Every year, the Zenata communities in the south-west Algerian Sahara visit mausoleums of saints to commemorate the birth of Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him. The pilgrimage runs for a week during which festive practices including celebrations with singing and dancing.
Different groups of pilgrims symbolically merge around a bearer carrying the banner of the saint before concluding the journey of the seventh day in a square housing the mausoleum. Women take part by presiding over the « millstone »ritual a week before the ceremony, during which they grind the first handful of cereals used to make couscous for the pilgrims.
Lire la présentation de l’UNESCO https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/sbu-annual-pilgrimage-to-the-zawiya-of-sidi-el-hadj-belkacem-in-gourara-00667?RL=00667
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