The Hedareb or T'bdawe are a Beni-Amer division, a subgroup of the Beja. They speak the Beja language, which belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. They are one of the nine ethnolinguistic groups in Eritrea.
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Overview
The Hedareb people live in northwestern Barka in Eritrea, and in Sudan. Skilled nomadic pastoralists, they typically migrate seasonally with their herds of camels, goats and sheep.
Language
The Hedareb speak the Beja language as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Besides their variety of Beja known as Hedareb (T’badwe), most Hedareb speakers also speak at least one other language; typically either Arabic or Tigre, which are both also Afro-Asiatic languages.
Society
Hedareb society is hierarchical, and is traditionally organized into clans and subclans. Most Hedarebs are Sunni Muslims. Marriages are typically arranged to maximize alliances between extended families. It is customary for the groom's family to pay a bride price of five to twelve goats, and a varying amount of money.
Sociologist Abdulkader Saleh Mohammad writes that the Hedareb have been excluded from state conceptions of Eritrean nationhood, and have become a marginalized group with many members who do not feel connected to the Eritrean nation-state.