Amazigh, Drawa

The Drawa (singular Drawi) are the people of the Draa valley in south-eastern Morocco, the line of palm oases that follows Morocco's longest river for some 200 km from Agdz to Mhamid el Ghizlane. Within the valley the name covers its settled ksour people; elsewhere in Morocco it mostly means the valley's dark-skinned majority, the Haratin, and many of them prefer 'Drawa' because 'Haratin' carries the memory of a servile rank. The Haratin descend partly from old Saharan farming populations and partly from West Africans brought across the desert as slaves; for centuries they tended the palms, dug and cleaned the khettara water channels and farmed as sharecroppers (khammas, keeping a fifth of the harvest) for landowning lineages.

The valley's ksour also hold sharifian and saintly families (shurfa and murabtin, among them the Nasiriyya lineage of Tamegroute), Arabic-speaking tribes such as the Rouha and the Oulad Yahia, and, in many oases, Ait Atta Berbers who took control of the middle and lower valley from the 18th century; the Ait Atta form a group of their own. Until the mid-20th century the valley also had Jewish communities. The old order barred the Haratin from owning land, bearing arms or sitting in village councils, and although it has eased since independence through schooling, emigration and money sent home, marriage across the colour line remains rare.

In the upper valley around Agdz, Tamnougalt and Mezguita most people speak a Berber dialect close to Tashelhit; from Tinzouline southwards the oasis people speak a Moroccan Arabic close to the Hassaniya of the desert.

Life follows the palm grove: date palms shade pomegranates, almonds, henna, barley and vegetables, watered from the river through the dam's releases, wells and channels shared by turns under the ksar council. Families live in rammed-earth ksour and kasbahs with decorated towers, many of them now crumbling as people move to concrete houses along the road. Tamegroute's potters make the green-glazed ware known across Morocco. Haratin musicians and religious praise singers (madih) perform at weddings, festivals and saints' moussems. The 'Haratin house' with its open courtyard, and women's headbands, mark Draa styles. Many men spend years working in Casablanca, Marrakech or abroad.

The Drawa are Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school, shaped by the Nasiriyya Sufi brotherhood founded at Tamegroute in the 17th century, whose zawiya keeps a library of old Quran manuscripts and religious books and once offered refuge and healing; people still bring the sick and mentally troubled to it for blessing. Saints' tombs stand by most ksour and are visited at annual moussems. Sharifian and saintly families have long held religious authority, and their claim to descent from the Prophet underpinned the valley's social ranks. Belief in jinn, the evil eye and protective amulets is common.

The complete Bible in Moroccan Arabic, with audio and app versions, and the Jesus Film in Moroccan Arabic serve most Drawa; the Tachelhit New Testament and Global Recordings Network audio serve the Berber speakers of the upper valley. No fellowship among the Drawa is known. Morocco's Penal Code (Article 220) punishes proselytism, and in the conservative valley converts would face family and community rejection.