The ‘Kiyetna’ Season in Adrar: When Oases Become a Sanctuary for the Soul and a Source of Livelihood”

“The ‘Kiyetna’ Season in Adrar: When Oases Become a Sanctuary for the Soul and a Source of Livelihood”

By: Mohamed Abderahman Abdallah
Journalist, Nouakchott

In the heart of the Mauritanian desert, where sand silently weaves its own poetry, life pulses back every summer in the oases of Adrar through the season of Kiyetna. It’s not just an agricultural season, but a social retreat, a cultural ritual, and an economic lifeline amid the drought. In Kiyetna, people gather around dates, reconnect with the land, and reclaim a collective memory that resists the fragmentation of modernity.

■ The Human Dimension: An Escape from Urban Clamor to the Serenity of the Palms

Above all, Kiyetna is a return to one’s roots. Families leave the big cities behind and head for the oases that cradled their childhoods or the heritage of their ancestors. Under the shade of palm trees, tents are pitched, and life is restructured to the rhythm of nature: no ringing phones, no traffic, no work stress—just the calm of the desert and the scent of ripe dates.

Here, a person needs little to feel content: waking at sunrise to a cool breeze, having a breakfast of dates and milk, and spending the evening in storytelling circles with relatives. Kiyetna, then, is more than a vacation—it’s a state of psychological balance and reconciliation with the self.

■ The Social Dimension: Reuniting and Rewe