ABOUT BERBERS AND MOORSWHO ARE THE "BERBERS"?In 2008 the government passed a law officially forbidding to give a child a 'Berber' or Amazigh name. The government is trying hard to promote an Arab identity, even though the Amazigh are not Arabs, not racially, culturally, ethnically or historically. Amazigh political parties are banned and our historical places and celebrations are turned into tourist attractions. Being the original people of north Africa west of the Nile, the people that already lived here before the arrival of the Arabs in the 7th century, the Amazigh are often named Berbers. The English term is borrowed from Arabic, but the deeper etymology of ‘Berber’ is not certain. Before the 9th century, Northwest Africa was largely Berber-speaking. It was primarily Sufi Muslim with Jewish populations in the valleys and Christians in the highlands. This was particularly true in en Algerian Aures and Kabyle regions, from which came several Berber Roman Emperors, Saint Augustine, along with the roots of Roman Catholicism. The main spoken language was Tamazight Berber, with Greek and Latin the chief written languages. Today, many Berbers call themselves Amazigh (plural: Imazighen), meaning “free men”. They speak various Berber languages, and are with an approximate 14 to 25 million (exact statistics are unavailable), most densily in Morocco and Algeria, but with smaller communities as far east as Egypt and as far south as Burkina Fasso. In Morocco an estimated 30% is of Berber descent, but again, precise statistics are not available. AMAZIGH CULTUREEspecially over the past 10 years Amazigh culture is rapidly disappearing. At one side the politics of Arabisation, and the other the existence of Satellite TV, bringing the messages and rules from Imans of Saudi Arabia and Egypt into the homes of even the most remote Amazigh town, practises such as the typical hand painting get a negative connotation. Sites providing insight and information on Amazigh culture are: www.agraw.com
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WHO WERE THE "MOORS"In medieval Europe, the word Moor became a common term to refer to the Muslims of Islamic Iberia and North Africa, who were of Arab or Berber descent. The origin of the word is not clear. It could stem from the Greec Maurisi or the Roman Mauri, or the word Mauros, meaning 'dark'. Alternatively, it could be derived from the small Numidian Kingdom of Maure of the third century BC in what is now Morocco. Despite being archaic and inaccurate, 'Moro' is still used in Spain to describe anyone from nothern African descent - lumping together Muslims and non-Muslims, Arabs and Berbers. The word also lingers on in the names of countries as Mo-rocco and Mau-ritania. While magnificent remains of Moorish rule, such as the Alhambra in Granada or the Mezquita in Cordoba are often thought 'Arabic', it is estimated that only 10% of the Moors were of Arab descent... 90% were Berbers.
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