Society-SHLUH

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
(Seksqoua) are probably the best known.

The Shluh originally extended throughout the coastal region now occupied
by the Arabized West Moroccans. Islam seems to have penetrated the
Shluh area by 1,000 A.D., and the Shluh became solidly 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 regular French administration until 1933.

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). 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 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 as such, 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.

Property in the sense of 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.
Inheritance is patrilineal by a man's sons collectively, with the
eldest acting as 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).

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. Among the Seksawa, only 100 men in the entire group have
plural wives, these being men of exceptional standing.

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.

Local exogamy seems to be an established pattern, at least on the
level of the village or hamlet. 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 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 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 (jemma), 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.

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 also called a jemaa or diwan, composed of
one representaqtive 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) into two alliances, is the only political
unit that transcends the districts. In practice, the districts of
each tribe are normally divided equally between two leffs 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 common practice among the Shluh long before the modern
enroachments 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.

Culture summary by John M. Beierle



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.


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