North Africa's 'free people' struggle for rights
Thousands rioted in Algeria's northern Kabylie region twenty years ago this week - a symbolic chapter in the long fight for Berber rights. The indigenous group is also in the vanguard of the Hirak anti-government protests that contain rocked the united states since 2019. The Berbers are descendants of pre-Arab North Africans, whose historic homelands stretched from the Canary Isles and Morocco to the deserts of western Egypt.
They refer to themselves as the Amazigh, meaning "free people," and also have long fought for recognition for his or her ancient culture and language in modern states over the region. Here is a synopsis of the Berbers' varying fortunes in the Maghreb and Libya. The Berbers comprise about 10 million persons in Algeria, creating roughly 25 % of the country's population of 40 million.
The majority are in Kabylie, a restive, mountainous region to the east of the capital Algiers. On April 18, 2001, a teenager held at a gendarmerie post near Tizi Ouzou, the administrative centre of Kabylie, was hit by a hail of bullets. He died two days later.
Massinissa Guermah's death sparked riots, as Kabylie was getting ready to celebrate the 21st anniversary of its fight for recognition of its Berber identity. Around 126 people died in both months of unrest, most of them youths shot in clashes with riot police. A large number of others were wounded in the crackdown. In 2002, Berber was finally recognized as a national - however, not the official - language, allowing it to be taught as a second language in some Berber areas. Its recognition as an official language only came with constitutional reforms in 2016. Berber New Year was celebrated as the official feast day for the very first time on Jan. 12, 2018.
