Bedouin, Ali Awlad

Like many Bedouin confederations of North Africa, the Awlad Ali descend from Arab migrations that spread across Egypt's Western Desert and Cyrenaica over the centuries, becoming part of the landscape between the Mediterranean coast and the arid interior. For generations, they lived in seasonal movement, seeking pasture in winter and returning to the coastal strip to plant in the fall.

Starting in the 1950s, Egyptian government settlement policies, followed by irrigation projects, roads, and water pipelines, accelerated the settling of many families into towns and cities. Even so, the border that today separates Egypt and Libya has not broken the kinship ties that unite the people on both sides.

Traditionally herders of camels, sheep, and goats, the Awlad Ali followed the rhythm of the rains between the desert interior and the coastal strip, sowing barley in the fall and seeking pasture in winter. In recent decades, brick houses, pickup trucks, and irrigation projects have changed the material landscape, but kinship ties and loyalty to the clan still organize social life more than wealth or a family’s profession.

Hospitality, generosity, and honor remain central values, and modesty in behavior, especially among women, marks the difference between the Bedouin and the urban Egyptian. A unique cultural trait is the ghinnawa, small two line poems sung or recited, often by women, giving voice to feelings that tribal life usually requires holding back.

The Awlad Ali are almost entirely Sunni Muslim, and the Islamic faith is intertwined with the tribal identity itself: to be a Bedouin of the Awlad Ali is, in practice, to be Muslim. Religious practice is woven together with tribal customs of honor, modesty, and loyalty to the clan, which often carry as much weight as formal doctrine in daily life.

Religious authority coexists with the authority of sheikhs and clan elders, who still carry decisive weight in matters of faith and conduct within the extended family. Popular religiosity coexists with beliefs and practices inherited from desert life, and decisions of faith are rarely individual: they always involve the extended family and the weight of what it will think and suffer because of each person’s choice.

The Bible and the Jesus Film already exist in Arabic, and there are audio and app based Bible reading initiatives reaching Arabic speakers in the region. Even so, almost nothing has been produced with the specific culture, dialect, and sensibility of the Awlad Ali Bedouin in mind, and the people’s oral tradition, more attuned to the recited poem than to silent reading, calls for ways of communicating the Scriptures that have yet to come.

To be Awlad Ali is to be Sunni Muslim: the Islamic faith is interwoven with tribal honor and clan lineage, so that embracing Jesus sounds like betraying not only religion but the family and blood itself. Isolation in Egypt’s Western Desert and Libya’s Cyrenaica, combined with the near total absence of any Christian witness in the people’s language and culture, makes a first encounter with the gospel a rare thing.

Decades of transition between the desert and settled life have brought new economic and social pressures, and families who once depended on their flocks now seek income in cities and farming projects that are not always accessible to everyone. There is a deep need for Christian community and discipleship in the people’s own language and culture, something practically nonexistent among the Awlad Ali today.

There is also a lack of follow up for the few who have already heard about Jesus, who need brothers and sisters in the faith, Scriptures in a format accessible to their oral tradition, and a safe space to grow without breaking with family and clan.