Algeria
ETHNIC GROUPS AND LANGUAGES
The Peoples
Tuareg tribesman dancing
Courtesy ANEP
A Kabyle woman
Courtesy Nadia Benchallal and Middle East Report
The origins of the Berbers are unclear; a number of waves of
people, some from Western Europe, some from sub-Saharan Africa,
and others from Northeast Africa, eventually settled in North
Africa and made up its indigenous population. Because present-day
Berbers and the overwhelming majority of the Arabs largely descend
from the same indigenous stock, physical distinctions carry little
or no social connotation and are in most instances impossible
to make. The term Berber is derived from the Greeks,
who used it to refer to the people of North Africa. The term was
retained by the Romans, Arabs, and other groups who occupied the
region, but is not used by the people themselves. Identification
with the Berber or Arab community is largely a matter of personal
choice rather than of membership in discrete and bounded social
entities. In addition to their own language, many adult Berbers
also speak Arabic and French; for centuries Berbers have entered
the general society and merged, within a generation or two, into
the Arab group.
This permeable boundary between the two major ethnic groups permits
a good deal of movement and, along with other factors, prevents
the development of rigid and exclusive ethnic blocs. It appears
that whole groups slipped across the ethnic "boundary" in the
past--and others may do so in the future. In areas of linguistic
contiguity, bilingualism is common, and in most cases Arabic eventually
comes to predominate.
Algerian Arabs, or native speakers of Arabic, include descendants
of Arab invaders and of indigenous Berbers. Since 1966, however,
the Algerian census no longer has had a category for Berbers;
thus, it is only an estimate that Algerian Arabs, the major ethnic
group of the country, constitute 80 percent of Algeria's people
and are culturally and politically dominant. The mode of life
of Arabs varies from region to region. Nomadic herders are found
in the desert, settled cultivators and gardeners in the Tell,
and urban dwellers on the coast. Linguistically, the various Arab
groups differ little from each other, except that dialects spoken
by nomadic and seminomadic peoples are thought to be derived from
beduin dialects; the dialects spoken by the sedentary population
of the north are thought to stem from those of early seventh-century
invaders. Urban Arabs are more apt to identify with the Algerian
nation, whereas ethnic loyalties of more remote rural Arabs are
likely to be limited to the tribe.
The major Berber groups are the Kabyles of the Kabylie Mountains
east of Algiers and the Chaouia of the Aurès range south of Constantine.
Smaller groups include the Mzab of the northern Sahara region
and the Tuareg of the southern Ahaggar highlands, both of which
have clearly definable characteristics. The Berber peasantry can
also be found in the Atlas Mountains close to Blida, and on the
massifs of Dahra and Ouarsenis on either side of the Chelif River
valley. Altogether, the Berbers constitute about 20 percent of
the population.
In the hills north of the Chelif River and in some other parts
of the Tell, Berbers live in villages among the sedentary Arabs,
not sharply distinguished in their way of life from the Arabic
speakers but maintaining their own language and a sense of ethnic
identity. In addition, in some oasis towns of the Algerian Sahara,
small Berber groups remain unassimilated to Arab culture and retain
their own language and some of their cultural differences.
By far the largest of the Berber-speaking groups, the Kabyles,
do not refer to themselves as Berbers but as Imazighen or, in
the singular, as Amazigh, which means noble or free men. Some
traces of the original blue-eyed and blond-haired Berbers survive
to contrast the people from this region with the darker- skinned
Arabic speakers of the plains. The land is poor, and the pressure
of a dense and rapidly growing population has forced many to migrate
to France or to the coastal cities. Kabyles can be found in every
part of the country, but in their new environments they tend to
gather and to retain some of their clan solidarity and sense of
ethnic identity.
Kabyle villages, built on the crests of hills, are close- knit,
independent, social and political units composed of a number of
extended patrilineal kin groups. Traditionally, local government
consisted of a jamaa (village council), which included
all adult males and legislated according to local custom and law.
Efforts to modify this democratic system were only partially successful,
and the jamaa has continued to function alongside the
civil administration. The majority of Berber mountain peasants
hold their land as mulk, or private property, in contrast
to those of the valleys and oases where the tribe retains certain
rights over land controlled by its members.
Set apart by their habitat, language, and well-organized village
and social life, Kabyles have a highly developed sense of independence
and group solidarity. They have generally opposed incursions of
Arabs and Europeans into their region, and much of the resistance
activity during the War of Independence was concentrated in the
Kabylie. Major Kabyle uprisings took place against the French
in 1871, 1876, and 1882; the Chaouia rebelled in 1879.
Perhaps half as numerous as the Kabyles and less densely settled,
the Chaouia have occupied the rugged Aurès Mountains of eastern
Algeria since their retreat to that region from Tunisia during
the Arab invasions of the Middle Ages. In the north they are settled
agriculturalists, growing grain in the uplands and fruit trees
in the valleys. In the arid south, with its date-palm oases, they
are seminomadic, shepherding flocks to the high plains during
the summer. The distinction between the two groups is limited,
however, because the farmers of the north are also drovers, and
the seminomads of the south maintain plots of land.
In the past, the Chaouia lived in isolation broken only by visits
of Kabyle peddlers and Saharan camel raisers, and relatively few
learned to speak either French or Arabic. Like their society,
their economy was self-sufficient and closed. Emigration was limited,
but during the War of Independence the region was a stronghold
of anti-French sentiment, and more than one-half of the population
was removed to concentration camps. During the postindependence
era, the ancient Chaouia isolation has lessened.
Far less numerous than their northern Berber kin are the Mzab,
whose number was estimated at 100,000 in the mid-1980s. They live
beside the Oued Mzab, from which comes their name. Ghardaïa was
their largest and most important oasis community. The Mzab are
Ibadi
(see Glossary) Muslims who practice a puritanical form of Islam
that emphasizes asceticism, literacy for men and women, and social
egalitarianism.
The Mzab used to be important in trans-Saharan trade but now
have moved into other occupations. Some of their members have
moved to the cities, where in Algiers, for example, they dominate
the grocery and butchery business. They have also extended their
commerce south to sub-Saharan Africa, where they and other tribal
people trade with cash and letters of exchange, make loans on
the harvest, and sell on credit.
Of all Berber subgroups, the Tuareg until recently have been
the least affected by the outside world. Known as "the blue men"
because of their indigo-dyed cotton robes and as "people of the
veil" because the men--but not the women--always veil, the Tuareg
inhabit the Sahara from southwest Libya to Mali. In southern Algeria,
they are concentrated in the highlands of Tassili-n- Ajjer and
Ahaggar and in the 1970s were estimated to number perhaps 5,000
to 10,000. They are organized into tribes and, at least among
the Ahaggar Tuareg, into a three-tiered class system of nobles,
vassals, and slaves and servants, the last group often being of
negroid origin. Tuareg women enjoy high status and many privileges.
They do not live in seclusion, and their social responsibilities
equal those of men.
In the past, the Tuareg were famed as camel and cattle herdsmen
and as guides and protectors of caravans that plied between West
Africa and North Africa. Both occupations have greatly declined
during the twentieth century under the impact of colonial and
independent government policies, technology, and consumerism associated
with the hydrocarbon industry and, most recently, drought. The
result has been the breakup of the old social hierarchy and gradual
sedentarization around such oases as Djanet and Tamanrasset.
Although of considerable importance before independence, the
non-Muslim minorities have shrunk to a mere fraction of their
former size. Immediately after independence approximately 1 million
Europeans, including 140,000 Jews, left the country. Most of the
Europeans who left had French citizenship, and all identified
with French rather than Arab culture and society. During colonial
times, the Algerian and European groups had effectively formed
two separate subsocieties having little social interaction or
intermarriage except among highly Europeanized Algerians.
In the early 1980s, the total foreign population was estimated
at roughly 117,000. Of this number, about 75,000 were Europeans,
including about 45,000 French. Many foreigners worked as technicians
and teachers.
Data as of December 1993
|