Al-Zuwayya

Zuwayya

The Zuwayya (Arabic: الزوية‎ Al-Zuwayya) are an independent Murabtin tribe, one of the major Arabized Berber tribes of Cyrenaica, Libya.

Traditionally practicing transhumance in a triangular area with its apex at Ajdabiya, the Zuwayya conquered the richest oasis of the interior, Al-Kufra, in 1840, subduing the indigenous Toubou tribes. The Zuwayya tribe owns most of the date palm groves of the Kufra oases, employing the Toubou tribesmen as labourers.

The Zuwayya together with the Majabra tribe of Jalo converted to the Sanusi order in the late 19th century, allowing the spread of this ideology into Wadai and Chad.

The Zuwayya tribe took part in the 2011 Libyan uprising on the side of the opposition. The head of the tribe, Shaikh Faraj al Zuway, threatened to cut off Libyan oil exports unless the Gaddafi regime stops the "suppression of protestors".

References

• Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, The making of modern Libya: state formation, colonization, and resistance, SUNY Press, 2009, ISBN 9781438428918, pp. 82-83.

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