Amazigh, Siwa

The Siwi (Isiwan) are the Amazigh (Berber) people of Siwa and Qara oases in Egypt's Western Desert, the easternmost Berber-speaking community in Africa. They trace their descent to the Zenata Berbers of the Maghreb, mixed over the centuries with Arab Bedouin, Africans brought by the Saharan trade, and settlers from the Nile Valley. Their language, Siwi, has about 15,000 to 21,000 speakers and is unwritten, untaught and unrecognised; UNESCO counts it as definitely endangered. Siwa was home to the Oracle of Amun, which Alexander the Great consulted in 331 BCE, and stayed largely self-governing under its own sheikhs and customary law until the 19th century. Siwan society is made up of about ten tribes, grouped into eastern and western factions whose old feuds are remembered in the annual reconciliation feast on Jabal Dakrur. Egypt does not recognise an Amazigh minority, and most Siwis describe themselves first as Siwi and Egyptian.

Siwi life rests on date palms and olives watered by some two hundred springs, with land and water rights bought, sold and inherited within the tribes. The old town of Shali and the hilltop village of Aghurmi were built of kershef, salt-crusted mud from the lakes, and partly dissolved in rare heavy rains. Women wear embroidered dresses and heavy silver jewellery that mark marriage and status, keep largely to the home, and are credited with keeping the Siwi language alive. Each autumn, after the date and olive harvest and at the full moon, the whole oasis gathers for three days on Jabal Dakrur for the Siyaha feast, sharing a communal meal of bread and meat and renewing the peace made between the eastern and western factions in the 19th century. Sheikhs and a council of elders settle disputes before they reach the courts. Songs, riddles, proverbs and tales are passed on orally, though television has taken the place of storytelling evenings.

The Siwi are Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school, and Sufi brotherhoods shape the oasis's religious life. The Siyaha feast (Eid al-Solh) on Jabal Dakrur brings the brotherhoods together for nightly hadra ceremonies of dhikr; local tradition ties it to Sheikh Muhammad Hasan al-Madani al-Zafir, founder of the Madaniyya order, who came from Libya around 1868 and made peace between the eastern and western factions by having every family bring bread to break together. Saints' tombs are visited, and beliefs about jinn, the evil eye and healing at springs and hot sands persist beside orthodox practice. Practice is conservative, with strong separation of men and women.

No Scripture, JESUS film or audio recording exists in Siwi; Joshua Project lists translation as started. Siwis read Standard Arabic and understand Egyptian Arabic, which has the full Bible, the JESUS film and audio resources. No church, believer or outreach in Siwa is documented, and IMB lists the Siwi as unengaged. The oasis's distance from the Nile Valley (about 560 km from Cairo), its tight tribal society and the legal and social cost of leaving Islam are the main barriers.