ABSTRACT
Origin of the Kunta The Kunta have always been an intensely proud group, and every Kunta family, be it in the Adnir, Timbuctu, Lakhaba, Tagant or N'diasan, is able to introduce a genealogy which can be traced back to the purest of Arab blood. Kunta tradition is unanimous on their descent from 'Uqba b. Nafi' al-Fihri, of the Umayyad branch of Quraysh (the aristocrats of Mecca, and the people of the Prophet Mul?ammad). It is worth mentioning that this tradition generally is accepted not only by the Kunta themselves, but by all literate groups of the Sahara. 8
The Kunta were and remain a remarkable group of independent families, who, as Barth recounted, were "... distinguished by their purer blood and by their learnings above almost all the tribes of the desert".9 Until the turn of the last century, the Kunta were a completely inbred ethnic group. Their men were allowed to marry freely with women of other groups, while their women were restricted to marriage with Kunta males. Reflecting a high regard for their own descent, the Kunta felt strongly that the purity of their blood would be compromised if a woman of Kunta descent married outside the group. The Shaykh Mul?arnmad Mbarak, a great wali, scholar, and distinguished poet of Lamtuna descent, married a Kunta woman. But despite his prestige, the union was regarded as one humiliating to the Kunta woman who became his wife. By way of defending her against Kunta insults, the poet composed a long ode in which he exalted her virtues and his own origin.
