Barranco del Lobo
How the Ouchen name became inscribed in the geography of colonial warfare
The Wolf's Ravine
The etymology of a name that changed Spanish history
The Name
The Spanish name "Barranco del Lobo" (the Wolf's Ravine) was derived directly from the Ouchen family name. In the Tamazight language of the Rif Berbers, Ouchen (أوشن) means "wolf."
The ravine was located on the slopes of Mount Gurugú near Melilla, at the entrance to the Beni Said territory, the hereditary domain of the Caíd Mohamed Amar Ouchen. On Spanish topographical military maps, a settlement dominating the entrances to the mountain was recorded as Amar Uxen, the Hispanicized version of Amar Ouchen. As was common in the Rif, small villages and aduares took the name of the principal family or landowner.
The name "Barranco del Lobo" was likely a journalistic coinage following the catastrophic battle of 27 July 1909. The Spanish geographers Delbrel and Ghirelli did not transmit this popularized name in their scientific writings, indicating it was a press-created designation. The literal translation of the family name into "lobo" (wolf) made for a dramatic headline that became permanently fixed in the landscape.
The Battle of 27 July 1909
In early July 1909, Rifian fighters attacked Spanish workers near Melilla. The cabileños overwhelmed the Spanish perimeter, pushing fighting as far as the Lavaderos and the Hipódromo by 20 July. The warship María de Molina bombarded the Beni Said, the homeland of the Ouchen.
On 26 July, the Brigada Mixta under General Guillermo Pintos, born in the Chafarinas Islands, was directed toward the entrance of the Barranco del Lobo. On 27 July, the forces of the santón Mizzian, Chaldy, and Haj Amar annihilated the brigade. General Pintos was killed. He had left a letter asking King Alfonso XIII to care for his wife and four daughters.
The disaster triggered the Semana Trágica (Tragic Week) in Barcelona: a week of anarchist violence and social upheaval that permanently marked 20th-century Spanish history.
Historical Significance
The Barranco del Lobo stands as a permanent geographical monument to the Ouchen family's dominion over the Oriental Rif. The ravine's name testifies to the era when the Ouchen controlled the strategic passes between the Mediterranean coast and the Moroccan interior, a sovereignty that no colonial army could easily breach, and which the very geography still commemorates.
"Si yo jamás he pisado tierra de cristianos, no hagáis vosotros lo mismo con las nuestras."
Warning of a Rifian elder to the advancing Spanish forces, July 1909