The
Zaer
are an Arab tribal confederacy of
Maqil
origins. For centuries, the Zaer practiced
semi-nomadic pastoralism
, traveling with the seasons to tend to the tribe's massive herds. The Zaer were divided between two tribal groups, the Kefiane in the west of the Zaer rangeland and the Mzar'a to the east. Despite the separation between the Zaer groups, their shared culture was nonetheless very isolated from other neighboring tribes due to their distinct linguistic, societal, and geographical differences.
According to tribal lore, the Zaer originally formed in what is now modern-day
Mauritania
, in the Red River region. However, pressure from larger tribes expelled the Zaer from their ancestral home into central Morocco. Following several decades of searching for a permanent home, one of the Zaer's more prominent leaders, Sidi Muhammad bin Ez-Za'ri, finally established the Zaer in the Korifle Gorge region adjacent to the Atlantic coastal plain,
[1]
an area along in the highlands, the northern edge of the
Sahara
, and the southern
High Atlas
.
Leo Africanus
wrote in the early sixteenth century that they settled in the region of
Khenifra
, and later continued on to the north to the
Rabat
region.
[2]
The Zaer culture was almost completely demolished in the early twentieth century by the
French protectorate in Morocco
, which divided up the lands used by the Zaer for grazing and converted it for agricultural purposes. Infrastructure development of roads, highways, and towns for European settlers disrupted grazing routes, preventing the Zaer from making their traditional living. The French also sold land rights of Zaer rangeland to the highest bidder, resulting in thousands of acre of fertile Zaer land being sold to European agriculturalists. While many descendants of the Zaer still exist today, the Zaer are not a recognized ethnic group or tribe by the Moroccan government and do not exist as they did in their previous history.
Tribal Organization
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Historically, the Zaer were organized as a loosely-organized nomadic confederacy, composed of a number of bands of tribes spread out over a wide range of territory consisting of over 377,000 hectares of land in central Morocco. The confederacy is composed of two primary tribal groups, or
liffs
: the Kefiane (English: Gefiane) and the Mzar'a (English: Meza'ra)
[1]
The Kefiane
liff
is settled in the western and southern part of the Confederacy's territory and is made of 7 tribes: Beni Obeid, Slamna, Uled Zeid, Uled Daho, Hlalef, Ruashed, and Mkhalef. The second
liff
, the Mzar'a, settled in the eastern part of the territory and is made of 6 tribes: Nejda, Uled Ali, Gsisset, Brashua, Uled Ktir, and Uled Khelifa. At their recorded peak, the Kefiane were thought to number at up to 19,200 tribesmen distributed between 3,820 tents, while the slightly larger Mzar'a were thought to have reached up to 21,300 tribesmen among 4,267 tents.
[1]
The Zaer have always been nomadic pastoralists, traditionally traveling seasonally in small communities, or
douars
, in search of grazing land for their flocks. During grazing seasons, the Zaer would live in
douars
of up to a few hundred people, remaining temporarily stationary throughout the rainy seasons; during the dry seasons, the Zaer would constantly migrate in search of grazing lands for their herds.
[1]
The Zaer, like many nomadic groups, were known for their distinctive black tents, which functioned as the home and hearth for the family units who lived within them.
Within
douars,
collective ownership was divided among all pastoralists within the tribe, with ownership of lands assumed between all group members. Power and influence among the
douars
and between bands of groups within the Zaer's territory was determined by the size of the flock and the quality of the grazing land, with the largest flocks earning the
douars
the most influence among the Zaer groups. In addition to pastoralism, the Zaer were also known for their warlike tendencies, often engaging in frequent clashes with other tribes for influence and control over valuable grazing lands.
[1]
Zaer society was also organized along strict gender roles, with men taking on a traditional protectorate role with the expectations of protecting the women, preserving the honor of the family, joining war bands to raid other settlements and towns for goods and resources, and working to ensure the economic security of the family. Zaer women, on the other hand, were traditionally tasked with the general upkeep of the home unit, typically providing fuel and firewood, birthing and raising children, preserving the folklore and history of the Zaer, and maintaining the Zaer community as a whole.
[1]
Cultural Ties Between Zaer Groups
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Despite sharing the Zaer cultural identity, the two
liffs
did not typically interact with each other, often swapping animosities with one another in brief feuds. However, both groups shared distinct cultural similarities that bound them to the Zaer name, distinctly their linguistic, geographical, organizational, and religious makeup.
Language
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The two
liffs
of the Zaer are one of the only tribes in Morocco to speak a close version of the
bedouin
?ass?niyya
dialect of modern-day
Arabic
, a language originating from central Mauritania, where the Zaer historically migrated from. Despite the Zaer language sharing a common Arabic lineage with the rest of Morocco, their dialect was distinct enough from the rest of Morocco's Arabic- and
Amazigh
-origin languages that there remained a distinct language barrier preserving the Zaer identity from the rest of Morocco's tribal groups.
[3]
Geography
Despite outside threats by neighborhing tribes who desperately sought out the Zaer's rich grazing lands, the Zaer were the main occupants of their historical ranging lands in the east and west for centuries. As a result, the Zaer had a mutual understanding and relationship with the government of Morocco due to their proximity to
Rabat
, only 20 kilometers west of the westernmost group of Kefiane Zaer. In exchange for cooperation and general oversight from the Rabat government, the Zaer were relatively free to practice their customs in their traditional rangeland as they saw fit.
The
Tata
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While the two
liffs
typically did not mingle between each other and often remained in their own territories, they did still cooperate frequently in the face of great dangers to the Zaer. This alliance was known as the
Tata,
in which the two
liffs
would join forces to fight back against outside threats to the group. The
Tata
was typically invoked to combat threats from neighboring tribes or confederacies, but was also utilized to combat the colonizing forces of the French in the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
[1]
Colonial Impact
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Before the French destruction of the Zaer community, the Zaer had a very loose relationship with their French occupiers. In February and March 1910, the French and
Mulai Abd al-Hafid
,
Sultan of Morocco
, engaged in comprehensive negotiations,
[4]
in which the Sultan ceded control of the state to a French protectorate status which took complete effect in 1912.
[5]
During the initial years of the French occupation, the Zaer were administered by French-controlled qaids, qadis, stenographers, clerks, and mukhaznis, all of which comprised the main administration link between the Zaer and the government in Rabat.
[6]
However, even despite the various administrative bodies attempting to oversee the Zaer, they were still mostly left to their own devices, despite a few clashes between French forces and the tribesmen. A particularly nasty clash occurred after the murder of a French lieutenant by a band of Zaer tribesmen; as retaliation, the French sent back multiple troops to completely decimate the Zaer.
[7]
These violent clashes were reminiscent of both the feelings of the Zaer towards their French occupiers, as well as the attitude of the French towards the local tribes in their acquired territory.
The French Administration Over the Zaer
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In the early 1910s, as the French secured military control over the vast majority of the country, the new administration began to take on a more active role in enforcing their rule and, more importantly, their way of life onto the various tribes of Morocco, including the Zaer. The French implemented a system of local administration known as
controles civils
to work alongside tribal administrative organs. While they originally exerted very little influence over the tribal administration, they rapidly began to overtake tribal autonomy by imposing judicial authority over legal matters in the Zaer territory, imposing tax collections, spreading improved seed collection and agricultural innovations on traditional Zaer lands, and prompting greater French involvement in the Zaer lands by funneling state funds into investment in irrigation, agricultural development, and road infrastructure.
[1]
Decline of Zaer Culture
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As the historical Zaer lands began to become fractured both physically and politically, the influence of local tribal authorities came under increasing strain. The tribal authoritative branch known as the
jma'a (
English: Jama'ah)
,
which was made up of tribes' elders and who traditionally oversee the economic, social, and political affairs of the Zaer, rapidly began to lose authority as legal issues began to fall under the jurisdiction of the
controles civils.
With the tribe's authoritative influence on the decline, the Zaer experienced an internal shift as many young Zaer traveled to cities, received a rudimentary education under a newly colonized administration, and returned as critiques of the rigid ways of life of the Zaer, further fragmenting the culture.
[1]
The roads were also equally devastating to the physical isolation that aided with the preservation of the Zaer culture. Massive highways were developed to connect cities such as
Casablanca
,
Rabat
, and
Meknes
, which cut through massive sections of the Zaer rangeland and turned the once-remote region into a network of communication, road, and housing infrastructure for Europeans crossing the Moroccan countryside. This massive development effectively sliced up the traditional Zaer nomadism, and forced many Zaer to turn to different methods of economic self-sufficiency, including day labor to answer the demand for development.
Fragmentation of Zaer Rangeland
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However, the most devastating element of the French's occupation occurred in the 1920s, when the French administration began to lease the lands occupied by the Zaer to outsider bidders, which were almost always French agriculturalists, known as
kolons,
who were eager to purchase the valuable, fertile land. Land could only be claimed on an individual family basis, which meant that even individual tribes within the
liffs
were forced to abandon their collective ownership traditions in order to be eligible to legally purchase the land they had historically occupied for centuries. By the mid 1950s, the region had over 1,500 French and European agriculturalists who had introduced modern farming techniques and brought
intensive farming
practices, including the use of tractors and combines, to the area. As a result, the local economy shifted farther and farther from the demand of meat, fur, and animal byproducts provided by the Zaer and other endemic tribes and closer to a cash crop economy centered around wheat and grain production.
[1]
The Zaer lost thousands of acres to agriculture, and became increasingly unable to provide basic necessities for their families using their traditional economic practices. Many Zaer ended up seeking employment at the massive European farms, becoming agriculturalists, peasants, and sharecroppers, and were forced to abandon their pastoral traditions and community structure in a near-complete, bloodless destruction of Zaer culture.
[1]
The Zaer Today
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Not much of traditional Zaer society remains today. Much of the social unity which kept the Zaer united today was physically destroyed by infrastructure development, and socially decimated by inheritance laws and land rights designations. The Zaer are not recognized as an ethnic group by the Moroccan government, although there are likely thousands of descendants of the Zaer today.
See also
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References
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 Berber tribes of Morocco
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| Tribal confederation
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| Tribes
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