Who Is Ommek Tango?

Chanted By Tunisia's Children Craving Rain

Photo credit: Tunisie.co

Ommok Tangou, also known as Ommok Tannou, is an ancient Tunisian tradition of invoking rain. This practice, inherited from Berber and Punic traditions, identifies Ommek Tangou with Tanit, the Carthaginian goddess of fertility and growth. Represented as a doll, often a stick adorned with pieces of fabric, she is carried by children through the streets during droughts.

In Tunisia, the ritual of celebrating "Ommek Tangou" involves creating a wooden cross-like structure dressed in women's clothing, which children then carry around. They wander through the alleys and roads, singing rhymes to request rain.

This custom has been noted by many foreigners, including Charles Monchicourt, a civil observer in Kairouan, who described girls walking with a long stick shaped like a doll. Additionally, Dr. Bartholon mentioned girls