Who knows why some Algerians swipe their faces with the fresh sheep's skin once they finish skinning it ? Do you still doing it nowadays and in which region ?
This is a picture of an Algerian man swiping his face with what it looks like a goat skin after he finished removing it. The picture was taken in the Aures region during the colonial era by the French ethnologist Germaine Tillion on its visit to one of the tribes in the Aures.
It's a Chaoui (Aures Amazigh people) tradition tied to Eid al-Adha, commemorating their ancestor King Aksel, a 7th-century Berber/Amazigh leader who resisted the Arab conquest.
According to the story (from Ibn Khaldun), Aksel was humiliated by Arab commander Oqba ibn Nafi, who forced him to skin a sheep. Aksel wiped the bloody/warm skin on his face/beard in defiance (claiming it was good for his hair, but actually vowing revenge). He later killed Oqba near Biskra in 684.
The father (then family members) wipes the fresh skin on their faces (especially eyes) right after skinning as a mark of respect, memory, and "appropriation" of this ancestral act. Some also see it as protective against illness (per older ethnographic accounts like Germaine Tillion's).
If you have another informations about it, don't hesitate to contribute ❤️