Amazigh, Djerba

The Amazigh of Djerba are the Berber-speaking people of the south of Djerba, Tunisia's largest island, in the Gulf of Gabes. Djerba was Berber and Ibadi for most of its Islamic history: the island's dispersed settlement of homesteads (menzels), neighbourhoods (houma) and fortress-like mosques grew from the 9th century under Ibadi religious councils, alongside the island's Jewish quarters. Berber was still spoken across much of the island in the 19th century; the north was Arabised by the 1930s-40s, and today the language survives in the south-east: Guellala, Sedouikech with Ouirsighen, Tlet and, among the elderly, Ajim.

Their speech, Djerba Berber (locally Chelha, Jerbi or Tadjerbit), is an East Zenati Berber language of the same Tunisian-Zuwara group as the Berber of Matmata, Tataouine and Zuwara in Libya; ISO 639-3 files it under Nafusi (jbn). Linguists estimate 10,000-20,000 speakers, half of them around Guellala, out of about 163,000 islanders. Villagers call themselves by their village or as Jerbi; the words Amazigh and Berber were, for many, learned at school.

Names: Amazigh of Djerba, Djerba Berbers, Jerba (IMB); Joshua Project lists them as 'Amazigh, Djerba'. Guellala's Berber name, Iqellalen, means 'the potters'. They are distinct from Djerba's Jews (a separate people group) and from the Arabic-speaking, mostly Maliki Djerbans of the north and of Houmt Souk and Midoun, though many Arabic-speaking Djerbans also come from Ibadi families.

Guellala is famous for pottery: its families have worked the island's clay for centuries, and potters there call it the trade of their ancestors that cannot be abandoned, though the number of workshops has fallen sharply and the young look for work in industry and commerce. Sedouikech and Ouirsighen grow olives, press oil and trade, and many Ouirsighen families have relatives working in Europe. Each village has its own traditional dress; married women in Guellala wear the tadhellalt, a hat that marks a married woman. In Guellala and among the minority who keep their identity in Sedouikech and Ouirsighen, men and women do not mix socially and traditional clothes are still worn; elsewhere many have adopted the dress and habits of Arab Djerbans.

The language is passed on mostly by women, at home. Only Sedouikech's Amazigh learn to write it; in Tlet and Ajim only the elderly speak it. Oral tradition survives in folktales, some of which a Djerban author, Fathi Ben Maammar, has published in Berber and Arabic (Tinfas seg Jerba). The Amazigh of Djerba have a close relationship with the island's Jews: during the Ghriba pilgrimage they help keep the pilgrims safe, and Jewish merchants trust them in trade and lending.

Most Amazigh of Djerba are Ibadi Muslims, of a school that is neither Sunni nor Shia and that grew out of the early Islamic dissenters while rejecting their violence. Ibadism stresses that faith must show in deeds, mutual aid within the community, and modesty; Djerba's Ibadi mosques are plain, whitewashed and often partly underground, like Jemaa Louta near Ajim and the Bardaoui mosque, and served as schools and refuges as well as places of prayer. For centuries religious and social life was run by councils of learned men; the El Barounia library in Houmt Souk (1819) keeps Ibadi manuscripts, and an association founded in 2011 promotes Ibadi memory. UNESCO's 2023 World Heritage listing of Djerba recognises this Ibadi settlement pattern, including 22 Ibadi mosques.

The Ibadis are a minority within Tunisian Islam; field workers say the Maliki majority sees them as outsiders, and after 2011 Salafis took over at least one Ibadi mosque on the island. Where Berber has faded, and through marriage, some families follow Maliki practice. Christians are almost unknown among them.

No Scripture, Jesus Film or audio recording exists in Djerba Berber. Portions of Scripture were published in 2025 in Nafusi, the Berber of Libya's Jebel Nafusa, which ISO 639-3 uses as the code for Djerba Berber; how well Djerbans understand it is unknown. All Amazigh of Djerba also speak Tunisian Arabic, which has the New Testament, the Jesus Film and audio recordings, and many speak French. Joshua Project estimates 0.5% Christian adherents and 0.1% evangelicals; the IMB lists them as unengaged. Pray4Tunisia lists them among Tunisia's unreached people groups.