Amazigh Culture
Background
Areas Where Different Amazigh Languages are Spoken in Northern Africa
Berbers (or Imazighen for plural), also self-named the Amazigh, are people who are descendants of an ancient race that mainly inhabited Morocco and Algeria who speak Amazigh languages. They are commonly regarded as the original inhabitants of Morocco and the rest of Northwest Africa before the "Arab conquest of Persia" in the 7th century that conquered North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Armenia (Lima 2011:3). The Amazigh population amounts to around 20 to 30 million people, who are spread out across Morocco (around 14 million), Algeria (around 9 million), Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger and Mauritania (Indigenous Peoples in Morocco). Imazighen have faced a long history of marginalization and discrimination by Arabic and French governments ("Observations on the State" 2007:1).
Modern Ways of Living:
Housing of the Amazigh usually varied from pitched-roof houses to flat-roofed “castles” to tents. Whatever type of housing it may have been, the construction of it was designed to create an interior ruled by the women of the family, which is an example of matriarchy where women are the rulers. Outside the home, women would gather at the fountain or well and at the tomb of the local saint, whereas men would meet at the mosque or in the street and square. In the case of the nomadic and matrilineal Amazigh of the central Sahara, the camp was largely controlled by the women, who chose their husbands and with their songs were central to social gatherings. Their dwellings are clustered in groups made up of related families; households consist of nuclear families, usually patrilineal, which was the basic unit of a tribal group going under the name of a common ancestor, whose people they claimed to be (Hoffman 2006:150).
Compared to the idea of bilateral descent which is common in the United States, where family on both sides of parents are seen as equally related patrilineal descent is where family on the father's side is seen as more closely related than family on the mother's side.
Modern Amazigh Housing in Morocco
Traditional Nomadic Amazigh Camp on a Sand Dune
Amazigh Man with Camel and Wearing Traditional Blue Robe
Traditional Ways of Living:
The harsh environment of the Sahara Desert prevented the Amazigh from any serious attempts at agriculture from taking place. Because of this, the Amazigh chose instead to live as nomads rather than being sedentary agrarians. This mobile lifestyle was central to their culture, and perhaps more fitting since they have always preferred to be called the Amazigh, or the “free and noble men”, rather than the Berbers, a Greco-Roman name with the connotation of “barbarians” ("The Culture and Arts").
The Amazigh survived by raising herds, grazing animals, and bringing them along from place to place. Similar to other nomadic cultures, Amazigh clans live in portable tents that were set up when they would find a good area to graze their animals. Herding was traditionally practiced by men, while women handled chores like weaving their distinctive blue robes. Although they used many different animals, including horses, the key animal for the Amazigh was and is the camel. Unlike horses, camels can survive without water for long stretches of time. The camel’s endurance made it possible for the nomadic Amazigh to ride across vast expanses of desert ("The Culture and Arts").
The struggle between the modern and the traditional way of life has been a significant issue for Amazigh in recent years. Perhaps the biggest threat to the Amazigh way of life has been oppression by Arab speaking people of North Africa. The Amazigh were expected to speak Arabic and abandon their nomadic lifestyle. These sorts of pressures have made it difficult for the Amazigh to maintain their unique identity and avoid being assimilated with Arabic speakers (Chaker n.d.:3).
Politics:
The Amazigh, as previously mentioned were conquered by Arabic speakers in the 7th century, this event was only further complicated by the introduction of French colonialism and their issued Dahir. The Berber Dahir was a decree, or legal order, issued by Morocco's sovereign at the instigation of French colonial authorities on 16 May 1930, and it was an attempt at separating the Arabic and Amazigh speaking people by having each population adopt its own separate laws. The mass urban protests against the decree served as a catalyst for Morocco's nationalist movement and a subsequent rise of "Arab nationalism". Since then, the Amazigh have claimed that their culture has been historically underrepresented in Morocco and that their communities are politically and economically marginalized (Colon 2018:7).
While this marginalization resulted in an overall decline in Amazigh speakers numbers it also caused “a gradual increase in the self-conscious manifestations of Amazigh culture". This increase is suspected to come as a result of a “threat factor,” meaning that as individuals became more aware that their collective Amazigh identity was being threatened, this increased and manifested into an Amazigh movement. This was a social movement that focused primarily on cultural and linguistics rather than politics. It placed importance on recognizing both the impact of Amazigh culture on Moroccan history as well as the importance of their language, commonly known as Tamazight (Lima 2011:3).
The Amazigh movement has been successful in some aspects, placing enough pressure on the regime to create the IRCAM, the first government institution dedicated to Amazigh culture, and to have Tamazight recognized as an official language of the state in the new Constitution. The movement continues to gain traction as more Amazigh associations form and coordinate with Amazigh groups in other countries (Lima 2011:3).
Language:
The Amazigh language is called Tamazight, it is part of the Afro-Asiatic linguistic family, which includes Semitic, Cushitic, and ancient Egyptian languages. The Amazigh language can be considered as one the “original” languages of North Africa because currently there is no lead of an exterior origin or any presence of non-Amazigh trace in this region (Chaker n.d.).
The Amazigh faced issues in arguing for the legitimacy of their identity based in linguistic and cultural difference (Crawford, n.d.:123), in other words: they needed to prove that Tamazight was indeed a language. Originally the Amazigh language covered the entire Maghreb region and the Sahara, and now the current Amazigh speakers represent a demographic minority. The Amazigh language even qualifies as an endangered language under The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (Colon 2018:5). At this time a criteria that is used to identify Amazigh populations is the language. Some Arabic speakers in the Maghrib were in fact Amazigh who were “Arabized” at various times in history like the integration of Islam in the 7th Century and the arrival of nomadic Arabic speaking populations in the 11th Century (Crawford, n.d.:123).
In the Maghreb, the dominating and official Arab-Islamist ideology was perceived as a danger to national unity to the Amazigh and the Amazigh language. "Arabization" was the policy implemented after independence, which aimed to get rid of French, the language of the former colonial power, and the Amazigh language at the same time. As a result, Amazigh was excluded from all official places, as well as from teaching even at university level until the beginning of the 1990's (Crawford, n.d.:123). The last few years there has been some easing in the position taken by the state in regard to the Amazigh exclusion. There is a renewal and strong social demand for the Amazigh language and culture in Amazigh -speaking regions. This return can be seen as an affirmation of the cultural rights of Amazigh speakers, more and more Amazigh speakers are writing in their own language and the Amazigh language is finding its way into the press and even into scientific use (Chaker n.d.:4).
Ancient Amazigh written language
Religion:
The major religion for the Amazigh is Sunni Islam with minorities in Ibadis, Shias, Judaism, and Christianity (mainly Catholicism). Like most followers of Islam in northern Africa, many Amazigh believe in the presence of djinns, or spirits, and divination is accomplished through the Qur'an ("Amazigh (Berber)"). Majority of Amazigh are followers of Islam and are said to have converted over peacefully years before colonization. In this scenario with "Arab conquest" converting the Amazigh over to Islam, it seems to have created a bond between the Amazigh and the Arab speaking people (Colon 2018:8).
Some prehistoric Amazigh religion can be found in rock paintings from the Neolithic Era, the traces found on these rock carvings are though to show what Amazigh religion was before the "Arab conquest" in the 7th century. Although the painting are hard to decipher and interpret, there is a belief that they worshiped animals like rams, bulls, and antelopes based on the paintings. This interpretation could perhaps be the practice of fetishism, which is the veneration of objects that are believed to have magical or supernatural powers (Colon 2018:9).
Economy:
The traditional Amazigh economy has struck a balance between farming and pastoralism, the majority of the village or tribe remaining in one place throughout the year while a minority accompanies the flock on its circuit of seasonal pastures ("The Culture and Arts"). The economy was largely subsistence agriculture and pastoralism practiced by farmers, and nomads, coupled with weaving, pottery, metalwork, and leatherwork, and local and some long-distance trade. Some do, in fact, engage in trade throughout the region, and such practices certainly had a tremendous influence on the history of the African continent. The Amazigh engage in trade throughout the regions of Northern Africa. Thousands of years ago trade routes we established and used, they connected peoples of Western Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean, and Southern Europe. There were five trade routes that extended across the Sahara from the northern Mediterranean coast of Africa to the bigger cities on the southern edge of the Sahara ("Amazigh (Berber)"). Amazigh merchants and nomads of the Sahara had initiated a trans-Saharan trade in gold and slaves that incorporated the lands of the Sudan.
Images:
Ruins of Ancient Roman Amazigh City
Modern Amazigh Village
Learn More:
News Story on Amazigh Fighting Back Historical Marginalization:
https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/don-t-call-us-berber-we-are-amazigh-1.965334
Video on Amazigh Tattooing Practice on the Decline:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwAD1GMl3Ew
Brochure on the Amazigh
https://nalrc.indiana.edu/doc/brochures/berber.pdf
Information on Amazigh Cuisine:
https://www.sahara-desert-morocco.com/thing-to-know-berber-food.html
Works Cited:
“Amazigh (Berber).” Art & Life in Africa, The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/peoples/show/Amazigh+%28Berber%29.
Chaker, Salem. “Berber, A ‘Long-Forgotten’ Language of France.” Texas Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/france-ut/_files/pdf/resources/chaker_english.pdf.
Colon, Alexis. “Who and What Is Amazigh? Self-Assertion, Erasure, and Standardization.” Digital Commons, 2018, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4021&context=isp_collection.
Crawford, David, and Katherine E Hoffman. “Essentially Amazigh: Urban Berbers and the Global Village.” Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://anthropology.northwestern.edu/documents/people/CrawfordHoffman2000EssentialAmazigh.pdf.
“The Culture and Arts of Morocco and the Berbers.” Center for Middle Eastern Studies, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://cmes.arizona.edu/sites/cmes.arizona.edu/files/The%20Culture%20and%20Arts%20of%20Morocco%20and%20the%20Berbers.pdf.
Fischer, Sarah R. “Amazigh Legitimacy Through Language in Morocco.” Human Rights & Human Welfare, Denver University, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/mena/Morocco.pdf.
Hoffman, Katherine E. “Berber Language Ideologies, Maintenance, and Contraction: Gendered Variation in the Indigenous Margins of Morocco.” Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, Language & Communication, 26 (2006) 144–167., Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://anthropology.northwestern.edu/documents/people/Berber.pdf.
“Indigenous Peoples in Morocco.” IWGIA, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://www.iwgia.org/en/morocco.html.
Lima, Thiago. “A Berber in Agadir: Exploring the Urban/Rural Shift in Amazigh Identity.” SIT Digital Collections, SIT Study Abroad, 2011, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2120&context=isp_collection.
“Observations on the State of Indigenous Human Rights in Light of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” ERIC, Institution of Educational Sciences, 20 Nov. 2007, Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED532773.pdf.
Wyrtzen, Jonathan. “Colonial State-Building and the Negotiation of Arab and Berber Identity in Protectorate Morocco.” JSTOR, Cambridge University Press, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 43 (2011), 227-249., Accessed 05 Nov 2021., https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23017396.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A0843612cea55d08722d92cc9beb96b99.