After my informants had decided that I had received sufficient geographical material about the village, there was a general consensus that I should now look into its history. However, opinions about what this ‘history’ might be, and more importantly, who would know it and have the right to speak about it, varied from villager to villager. Arezqi, for example, suggested trips to various neighbouring villages and towns, where he had fixed appointments with a large number of ‘experts’ on ‘Berber history’, most of whom had been to university, if possible in France. In the village itself, he maintained, nothing was to be found: ‘We don't have any history, everything is oral, and most of it has already been lost, because our old people die.’ Similarly, when I wanted to interview one of the village elders who, as many villagers had told me, had always ‘pulled the strings’ in the village, his brother tried to discourage me vehemently: ‘Why would you want to speak to him? He is just a little shepherd, he has never been outside the village, he doesn't read or write, he can't even speak French: he doesn't know anything’ (Méziane Ramdani).