Amazigh, Menasser

The Beni Menacer (Ath Menacer) are a Berber tribal confederation of the western Dahra, the mountains south and west of Cherchell, about 90-110 km west of Algiers. They speak the Beni Menacer variety of Shenwa (Chenoua), a Zenati Berber language that their neighbours on Mount Chenoua and at Beni Haoua also speak and understand. They were among Emir Abdelkader's firmest supporters, defeated French columns at Mount Zaccar near Miliana in 1842 and rose again in 1871; the colonial administration then split their land into douars attached to Gouraya and Cherchell. Their name survives in the town of Menaceur.

Hill villages live from olive and fig orchards, cereal plots and goats, with fishing along the Gouraya and Damous coast. Village affairs were run by the jemaa, the assembly of the men, and rival alliances (sofs) divided the tribe. Men speak Arabic in the market and Shenwa at home, and women keep the language best. Yennayer, the Amazigh new year, and saints' festivals are the main gatherings, and the memory of the risings of 1842 and 1871 is a point of pride.

Sunni Maliki Islam with a strong sense of baraka, the blessing carried by saints and by descendants of the Prophet; shrines and zawiyas in the hills, amulets and evil-eye beliefs. Observance has often been loose, and reformist mosque Islam has grown since the 1990s.

Nothing exists in Shenwa: no scripture, Jesus Film or recording. The Central Atlas Tamazight Bible portions, New Testament, film and audio listed for this group are in a Moroccan language the Beni Menacer do not speak. No outreach to them is known.