Tajakant

The Tajakant (also Tadjakant) is a Sahrawi tribe of Berber (Sanhaja) origins.[1] They speak Hassaniya Arabic.

The Tajakant mainly live in Mauritania,[2] Western Sahara, Algeria, Morocco and Mali. They are Muslims, adhering to the Maliki school of Sunni Islam.

The Tajakant tribe descended from the tribe of Lamtouna, a fraction of the powerful tribe of Sanhadja in the Mauritanian Adrar. They became sedentary during the ninth century, at the fall of the Almoravid empire and founded between Chinguetti and Ouadane two cities since disappeared, Tinigui and Togba.[1]

The Tajakant were known as traders and warriors, and held a strong position in the trans-Saharan trade between Belad Asudan (Sub-Saharan Africa) and Old Western Sahara.[3]

In 1852, Tajakant tribesmen founded a settlement and trading post in the oasis of Tindouf, in what is now Algeria. They were engaged in a lengthy war against the Rguibat and Kunta in the 19th c., their allies in this war were the Senhaja.[3] This culminated in 1895 where the settlement of Tindouf was attacked and sacked by a raiding party of Reguibat tribesmen. Tindouf was destroyed, and most of the northern Tajakant wiped out; some populations remain in Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria and a few in Mauritania, where their members have gained importance as religious scholars.

Today's Tajakant are said to be sedentary, and engaged in small-scale trading and farming. They mainly live in Morocco and Western Sahara. They are one of the strongest proponents of claims on the territory, due to their historical feud with the Rguibat (Sahrawi tribe). Some live in Algeria,[4] Western Sahara, Mauritania and Mali.