one of the five tribes in North Africa that make the mz'alla, a type of oversized straw hat worn during summer.

The town of Sidi-Aich had the most important market of Eastern Kabylia in the late 19th century. It was held on Wednesday and received over 5,000 people each week and supplied over 50,000 inhabitants of the neighboring regions. Many goods were imported and exported:

• Exported goods:
  • Baskets, mats, azembils (dwarf palm baskets), wool blankets, wooden spoons and dishes, kabyle knives and desks, carders, plowshares, plows, jugs and pots (fig. 3), fresh and dried goat skins, sheep skins, salt, olives, olive oil, fresh and dried figs, carobs, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, medlars, walnuts, green onions, broad beans, djelbouns, peas, chickpeas, green and red peppers, leather, raw wool, poultry, eggs, tallow, meat, honey, gallnuts, black soap, sheep, goats, oxen and cows.
• Imported goods:
  • Gandouras, burnous, chechias, shoes, cotton fabrics, silks, beads, coral, kabyle jewelry, dates, sugar, spices, alum, cristals, lamps, nails, padlocks, locks, tobacco, donkeys, mules and many others.

These includes traditional local production and that introduced by French settlers.

The Ait Waghlis were rich in beehives and olive trees and harvested a lot of cereals, linen and fruits. They also made linen clothes, woolen fabrics, soap, chests (fig.4) and were one of the rare Kabyle tribes, alongside the Iflissen Umellil and Ait Fraoussen, to produce bladed weapons and firearms.

In 1859, the tribe had a total of 53 oil and flour mills and 2 metal workers.

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  Fig. 1: 4. Neck tattoo from Sidi-Aich
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  Fig. 2: 1 to 14. Potery patterns, Ait Daoud
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  Fig. 3: Potery
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  Fig. 4: Kabyle chest

In literature

Among the poems written by Youcef Ou Kaci, "L'amour heureux" (Tayri) mentions the tribe:

Notable members

• Amour Abdenour, singer, songwriter and composer
• Ali Brakchi, track and field athlete specialized in long jump
• Rachid Ferhani, singer
• Djaffar Gacem, film director, producer and screenwriter
• Salim Hanifi, professional footballer
• Tahir al-Jazairi, Muslim scholar and educational reformer.
• Mohand Amokrane Maouche, founder and first president of the Algerian Football Federation
• Ahmed Oudjani, professional football player
• Chérif Oudjani, professional football player
• Mohand Cherif Sahli, ambassador of Algeria to China, Czechoslovakia, North Korea and Vietnam, historian and writer
• Mohamed Saïl, Algerian anarchist and anti-colonial activist born in Taourirt.
• Rachid Taha, singer and activist (through father)
• Hamid Tibouchi, painter and poet
• Abd al-Rahman al-Waghlisi, Muslim scholar, author, mufti and imam.

See also

• Kabyles

References

Sources

• Boulouque, Sylvain (1994). "Saïl Mohamed: Ou la vie et la Révolte d'un anarchiste Algérien". Appels aux travailleurs algériens. Volonté Anarchiste (in French). Vol. 43. Groupe Fresnes-Antony. pp. 1–4. OCLC 466607851.
• Boulouque, Sylvain (2 March 2021). "Mohamed Saïl (1894-1953)". Partage Noir (in French). Retrieved 28 November 2024.

Further reading

• Veller, Auguste; Aïssani, Djamil; Scheele, Judith (May 2005). Monographie de la commune mixte de Sidi Aïch (1888) (PDF). Ibis Press. ISBN 978-2-910728-45-8..
• Benselama, Nacer (2025-06-12). Récits des Aït Ouaghlis, Kabylie (1919-1999). L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-336-52915-8..

External links

• Ait Waghlis Blog (fr)