The Berbers or Imazighen
The word "Berber" is of Roman origin: by Barbarians, the Romans, like the Greeks before them, meant foreigners to Rome, and so naturally named the natives encountered during their various conquests. The term has endured, only slightly distorted, as during the Regency period, Europeans referred to the coasts of North Africa as Barbarie, inhabited by Barbary tribes.
Considered the oldest inhabitants of the region, the Berbers or Imazighen ("free men"), formerly Numidians or Libyans, are said to have come from the east led by Melek-Ifriki, a Sabean king. They are also said to be descended from the mythical Atlanteans. While their geographical origin, whether Eastern or Atlantean, is still debated, they do share a common language: the various dialects they speak all have the same origin, and derive from Libyan, which is found on many of the country's rock engravings (tifinagh). Berber dialects are also spoken in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania. The major particularity of this language is that it is not written, or is no longer written, since tifinagh, which predates the Greek alphabet, is thought to be a written form of ancient Berber. This is one of the reasons why dialects have evolved so much over time and from region to region. Today, Berbers are mainly represented in Algeria by the Kabyles in the north (Tamazight language), the Chaouis in the Aurès in the east (Tachawit language), the Tuaregs in the far south (Tamacheq language) and the descendants of the Zénètes from Morocco in the Gourara and Saoura regions. First hunters, then pastoralists and farmers, the Berbers were organized into tribes and confederations. The arrival of the Arabs in Algeria led to a rapid conversion of the Berbers to Islam, the adoption of the conqueror's language and a mixing of populations, despite some resistance, including that led by the Kahina. Even today, however, Amazigh culture is still very much alive, especially in rural areas, in the south and in the mountains.
In 1980, the Mouvement Culturel Berbère (MCB) was founded. Amazigh culture, which is exclusively oral, has been threatened by the spread of literacy in Arabic and French, and by the rural exodus. The language enjoys great cultural support, especially in Kabylia, but outside this region, most young people no longer speak Berber or know only the rudiments. The number of Berber speakers in Algeria is estimated at 30%.
The Kabyles
The Kabyles, whose name comes from the Arabic qabaily, "tribe", live in the djebel, "mountain", south-east of Algiers. Sedentary and agricultural, they once lived in independent tribes whose names they bore (Aït, "child of"), grouped together in dachkras, hamlets of gourbi, houses traditionally built on ridges. A land of resistance, rebellion and emigration, Kabylia very early on needed to assert an identity in opposition to outsiders, primarily Arabs. But difficult living conditions also prompted people to emigrate early on. In the 18th century, they built Ottoman Algiers, in the 19th, colonial Algiers, then crossed the sea after the 1880s. The Kabyles are thus among France's oldest immigrants.
Contrary to popular belief, often held by those who emigrated, the Kabyles do not reject their membership of the Algerian nation, but "only" demand recognition of their specific characteristics (language, culture, secular values, etc.). In April 1980, riots broke out in Tizi-Ouzou to demand recognition of the Tamazight language and culture, in what would become known as the first "Berber Spring", sung by Matoub Lounés. Sporadic unrest followed. In 1996, the new Constitution recognized "Berberism", but in June 1998, the assassination of Kabyle singer Matoub Lounés, whose portrait is still displayed everywhere in Kabylia, led the population to take to the streets. In April 2001, following the death of young Massinissa Guerma in a police station in Béni-Douala, Kabylia, long fed up with the government's contemptuous indifference, exploded in violent riots and attacked the symbols of power. On May 21, over 500,000 people took part in a citizens' march. On June 14, a demonstration in Algiers ended with the death of four people, including two journalists, and hundreds injured. Today, despite a few attempts at national reconciliation, such as recognition of the Tamazight language and the departure of the gendarmerie, Kabylia cannot forget its 118 "martyrs" and loudly proclaims Ulac smah ulac, "never forgive". The citizens' movement is organized within the ancestral ârouchs, resurrected for the occasion. These village and neighborhood committees, united around the "El-Kseur platform" formed in 2001, are peacefully calling for an end to impunity and injustice, freedom of expression, an end to exclusion, and measures for education, health and housing for the whole of Algeria.
The Tuaregs
Estimated at 300,000, the Tuaregs are also Berbers. Their language, Tamacheq, closely resembles Berber dialects. It is assumed that the famous "blue men" described by the fascinated explorers of the 19th and 20th centuries arrived from the north or from Morocco, pushed towards the Sahara during conquests. Hidden beneath their tagelmoust(litham in Arabic), a dark purple or white chèche several meters long, they appeared as great warriors, as mysterious and merciless as the desert they had tamed. Their women, who seemed to enjoy more freedom than those from the north, remained an enigma for a long time. These Muslims, who are said to have apostasized fourteen times, used to live nomadically, to the rhythm of salt caravans (azalaï), grazing or rezzou, expeditions during which they pillaged their neighbors, often the Chaamba, who repaid them well, or ksour. After years of deadly skirmishes, their territory was slowly conquered by the French military from the early 20th century onwards. After the Second World War, the salt trade ceased, caravans were no longer raised, more and more Tuaregs settled down, and the droughts of the 1970s reduced herds, sometimes dramatically. And yet, while their way of life has changed and the divisions between castes have diminished, many of their reflexes and traditions are still very much alive. Once warriors, today they devote themselves to livestock breeding, industry, services and tourism, which brings them closer together and keeps them in the desert.
The Arabs
Like the Berbers, the Arabs have diverse ethnic origins, although their geographic origin is the Arabian Peninsula. The word arab, in the Semitic language, meant "desert" and "nomadism".
The Arabs came in successive waves from the 7th century onwards, following Idriss as he fled persecution by the Caliph of Baghdad. Idriss succeeded in converting a large number of Berbers to Islam, and moved on to present-day Morocco, where he founded the first truly unified kingdom of Morocco at Fez. They continued to expand in the 12th and 13th centuries. Unattracted by the mountains, they did not seek to penetrate them, preferring the plains, towns and steppe plateaus. Sedentary, they cultivated the land; nomadic, they were the Bedouins. But whatever their way of life, they were governed by sheikhs. Those still known as Moors in the 19th century were descended from Mauritanians, Numidians, Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs. In ancient times, the term Moor referred to the Berber populations of western Maghreb. During the Middle Ages, the term evolved to describe the Muslims of Andalusia, and later became synonymous with the term Arab. Mostly urban dwellers, they were involved in trade and administration, led under the Regency by the dey, beys and aghas. The half-breeds of Turks and Moors, sub-citizens, were called Kouloughlis.
The Haratines
The Haratines, the black population of the Maghreb, are said to be descended from prehistoric populations of the Sahara who, when it dried up, sought refuge to the north. Others are descended from former Sudanese slaves, most of whom were "recruited" by Sultan Moulay Ismaïl in the 17th century, or by the Tuaregs, who did not trade them, but employed them in the oasis gardens. The Haratines belonged to the most disadvantaged social strata, but they are perhaps the oldest inhabitants of the country. Today, they live in the cities of southern Algeria.
Algerian Jews
The first Jews arrived in North Africa in small numbers in the 1st millennium BC, during the Phoenician domination, and later after the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian's armies (70 AD). Berberized, they quickly moved to the southern oases where they regrouped, notably in the Touat region. But the bulk of the community arrived in the 12th and 14th centuries when, persecuted in Europe and Spain in particular, they settled in Mediterranean ports. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Livornese Jews arrived from Italy, especially in the Constantine region.
Shortly before independence, they numbered almost 200,000, living in the mellahs (Jewish quarters) of the major cities. In the 20th century, some emigrated to Israel between 1947 and 1965, as the new state was short of peasant labor. Many, assimilated to Europeans, had to leave the country in 1962; few remained in Algeria. Having lived in this territory long before its Arabization, they were fairly well integrated into the Moorish and Berber population, even if the laws of the Turkish Regency were generally much stricter towards them.
European presence
In the early 19th century, there were very few free Europeans in the Algiers region. Before Lord Exmouth's expedition (1816) and England's demand for the abolition of European slavery, there were so many Christian slaves from the northern Mediterranean, taken during the race, that every major house had one or more in its service. Cervantes and the future Saint Vincent de Paul were among them.
After 1830, the proportion increased with French colonization and the arrival of Italian, Spanish and Maltese migrants, reaching 1.2 million Europeans on the eve of independence. of these, 968,685 were forced to leave in 1962 (figure as of July 31, 1965), with some remaining in Algeria for a few more years before returning to metropolitan France. Others, often older people, stayed on after independence, but the crises of the 1990s undermined the survivors' attachment to their homeland. Today, almost all Europeans and Americans present in Algeria are there under a work contract, and live between their company, their hotel or their apartment rented by the employer, and evenings out among expatriates in the big cities or in the oil-producing areas of southern Algeria.
The Blackfoot
Although the term used to describe Europeans from Algeria is relatively recent, having first appeared after the start of the Algerian war, there are many explanations as to its origin. One thing is certain, however: the term is not of Arabic or Berber origin, and while it was initially used pejoratively by the French "de France", it has virtually become the only appellation that French people born in Algeria and repatriated to mainland France at the time of independence have adopted, first out of bravado, then out of pride, until it has become the expression of their identity through a logo representing two pieds noirs footprints. In half a century, the expression has evolved quite well, and no longer carries a pejorative connotation.
Among the possible origins of the term, there are those that recall the toil of the first settlers, the black mud of the Mitidja plain or the trampled grapes. There are also references to military footwear, either that of the soldiers who disembarked from 1830 onwards, which contrasted with the bare feet or colored babouches of the Turks or Arab-Berbers, or that of the North African troops who came to fight in France in 1870, but in the latter case "pieds-noirs" would not have referred only to Europeans. Other explanations, more or less fanciful and almost always contemptuous, include the color of the dust encrusted in the skin of the feet of steamboat stokers who, because of their "filth", were not allowed on the upper decks reserved for travelers, or that of the feet of a certain skunk or of a small bird that migrates in autumn from France to North Africa. Before 1962, the colorful French of Algeria referred to the French "de France" as "francaoui" or "frangaoui", just as Italians were "macaroni" or Spaniards "étourneaux" (in reference to their taste for olives, it is said), but when the term "pieds-noirs" became widespread, we learned that metropolitans were "patos". The expression comes from the Spanish pato, the "duck", whose waddle sounds heavy..
Formation of the pied-noire community in Algeria. From the earliest years of the French presence, which was mainly military, a number of men moved to the new possessions. They were often middle-class adventurers in search of a better fortune, setting up ruinous farming ventures, land speculators, but also, often, people who needed to rebuild their lives or escape the metropolitan authorities, and demobilized soldiers, the "soldats laboureurs", who were offered a plot of land to work on. In 1840, it was still advocated that the French occupation should be limited to the narrow coastal strip of the Sahel, but most of the settlers who had left everything to come clung on, drained the malaria-infested swamps of the Mitidja plain and built permanent houses to house their families.
These first settlers, who had to work very hard to make the land they obtained from the administration arable, were soon joined by Spaniards in the west, Maltese, Sicilians, Sardinians, Mahonese from the Balearics, Neapolitans in Algiers, Germans and Swiss who settled in the east... A major wave of migration arrived after the 1870 war (Alsatians and Lorrains) and the Commune. At the same time, the community was enriched by 40,000 newly naturalized Jews. In the towns, the new arrivals opened shops and agri-businesses. By the 1886 census, there were almost as many native French as foreign settlers in Algeria. The bulk of colonization came to an end at the dawn of the 1930s, with the creation of the last settler village.
The different languages
Historically, Berber (Tamazight) is the oldest spoken language. Its origin, possibly Punic or Libyan, is as much debated as that of its speakers. It is estimated that around 30% of the population is Berber-speaking, between the Aurès, Kabylia, the Tlemcen region and the Grand Sud with the Touaregs. For a long time, Tamazight was only spoken within families, but the discovery of tifinagh in the south, an ancient way of writing Berber, has revived interest in the language.
In ancient times, the language of the Romans was only spoken by the educated. From the 6th century onwards, Muslims forced Berbers to learn their language at the same time as converting to Islam. Before the arrival of the French, Turkish was the language of government, the military and the judiciary, but the street spoke Arabic or Berber, with regional variations. Europeans communicated in a language called "Moorish" or "Frankish", a mixture of Spanish, Italian, French and various local dialects. French then became the administrative and commercial language brought by the colonists. Arabic and Berber were then relegated to the background, or even denied, until they became the symbol of resistance to the occupiers. In the early 1970s, governments imposed the "arabization" of the country.
But as the teachers and educational executives had no experience, since they had always taught in French, Egyptians were brought in to take over. The big problem was that the language used in Egypt was very different from the Arabic spoken in Algeria and, perhaps out of rejection, French remained the vernacular in homes and on the streets. Today, Algeria is the world's second-largest French-speaking country after France, although it is not a member of the OIF, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Since July 1998, Arabic has been Algeria's only official language. It's hard to believe, because almost all texts and public announcements are systematically dubbed in French, and sometimes only in French. Even if young people speak less French, or don't read it, previous generations often had difficulty reading Arabic and were more at ease with French. French, therefore, is still very much in evidence, especially among the wealthier classes, and you'll have no trouble getting by if you speak only French. In 1995, the Council of Ministers decided to introduce Tamazight (Berber) into the education system as the national language. Since 2016, Tamazight has been Algeria's second official language, alongside Arabic, and is now enshrined in the new Constitution.
