Berber World: Difference between revisions
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Unlike in some other cultures, the Berber identity is not based on race or language. It is based on two elements: belonging to the Berber land, and being part of the Berber history. |
Unlike in some other cultures, the Berber identity is not based on race or language. It is based on two elements: belonging to the Berber land, and being part of the Berber history. |
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This makes everyone who lives in the Berber World a Berber even if he or she doesn't speak Berber or is form a different race or religion. |
This makes everyone who lives in the Berber World a Berber, even if he or she doesn't speak Berber or is form a different race or religion. |
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==History== |
==History== |
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Revision as of 11:12, 23 May 2009
The Berber World or the Amazigh World (Berber: Amaḍal Amazigh or Tamazgha) is the collective historical homeland of the Berber people. It includes 5 whole coutries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania), and parts of 4 other countries (northern Mali, northern Niger, a portion of western Egypt, and Spanish territories of Melilla, Ceuta and the Canary Islands).
Berber identity
Unlike in some other cultures, the Berber identity is not based on race or language. It is based on two elements: belonging to the Berber land, and being part of the Berber history.
This makes everyone who lives in the Berber World a Berber, even if he or she doesn't speak Berber or is form a different race or religion.
History
The Berbers are the oldest known people that inhabited North Africa and the Sahara Desert. Berber toponyms are the most dominant in the Berber World's countries and areas.
Languages
The Berber language (or Tamazight) was and still is the historical language of the area and is still alive and spoken by roughly half of the population of the Berber World. Today, variants of Berber language and colloquial Arabic dialects are spoken side by side in many major cities of the Berber World. Two examples of that are Casablanca and Algiers.
Arabic dialects were introduced to the Berber World after the Arab conquest in the 7th century. The short Arab rule of the Berber World did not manage to spread the Arabic language (language of the Coran and of the Umayyad dynasty in Asia) among the Berbers. It took more than 11 centuries combined with many massive Arab migrations to Africa for Arabic to spread through only some Berber speaking areas, mostly fertile plains. In the process, Maghrebine Arabic dialects were formed and were heavily influenced by both Berber vocabulary and pronunciation.
The Arabization was strongly accelerated in the second half of the 20th century due to the Arabization policies conducted by Arab-nationalist regime of North Africa, in which classical Arabic was and is being promoted and Berber being banned or marginalized. However, many vast areas of Morocco and Algeria are still Berberophone despite these policies. This is due to the strong oral traditions of the Berbers through which they pass on their heritage, culture and customs to generations almost without writing at all.