The Imazighen (Berbers)

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The Imazighen

The Berbers (also called Imazighen, "free men", singular Amazigh) are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group indigenous to the Maghreb, speaking the Berber languages of the Afroasiatic family. There are between 14 and 25 million speakers of Berber languages in North Africa (see Berber languages&Population .)

Their languages, the Berber languages, form a branch of the Afroasiatic linguistic family comprising many closely related varieties, including Tachelhit, Central Atlas Tamazight , and Kabyle, with a total of roughly 14-25 million speakers. Many Berbers are bilingual in Arabic.


Origin

There is no complete certitude about the origin of the Berbers; however, various disciplines shed light on the matter.

Genetic Evidence

While population genetics is a young field still full of controversy, in general the genetic evidence appears to indicate that most Northwest Africans (whether they consider themselves Berber or Arab) are of Berber origin, and that populations ancestral to the Berbers have been in the area since the Upper Paleolithic era. The genetically predominant ancestors of the Berbers appear to have come from the east - from East Africa, the Middle East, or both - but the details of this remain unclear. This genetic predominance lends strength to Berber oral traditions of originating from an ancient Yemeni people that spread eastward from Southern Arabia via the horn of East Africa. However, significant proportions of the Berber gene pool derive from more recent immigration of Arabs, Europeans, and sub-Saharan Africans.

The Y chromosome is passed exclusively through the paternal line. According to Bosch et al. 2001, "the historical origins of the NW African Y-chromosome pool may be summarized as follows: 75% NW African Upper Paleolithic (H35, H36, and H38), 13% Neolithic (H58 and H71), 4% historic European gene flow (group IX, H50, H52), and 8% recent sub-Saharan African (H22 and H28)", mostly from an "Upper Paleolithic colonization that probably had its origin in eastern Africa". The interpretation of the second most frequent "Neolithic" haplotype is debated: Arredi et al. 2004, like Semino et al. 2000 and Bosch et al. 2001, argue that the H71 haplogroup and North African Y-chromosomal diversity indicate a Neolithic-era "demic diffusion of Afro-Asiatic-speaking pastoralists from the Middle East", while Nebel et al. 2002 argue that H71 rather reflects "recent gene flow caused by the migration of Arabian tribes in the first millennium of the Common Era." Bosch et al. also find little genetic distinction between Arabic and Berber-speaking populations in North Africa, which they take to support "the interpretation of the Arabization and Islamization of NW Africa, starting during the 7th century A.D., as cultural phenomena without extensive genetic replacement." Cruciani et al. 2004 note that the E-M81 haplogroup on the Y-chromosome correlates closely with Berber populations.

The mtDNA, by contrast, is inherited only from the mother. According to Macaulay et al. 1999, "one-third of Mozabite Berber mtDNAs have a Near Eastern ancestry, probably having arrived in North Africa ∼50,000 years ago, and one-eighth have an origin in sub-Saharan Africa. Europe appears to be the source of many of the remaining sequences, with the rest having arisen either in Europe or in the Near East." [Maca-Meyer et al. 2003] analyze the "autochthonous North African lineage U6" in mtDNA, concluding that:

The most probable origin of the proto-U6 lineage was the Near East. Around 30,000 years ago it spread to North Africa where it represents a signature of regional continuity. Subgroup U6a reflects the first African expansion from the Maghrib returning to the east in Paleolithic times. Derivative clade U6a1 signals a posterior movement from East Africa back to the Maghrib and the Near East. This migration coincides with the probable Afroasiatic linguistic expansion. A genetic study by Fadhlaoui-Zid et al. 2004 argues concerning certain exclusively North African haplotypes that "expansion of this group of lineages took place around 10500 years ago in North Africa, and spread to neighbouring population", and apparently that a specific Northwestern African haplotype, U6, probably originated in the Near East 30,000 years ago but has not been highly preserved and accounts for 6-8% is southern Moroccan Berbers , 18% in Kabyles and 28% in Mozabites. Rando et al. 1998 (as cited by [[1]]) "detected female-mediated gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa to NW Africa" amounting to as much as 21.5% of the mtDNA sequences in a sample of NW African populations; the amount varied from 82% (Touaregs) to 4% (Rifains). This north-south gradient in the sub-Saharan contribution to the gene pool is supported by Esteban et al.

Archaeological

The Neolithic Capsian culture appeared in North Africa around 9,500 BC and lasted until possibly 2700 BC. Linguists and population geneticists alike have identified this culture as a probable period for the spread of an Afroasiatic language (ancestral to the modern Berber languages) to the area. The origins of the Capsian culture, however, are archeologically unclear. Some have regarded this culture's population as simply a continuation of the earlier Mesolithic Ibero-Maurusian culture, which appeared around ~22,000 BC, while others argue for a population change; the former view seems to be supported by dental evidence[2]

Linguistic

The Berber languages form a branch of Afro-Asiatic, and thus descended from the proto-Afro-Asiatic language; on the basis of linguistic migration theory , this is most commonly believed by historical linguists (notably Diakonoff and Ehret) to have originated in east Africa no earlier than 12,000 years ago, although Militarev argues instead for an origin in the Middle East. Ehret specifically suggests identifying the Capsian culture with speakers of languages ancestral to Berber and/or Chadic, and sees the Capsian culture as having been brought there from the African coast of the Red Sea. It is still disputed which branches of Afro-Asiatic are most closely related to Berber, but most linguists accept at least one of Semitic and Chadic as among its closest relatives within the family (see Afro-Asiatic languages#Classification history.)

The Nobiin variety of Nubian contains several Berber loanwords, according to Bechhaus-Gerst, suggesting a former geographical distribution extending further southeast than the present.

Phenotype and genotype by region

The appearance and the genetic make-up of Berbers is best examined together with that of their fellow Arabic-speaking inhabitants of North Africa; both share a predominant Berber ancestry.

Coastal Northwest Africans


About 75% of Northwest Africans live on the coast. Berber groups such as the Rifains and Kabyles have the least sub-Saharan admixture (~2%) and the highest European admixture (~15%); Arabic-speaking groups have about 7% sub-Saharan admixture overall. Berber groups in this zone include:

• Kabyles
• Chawis
• Rifains
• Amazighs
• Chenwas

Northwest Africans of the interior

About 20% of Northwest Africans live between the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara; these groups have a moderate sub-Saharan admixture (~20%), including:

• Mozabites.
• Shleuhs.

Saharan Northwest Africans

About 5% of Northwest Africans live in the Sahara; these groups have the highest sub-Saharan admixture, sometimes reaching 80-90% among theTuaregs. They include:

• Touaregs
• Saharan Berbers, Oasis Berbers.

History

The Berbers have lived in North Africa for as far back as records of the area go. References to them occur frequently in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sources. Berber groups are first mentioned in writing by the ancient Egyptians, who fought against the "Lebu" (Libyans) on their western borders, and in945 BC were conquered by Lebu who founded the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. They long remained the main population of the Western Desert ; the Byzantine chroniclers often complain of the Mazikes (Amazigh) raiding outlying monasteries.

For many centuries the Berbers inhabited the coast of North Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. In historical times, they have expanded south into theSahara (displacing earlier black African populations such as the Azer and Bafour ), and have in turn been mainly culturally assimilated in much of North Africa byArabs, particularly following the incursion of the Banu Hilal in the 11th century.

Berbers and the Islamic invasion

Unlike the invasions of previous religions and cultures, the coming of Islam, which was spread by Arabs, was to have pervasive and long-lasting effects on the Maghrib. The new faith, in its various forms, would penetrate nearly all segments of society, bringing with it armies, learned men, and fervent mystics, and in large part replacing tribal practices and loyalties with new social norms and political idioms.

Nonetheless, the Islamization and Arabization of the region were complicated and lengthy processes. Whereas nomadic Berbers were quick to convert and assist the Arab invaders, not until the twelfth century under the Almohad Dynasty did the Christian and Jewish communities become totally marginalized.

The first Arab military expeditions into the Maghrib, between 642 and 669, resulted in the spread of Islam. These early forays from a base in Egypt occurred under local initiative rather than under orders from the central caliphate. When the seat of the caliphate moved from Medina to Damascus, however, theUmayyads (a Muslim dynasty ruling from 661 to 750) recognized that the strategic necessity of dominating the Mediterranean dictated a concerted military effort on the North African front. In 670, therefore, an Arab army under Uqba ibn Nafi established the town ofAl Qayrawan about 160 kilometers south of present-day Tunis and used it as a base for further operations.

Abu al Muhajir Dinar , Uqba's successor, pushed westward into Algeria and eventually worked out a modus vivendi with Kusayla , the ruler of an extensive confederation of Christian Berbers. Kusayla , who had been based inTilimsan (Tlemcen), became a Muslim and moved his headquarters to Takirwan, near Al Qayrawan.

This harmony was short-lived, however. Arab and Berber forces controlled the region in turn until 697. By 711 Umayyad forces helped by Berber converts to Islam had conquered all of North Africa. Governors appointed by the Umayyad caliphs ruled fromAl Qayrawan, capital the new wilaya (province) of Ifriqiya, which covered Tripolitania (the western part of present-day Libya), Tunisia, and eastern Algeria.

Paradoxically, the spread of Islam among the Berbers did not guarantee their support for the Arab-dominated caliphate. The ruling Arabs alienated the Berbers by taxing them heavily; treating converts as second-class Muslims; and, at worst, by enslaving them. As a result, widespread opposition took the form of open revolt in 739-40 under the banner of Kharijite Islam. The Kharijites objected to Ali, the fourth caliph, making peace with the Umayyads in 657 and left Ali's camp (khariji means "those who leave"). The Kharijites had been fightingUmayyad rule in the East, and many Berbers were attracted by the sect's egalitarian precepts. For example, according to Kharijism, any suitable Muslim candidate could be elected caliph without regard to race, station, or descent from the Prophet Muhammad.

After the revolt, Kharijites established a number of theocratic tribal kingdoms, most of which had short and troubled histories. Others, however, like Sijilmasa andTilimsan , which straddled the principal trade routes, proved more viable and prospered. In 750 the Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads as Muslim rulers, moved the caliphate to Baghdad and reestablished caliphal authority in Ifriqiya, appointing Ibrahim ibn al Aghlab as governor inAl Qayrawan. Although nominally serving at the caliph's pleasure, Al Aghlab and his successors, the Aghlabids, ruled independently until 909, presiding over a court that became a center for learning and culture.

Just to the west of Aghlabid lands, Abd ar Rahman ibn Rustam ruled most of the central Maghrib from Tahert , southwest of Algiers. The rulers of the Rustamid imamate, which lasted from 761 to 909, each an Ibadi Kharijite imam, were elected by leading citizens. The imams gained a reputation for honesty, piety, and justice. The court at Tahert was noted for its support of scholarship in mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, as well as theology and law. TheRustamid imams, however, failed, by choice or by neglect, to organize a reliable standing army. This important factor, accompanied by the dynasty's eventual collapse into decadence, opened the way for Tahert's demise under the assault of theFatimids.

Berbers in Al-Andalus

The Muslims who entered Spain in 711 were mainly Berbers, and were led by a Berber, Tariq ibn Ziyad, though under the suzerainty of the Arab Caliph of Damascus Abd al-Malik and his North African Viceroy, Musa ibn Nusayr. A second mixed army of Arabs and Berbers came in 712 under Ibn Nusayr himself, and are claimed to have formed approximately 66% of the Islamic population in Spain, and supposedly that is the reason why they helped theUmayyad caliph Abd ar-Rahman I in Spain, because his mother was a Berber woman. During the Taifa era, the petty kings came from a variety of ethnic groups; some - for instance the Zirid kings of Granada - were of Berber origin. The Taifa period ended when a Berber dynasty - the Almoravids from modern-day Mauritania - took over Spain; they were succeeded by the Almohad dynasty from Morocco, during which time al-Andalus flourished.

In the power hierarchy, Berbers were situated between the Arabic aristocracy and the Muladi populace. Ethnic rivalries were one of the factors of Andalusi politics.

Initially they settled the Cantabric Mounts , the Central System and the Andalusian mountains.

After the fall of the Caliphate, the taifa kingdoms of Toledo, Badajoz, Málaga and Granada had Berber rulers.

Modern-day Berbers

The Berbers live mainly in Morocco (between 35%- 80% of the population) and in Algeria (about 15%-33% of the population), as well as Libya and Tunisia, though exact statistics are unavailable[3]; see Berber languages#Population. Most North Africans who consider themselves Arab also have significant Berber ancestry[4]. One particularly prominent Berber group are the Kabyles of northern Algeria, who number approximately 4 million and have kept, to a large degree, their original language and culture. Other noteworthy groups include the Shluh (plural of Arabic "Shalh" and Berber "Ashalhi") of south Morocco, the Riffain of north Morocco, theChaouia of Algeria, and the Tuareg of the Sahara. There are approximately 3 million Berber immigrants in Europe, especially the Riffain and the Kabyles in the Netherlands and France. Some proportion of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands are descended from the aboriginal Guanches - usually considered to have been Berber - among whom a few Canary Islander customs, such as the eating of gofio , originated.

Although stereotyped in the West as nomads, most Berbers were in fact traditionally farmers, living in the mountains relatively close to the Mediterranean coast, or oasis dwellers; theTuareg and Zenaga of the southern Sahara, however, were nomadic. Some groups, such as the Chaouis , practiced transhumance.

Political tensions have arisen between some Berber groups (especially the Kabyle) and North African governments over the past few decades, partly over linguistic and cultural issues; for instance, in Morocco, giving children Berber names was banned.

Famous Berbers

In Ancient Times

• Shoshenq I (Egyptian Pharaoh of Libyan origin)
• Masinissa, King of Numidia, North Africa, present day Algeria and Tunisia.
• Jugurtha, King of Numidia
• Juba II, King of Numidia
• Terence (Publius Terentius Afer), Roman writer
• Apuleius, Roman writer ("half-Numidian, half-Gaetulian")
• Tacfarinas , who fought the Romans in the Aures Mountains
• Saint Augustine (from Thagaste; his mother's name, Monica, was Berber, although he grew up speaking Punic)
• Saint Monica his mother
• Arius (who proposed the Arian doctrine)
• Donatus (leader of the Donatist schism)
• Macrinus

In Medieval Times

• Dihya or al-Kahina
• Aksil or Kusayla
• Salih ibn Tarif of the Berghouata
• Tariq ibn Ziyad, one of the leaders of the Moorish invasion of Spain in 711.
• Ibn Tumart , founder of the Almohad dynasty
• Yusuf ibn Tashfin, founder of the Almoravid dynasty
• Ibn Battuta (1304 - 1377), Moroccan traveller and explorer
• al-Ajurrumi (famous grammarian of Arabic)
• Fodhil al-Warthilani , traveler and religious scholar of the 1700's
• Abu Yaqub Yusuf I , who had the Giralda in Seville built.
• Abu Yaqub Yusuf II , who had the Torre de Oro in Seville built.
• Ziri ibn Manad founder of the Zirid dynasty
• Sidi Mahrez Tunisian saint
• Ibn Al Djazzar famous doctor of Kairouan, 980.

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The Imashaghen

The Tuareg are an African ethnic group or nation. They call themselves Kel Tamasheq, Kel Tamajaq ("speakers of Tamasheq"), Imouhar, Imuhagh, or Imashaghen ("the free"). The Tuareg people also identify themselves, with the word Tamust west of pronunciation of the , the nation. The meaning of the word Tuareg has been long discussed. It may have come from a Libyan region known today as Fezzan, but once called Targa. The Arabic word "Targui", for Tuareg, may have derived from the Targa valley, the main city UbariSebha. Alternatively, Tuareg may have come from a BedouinArabic Tawariq ("abandoned by God", singular Tarqi). The Tuareg today are found mostly in West Africa, but, like many in Northern Africa, were once nomads throughout the Sahara.

History

Descended from Berbers in the region that is now Libya, the Tuareg were an identifiable nomadic people in the Sahara at the time of Herodotus, who mentions the ancient Libyan people, the Garamantes. Archaeological testimony is the ruins of Germa, the modern Tuareg descended from the Garamantes. Later, they expanded into the Sahel.

Tuareg merchants were long responsible for luxury trade and slave trade connecting the great cities on the southern edge of the Sahara via five desert trade routes to the northern (Mediterranean) coast of Africa.

In the Nineteenth Century, they resisted French colonization of what is now Mali and Niger, with Mali signing a peace treaty in 1905 and Niger only in 1917. During this period the French entered southern Algeria. The Ahaggar Tuareg, led by the Amenokal, traditional chief Moussa Ag Amastan, fought many battles against the French, before the region became finally a French protectorate. Before being dismantled by the French, the traditional Tuareg country was organized into a loose confederation. Each of the main groups had a traditional leader called Amenokal, along with an assembly of tribal chiefs: Imgharan, singular Amghar. The groups were: Kel-Ahaggar, Ajjer, Kel-Ayr, Adrar N'Fughas, Iwellemidan, Kel Gres. Following the independence of African states in 1960s, the Tuareg territory was divided between the new states: Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Burkina Faso.

Their long-standing conflict with other African tribes has been much exacerbated in the last century, as desertification has forced then steadily south in search of better supplies of water. Desertification has also caused a gradual abandonment of the nomadic life, as more Tuareg have become settled farmers or have moved into towns and cities.

In Mali, a Tuareg uprising began in the Adrar N'Fughas mountains, as early as the 1960s, following Mali's independence. In May 1990, in the aftermath of a clash outside a prison in Tchin-Tabaraden, Niger, Tuaregs in both Mali and Niger claimed autonomy for their regions (Tenere, capital Agadez, in Niger and the Azawad and Kidal regions of Mali). Deadly clashes with the military of both countries followed, with deaths numbering well into the thousands. Negotiations initiated by France and Algeria led to peace agreements (January 11, 1992 in Mali and 1995 in Niger). Both agreements called for decentralization of national power and guaranteed the integration of Tuareg resistance fighters into the countries' respective national armies.

Major fighting between the Tuareg resistance and government security forces ended after the 1995 and 1996 agreements, but in 2004, some limited fighting occurred in Niger between government forces and groups claiming to be again fighting for Tuareg independence.

Tuareg territory

The Tuareg people inhabit a large area covering almost all the middle and western Sahara and the north-central Sahel. In Tuareg terms, the Sahara is not one desert, but many. Thus they call it Tinariwen, meaning "the deserts". Among the many deserts in north-west Africa there is the true desert Tenere. Then we can cite numerous deserts more and less arid, flat and mountainous: Adrar, Tagant, Tawat (Touat) Tanezruft, Adghagh N'Fughas, Tamasna, Azawagh, Adar, Damargu, Tagama, Manga, Ayr, Tarramit (Termit), Kawar, Jado, Tadmait, Admer, Igharghar, Ahaggar, Tassili N'Ajjer, Tadrart, Idhan, Tanghart, Fezzan, Tibesti. Kalansho, Libyan Desert, etc.


Tuareg confederations, political centers, and leaders

At the turn of the 19th century the Tuareg country was organized into confederations, each ruled by a supreme chief (Amenokal), along with a counsel of senior tribesmen elected to assist the chief.

• Kel Azjar or Ajjer, center Aghat (Ghat).
• Kel Ahaggar, in Ahaggar mountains
• Kel Adagh , or Kel Assuk, Kidal, and Tin Buktu
• Iwillimmidan Kel Ataram, Manaka, and Azawagh region
• Iwillimmidan Kel Denneg, In Tabaraden, Abalagh, Azawagh.
• Kel Gres, Zinder and Tanut (Tanout).
• Kel Ayr, Asode, Agadez, Timia and Ifrwan.

The most famous Tuareg leader was a woman, Tin Hinan, heroine and spiritual leader who founded a legendary kingdom in the Ahaggar mountains. Other tribal leader followed under the name of Amenokal (chief), among the famous:

• Karidanna, of the Iwillimmidan
• Musa Ag Amastan, of Kel Ahaggar
• Ibrahim Ag Abakkada, of Kel Azjar
• Amud, of Kel Azjar
• Makhammad Ag Katami, of Iwillimmidan
• Balkhu, of Kel Ayr

Culture

The Tuareg are matrilineal, though not matriarchal. Unlike many Muslim societies, the women do not traditionally wear the veil, whereas the men do. The most famous Tuareg symbol is the Tagelmust, their veil often blue indigo colored. The men's facial covering originates from the belief that such action wards off evil spirits, but most probably relates to protection against the harsh desert sands as well; in any event, it is a firmly established tradition (as is the wearing of amulets containing verses from the Qur'an). Men begin wearing a veil at age 25 which conceals their entire face excluding their eyes. This veil is never removed, even in front of family members. [5], [6]

Traditionally, Tuareg society is hierarchal, with nobility and vassals; formerly, they also held slaves ("Iklan"), often African prisoners, darker than the generally brown-skinned Tuareg. Traditionally, the traders had a higher status than their more settled compatriots to the south. With time, that difference has eroded, corresponding to the economic fortunes of the two groups.

Many Tuareg today are either settled agriculturalists or nomadic cattle breeders; there are also still blacksmiths, camel breeders, and caravan leaders.

The Tuareg are sometimes called the "blue people" because of the indigo color of their robes and turbans. However, their clothes and turbans may be found in other colors. Nowadays, the indigo turban is usually used on celebration days. It tends to lose its color on the human skin.

Language

Main article: Tuareg languages The Tuareg speak Tamajaq/Tamasheq/Tamahaq, a Berber language or set of languages with significant variations among the different regions. The language is called Tamasheq by western Tuareg, Mail, Tamahaq among Algerian and Libyan Tuareg and Tamajaq in Azawagh and Aïr regions, Niger. The Tamajaq writing system, Tifinagh (also called Shifinagh), descends directly from the original Berber script used by the Numidians in pre-Roman times.

Religion

The Tuareg have been predominantly Muslim since the 16th century, though lax in observance, more inclined to observe feasts than fasts. They combine Sunni Islam (specifically the Maliki madhhab, popular in North and West Africa) with certain pre-Islamic animistic beliefs, such as the presence of spirits Kel Asuf and such syncretic beliefs as divination through means of the Qur'an. [7]

Arts

Much Tuareg art is in the form of jewellery, leather and metal saddle decorations called 'Trik', and finely crafted swords. The Inadan community makes traditional handicrafts. Among their products are: Tanaghilt or Zakkat (the 'Agadez Cross' or 'Croix d'Agadez'); the Tuareg Takoba , a nearly one meter long sword, with red leather cover; many beautiful gold and silver-made necklaces called 'Takaza'; and earrings called 'Tizabaten'. [8]

Traditional Music

Traditional Tuareg music has two major components: the moncord violin Anzad played often during night parties and a small tambour covered with goatskin called Tende , perfomed during camel race and other festivities. Another popular Tuareg musical genre is Takamba , characteristic for its Afro-Berber percussions.

Tinariwen, a Tuareg band that fuses electric guitars and indigenous musical styles, was founded in the 1980s by rebel fighters. They released their first CD in 2000, and toured in Europe and the United States in 2004.

Many music groups emerged after the 1980s cultural revival. Among them Tartit, Imaran and known artists are: Abdallah Oumbadougou from Ayr, Baly Othmany of Djanet.

Ethnic Classification

The Tuareg are a Berber group, and are closely related to both West Africans and North African Berbers, in terms of culture and race. At least some sources argue that the Tuareg are defined by language, not ethnicity, and that predominantly Middle Eastern and/or Black African Tamasheq speakers qualify as "Tuareg" (and, presumably, by implication, individuals of Tuareg descent but who have assimilated into various countries and do not speak Tamasheq languages do not). (See, for example, [9]). This is probably part of the reason for the widely varying estimates of the number of Tuareg.



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The Rise of Amazigh (I)

The term "Amazigh" used in this study is the preferred term for the Berber people of North Africa. The still widely used ethnolinguistic word "Berber" is disliked because of its pejorative and demeaning character—it implies that the person so called is "barbarian" in every sense of the word. The Rise of Amazigh Nationalism and National Consciousness in North Africa

The Issue,definitions:

"Berber" derives from the Greek word "barbaroi," denoting one who did not speak Greek but babbled unintelligibly and was thus a barbarian. The Romans and Byzantines continued this use of the term. During and after the Arab invasions of the seventh century, the Arabs followed the Greco-Roman practice and referred to the indigenous peoples they encountered as "barbar." The French and English speakers adopted "Berber" and "Berber" coined the word "Barbary," implying that the inhabitants were indeed barbarians.

On the Internet and elsewhere, Amazigh "nationalists" are lobbying for the use of the term "Amazigh," which they use to describe themselves in their own languages. "Amazigh" signifies "free" or "noble" person; the plural is Imazighen. To define, in the most generic way, the language that they speak, Imazighen use the term "Tamazight." This term is also used specifically for the speech of the Imazighen of Kabylia in Algeria and the Middle Atlas in Morocco. Regional Tamazight speakers use their own localized terms to define their own regional variations, such as Tarrifit in northern Morocco, Tashilhit in Morocco’s Sous Valley, and the like. The original Amazigh alphabetic transcription system is referred to as "Tifinagh." Variant transcription systems in use include Latin and Arabic adaptations of Tifinagh representations.

Tuareg elements in Mali call their ancestral homeland Azouad (in northwestern Mali), and the Tuareg of Niger call theirs Air (in the Air mountain massif of north central Niger, with its capital at Agadez) and refer to themselves as the Kel Air (i.e., "People of Air). Small groups of Imazighen are also found in Libya and at Siwa Oasis, Egypt, but they have not been as vocal as other groups in their expression of ethnic or national consciousness. The word "Amazighité" (i.e., Berberism) is often used to sum up the qualities that Amazigh persons might share. These include speaking an Amazigh language, revering the national homeland (Tamazgha) of the Amazigh people (including all of the Arab Maghreb Union [AMU] countries, Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and parts of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, the Canary Islands, and Chad), practicing various customs common to the Imazighen, and instilling a historical awareness of the basic outlines of Amazigh history and famous historical figures.


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The Rise of Amazigh (II)

Substance and Origins

Since the dawn of history Imazighen have been the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa; their territory reaches from Egypt to Mauritania and from the Mediterranean to the boundaries of historic sub-Saharan Black Africa. Various empires and peoples have conquered portions of historic Tamazgha, beginning with the Phoenicians and Greeks and continuing through the Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, French, British, Spanish, and Italians. Imazighen have been subjected to various religious beliefs: their own early pantheistic concepts; the polytheistic dogmas of the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; and monotheistic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Since the 13th century, most Imazighen have professed the Islamic faith and Islam has sunk most deeply into their psyches.

Throughout their history, the Imazighen have always had their heroes or heroines who have defended their ancestral homeland but then succumbed to the superior "civilizational" might of their conquerors. In 814 B.C., for example, Amazigh chief Iarbas negotiated a deal to marry Princess Dido, daughter of the King of Tyre, in return for a small piece of real estate that eventually became Qart Hadasht (i.e., the New City, or Carthage). Kings Juba and Massinissa intrigued with the Romans against the Carthaginians. Royal prince Jugurtha learned Roman fighting techniques and then led a formidable rebellion from 106 to 104 B.C. according to the Roman historian Sallust’s account of the Jugurthine War.

In the early stages of the Arab invasions, Aures tribal chief Kusaila, and later the Kahena (thought to have been an Amazigh Jewish priestess), fought the Arab invaders in the late 7th-early 8th century until the Arab forces overwhelmed them, and they were forced to submit. Salih of the Moroccan Berghawata took Muhammad as his model and created his own variant of Islam; he is even reputed to have authored an "Amazigh" Koran and to have repulsed Arab penetration of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. Amazigh leaders Yusuf ibn Tashfin and Ibn Tumart established the great Amazigh medieval empires of the Almoravids (al-Murabitun, "People of the Ribat") and the Almohades (al-Muwahhidun, the "Unitarians"), which dominated much of North Africa and Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries. From the 13th century on, however, Arab bedouin tribes (the Banu Hilal, Banu Sulaym, and Banu Ma’qil) began to inundate the low-lying plains of North Africa and began a process of Arabization that would continue into the 20th century.

The Imazighen retained their native tongues only in the Atlas Mountains and remote sections of the Sahara not penetrated by these Arab groups. As a result, Amazigh consciousness remained strong only in the High, Middle, and Riff Atlas sections of Morocco; the Kabylia mountain massifs east of Algiers; the Aures Mountains of eastern Algeria; the Mzab region of the northern Sahara of Algeria; Algeria’s Tuareg sectors of the Ahaggar and Tassili-n-Ajjer; and a few other remote sections of the Algerian Sahara, the Jabal Nafusa Mountains south of Tripoli, the Kufra Oasis complex, the Tebu sections of the Tibesti mountain massif in southeastern Libya, the Saharan Siwa Oasis complex in western Egypt, the Tuareg Azouad territory of northwestern Mali, and the Tuareg-occupied Air mountain massif of north central Niger.

Except for an attempt by the French to separate Moroccans through the so-called Berber dahir (decree) of 1930, which backfired and helped to unify Arab and Amazigh against the French usurpers, the rising consciousness of Amazigh peoples of North Africa has been primarily a late 20th century post-independence phenomenon that has become increasingly acute since the "Berber Spring" of 1980 in Algeria. This consciousness has achieved near-nationalistic levels in Algeria and Morocco and has become the basis of antigovernmental guerrilla activities in Niger and Mali. Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Mauritania (except for the influx of Tuareg refugees from Mali) have not experienced any high degree of Amazigh-related cultural or political activities, as a result of the sparse numbers of Amazigh ethnics in these countries.

Algeria’s Berber Spring occasioned much organizational activity with political repercussions involving violent reactions and other severe measures that resulted in severe measures taken by the government to repress Amazigh aspirations. In the after-math, Amazigh political movements emerged that were transformed into political parties when Algeria’s one-party system was "opened up" in 1989. The cultural vehicle that grew from the Berber Spring was the Berber Cultural Movement (Mouvement Culturel Berber, MCB), which later formally remained separate from the political parties. Two political parties were legally recognized in 1989: the Constitutional Democratic Rally (Ralliemen Constitutionnel Democratique, RCD), led by Said Saadi, and the Socialist Forces Front (Front des Forces Socialistes, FFS) of Ait Ahmed. Neither claimed Berberism, or Amazighité, as their overriding political philosophy, but most of their constituents were Kabyle Imazighen and remain so today.

In Algeria, the Tamazight-speaking minority, including all those who speak variations of Tamazight, constitutes about 20 percent of the population. From the Amazigh perspective, however, perhaps 80-90 percent of the population remains ethnically Amazigh, although that portion has substantially Arabized and has thereby lost its original Amazigh identity. Tamazight speakers survived in remote mountain and desert regions isolated from the primarily lowlander Arabs and Arabized members of the population. Kabyle Imazighen have largely opposed the regime, while Shawi Imazighen have dominated the Algerian state since 1965 when Shawi military leader Houari Boumedienne overthrew Ahmed Ben Bella, a western Algerian Arab. Nearly every Algerian president since 1965 has been Shawi Amazigh. The Shawi Imazighen differ from their Kabyle counterparts in their support for Arabization and their attempts to conceal their Amazighité. Because of their identification with the larger Arab mass of Algerians, the Shawi leaders have always tried to suppress movements of Amazigh cultural or political autonomy. The main proponent of Amazighité and the Amazigh cultural and political role in the Algerian nation has been and remains the large Kabyle Amazigh minority. The MCB, RCD, and FFS are primarily Kabyle cultural and political associations. The main Islamist opposition party, Algeria’s now-banned Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut, FIS), is led by Kabyle Amazigh Abassi Madani [1].

The Kabyle Imazighen are at the forefront of the latest issue of concern to Imazighen: the Algerian government’s determination to implement the Arabization law of December 1996 on 5 July 1998. This will outlaw the use of French and Tamazight for all practical purposes.

In the case of Morocco, official statistics allege that 40 percent of the population speaks Tamazight, including local variants. Moroccan Imazighen leaders, however, claim that 80-90 percent of the population, as in Algeria, are ethnic Imazighen who have lost their cultural identity in the process of Arabization since the 13th century. Also, as in Algeria, Tamazight speakers survived in mountain fastnesses and remote Saharan areas while the lowlands were inundated from the 13th century on by Arabic-speaking bedouin tribesmen who assimilated lowland Tamazight speakers. From the middle of the 18th century until the early 20th century, Morocco possessed two identities: the Bled al-Siba, or "Land of Dissidence," which lay outside government control and was largely Amazigh in speech and culture, and the Bled al-Makhzin, or "Land Subject to Governmental Authority," which lay within the administrative control of the central government and was primarily Arabic in speech and culture. It was the achievement of the French Protectorate to unify Morocco politically by incorporating the Bled al-Siba between 1911 and 1934 into the area of government control. This achievement laid the basis for the national consolidation of the Moroccan state for the first time since the 1720s. One unforeseen result of this was the introduction of Arabization into former strongholds of Amazigh culture. The tension created by this process peaked in the 1980s and witnessed in the 1990s the resurgence of Amazigh culture and political parties, including demands for the teaching of Tamazight in the public schools, allocation of media time for Tamazight and other Amazigh dialects, and recognition of the Amazigh role in the creation of the Moroccan nation. The latest government measure opposed by Imazighen is a new law passed in late 1996 that restricts the use of names for Moroccan children to approved Arabic-Muslim names and indirectly outlaws the use of Amazigh names not on the approved list.



[source]

[Menydh]

"They belong to a powerful, formidable, brave and numerous people; a true people like so many others the world has seen - like the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.

The men who belong to this family of peoples have inhabited the Maghreb since the beginning."
Ibn Khaldun, 8th century Tunisian historian.

[Agrippa]

Eickstedt, Biasutti, Baumann, Alcobe y Noguer and others wrote about the racial composition of North Africa and mentioned the Tuaregs.

Alcobe y Noguer stated in Historia Mundi they have 3 to 4 strata: Upper class (Imoshag) mostly Eurafrikanide/Saharide, main body of common free, vasalls and warriors Berberid (Imrad), lower class mixed, Aethiopoid forms partly or even fully Sudanid (Iravellan).

This was interpreted as a migration of a very warlike group of pure Europids moving South and taking local slaves. The Negroid percentage increased over time as does admixture. So the upper class was purer 100 years ago...

[Theobald]

I read somewhere the Ethnic Arabs were not more than 4-5% of the North Africans (like in Egypt).
Most of the North Africans are actually Berber who were islamized and arabized (80% in Algeria, 60% in Morocco) with non-Arabized Berber minorities (15-20% in Algeria, 30-35% in Morocco). For instance, in 1860 (Algeria became French in 1830), 52% of the Algerians spoke Tamazight, in 1952, 30% and today only 17%.
Arabization was done by both France (1830-1962) and Algerian state after 1962 :

Together with the identification of people as Arab under the French, was the imposition of the Arabic language. In 1833, the French established the écoles arabes-françaises (French-Arabic school system). Until 1898, graduation tests were required in the Arabic language. While mostly Algerian Jews attended the schools and only an estimated 1,300 Muslims by 1870 (5), this created an elite class of Arabic-speakers. Arabic had heretofore been the religious literary language, and not the language of the streets. While Algerian (and other North African) "darja" (dialect) has a primarily Arabic vocabulary, its grammar and syntax is not Arabic but rather Tamazight. It is interesting to note that neither Ottoman and Persian are defined as Arabic dialects but languages in their own right, despite the use of Arabic characters and their majority Arabic vocabulary.
Although the French-Arabic schools were not popular among the majority of the indigenous population, in the 20th century, the movement begun in 1922 by Abd al-Hamid Ben Badis to "purify" Islam, or more accurately to easternize the religious beliefs and practices of Algeria, resulted in the growth of Qur'anic schools, which also taught Arabic. Although the French are depicted as anti-Islam, they controlled religious affairs under their ministry, and permitted, if not actually encouraged, the islamization and arabization of Algeria. Descriptions of the Berber laws and culture by French and British missionaries and anthropologists raise the question whether these people were, in fact, Muslim, as historians maintain, or if some Muslim terms and practices merely were incorporated into their own beliefs, influenced by the Ottomans, who were Sunni Muslims. The results of the combined islamization and arabization of North Africa is that today, the religion is equated with the language, considered holy and untouchable, despite the fact that the vast majority of Muslims are not Arabs, and Indonesians, Turks, Pakistanis, Iranians, and other non-Arab Muslims do not feel the need to define themselves as Arabs even if they are Muslim. In fact, they emphatically reject such an identification. Only in North Africa are the two equated.

After independence, arabization became more institutionalized. Arabic became the official language of all North African countries. In Algeria, this was an especially difficult transition since very few were actually literate in the language. Teachers had to be imported from Syria, Egypt, and Trans-Jordan. The Constitution defined the people as Arab and Muslim. Yet this was never the intent of the revolutionists who fought within Algeria. They had perceived a heterogenous Algeria, home to all Algerians, whatever their ethnicity or religion. With the murder of leading Amazigh revolutionists and the takeover by those who had studied, worked, or trained in Egypt, arabization became the official enforcement policy. Ben Bella, who made the infamous statement "We are arabs, we are arabs, we are arabs" (ironically in the French language) and Boumedienne, the first two presidents of Algeria, were both Berbers!

Source


And also, before 1830 :

For the Berbers, "Arabization" occurred in three overlapping stages. The first stage was the initial contact with the Arab invaders in the seventh century. The second stage began with the arrival of the Bedouins in the eleventh century. The third stage of Arabization, which took place between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, was accelerated by the arrival of refugees from Andalusia (a region in southern Spain).

[Agrippa]

Some updates:
The Capsian culture, people and later Neolithics definitely played a role in forming Mediterranids in the narrower sense in North Africa, but this question is similar if looking at Nordids, were they more replaced or did the locals gracilise and leptomorphised. For Nordids the later is more probable at least for a higher percentage, for NA we can think of stronger replacement too because we can see similar trends in Egypt.

But this didnt brought up Atlantomediterranids only, but also even smaller, more gracile Mediterranids, just darker Southern Mediterranids close to European Gracilmediterranids especially along the North West African coast.
Ferembach said that Capsians which could be classified were basically Protomediterranid (Mediterranéens primitifs).

The Iberomaurusians were mostly Cromagnoid (Mechtoid), Ferembach even saw similarities to Oberkassel. They mostly survived in the mountainous areas where I assume they became partly Alpinised, what lead to those typically light Alpinoid variants which were classified by the French as just being "Alpine".
In the Neolithics more gracile Mediterranids appear, so we basically have all ingredients we need for what I said above, not mentioned Negroid admixture so far.

Ferembach showed some maps which show how mixed NW-Africa is, with all the types mentioned and stronger Negroid admixture South of a certain line.
I could quote others too but I dont have the time for that at the moment.
I would assume that many Atlantomediterranid-like types (Eurafrikanid) in NA are the result of Mediterranid-Berberid mixture and reselection towards a tall, somewhat lighter, leptodolichomorphic type = Eurafrikanid.


What points to Berberid influence. Eurafrikanids were in some systems more or less Atlantomediterranids or Atlantomediterranid like - tall, light, leptodolichomorphic Mediterranids. I would use it to describe Europid NA without clear Cromagnoid, Gracilmediterranid, Arabid etc. influences and no non-Europid admixture obviously.

Most French anthropologists used European terms to describe pure Berbers, ranging from classic Mediterranid, over Alpine (~Alpinised Berberids) and Nordique (local depigmented A-M and real Nordid admixture from Europeans) to Atlantomediterranid (for NA ~Eurafrikanid is better, because of genetical and morphological differences) - and as a local variant, Mechta-Afalou type (Berberid). Basically the same was said for Guanches.


Eurafrikanid means just Atlantomediterranid in some German systems. Knußmann said they are taller, more robust boned than Gracilmediterranids, but slim build, long-narrow faced, distribution primiarily in Northern Spain and Liguria.
He uses Berberid primarily for the broad-faced Cromagnoid variant (Mechtoid), but distinguishes a tall-lean variant in the Tuareg (- which some others (Baumann) considered being strongly influenced by Eurafrikanids - mainly the highest caste of them obviously, I already wrote about that) typical for the Sahara - a specialised desert type with similarities to Orientalids.
Berberids being also present in Southern Spain, otherwise in all of Northern Africa, especially coastal regions, Western Sahara and Egypt, but mixed with other variants, especially Orientalids which are present in most Arabic speaking regions and Negrids, especially going South and in lower classes.

[Agrippa]

For a better illustration a map from Wikipedia about the distribution of the different modern Berber people: