Tweeza (Arabic:تويزة), alsoTouiza orTiwizi, is the term used in north Africa to designate the cooperation in aSufi and cultural heritage in which a group from thetariqa orzawiya in a community or village gathers and cooperates in order to contribute to the achievement of charitable work, help the needy or the poor, build a house for a person or amosque, clean acemetery, village, or mosque, or harvest wheat fields andolive trees.[1][2]
TheTweeza is reflected in the village societies revolving around the Sufi zawiyas by voluntary action of cleaning, weeding, collecting waste and other rubbish as well as the planting of fruit and ornamental trees.[3][4]
This collective and voluntary activity of themurids is thus initiated to rehabilitate scrub cemeteries, which represents a gesture of awareness which implies a surge of solidarity from the citizens of the entire village.[5][6]
In addition to theSheikh of theZawiya of the region who oversees the activity of theTweeza through hisBarakah, it is also theThadjmaath [ar] of each village to coordinate the associative logistics in collaboration with local elected officials andImams ofmosques, and even personalities acquired for the environmental and social cause of the community.[7][8]
This altruistic participation results in the donation of quality shrubs from botanical nurseries, especially during the rainy season despite the unfavorable climatic conditions.[9]
This action maintains the concept of Tweeza and rehabilitates it in the form of a voluntary service which was once practiced everywhere in the rural and village world, and which must be protected and preserved from the tendency to disappear over time due to modernity and urbanization.[10][11]
TheTweeza supposes the union or the conjugation of the efforts of the "Thadjmaath" to carry out works of common interest such as the plowing and sowing campaigns, the construction of mosques, zawiyas andmedersas.[12]
It is also a form of mutual aid to support the underprivileged groups when it comes to building homes by reducing and mitigating the resulting financial charges.[13]
This is how theTweeza consolidates the bonds of friendship, fraternity and solidarity between rural citizens in the popular mountain neighborhoods and cities and in the suburbs and outskirts of urbanized cities.[14][15]
During the end ofautumn and the beginning ofwinter, all the women of the villages meet with their children to collect together in turn all the olives, a kind ofTweeza, all in a good-natured atmosphere by recitingAchewiq [ar] songs in chorus.[16][17]
As every year, the inhabitants of these steep regions celebrate the olive picking by the Tweeza and festivals that last all the month of December and extend until January to welcome theBerber New Year calledYennayer.[18][7]
Women and men are mobilized to make these festivities a success, which reinforces the spirit of solidarity between the villagers, especially at the end of the day around a large dish ofcouscous.[19]
For guests from outside the village, honey and grape pancakes are offered in these olive-growing regions where the Tweeza accompanies the picking of olives in a ceremonial climate, where it is the village Amin who gives the signal for galling.[20]
The Tweeza troop then moves, from olive grove to olive grove during each day, and in the evening, in each dechra, it is a night of party with meals and sweets embellished by songs in honor of the tree of the blessedolive tree.[21][22]
