BERBERS

Some told me that Berbers trace their origins as indigenous people to at least 10 000 BC or since the beginning of recorded history, that they are the only people that were never fully conquered, although Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs tried so many times, and that is why they call themselves Amazigh or 'free people'. That ancient Libyans, the ones that some of us remember from history lessons about Bronze age, ancient Egypt and Ramesses, are, in fact, ancestors of nowaday Berber people.

That they kept their rituals for thousand years although they don't have their own written languge or their own country. That Berbers is just a rude way of saying ' those who can’t speak our language' and, in fact, it is just a name for numerous tribes with different backgrounds in one area.

So I went to Atlas mountains to see.

Most historians believe Berbers first arrived in Morocco in the second or third millennium BCE. The name, Berber, is likely derived from the Roman word for barbarian, while they refer to themselves by the term Amazigh, or ‘free people.’ (A fun fact: Should you ever hear yourself called an arumi, you are being called a foreigner, or, literally, a Roman.)

Berber - any of the descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa. The Berbers live in scattered communities across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, and Mauritania. They speak various Amazigh languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family related to ancient Egyptian.

The Masmuda is one of the largest Berber tribal confederation in the Maghreb along with the Zanata and the Sanhaja.

An accurate count of Berbers is difficult to come by for a variety of reasons, including a lack of thorough surveys. The two largest populations of Berbers are found in Algeria and Morocco, where large portions of the population are descended from Berbers but only some of them identify as Amazigh. Roughly one-fourth of the population in Algeria is estimated to be Berber, while Berbers are estimated to make up more than three-fifths of the population in Morocco. In the Sahara of southern Algeria and of Libya, Mali, and Niger, the Berber Tuareg number more than two million.

From about 2000 BCE, Berber (Amazigh) languages spread westward from the Nile valley across the northern Sahara into the Maghrib. By the 1st millennium BCE, their speakers were the native inhabitants of the vast region encountered by the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. A series of Berber peoples—Mauri, Masaesyli, Massyli, Musulami, Gaetuli, Garamantes—then gave rise to Berber kingdoms under Carthaginian and Roman influence. Of those kingdoms, Numidia and Mauritania were formally incorporated into the Roman Empire in the late 2nd century BCE, but others appeared in late antiquity following the Vandal invasion in 429 CE and the Byzantine reconquest (533 CE) only to be suppressed by the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries CE.

In 9 century Arabic became the sole official language of Algeria. Linguistic and cultural expressions of Berber were forbidden and up to this day Berbers still try to fight for their independance or recognition.

In the Middle Atlas are the Zayanes, who spread from Fes in the north to Marrakesh in the south. Their dialect, Tamazight, varies wildly from region to region but is usually intelligible by native speakers. Some Zayanes, particularly those near Ouarzazate in the south, are still nomads, traveling with their livestock as the seasons change.

The southern Atlas and Anti Atlas Mountains are home to the Shilhah. The Shilhah is the largest Berber tribe in the country and often viewed as having the most ‘pure’ Berber language, Tashlheit. The majority of Berber films and music are produced in the Tashlheit language.

Tuareg are nomadic Berbers inhabiting the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Raiding and the control of caravan routes were the traditional mainstays of Tuareg economic activities in pre-colonial times, but increasing French control limited raiding and necessitated the development of salt caravans to Niger. The Tuaregs have been called the "blue people" for the indigo dye coloured clothes they traditionally wear and which stains their skin.