Berbers (Amazigh)

The Berbers (Imazighen, free people) are the Indigenous nation of North Africa, bound by Afroasiatic Berber languages across Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Siwa. First named in Egyptian writings and sprung from Stone Age Saharans, their tongues spread west from the Nile from about 2000 BCE; Mauri, Masaesyli, Gaetuli and Garamantes peoples built the kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania that faced Carthage and Rome. Jugurtha, Juba and the Donatist martyrs carried Berber names into world history. Arab conquest made most Muslim but never Arab: marabouts, zawaya schools and the annual fantasia keep Amazigh custom, and the 2011 constitutions finally crowned Tamazight official in Morocco and Algeria. Kabyle singers, Tuareg caravans, Siwa date farmers and Azawagh herders keep one free people across the whole Maghreb. Siwa's oracle still guides the oasis harvests. Azawagh herders water their herds at trillion-star wells. Burkina Faso's small Berber villages keep the northern songs.