In the 1970s and the 1980s the Raqqa province was the center of massive state attention through the Euphrates Scheme, with the building of a huge dam and the establishment of new irrigation systems. Today, instead, it is known as the center of ISIS administration. After independence, the expansion of agriculture in this region made it economically important for the country as a whole. But economic and political inequalities also increased, not least among the shawai’a, the rural ‘Arab’ non-Bedouin inhabitants of the province. These inequalities were partly addressed during the land reform of the 1960s whereby many villagers were more closely tied to the state and the ruling party. Until 2011 native townsmen in Raqqa and employees from the rest of Syria have used the term shawai’a (s. shaawi) in a derogatory way. In the provincial play of power, shawai’a were opportunistic in their allegiance to the state according to native townsmen. To outside employees they were seen uncivilized country bumpkins. This paper addresses the complex developments of shawai’a identities and identifications, political actions and activisms since they were welded into distinct tribes during the French mandate. It also addresses the provincial struggles of power and how terms like co-operation, co-optation, withdrawal and resistance were used by rural inhabitants, townspeople and newcomers to the province between the late 1970s until 2011. The paper is based mainly on intermittent anthropological fieldwork in the Raqqa province and elsewhere in Syria between 1978 and 2011. The aim of the paper is to engage in a discussion on sectarianism and identity in Syria.