The People of the Tamazgha

[Admin ACI]

INTRODUCTION

For almost three thousand years, the peoples of the Tamazgha have clung to their distinct identity and language, sheltering in the mountains and in desert oases from infringing invaders.

Most of the North African population is originally of Berber stock that has been largely Arabized. There remain 20 million people who are still distinctly Berber, speaking their ancient dialects as a first language (although most Berbers are bi-lingual) and clinging to their old culture.

There are some real differences between Berbers and Arabs, but they also have many cross-cultural links. Arabic is the official language of all Maghreb states and it is also the language of religion and culture. Living in a mountainous environment and in a tribal society divided by many dialects, there has always been much political fragmentation amongst the people. There is little pan-nationalism as they identify primarily with their family and tribe. Fighting used to be endemic to their way of life and they have an intense love of independence.

Their origin is shrouded in mystery. Some think they crossed over from the Iberian Peninsula many thousands of years ago, others that they originated in North Africa. Many invaders and colonists reached the Maghreb, including Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and French.

The name Tamazgha evolved from the Greek custom of calling all non-Greek speaking people Barbarians. The Berbers call themselves "Imazighen", the free. The Berbers originally lived all over the Maghreb from western Egypt to the Atlantic. The culturally distinct Berber communities thrive in the Tamazgha.

Many people of the Tamazgha are farmers who grow wheat, barley, fruits, nuts, vegetables and olives for oil in the lowlands in winter and graze flocks of sheep and goats in the mountains during the summer. Some are still nomads who migrate with their camels and herds around the desert plateaus and oases. Their fortified villages are often located high on the mountain ridges and are composed of houses, a mosque, a fortified threshing floor (kasbah) and a gathering place for the assembly of elders (Jama'ah) which controls village life.

Increasing population density and poverty have caused many of the people to migrate to the large cities of the Tamazgha in search of employment, there to form an urban proletariat.

GENDER ROLES

Gender roles are the activities, responsibilities, and rights that a society considers normal and appropriate for men and women. There is no single model of gender roles in the Tamazgha. The diverse cultures have many different ideas about male and female roles, although in general women have been subordinate to men in both public and family life. Like gender roles, notions about sex and standards of sexual behavior differ widely across the Tamazgha. For several generations, however, Tamazghan attitudes toward both gender roles and sexuality have been changing, especially in the cities and in areas where Carnian influence has been strongest.

Learning how people of each gender are expected to behave is a key part of growing up in any society. In the Tamazgha, as elsewhere, men and women have traditionally had different roles in the family and community and in the work they do.

In most cases officials, recognize male rather than female authority, and they conducted their business with men. Women continued to be important producers, but often the goods they produced were sold by their fathers, husbands, or brothers. The belief that men are entitled to the income from women's work has not entirely died out in modern Tamazgha.

Social and economic policies generally favored men. Since independence of the Tamazgha, the differences between men's and women's roles have become even greater as a result of various laws. Consequently, women have lagged behind men in education, literacy, and access to good jobs.

In the Tamazgha cities, women generally make a living as traders or domestic servants rather than as salaried employees. Some work as prostitutes. Women dominate trading in local markets.

GENDER ROLES AND ISLAM

In the largely Muslim states of the Tamazgha, attitudes toward gender roles and sexuality have been shaped by Islam and Arab cultural traditions. In traditional Arab societies, men and women have different privileges and women are subordinate to men. Many Muslim nations still allow men to take multiple wives, though the practice is becoming less common. In religious life, women may be barred from entering the mosque or restricted to a special section. In rural areas, chores are divided by gender, with men taking care of large livestock such as camels and women tending small animals.

In recent years, urbanization, education, and contact with other cultures have brought new freedom and opportunity for Muslim women in the Tamazgha. At the same time, the subordination of women to men in families remains because the home is one of the few areas where a man can still exert his authority. Nevertheless, the roles of Muslim men and women are constantly changing in the Tamazgha, women became more active in politics, even fighting in revolutions and forming political parties.

SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

Like gender roles, sexual behavior and attitudes about sex are shaped by a society's culture and are learned by each new generation. In the Tamazgha societies, sexual norms can vary according to class, age, religion, or ethnic background.

In the Tamazgha, two very different attitudes have emerged toward sexuality in general. In many Tamazghan societies, people enter casually into sexual relationships and view sex mainly in terms of reproduction. Many non-Muslim groups traditionally expressed little concern about casual sex, and some cultures have regarded prostitution as a business transaction. For some women who became prostitutes, often acquired greater economic security than they might have gained through marriage.

Other Tamazghan societies, however, regard sex as something powerful and dangerous that can destroy the social order if certain taboos are broken. Rules regarding sex might require that a particular ritual be followed or might forbid relations between certain partners. Many eastern Tamazghan societies consider it taboo to discuss sex publicly, and forbid even married partners to refer directly to the sex act.

Views of the sexual role of women vary widely in the Tamazgha. In some cultures, such as the Kgatla, both men and women enjoy sex and speak openly about it. But in many societies, women are not expected to enjoy sex. In Sudan, a woman who shows direct interest in sex faces severe penalties.

RELIGION

In remote times, many Tamazghans were animists worshipping rocks, springs, rivers and mountains and venerating the sun, moon and stars. Their legends, beliefs, and ceremonies still reflect some of this ancient religion. Later they borrowed the Gods of their Phoenician and Roman colonizers.

Judaism gained proselytes in the Tamazgha from early times, preparing the way for Christianity which flourished in the first centuries AD in spite of initial persecutions. One way the Tamazghans could express their resentment against Roman domination was by enthusiastically embracing the doctrines of any group opposed to the official Church of Rome - Montanism, Donatism, Arianism, etc.- resulting in many religious quarrels and persecutions.

Following the Muslim conquest, many Tamazghan people converted to the orthodox Sunni Islam of their Umayyad Arab invaders. Their independent spirit however soon expressed itself in their conversion to rebellious Khariji doctrines. Later they turned to the Shi'a branch of Islam, including Fatimid Isma'ilism.

The Almoravid and Almohad Empires succeeded in re-establishing Sunnism throughout the Maghreb whilst destroying all the "heretics": Christian, Shi'a and Khariji. That was when the last indigenous Christians finally disappeared from the Tamazgha in the 12th century. The Jews, though restricted, were tolerated, and were later strengthened by the many Jews expelled from Spain. The Jewish community also survives in the Tamazgha, as well as a few Khariji (Ibadi) communities survived by fleeing to the remote mountains and desert areas.

Though fanatically loyal to Islam, the people of the Tamazgha retain many pre-Islamic, pagan practices, especially in their agricultural rites. Much of this can be classed as Folk-Islam, and it includes ceremonies for obtaining rain, harvest rites, bonfires, the concept of Baraka and the cult of saints.

For Tamazghans, the existence of hostile spirits and the need for protection is an accepted fact of life. They turn to amulets, talismans, Fatima's hand, pilgrimages to the tombs of holy men and similar practices believed to be effective in protecting them.

In their farming rites, some Tamazghans stress the cult of the dead. The fertility of their fields depends on the favor of the spirits of the Earth. Ploughing and sowing are seen as symbols of marriage and are seasons of rejoicing, whilst the harvest at the end of the farming year symbolizes death and burial, and is accompanied by mourning and by funeral rites.

Tamazghan festivals follow the lunar calendar for the Muslim feasts and the solar calendar of the seasons for the agricultural feasts.

SOCIETY

The majority of Tamazghan society is tribal and is based on Islam and the clan. Islam strengthened the ancient patriarchal system by emphasizing that submission to your parents is synonymous with obedience to God and it also sublimated many old customs and incorporated them into its religious ritual. It is an all-encompassing system and prescribes the code of conduct that governs all private and public life, whether religious or secular.

The code of good manners is called "Hashumah" and it combines the concepts of honor, respect, modesty and shame. Everyone knows his place in society and what is "proper" for them to say or do.

The Tamazghans are still mainly settled farmers, with significant minorities of nomads and city dwellers. The old common law ('Ada, Kanoun) is transmitted orally from generation to generation and is still widely used.

The tribe is based on blood ties to a common ancestor who is seen as a supernatural protector and mediator and whose tomb serves as a pilgrimage center. All members of a tribe call themselves "Bani 'Amm" (cousins). The smallest unit in the tribe is the "hearth" (household - the extended family living under the authority of the eldest male). A number of hearths form a clan (Firqah), which is fairly autonomous in running its own affairs. The tribe is composed of several clans.

Blood relationship is the basis of all social life. It involves people in its widening circles of family, extended family, clan and tribe, each circle having definite obligations. This attitude is best summed up by the Middle Eastern proverb: "Myself against my brothers, my brothers and myself against my cousins, my cousins and my brothers and myself against the world". Each person is expected to have a deep loyalty to his community and its moral code.

Marriages to cousins on the father's side are preferred. The married son continues to live with his father, the daughter when married moves in with her husband's family. If divorced or widowed the woman returns to her father's home. Three to four generations may live together in an extended family that can number as many as fifty people.

Tamazghan women enjoy more freedom than that common among Arab women. They are not veiled, they can choose to divorce, and they retain their dowry.

Communal duties include building and owning granaries. The community is also obliged to protect each individual's guests.

Settled farmers build one story stone houses in their villages. The semi-nomads construct their houses and granaries of pounded earth and live in tents made of goat’s hair when at pasture. Home industries such as pottery, basket making and weaving are performed by the women.

In Tamazghan villages, the meeting of all adult males (Jama'ah) in the village square is the ultimate political power center. The Jama'a elects a village head for a limited term, though in practice some wealthy heads of family wield much of the power. The nomads elect a permanent chief and council, the semi-nomadic tribes a seasonal chief who oversees the migrations.

Festivals (Moussems) are an important feature of Tamazghan life usually held towards the end of summer. They are an occasion for a great gathering of the tribes and clans, usually held at the tomb of a well-known saint. Trade, fairs, sacrifices, ceremonies and marriage arrangements are all part of the fun.

Despite the emergence of new classes in the cities and the effects of modernization, the old values continue to have a strong hold on society. Solidarity among male relatives is a must, even when they no longer live near each other. It is an obligation to help all relatives in need. Girls are married off as soon as possible as celibacy is considered a shame. Large families are still favored and marriages are commonly arranged by parents who prefer relatives to strangers.

In both government and economy, a parallel chain of command comprising informal family and tribal ties is often the real power broker.

[Kamenwati]

The Tamazgha – A Tribal Legacy

The medieval historian of the Maghrib, Ibn Khaldun, is credited or blamed for theorizing a causative dynamic to the different tribal confederacies over time. Issues concerning tribal social-economies and their influence have generated a large literature, which critics say is overblown. Abdallah Laroui discounts the impact of tribes, declaring the subject a form of confusion which cloaks suspect colonial ideologies. While Berber tribal society has made an impact on culture and government, their continuance was chiefly due to strong foreign interference which usurped the primary domain of the government institutions, and derailed their natural political development. Rather than there being a predisposition for tribal structures, the Berber's survival strategy in the face of foreign occupation was to figuratively retreat into their own way of life through their enduring tribal networks. On the other hand, as it is accepted and understood, tribal societies in the Tamazgha have continued over millennia and from time to time flourish.

Berber tribal identities survived undiminished during the long period of dominance by the city-state of Carthage. Under centuries of Roman rule also tribal ways were maintained. The sustaining social customs would include: communal self-defense and group liability, marriage alliances, collective religious practices, reciprocal gift-giving, family working relationships and wealth. Abdallah Laroui summarizes the abiding results under foreign rule (here, by Carthage and by Rome) as: Social (assimilated, nonassimilated, free); Geographical (city, country, desert); Economic (commerce, agriculture, nomadism); and, Linguistic (e.g., Latin, Punico-Berber, Berber).

Unlike the invasions of previous religions and cultures, the coming of Islam, which was spread by Arabs, was to have pervasive and long-lasting effects on the Lands of the Tamazgha. The new faith, in its various forms, would penetrate nearly all segments of society, bringing with it armies, learned men, and fervent mystics; in large part, it would replace tribal practices and loyalties with new social norms and political idioms.

Roman Africans

People from all over the Empire migrated into the Roman Africa Province, most importantly merchants, traders, and mainly veterans in early retirement who settled in Africa on farming plots promised for their military service. Historians estimated that under Emperor Hadrian nearly 1/3 of the eastern Numidia population (roughly modern Tunisia) was descended from Roman veterans.

A sizable Latin speaking population developed that was multinational in background, sharing the north African region with those speaking Punic and Berber languages. Imperial security forces began to be drawn from the local population, including the Berbers.

What made the Berbers accept the Roman way of life all the more readily was that the Romans, though a colonizing people who captured their lands by the might of their arms, did not display any racial exclusiveness and were remarkably tolerant of Berber religious cults, be they indigenous or borrowed from the Carthaginians. However, the Roman territory in Africa was unevenly penetrated by Roman culture. Pockets of non-Romanized Berbers continued to exist throughout the Roman period, even in such areas as the Tamazgha and Numidia.

By the end of the Western Roman Empire nearly all of the Maghreb was fully Romanized, and the Roman Africans enjoyed a high level of prosperity. This prosperity (and Romanization) touched partially even the populations living outside the Roman limes or boundaries (mainly the interior desert regions of the Tamazgha).

Economics

The Tamazghan economic mind was related to the basic concepts of state and society in which the ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power, and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous. The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact.

The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Tamazghan Empire and they are the leading organization among all their contemporaries. This organization developed a scribal bureaucracy (known as "men of the pen") as a distinct group, partly highly trained ulema, which developed into a professional body. The effectiveness of this professional financial body stands behind the success of many great Tamazghan statesmen.

By developing commercial centers and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the Empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were dominant. Within the social and political system they were living in Tamazghan administrators could not have comprehended or seen the desirability of the dynamics and principles of the capitalist and mercantile economies developing in Western Europe.

The prosperity of most towns depended on agriculture. Called the "granary of the empire", North Africa, better known as the Tamazgha, according to one estimate, produced one million tons of cereals each year, one-quarter of which was exported. Additional crops included beans, figs, grapes, and other fruits. By the second century, olive oil rivaled cereals as an export item. In addition to the cultivation of slaves, and the capture and transporting of exotic wild animals, the principal production and exports included the textiles, marble, wine, timber, livestock, pottery such as African Red Slip, and wool.

The incorporation of colonial cities into the Roman Empire brought an unparalleled degree of urbanization to vast areas of territory, particularly in the Tamazgha. One such colonization was on the Isles of Carnia, just off the coast of the Tamazgha.

This level of rapid urbanization had a structural impact on the town economy, and artisan production in Roman cities became closely tied to the agrarian spheres of production. As Rome's population grew, so did her demand for Tamazghan produce. This flourishing trade allowed the North African provinces to increase artisan production in rapidly developing cities, making them highly organized urban centers. Many Roman cities shared both consumer and producer model city aspects, as artisanal activity was directly related to the economic role cities played in long-distance trade networks.

The urban population became increasingly engaged in the craft and service sectors and less in agrarian employment, until a significant portion of the town’s vitality came from the sale or trade of products through middlemen to markets in areas both rural and abroad. The changes that occurred in the infrastructure for agricultural processing, like olive oil and wine production, as trade continued to develop both cities and commerce directly influenced the volume of artisan production. The scale, quality, and demand for these products reached its acme in Roman Tamazgha.

In order to stem such urbanizations, the people of the Tamazgha began to centralize focal cities, such as Carthage and Utica (Tunisia), Bougie (Algeria), Fez, Dakhla, and El Jadida (Morocco), and the three chief cities of Tripolis, the others being Leptis Magna and Oea (Libya). To stabilize and counter this movement, the Romans concentrated on the Isle of Carnia, its urbanization focused on Smyrna and Agora.

The North African provinces spanned across regions rich with olive plantations and potters' clay sources, which led to the early development of fine Ancient Roman pottery, especially African Red Slip terra sigillata tableware and clay oil lamp manufacture, as a crucial industry. Lamps provided the most common form of illumination in Rome. They were used for public and private lighting, as votive offerings in temples, lighting at festivals, and as grave goods. As the craft developed and increased in quality and craftsmanship, the Tamazghan creations began to rival their Italian and Grecian models and eventually surpassed them in merit and in demand. The innovative use of molds around the 1st c. BC allowed for a much greater variety of shapes and decorative style, and the skill of the lamp maker was demonstrated by the quality of the decoration found typically on the flat top of the lamp, or discus, and the outer rim, or shoulder. Decorative motifs ranged according to the lamp's function and to popular taste. Ornate patterning of squares and circles were later added to the shoulder with a stylus, as well as palm trees, small fish, animals, and flower patterns. The discus was reserved for conventional scenes of gods, goddesses, mythological subjects, scenes from daily life, erotic scenes, and natural images.