HARRATIN

A group of people in northwest Africa generally of low social status.

In Arabic, hartani (singular); in Berber, ahardan (singular) and ihardanan (plural); in the Twareg dialect, ashardan. The harratin inhabit the oases of the Saharan regions. Ethnically, this population is a mixture of people originating from sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa; they were formerly slaves before being freed. Although they are no longer slaves, they constitute a sort of caste considered by other populations as inferior, below the status of bidan and shorfa groups in Mauritania. Because of their low status, the harratin seek protection among powerful families for which they work and show respect.

Since land and water are owned by white shorfa and because harratin occupy the lowest position on the social scale, the harratin do not witness any social mobility. They work in less prestigious occupations: When they are sedentaries, they work in agriculture; when they emigrate to the cities, they work as carriers of water, diggers of wells, and ironworkers; and among the nomads they work as shepherds.

In Morocco, the Sultan Mulay Ismaʿil (eighteenth century) recruited his famous army of bukhari from the harratin population of Mauritania. This group had also provided the traditional Moroccan state (Makhzen) with secretaries and functionaries. Families in imperial cities in Morocco such as Fez, Marrakech, and Meknes used to have hartani women under their protection working as servants.

In vernacular language, after the progressive disappearance of slavery, the words harratin and hartani have replaced the word abd (slave) to mean "black" and have acquired a pejorative meaning.

See also shorfa.

rahma bourqia