Zuwayya

The Zuwayya (Arabic: الزوية Al-Zuwayya) are an independent Murabtin tribe, one of the major Arab Bedouin tribes of Cyrenaica and Fezzan, Libya.

Traditionally practicing nomadic pastoralism of sheep and camels in a triangular area with its apex at Ajdabiya, the Zuwayya conquered the richest oasis of the interior, Kufra, in 1840, the Arab invaders made the Toubou to migrate from the area and not only from Kufra, but also Jalu, and the entire southeast region. The Zuwayya tribe owns most of the date palm groves of the Kufra oases, because of the Arab conquest, the Toubou (Gorane) and Zaghawa tribes migrated from Kufra or southeast Libya in general. When the Arab tribes invaded Kufra, the Zuwayya tribe, in particular, concealed the history of Toubou and kept it as a secret when the German explorer Gerhard Rohlfs inquired about the history of Toubou in 1821.

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

The Zuwayya tribe took part in the Libyan Civil War on the side of the opposition. In February 2011, the head of the tribe, Shaikh Faraj al Zuway, threatened to cut off Libyan oil exports unless the Gaddafi government stopped the "suppression of protestors".

References

• Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, The making of modern Libya: state formation, colonization, and resistance, SUNY Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4384-2891-8, pp. 82–83.