Emirate of Trarza - Society and Structure

Society and Structure

The result of the Arab conquests left a highly divided society, based on caste and ethnicity.

At the peak of society were the aristocratic "warrior" lineages or clans, the Hassane, supposed descendants of the Beni Hassan Arab immigrants (cf. Oulad Delim). Below them stood the "scholarly" or "clerical" lineages. These were called marabout (by the French) or Zawiya tribes (cf. Oulad Tidrarine). The zawiya tribes were protected by Hassane overlords in exchange for their religious services and payment of the horma, a tributary tax in cattle or goods; while they were in a sense exploited, the relationship was often more or less symbiotic. Under both these groups, but still part of the Western Sahara society, stood the znaga tribes - tribal groups laboring in demeaning occupations, such as fishermen (cf. Imraguen), as well as peripheral semi-tribal groups working in the same fields (among them the "professional" castes, mallemin and igawen). All these groups were considered to be among the bidan, or whites.

Below them ranked servile groups known as Haratin, a black population, according to some sources they were the descendants of the original Sahara population, but they are more generally seen as the descendants of freed slaves of African origins. (Note that "Haratin", a term of obscure origin, has a different meaning in the Berber regions of Morocco.) They often lived serving affiliated bidan (white) families, and as such formed part of the tribe, not tribes of their own. Below them came the slaves themselves, who were owned individually or in family groups, and could hope at best to be freed and rise to the status of Haratin. Rich bidan families would normally own a few slaves at the most, as nomadic societies have less use of slave labor than sedentary societies; however, in some cases, slaves were used to work oasis plantations, farming dates, digging wells etc.

These interrelated tribes formed distinct entities: the Emirates of Trarza Brakna, and Tagant were the political reflection of Hassane caste tribes in southern Mauritania.

The resentments inherent in this system enabled French colonial expansion at the beginning of the 20th century to quickly overthrow Trarza and its neighbors.