ALGÉRIE PLURIELLEOULED NAIL DANCERS: A FADING MEMORYAuteur : Hamza KoudriFor decades, tourists from wide and farflocked to Algerian desert towns likeBousaada to watch the enchanting OuledNail dancers perform at Moorish cafés orin the middle of a crowded marketplace. Withtheir ostrich feathers perched on their heads andtheir hair braided in thick loops around their ears,the Ouled Nail women would sway their bodiesto the rhythm of the tambourine, the flute andthe kerkabo. Their hands drew circles in the airand their bellies rose and dove to the beat of themusic as the crowds around them clapped andmoved their shoulders, captivated by the magicof it all. The dancers’ jewelry, their entire fortunes,clanked and jingled too, a loud proof of theirsuccess and joy; their childhood dreams comingto life.Generations of dancers were raised in the arts ofsinging and dancing, and they grew to fascinatephotographers and artists such as Rudolf FranzLehnert and Etienne Dinet, but their charm soonfaded in the face of modernity and their entireculture, a richly unique way of life, was burieddeep amidst the folds of shame and denial.So little is known about these Arabo-Berbertribes, where their culture originated from orhow they came to raise their girls to grow intotalented courtesans. In fact, most Algerians havenever even heard of them, and many deny theirexistence, claiming the colonial French fabricatedsuch fictitious stories to attract tourists or tarnishthe reputation of our nation. Others rush to justifythe Ouled Nail’s lifestyle by imputing it to direpoverty that must have left them no other choice.A quick glance through the comments section onany post related to this topic will give you an ideawhy the Ouled Nail dancers have been shovedout of our collective memory; and the result isa tragic loss of a part of our heritage and ourcultural identity.Denying the Ouled Nail’s history won’t change thefact that they lived all those years ago just likeaccepting it won’t necessarily reflect negativelyon our values as a nation.This is not to deny such factors like povertyor colonial rule. In fact, the Ould Nail suffereda great deal at the hands of the French whotried to conform them to the western notionof prostitution regardless of their customs andcommon practices. Traditionally, a Ouled Naildancer was very much like a Japanese geisha.Her service was entertainment. She was raisedto dance and sing, and her clients paid for herperformance as well as her company, which didn’talways necessarily lead to bodily pleasure.This was all foreign to the French, and in an effortto both organize this business according tocommon practices in Europe and make a profitoff of it, they set countless restrictions on theOuled Nail dancers, making it impossible for themto maintain their ancestral way of life. Those whosurvived the French rule soon vanished in a postcolonialAlgeria that had no place for women whodidn’t conform to common norms and traditions.But one can barely deny the rich heritage leftby these mesmerizing dancers. From exuberantcostumes to glowing jewelry. Their vibrant musicand the Saadaoui dance. We remember them byEtienne Dinet’s many paintings, Frank EdwardJohnson’s photographs in one of the oldestNational Geographic magazine issues, and ÉmileGaudissard’s famous sculptures in Jardin d’Essaidu Hamma in Algeirs.Most importantly, the Ouled Nails set their markin history for being strong, financially independentwomen who took control of their bodies andresisted against what Christelle Taraud calls“la double violence sexuelle” from the colonialand patriarchal society in the Algerian Sahara.Navigating the oppressive, colonial law and theconservative local norms, the Ouled Nail womennegotiated their place effectively between tworigid communities, setting lessons for the modernworld to learn from.Algeria is a continent rich with diverse culturesworth celebrating and stories worth telling, and inembracing our history we can have more clarityon our present and stand on sure grounds as weforge our future.22 Novembre • Décembre • Janvier 2019/20 - ineffable
illustration par : Souleyman SandidNovembre • Décembre • Janvier 2019/20 - ineffable23