Kabyle people
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The Kabyle people (in Kabyle: Iqvayliyen) are the largest homogeneous Algerian ethno-cultural and linguistical community and the largest nation in North Africa to be considered exclusively Berber. Their traditional homeland is Kabylie (or Kabylia) in the north of Algeria, one hundred miles east of Algiers. Since the beginning of the 20th century, they have also had a strong presence in the Algérois (Algiers region). Around 40% of Algiers's population is Kabyle.
There are also, due to emigration during the 19th and 20th centuries, large Kabyle (or Kabyle descent) communities in France and to a lesser extent in the Americas such as in the United States and Canada.
Kabyles speak the Kabyle language. Since the Berber Spring in 1980, they have been at the forefront of the fight for the official recognition of the Berber languages and secularism ("laïcité") in Algeria (see Languages of Algeria).
The Kabyle region is referred to as Al Qabayel ("tribes") by the Arabic-speaking population and as Kabylie in French, but its inhabitants call it Tamurt Idurar ("Land of Mountains") or Tamurt n Iqvayliyen/Tamurt n Iqbayliyen ("Land of the Kabyles"). It is part of the Atlas Mountains and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean.
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[edit] Brief People's History
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Kabylia is a series of villages on the peaks [altitude 6000–9000 ft.] of the eastern part of the Atlas (100 km east of Algiers) In ancient times, Kabylia was an empty, rocky and wild area, inhabited by various animals including bears, wild boar, wolves, monkeys, eagles, and even hyenas. No human settlement is mentioned in any historical books documenting the peaceful period between Numidians (east northern Africa approx. modern Algeria + Tunisia) with Rome through the alliance and dating back to 500 BC, against the Phoenicians.
When Jugurtha, the third king of Numidia, rebelled against his former Roman allies, the inaccessible highlands were used as safe places to hide and train. Permanent settlements gradually developed after his capture, as his followers acquired the hunting and subsistence farming skills and local knowledge that allowed them to become self-sustaining there.
For some three centuries the relation between the highlanders and the Roman administration can be characterized as a low-intensity conflict, maintained by physical separation; Rome controlled the coastal areas and the valleys, while the highlands were never fully subjugated.
In 428, under their new king Gaiseric, the Vandals, a Germanic people, crossed into North Africa from the Iberian peninsula, and quickly formed a new kingdom from Roman territories, taking Carthage in 439 (and eventually sacking Rome itself in 455). They were followers of Arianism and promoted this creed among their aristocracy, at a time when most of the Berber population followed the Christian church of Africa allied to Rome.
Kabyle are among the fiercest activists in the cause of Berber identity. The Muslim religion and Arab identity attributed to them in modern times is the result of colonial French ignorance and random classification.[citation needed]
[edit] Language
The principal language used by the Kabyles is Kabyle, which is spoken both at home and professionally. Many Kabyles speak a second or third language: French, Arabic and to a lesser degree English.
[edit] Religion
The Kabyle people are mainly Muslim with some Christians.[1]
Recently, there has been a growing Protestant (chiefly evangelical) community.[2] Since the 19th century, there has been a large nominal Sunni Muslim community.[3]
Among Kabyle Muslims, the main tradition is maraboutism,[4] a version of heterogeneous Islam mixing Sunni tradition and many Kabyle cultural elements.
However, Kabyle society is known for its strong secular tradition. Religious differences play minor roles in political and social life.
[edit] Economy
The traditional economy of the area is based on arboriculture (orchards, olive trees) and on the craft industry (tapestry or pottery). Mountain and hill farming is gradually giving way to local industry (textile and agro-alimentary).
The Industrial Revolution began early in Kabylie: in 1871, when France pronounced its colony of Algeria, there were already some factories there. But it was in the middle of the 20th century, with the influence and help of the Kabyle diaspora, that industrialisation started to change the economic face of the region, which is today the second most important in the country after Algiers.
[edit] Politics
- Two political parties dominate in Kabylie and have their principal support base there: the FFS, led by Hocine Aït Ahmed, and the RCD, led by Saïd Sadi. Both parties are secularist, Berberist and "Algerianist".
- The Arouch emerged during the Black Spring of 2001 as a revival of a traditional Kabyle form of democratic organization, the village assembly. The Arouch share roughly the same political views as the FFS and the RCD.
- The MAK (Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie) also emerged during the Black Spring, and is a political association that militates for the autonomy of Kabylie.
- On 21 April 2010, Ferhat Mehenni, the then leader of the (Movement for the autonomy of Kabylie) proclaimed a Provisional Government of Kabylia in exile (ANAVAD) which was established officially on 1 June 2010 at the Palais des Congrès. He was elected President by the National Council of the MAK and he named nine Ministers.[5]
[edit] History
[edit] Modern age
[edit] The French colonization
The Kabyles were relatively independent of outside control until the area was gradually taken over by the French beginning in 1857, despite vigorous resistance by the population led by leaders such as Lalla Fatma n Soumer, continuing as late as Mokrani's rebellion in 1871. Much land was confiscated in this period from the more recalcitrant tribes and given to French pieds-noirs. Many arrests and deportations were carried out by the French, mainly to New Caledonia (see : "Algerians of the Pacific"). Colonization also resulted in an acceleration of the emigration into other areas inside and outside Algeria.
Algerian immigrant workers in France organized the first party promoting independence in 1920s. Messali Hadj, Imache Amar, Si Djilani, and Belkacem Radjef rapidly built a strong following throughout France and Algeria in 1930s and actively developed militants that became vital to the future of both a fighting and an independent Algeria. During the war of independence (1954–1962), Kabylia was one of the areas that was most affected, because of the importance of the maquis, aided by the mountainous terrain, and French oppression. The armed Algerian revolutionary resistance to French colonialism, the National Liberation Front (FLN) recruited several of its historical leaders there, including Hocine Aït Ahmed, Abane Ramdane, and Krim Belkacem.
[edit] After the independence of Algeria
Tensions have arisen between Kabylia and the central government on several occasions, initially in 1963, when the FFS party of Hocine Aït Ahmed contested the authority of the single party (FLN). In 1980, several months of demonstrations demanding the officialization of the Berber language took place in Kabylie, called the Berber Spring. The politics of identity intensified as the regime's policy of Arabization was implemented to appease Islamists in the 1990s. In 1994–1995, a school boycott occurred, termed the "strike of the school bag". In June and July 1998, the area blazed up again after the assassination of singer Matoub Lounes and at the time that a law generalizing the use of the Arabic language in all fields went into effect. In the months following April, 2001 (called the Black Spring), major riots — together with the emergence of the Arouch, neo-traditional local councils — followed the killing of a young Kabyle Masinissa Guermah by gendarmes, and gradually died down only after forcing some concessions from the President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
[edit] Diaspora
For historical reasons, many Kabyles have emigrated to France, where they number about 1.5 million.[6][7] Many famous French people such as Zinedine Zidane, Isabelle Adjani, Kenza Farah, Dany Boon, and Edith Piaf[8] are of full or partial Kabyle descent.
[edit] Genetics
- Y-Dna haplogroups, passed on exclusively through the paternal line, were found at the following frequencies in Kabylie : E1b1b1b (E-M81) (47.36%), R1*(xR1a) (15.78%) (later tested as R1b3/R-M269 (now R1b1b2)[9]), J1 (15.78%), F*(xH, I,J2,K) ( 10.52% ) and E1b1b1c (E-M123) (10.52%).[10] The North African pattern of Y-chromosomal variation (including both E1b1b and J haplogroups) is largely of Neolithic origin.
- MtDNA Haplogroups, by contrast, inherited only from the mother, were found at the following frequencies : H (32.23%), U* (29.03% with 17.74% U6), preHV (3.23%), preV (4.84%), V (4.84%), T* (3.23%), J* (3.23%), L1 (3.23%), L3e (4.84%), X (3.23%), M1 (3.23%), N (1.61%) and R (3.23%).
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ « Kabyle », Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011 : « they are mainly Muslims with a few Christians. » Consulted June 10, 2011.
- ^ Lucien Oulahbib, Le monde arabe existe-t-il ?, page 12, 2005, Editions de Paris, Paris.
- ^ Abdelmadjid Hannoum, Violent modernity: France in Algeria, Page 124, 2010, Harvard Center for Middle Eastern studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- ^ Amar Boulifa, Le Djurdjura à travers l'histoire depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'en 1830 : organisation et indépendance des Zouaoua (Grande Kabylie), Page 197, 1925, Algiers.
- ^ http://www.kabylia-gov.org
- ^ Salem Chaker, Pour une histoire sociale du berbère en France, Les Actes du Colloque Paris - Inalco, octobre 2004
- ^ "Outside North Africa, the largest Kabyle community, numbering around 1.5 million, is in France", James Minahan, Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: D-K, ood Publishing Group, 2002, p.863
- ^ "Her mother, half-Italian, half-Berber", David Bret, Piaf: a passionate life, Robson Books, 1998, p.2
- ^ Adams et al. 2008, The genetic legacy of religious diversity and intolerance: paternal lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula
- ^ Arredi B, Poloni ES, Paracchini S, Zerjal T, Fathallah DM, Makrelouf M, Pascali VL, Novelletto A, Tyler-Smith C. (2004). "A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for Y-Chromosomal DNA Variation in North Africa". Am J Hum Genet. 75 (2): 338–345. doi:10.1086/423147. PMC 1216069. PMID 15202071. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1216069.
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