Twiza

Twiza (Arabic: تويزة Berber: thwizi): traditional practice of solidarity in the rural world where a large part of agricultural work (plowing, sowing, harvesting, etc.) was and still is the subject of mutual aid relationships. Twiza which means cooperation, is a Berbers cultural heritage in which a group of society or village gathers and cooperates in order to contribute to the accomplishment of a charitable work, help the needy or the poor, build a house for a person or a mosque, or harvest wheat fields and olive trees. The person in need invites the family, relatives, neighbors and loved ones to help him in a solidarity process that will be scheduled in advance, and agreement will be made on how to perform this work, the process of exchanging roles in it and the necessary means.

Likewise, for those who remained in different rural areas of Morocco, the lack of labor within the family forces them to have recourse to a salaried worker for the maintenance work which they are not able to do alone. It is more and more difficult to carry out the work together, bringing together the family or the neighbors.

Twiza, this term refers to a pact of economic cooperation between households or individuals. It provides mutual aid and collective labor assistance for workers unable to complete certain agricultural tasks within a reasonable amount of time. In this manner, a worker is assured of labor to work his land and harvest its produce to make up for labor shortage within his household. Labor is exchanged on a fieldby-field basis. The twiza labor is contributed for the duration it takes to complete a certain agricultural task, no matter how small or large the field may be.

Twiza as an aspect of solidarity

Traditional community solidarity networks: strongly rooted in rural areas, these networks are most often involved in the management of public, social and economic affairs necessary for the life of the community. The Jmaâ, the Twiza and the Ouzia constitute the most practiced forms of community solidarity. The Jmaâ constantly watches over the proper functioning of community services (water tower, religious affairs, etc.), and regulates disputes and conflicts between members of the community. As for the Twiza, it intervenes on a seasonal basis to carry out large-scale community works of collective interest by volunteers taken in turn by groups of households. The Ouzia is an act of "Mohssinounes" benefactors who buy and distribute food for the benefit of the poor in the community.

The Twiza, in which the members of a family and the neighbors put together their "forces" to carry out agricultural work in a garden in turn, in exchange for a meal offered by the owners, are also part of the cultural heritage. These gatherings are essential for the transmission of know-how between generations and for maintaining the group's social cohesion.

The population of several Douars in rural areas actively participates in the work of supplying electricity networks. Aspects of solidarity are also expected at feasts and ceremonies such as marriage, circumcision and Aqeqah feasts, but also at funerals.

Twiza as a symbol of collective agricultural work  

The villagers know the value of the collective work system. Every family, regardless of the number of its members, needs a collective effort, especially at the beginning of the agricultural season, where the process of plowing the land and purifying it from weeds, and putting compost or at the end of it when it is time to harvest and reap the fruits, which requires a collective effort to market the crop at a price Good in its prime

The tiwizi (collective laboring) system was in place in some Ashelhi mountain Community|communities such as Ida ou Finis neighboring Ida ou Zeddout, some Western High Atlas villages such as Riyad and Had Imoulas, and some Sous plains villages near the foothills, such as Touraght. Village girls and women collectively harvested the fields of one household or those owned by the village, usually considered the property of the mosque. The host household fed the workers for the duration of the harvest and then on completion thanked them with a special meal. The women maintained a festive atmosphere throughout these periods of collective labor, often drumming and singing during meal breaks, which several told me helped them to turn the work into a celebration. Under tiwizi, some lands were not harvested until fall; by procuring outside workers, in contrast, people in Ida ou Zeddout finished harvesting by mid-summer. European and American Berberists have emphasized collective laboring as a quality of Berber society, generalizing primarily from evidence from the Eastern High Atlas (e.g. Hart 1984). Comparative documentation from the Anti-Atlas or other parts of the Sous is needed, but my observation is that collective laboring is more prevalent among land-owning people in the Western High Atlas and Sous plains than in the Anti-Atlas. For a discussion of tiwizi in the Ziz Valley of southeastern Morocco, see Ilahiane (2004). Montagne (1973) and Lortat-Jacob (1981) also contain brief discussions of tiwizi.

During the harvest season, for example, the twiza is present in all its meanings, so that we find the field teeming with men, women and children of different ages who were summoned and recruited to participate in this voluntary solidarity movement. Others are behind, collecting and tying packages, and others transporting them to the places designated for them. All this in an atmosphere of joy, bliss and pleasure, the space of which sings appropriate chants, songs and chants that urge work and activity, call for solidarity, and remember the blessing of praise and thanksgiving to God.

These are the drudgery (touiza) due to the auxiliaries of the caïd, the nâ'iba (compensatory royalty paid by the tribes against the exemption from the armed service of the State) and the supply of men and horses for the conduct of a harka.

The social and economic aspect of twiza

The agricultural work requires collective work and a large number of individuals in order to achieve the desired results, especially at the height of the season when everyone rushes to finish his work in a short period so as not to miss his time with the rain, so he has finished preparing his land to receive the rain by plowing and planting it, or reaping the crop In the height of the season and sell it at the right price.

Poor people in Morocco defraud the difficult living reality through collective symbiotic initiatives, especially in cases of emergency, joys or sorrows. Often the poor in Morocco are unable to meet their needs, so popular initiatives turn into compensation for the shortfall, such as the “People’s Fund” to meet emergency conditions, “Twiza” and “The Imam’s Condition” and others.

Among the social solidarity initiatives resulting from the suffering of the people, is the “Future of Weddings and Condolences,” which is a fund in which a resident of slums in cities or villages collects financial contributions from the people, each according to his capabilities. The idea of ​​the popular fund is that the neighbors and the residents of a neighborhood agree to assign a person known for his integrity, honesty and knowledge of the conditions of the people in the neighborhood, to manage a fund in which the people of the neighborhood contribute small sums of money monthly or whenever they have the opportunity, provided that it is resorted to on occasions or emergencies.

In most cases, the fund is resorted to in cases of death, surgery, or weddings. Families who really need the money to organize a funeral, pay for an operation or buy expensive medicines get paid. Ba Alawi Muhammad, a resident of the Al-Baath neighborhood in the city of Rabat, who runs the neighborhood fund for Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, says: "It is related to the principle of cooperation in righteousness and solidarity between the residents in joys and sorrows, especially on painful occasions when the people are unable to meet their basic needs."

Each family or household can voluntarily pay 50 dirhams per month. The people come to him at the end of each month to hand over the money, and in turn, he records the names of the Shareholder|shareholders. Weeks and months pass, and when an accident of death, illness, funeral or wedding occurs, the person concerned turns to the fund to obtain a share of the money to help him, and all of this is recorded on a piece of paper. Furthermore, it also achieves a kind of self-sufficiency for the villagers by exploiting their arms and energies to work hard and develop their crops, and raise the productivity of the farms thanks to the exchange of experiences and agricultural machinery between farmers.

The cooperative work in the “Twiza” system carries deep social implications and achieves many goals, as these meetings and family meetings help to bridge rifts, solve problems and strengthen families’ bonding by providing the opportunity for young people to meet and marry.

The role of twiza in water management

Twiza is an important event in the work of installing hydraulic systems for mobilizing rainwater in Morocco. Indirectly, the matfia reduces the risks of downstream gullying. Installing a matfia requires a significant investment, depending on its size and the materials used. The work is generally carried out within the framework of social assistance (Twiza). This aspect of solidarity offers noble services in terms of extending irrigation networks and supplying the population with drinking water.

Iferd is a very old technique used in collective grazing areas where there are no wells or shallow water tables. It is found either next to houses, or in the vicinity of tracks or crusted grounds. They are mainly used to water the herd, but also for domestic uses. The development of an Iferd does not require any special skills or significant investment. A pond 5 m in diameter and 1.5 m deep requires 5 to 10 days of manual labor, or the equivalent of a total of between 1,000 and 2,000 dh. Collective Iferd’s work is usually done within the framework of Twiza community support.

Agricultural work in the palm grove (as in other oases of the Maghreb), especially for the harvest of dates, is the subject of gatherings known as Figuig Twiza. All family members and neighbors pool their "strengths" to carry out this work in exchange for a meal provided by the owners. These groupings are done in turn for each garden in the group.

File:Twiza works.png|thumb|A lot of activities are involved in the collective works of Twiza

The role of woman in twiza

Women also gather this good habit “twiza” in various works. In the process of washing wool, for example, women agree on a specific day that it will be in the early morning. They meet after all the means have been prepared, including bowls and soap, and in a place where there is plenty of water. Working directly in washing the wool, one after the other, wash it well with water first, to add soap to it in the end. Couscous with meat as a second period of rest to return to work with full force until the day ends and the work continues until tomorrow, where the distillation and spread of what was washed on the first day and so on until the process of washing the wool ends without tire or boredom.

Interestingly, the use of hired labor is a phenomenon linked to the evolution of rural society where the twiza between the members of the community has disappeared, where the woman rarely works the land and mainly takes care of the house and the education of the children. With the emigration the inhabitants free themselves from traditions and their mentality changes, the emigrant easily accepts that his daughters go to school. While this education has fostered the development of young people in school, it has also deprived agricultural activity of a child labor force largely exploited among the society.

In Morocco, there are many tribes across all the diversity of countries where women weave excellent carpets with ancestral signs and symbols characteristic of their tribes. As a part of Twiza, Berber women unite and help each other for weaving traditional rugs. this operation begins with the wool shearing process which is normally carried out by men at the end of spring, then the women clean the wool, they spin it, dye it, then proceed to assemble the woven material before starting to weave the carpet.

Thus, the massive injection of migratory income has contributed to disappear old community customs and develop wage labor; it follows the gradual disappearance of traditional values such as twiza (mutual aid) which made the group cohesive. Added to this is another aspect of these social consequences. Under the influence of economic developments, hihi society has become less and less homogeneous and tends to be more and more hierarchical. File:Twiza solidarity.png|thumb|Different categories of the rural society, particularly Amazigh one are involved in the Twiza event If the field is a space for the phenomenon of “towiza” for the males of the village, the women take care of preparing meals collectively, and cooperate in washing wool in the early morning on the banks of the valley or near the well or the streams, to the tunes of authentic traditional singing.

As for the owner of the house who asks for a helping hand, which may last for two days or more, she prepares breakfast and lunch for the volunteers, especially during the rest period, and then they return to work.”

This system is similar to the military system with rules, principles and rituals, where families spend their day at work, and men and women go from the early morning to the farms and engage in hard work until the evening, and do not leave the orchards to eat or take a rest. tree until it is time for lunch, when everyone will sleep on the ground and share the provisions, and the days will go on until the work is finished.” He explained that one of the principles of the Twiza system is to help the poor and needy. Volunteers have priority in obtaining zakat and taking a portion of the crop, pointing out that the participants in the Twiza system share joy, activity and work and turn their work periods into a celebration by reading poems and singing traditional songs to pass the time. In addition to its prominent role in strengthening family ties and social solidarity, several recent studies confirmed that the “Twiza” system achieved important results in raising the level of agricultural product and marketing it in good conditions, improving the livelihood of villagers, and increasing their experience in the field of irrigation, plant care and drying vegetables.

Towiza spread places

Twiza abounds in non-urban areas, which represent a small social space distinguished from the city by its characteristics that pave the way for such practices to form the constituent elements of the rural space “such as kinship, social housing, agricultural activity and customary authority, social relations”, the fertile soil for the emergence and practice of twiza.

The desert and rural areas are distinguished by several characteristics from the city, which makes them unique in the wide spread of this phenomenon, and this was evident after independence, where every farmer needed the help of other farmers, so he called a group to help him, and then when other farmers needed, the group rushes to help him with everything it has.

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