#chaamba

[lostinthewoods1991]

I am far away from home. Long gone moments dot the stretch of my life like huts across the slope of a hill, my own face peering at me from a hut and then from another and another. I look back at them as though they are people I met during a journey and inevitably left behind. But they are very much alive. Tidying the walls of their huts, their roofs thatched again after every monsoon, their lanterns hung out every night. Between my world and theirs, a river flows. We are told it's a treacherously dangerous thing to cross.

Sometimes, I hear them call out to me from the hill. "Look, the chaamba tree is in full bloom", the little girl among them says, waving her hand at me, bursting with joy. I see it from afar and wish I could plant it on my side of the world but no, this chaamba tree can only grow on that hill. I am far away. Even if I cross the river and run toward her, the moment she places the chaambakka against the inside of my palm, it would be gone, as though it had never even touched my flesh. Why, she herself might disappear. So I stand where I am and watch her eat it, relishing every bite. Ah, what life! I sigh as my sun sets against another memory. I pick up a little flower that falls at my feet. For now, this is all I have got, I tell myself. As darkness surrounds me, I see their lanterns being hung against my night.

I walk to my makeshift house, turning around to see the tiny faces at the windows far away. I smile, knowing they will never not look out for me. Perhaps, I am not as far away from home as I think I am?

[mydearalgeria]

Woman in traditional mlehfa spining wool, 1930/1934.

[bookofkhidr]

Beautiful children in a Qur’anic school in Metlili Chaamba near Ghardaïa, Algeria, circa 1945-1950. Photographer unknown.

[kovaludyswata]

32) Chaamba (arab. شعانبة) duże arabskie plemię z północnej Sahary w Algierii. Mieszkają w okolicach Métlili, El Golea, Ouargla, El Oued i Great Western Erg, w tym Timimoun i Béni Abbès. Podczas gdy tradycyjnie byli nomadami specjalizującymi się w hodowaniu wielbłądów, większość osiadła w oazach w ciągu ostatniego stulecia. W 2008 roku w oazie Berriane doszło do kilku starć między młodzieńcami Chaamba i Mozabitów, po poronieniu spowodowanym przez sztuczne ognie. Palma daktylowa jest najważniejszym produktem rolnym dla Chaamba.

[refletoriental]

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[mydearalgeria]

Algeria. Koranic school in Metlili Chaamba near Ghardaïa, 1945/1950.

[mydearalgeria]

Algeria. A Chaamba woman from El Menia, known as El Goléa until the 1970s   - 1934.