- Silence

- In the tongue of the people of the desert, the word “kheima” (tent) points at the family,

- and as a consequence, the meaning of kheima overpasses the notion of the place of living. The making of tents starts with the weaving of the feldja,

- made out of black goat’s hairs. Sheep’s wool and camel’s hairs can also be added,

- they are woven in a coherent way and neatly set, the making of tents passes through several steps.

- We sheer the goats, hit the hairs, weave them, twist them,

- then we level the feldja, 15 or 16 threads of feldja.

- And we set a tent. That’s the process of tent making.

- To weave a tent, we need several tools

- such as pegs, rouh, a nira stick, bull horns, and other tools that have been used for centuries up until now.

- This is the nira, this is the stick, and this is the nira, and this one is the rouh.

- Tents are not fixed buildings, they are mobile and move with their owners

- wherever they go. It is the resting place that shelters them. They inherited it through generations.

- This is our ancestors’ heritage and ours ancestors’ ancestors, at the time when we used to live in the desert, with sakias

- and tfariti, we built tents in every desert.

- This fabric is called kherq and this rope is called khalfa, this is the peg, this is the kefn and this is the kherb.

- Different names of different elements of tents, be them open, this means the immensity of imagination and a limitless mind.

- The kheima is a symbol for stretches, it is a way of reinforcing novel writers’ stock

- and Sahrawi men’s memory. That is the reason why it is widely spread in Hassani poetry.