Social Groups
Berber (Amazigh)
Also Known As Amazigh (self-designation, plural Imazighen)
African Peoples
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The Berber, or Amazigh, are the indigenous peoples of North Africa predating the region's Arabization, comprising a family of related but linguistically diverse groups from the Rif and Kabylie mountains to the Atlas ranges and Saharan oases. Amazigh identity and language rights have been an active and documented political movement since the late twentieth century, achieving constitutional recognition of Tamazight as an official language in Morocco (2011) and Algeria (2016) after decades of activism. Amazigh communities are religiously predominantly Muslim today, with historical Jewish and pre-Islamic Berber Christian populations also documented.
Facts
Group TypeSourced to the subject's own account Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountNorth Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and the Sahara) 1 Primary LanguageSourced to the subject's own accountBerber languages (Tamazight, Kabyle, Tashelhit, Tarifit and others) 1 Subsistence ModeSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically mixed: highland and mountain agriculture (notably in the Atlas and Kabylie ranges) alongside Saharan pastoral and oasis communities such as the Tuareg. 1 Disputed
Population Estimateestimated 25 to 35 million 1 Sourced to the subject's own accountNorth African states have historically undercounted or not separately enumerated Amazigh identity in national censuses, so speaker-based and self-identification estimates diverge substantially. Sources
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