Berber Origins and the Politics of Ethnicity in Colonial North African Discourse (original) (raw)

Inventing the Berbers: History and Ideology in the Maghrib, written by Ramzi Rouighi

Medieval Encounters, 2021

Berbers, Maghrib: the people, their country. Every body knows that, and that is what every body knows. But it has not always been the case. Before Muslim Arab conquerors began using the word ‫بربر‬ (barbar) to refer to people who lived in what they called "the West" (almaghrib), both people and region were known by a host of other names. In fact, before Berber and Maghrib, no one thought that the inhabitants of northwest Africa belonged together or that the entire landmass represented a single unit. The first time anyone thought that was in Arabic. Trying to understand this shift from one set of names to another, one map to another, a historian faces a series of challenges that can be separated into two general kinds. First, there are challenges arising from the handling of the sources, which tend to be late and not written to address such a question. Second, there are hurdles pertaining to the assumptions of modern historians. These include deeply held notions about the relation between collective identity (nation), country, religion, and language; and a centuries-long history of interpreting medieval sources in a way that reinforces these assumptions. 1 If this were not enough, as modern academics conferred on the Berbers characteristics of prenational groups like the Franks and the Goths, they also envisaged their reduced nationhood. For under French colonial domination, a modern Berber nation-state was simply not in the cards. After the Second World War, the reaction against the devastations of nationalism and racism did not extend to the category Berbers, which did not benefit from the critical energy of that reaction. Instead, the category remained mired in discussions of cultural heritage, victimized ethnic identity, and national aspirations. The national in de pen dence of Morocco and Algeria, but not Berberia, situated Berber identity both at the infranational level and as a counter nationalism but with a sense of Berber temporal pre ce dence (native, original, etc.) and medieval Arabization and Islamization through a mixing with Arabs. 2 These pro cesses are reflected in the predominant place that anthropology, together Perhaps, but thinking in this par tic u lar way is not natu ral, either. Instead, thinking historically about social categories-how they become ordinary, and how people use them to order their world-situates them in relation to both modern and premodern ideologies and scholarly crochets. Defining Origins Many studies on the Maghrib and its history begin with an attempt to define the Berbers as a way of introducing subject matter and cast of charac

Chapter One The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States

2011

The purpose of this chapter and the following one is to give a succinct overview of the history of North Africa from antiquity to independence, with an emphasis on its Berber components, particularly in the territories that constitute modern-day Algeria and Morocco. This is not a Berberist reading, per se, although such a reading can hardly be ignored either. In any case, the intent is to dispassionately present the main developments of Maghribi history from the mists of time to the end of modern colonialism-political, social, cultural, religious, and legalfrom the angle of the Berber-speaking populations, and their interactions with other social and political groupings and forces. Guiding this brief overview is the notion that the numerous manifestations of being Berber, including the existence of various forms of a single language, social organization, territorial cores, and daily praxis, were durable enough to enable the inclusion of Berbers within the broad category of premodern ethnies expounded by Anthony Smith.1 This Berber-centered account confirms Miroslav Hroch's stipulation that the nation-formation process "is a distinctively older phenomenon than the modern nation and nationalism." From this perspective, Hroch's insistence that any interpretation of modern national identity cannot ignore the peculiarities of premodern national development, or degrade it to the level of a mere myth, resonates loudly.2 Ironically, the Berbers rate nary a mention by Smith himself, apart from a map of the Mediterranean world between 200 BC and AD 400 in one of his books, which denotes the territory of Numidia (encompassing portions of modern-day Algeria and Tunisia).3 In any event, most ethnic identities are like that of the Berbers: "nuanced, mutable, their boundaries and characteristics changing with time."4

African studies and Berber studies in Europe: epistemological reflections on “two Africa’s”

Programme IDEA (Illustration et Documentation audiovisuelles des Études Aréales, 2017

Studies on North Africa and African studies developed internationally on relatively parallel tracks: the first were usually included within the scope of research on the Arab world and the Middle East, while the ‘rest’ of Africa was approached and studied as a world comparatively homogeneous and different from North Africa. Such a north/south division still shapes current studies, as shown, for example, in the substantial number of papers that focus on Sub-Saharan Africa at the European Conferences on African Studies of the AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies) and at the annual meetings of the African Studies Association based in the USA. This article aims at presenting the criticism of divisive conceptions in African studies and the reflections from a field that has a marginal position in both African research and Middle Eastern research: Berber/Amazigh literary studies

Moroccan Berber Patrimony: An Aptitude for Transnationalism and Universal Coexistence

AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, 2021

Moroccan Berbers/Imazighen have undergone centuries of cultural and economic exchange with different foreign powers that crossed to the Maghreb throughout history. Following a significant process of interaction and interchange, the mode of life of the indigenous people has been significantly shaped. This might explain a great deal of present-day socio-cultural diversity enjoyed and exercised in Morocco. The present study aims at investigating aspects of Berber's interaction with the various populations that landed on North Africa throughout history. The research study builds on the following question: how does the Berber heritage enhance an outlook of transnational exchange and cooperation? The study reaches out the conclusion that Moroccan Imazighen had cohabited and coexisted with different races since immemorial times. Moreover, the study infers that such a longstanding tradition of borderless socio-cultural and economic exchange may serve as a background legacy for present-day Moroccan transnationalism and universal coexistence.

Distortion of Cushitic & Hamitic-Berber History by Western Forgers: Africa's Endless Enslavement

https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com, 2023

Table of Contents I. Berbers II. The Fallacy of Pan-Arabism III. Hamitic-Cushitic Historical Heritage Usurped IV. Hamites & Cushites systematically targeted V. Anti-Hamitic Hysteria of Western Academics VI. The Embarrassing History of the Berbers ------------------------------------ First published on 20th February 2023 here: https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com/2023/02/20/distortion-of-cushitic-hamitic-berber-history-by-western-forgers-africas-endless-enslavement/