Ouled Naïl
Ouled Naïl
words and video :
One of the best examples of ancient tribal style bellydancing is the dance of the Ouled Naïl, an Algerian tribe where the women used to travel from city to city to earn their income. At the end of their dancing carreers, the Naylates returned to their native villages to marry.
The mystery of the Ouled Naïl is something that never fully has been unveiled although the dancers of the Ouled Nail didn’t leave much to unveil at the end of their dance.
The costumes of the women of the Ouled Nail were – until the first half of the 1900′s – truly magnificent.
Heavily made up eyes darkened with kohl, faces tattooed and adorned with heavy jewellery. Their oily hair worn in braids on both sides of the face,covered with the typical diadem was sometimes looped up and held in place by big earrings.
They went unveiled even when almost all the women in North Africa were covered. Jewellery like bracelets, silver anklets, earrings and necklaces had their distinctive look and were very much sought after by tourists in the first half of the twentieth century. When they earned enough they could afford ostrich feathers to adorn their tiara. They are known to wear huge bracelets with studs and spikes an inch or two long projecting from them in order to protect themselves.
After the season they often returned to their home village joining a caravan that followed a pattern of oases. A paladin sheltered the sky and kept the Nailiyat safe from the burning sun.
The men of the Ouled Naïl tribe played their taunting rhythms on bendir, accompanying the mesmerizing beat by repetitive melodies on zurna and gasba, the long edge blown flute.
source: tribal-bellydance.be
Although their origins remain hidden in the mist of time, the Ouled Naïl tribe of Algeria is now living from Biskra to D’jelfa. Painters, writers and musicians found them a “source inepuisable d’inspiration”, a never ending source of inspiration. The most known painter was no doubt Etienne Dinet (1861-1829) who stayed in the village of Bou Saada and made the tribe world famous through his work. Etienne Dinet first traveled to Algeria in 1884 with a fellow artist and spent the next 45 years traveling between France and Algeria. He found peace of mind in the village of Bou Saâda after the death of his wife. He mastered the local language and wrote together with his friend Hadj Ben Slimane the intriguing book “Khadra, danseuse de Ouled Naïl”, a real fascinating story about a young Naylate dancer. During his stay he converted to islam which heavily reflected on his later works. He then took the name Hadj Nasr Ed-Dine. The French artist loved the grace of the Algerians, their culture and religion. After his death in Paris in 1829 Dinet’s body was buried in Bou-Saada. Also Lehnert and Landrock, two passionate photographers who’s works form a large part of the “museum of Middle Eastern dance”, couldn’t resist the temptation of the Ouled Nail.The women of the Ouled Nayl danced often in pairs. At some special occasions they danced only females together as this rare postcard shows. The women wait all lined up, shoes before them for the performance to begin. When one of the dancers was tired of dancing, she was immediately replaced by another so that always two girls danced together.
Auguste Maure - photographer 1880
