Imraguen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Imraguen are an ethnic group or tribe of Mauritania and Western Sahara. Estimated at around 5000 in the 1970s, [1] most members of the group live in fishing villages on the Banc d'Arguin National Park on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania.

They are believed to have Sanhadja Berber origins, although strongly mixed with Black African populations, mainly escaped slaves or the Haratin freedmen accepted into the tribe or Bafour.[citation needed] The name "Imraguen" itself is a Berber word meaning "fishermen". They are Muslims of the Sunni Maliki rite, and speak Hassaniya Arabic, although they are also known to have preserved elements of the Soninké language, reflecting their Black African heritage.

Militarily powerless, they were traditionally reduced to the degrading lower-caste status of Znaga, forcibly ruled and taxed (horma) by more powerful Hassane and Zawia tribes such as the Oulad Delim and Ouled Bou Sbaa.

[edit] Notes/references

  1. ^ Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff, The Western Saharans, 1980, ISBN 0-7099-0369-3, page 50

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

 This Mauritania-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
 This article about an ethnic group in Africa is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
 This Western Sahara article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia and the Western Sahara WikiProject by expanding it.