The story of Algeria’s traditional tattoos (PICTURES)

[At-Waligh 10]

A fading tradition, now only carried by the elder generation of women in the Aurès Mountains district, Yasmin Bendaas visited the region to search for the meaning behind the ancient Algerian tattoo ritual.

When I interviewed Masouda Ibrahimi last summer she was 78 years old. Sitting in her home in El-Madher, Algeria, she tried to recollect what she could of the tattoos still visible on her face. She received the tattoos at the age of five, but she does not even know their names.

 

 

Because Masouda spoke only the indigenous Chaouia language, I was accompanied to the interview by two translators. Yet, information wasn’t lost in translation. It simply faded, just as the tradition. Carried now only by the eldest generation of women in the Aurès Mountain region, the tattooing tradition will no longer be seen on either Arab or indigenous women in the near future.

 

The lack of knowledge about tattoo meanings indicates that perhaps the tradition was fading well before today’s elders were tattooed in the 1930s and 1940s. In addition, because symbols were often not of the woman’s choosing but rather in the hands of the person giving the tattoos, my search for meaning resided not with the tattooed but with the tattooer, and I couldn’t help but feel I was too late.

 

Masouda, like many women I interviewed, received her tattoos from a traveling female gypsy called an adasiya. Many speculated these gypsies came from within Algeria - from the Sahara, from Sidi Aysa, or from Oran. Others were positive the tattooist hailed from Tunisia.

 

The disappearance of the adasiya is one of the main reasons given for the disappearance of the tattooing tradition as a whole (with the foremost reason being the prohibition of tattoos in Islam). I learned that the Algerian government had taken steps in the 1990s to discourage gypsies from living in the country, and I was told it would be incredibly difficult to find any at all. It is also unclear how many tattooists remain alive, as they would be even older than the women I interviewed, who aged between seventy and ninety.

 

Although I was unable to find an adasiya during my time in Algeria, it is certain that this person would have great insight into the meaning of these tattoos. In descriptions of the gypsies, interviewees noted the adasiya was Arab-speaking, which is likely why names of the tattoos are recalled in Arabic as opposed to Chaouia. Masouda’s husband remembered the adasiya as a woman who traveled by donkey with her hair tied up in two knots on the sides of her head. She knocked on doors and often accepted flour, eggs, and shoes in place of money for her services.

 

ALSO READ Algeria: the future looks bright… or does it?

 

Providing a rare, male perspective to my interviews, Masouda’s husband added that in his time men desired women with tattoos. In fact, men wouldn’t even look at a woman without tattoos. Traditional facial tattoos served as markers of beauty. As men did not receive these ornamental tattoos, there is a gender identity aspect as well, tying facial tattoos to beauty via femininity and womanhood. Several women interviewed remarked with pride that “a woman without tattoos is not a woman.”

 

Though it is unclear how each particular symbol signifies beauty, symbols show a strong correlation with placement. For example, if a sun symbol is present, it is placed on the cheek. Other symbols found commonly on the face include ain hijla (eye of a partridge), cinsla (chain) and thabanat (flies).

 

Ain hijla is derived from the diamond shape around a partridge's face and Margaret Courtney Clarke's description of the partridge symbol in weaving supports an argument for the symbol's significance of beauty. She writes, "In Berber culture, the partridge is considered a bird of great grace and beauty, and is thus associated with the qualities of a good wife. Its sharp eyes are also thought to be vigilant watchers against danger."

 

 

Yet, perhaps most striking to me during the course of my research was the number of symbols that seemed representative of a strong man. The symbol for burnous, a soldier’s coat made of animal skin, is often found on the forehead and is a masculine symbol. Rikab, or horse stirrups, are related to horsemen. While all symbols represent key aspects of the culture of the Aurès, if the tattoos are telling a story, it seems likely this story is about a soldier or powerful man.

 

In examining the significance of symbols, it is important to note that facial tattoos are not the only tattoos a woman may have. Tattoos with placement on other parts of the body take on a whole new meaning. Those on the breast, the back of the hand, or above the ankle promoted fertility and child health. Several had their entire forearm tattooed, and it was often filled with more literal symbols: scorpions, gazelles, camels, and watches.

 

One woman, Yamina, explained the bar tattooed across her wrist healed a source of pain. While tattoos for healing purposes were common, Yamina's tattoo was particularly unique because it was made by a murderer and his knife. The practice of receiving a tattoo from a murderer is noted by Maarten Hesselt Van Dinter who writes, "The Ouled Abderrahman, a Shawiya tribe of the Aurès Plains, preferred to have tattoos applied with a murderer's knife, and if possible, by the murderer himself.”

 

ALSO READ Reading for pleasure: 5 great summer books

 

Though I am unsure that Yamina, who is from M'lila, is of the same clan Van Dinter refers to, she is the only indigenous interviewee to receive a healing tattoo from a murderer, and it is possible that healing the pain of others was a murderer's form of penance.

 

Whether on the face or body, traditional tattoos remained integral to the beliefs, environment, and needs of the time period. Although answers to symbolic meaning may be less concrete, the significance of the tattoos and the role they played in the lives of tattooed women is evident.

 

Due to a lack of doctors, tattoos often related to healing, fertility, and childbearing. And while today modern beauty may be attained through make-up and Botox, once-upon-a-time for women in the Aurès their tattoos permanently encapsulated beauty on their faces and gave them the sense of being a true woman.

 

Yasmin’s research project was funded by Pulitzer Center.

 

 

The arrow (>) pattern across the top of Arjona's arm is called rikab, or horse stirrups. I came across some old horse stirrups in a cultural center in El-Madher.

 

 

The name and significance of Yamina’s tattoo remains unknown to her. With a series of dots arching over her eyebrows, the tattoo is unique in Chemora and the surrounding villages.

 

 

Chaouia Masouda Ibrahimi with her husband in her home in El-Madher, Algeria. Masouda was one of few interviewees to only speak the indigenous Chaouia. Many in the Aurès Mountain region also speak the local dialect of Arabic.

 

Yasmin Bendaas

[Guest Tols]

c'est une tradition qui remonte à l'époque Romaine ... mais je me rappel plus comment elle as commencé :huh:

[At-Waligh 10]

bonsoir Tols

 

c'est une tradition qui remonte à l'époque Romaine ... mais je me rappel plus comment elle as commencé :huh:

 

je t'ai trouvé ceci:

 

Il est supposé que le tatouage en Afrique du Nord existait il y a 3000 ans av. JC. Ces tatouages avaient une valeur rituelle et prophylactique.

Les motifs les plus fréquemment représentés sont les croissants, les lignes verticales et les losanges, ils étaient disposés essentiellement sur le visage.

 

Bien que cette pratique soit très ancienne, l’Islam condamne le tatouage (aussi bien ceux qui s’y soumettent que celui qui le fait). Selon le Coran, rien ne doit modifier la création de Dieu sous peine d’être un “allié” de Satan.

 

“… Je leur commanderai et ils altèreront la création d’Allah…” (Sourate 4 – V 118 à V 121).

De plus, un hadith (tradition relative aux actes et paroles du prophète Mahomet qui fait autorité immédiatement après le Coran) rejète “celle qui met de faux cheveux, celle qui s’en fait mettre, celle qui tatoue et celle qui se fait tatouer”.

 

Néanmoins, malgré l’interdiction religieuse le tatouage reste très répandu ; le passé et ses coutumes prenant le dessus sur l’interdit. Pour parer à cet interdit, il existe également un tatouage qui se veut éphémère, c’est le tatouage au henné que les femmes se font sur les pieds et les mains.

En Algérie, le tatouage est d’une couleur bleue foncée, et représente des croix, des lignes, des points.

 

Le tatouage nord-africain n’est pas une marque tribale, mais servait à différencier les classes sociales. En fait, le tatouage est autant décoratif que médical.TATOUAGES D’AFRIQUE NOIRE

En Afrique Noire, le tatouage est essentiellement tribal et effectué par scarifications . C’est un embellissement et aussi un vêtement.

Chez le peuple “Sarakole” d’Afrique Occidentale, les gencives des filles sont tatouées en bleu, à l’aide d’une épine vers l’âge de 13/14 ans.

 

Pour les Noirs, le tatouage permettait de prouver son identité par une marque tribale, et de se différencier des esclaves, qui eux, n’étaient pas marqués.

Le tatouage et la scarification en Afrique Noire sont revendicateurs des rites d’initiation. Ils peuvent accompagner le fait d’appartenir à une communauté, marquer le passage d’un état à un autre (celui d’enfant à adolescent ou d’adolescent à adulte).

 

Toutes ces agressions corporelles vont fortifier la personnalité de celui qui les subies, et augmenter ses forces vitales.

Chez les “Konkomba” du Togo du nord, les hommes et les femmes ont le torse entièrement scarifié et portent sur le visage des dessins noircis au charbon représentant la tribu.

Les hommes sont scarifiés à l’âge de 20 ans, les femmes dès la puberté ou dès qu’elles sont enceintes.

[KEYBOARDZAPPER 6 451]

J'ai toujours vu des femmes âgées tatouées que j'ai trouvé normal et belles car chaque région avait ses propres motifs de tatouages... de nos jours la pratique tend a disparaitre...

[Guest ANTI]

qu'est-ce qu'elle est belle et le regard si perçant :o

 

On dirait Keltoum Rabi Yar7mha