The specificities of the Algerian art of bouqala in connection to divination

Abstract EN

The goal of this study is to identify the characteristics and the specificities of the Algerian Art of Bouqala in connection to divination Oracle cards.

The Bouqala is one of the first feminine forms of oral dialectal literature that emerged in North Africa between the periods of Ottoman and French occupations.

Taking into account the high position of Arabic language during the Ottoman occupation, the art of Bouqala remained produced and transmitted orally by women in the past for several centuries under the influence of Arabic over this dialectal poetry.

Knowing that the game of Bouqala was used not only for entertainment purposes but also for divination, this antique practice could probably have spiritual or paranormal implications as a consequence to the widespread culture of witchcraft and the pagan background in North Africa.

In this vein, the research method departs from a triangulation of data.