Kabylia in Algeria, a linguistic rebellion in Algeria

Kabylia is a historic region in northern Africa, populated mainly by Berbers. It has an area of ​​25,000 km2 and a population of 7,000,000: the language of the region is Tamazight with more than 5 million speakers.
Its inhabitants call it Tamurt n Iqbaylyen ("Land of the cabillos") or Tamurt Idurar ("Land of the mountains"). It is part of the Atlas Mountains and is located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Kabylia includes several provinces (wilayas) of Algeria: the whole territory of Tizi Uzu and Bugia, most of Bouira (Tubiret) and parts of the wilaya of Bourmerdes
Its traditional name, Tamurt Idurar, means "land of the mountains", evoking the high relief that marks its identity.
The Arabization that took place during the expansion of Islam in Algeria at the start of the second millennium led a large part of the Mediterranean coastal population to start speaking Arabic.
However, in the mountainous regions of Kabylia, the Berber language has remained the dominant language.
When the French took control of the country in the 19th century, they also imposed their language. Algeria has become a French-speaking country. Arabic continues to be spoken as the main language in the main cities and on the coastal strip.
With the success of the anti-colonial revolution in Algeria, efforts were made to eliminate French and impose Arabic on the whole country, including the Berber region.
It ignores the fact that a significant number of Algerians have their own language and resist being forced to speak Arabic.
In fact, the Amazight or Berber culture has become strong in Kabylia with its 7 million inhabitants, who speak mainly Berber.
The Berber nationalist movement has been suppressed by the central government of Algiers since the creation of the Algerian Republic. Much of the policy tended to make it difficult to use the local language.
However, the Berbers of Kabylia continue to resist, both in Algeria and in the migrant colonies themselves in France and in other European countries.
Recent protests
The recent demonstrations, which affected the main cities of Kabylia and the capital, came after parliamentarians rejected an amendment to the 2018 finance law that would have made the teaching of the Tamazight language official in local schools.
"A social upheaval is coming," said Lemnouar Hamamouche, a sociology student at Abderrahmane Mira University in Bejaia, in the Kabylie region of northern Algeria, where most of the protests took place.
Students and other activists have spoken out against the decision, which they say highlights the state's wider rejection of the language and identity of its Berber citizens, also known as Amazighs.
Hamamouche told Al Jazeera that this also reflects the policy of the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who said that he had not allocated money to help use the language nationwide.
"The masses are starting to protest" because "they reject the fact that [the state] marginalizes the mother tongue," said the Berber leader.
Linguistic and social context
The official languages ​​of Algeria are Arabic and Tamazight (Berber) , as specified in its constitution since 1963 for the former and since 2016 for the latter. Berber has been recognized as a "national language" by the constitutional amendment since May 8, 2002. In February 2016, a constitutional resolution was adopted which made Berber an official language with Arabic. Algerian Arabic and Berber are the mother tongues of over 99% of Algerians, Algerian Arabic being spoken in around 72% and Berber in 27.4%. French, although it has no official status, is widely used in government, culture, the media (newspapers) and education (of primary school), due to the colonial history of Algeria. Kabyle, the most widely spoken Berber language in the country, is taught and partially co-official (with certain restrictions) in certain parts of Kabylia.
Malika Rebai Maamri, author of "The Syndrome of the French Language in Algeria", said: "The language spoken at home and in the street remains a mixture of Algerian dialect and French words". Due to the number of languages ​​and the complexity of these languages, Maamri maintained that "[today] the linguistic situation in Algeria is dominated by multiple discourses and positions".

Berbers in North Africa

Berbers are the main native population of the Maghrebi countries (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). They were invaded by arabic-speaking people in the 8th century and converted to Islam. Today, the official language in those countries is arabic, together with the formar colonial language (French). Berber languages are spoken by a minority but in some areas is the main local language. This is the case in the Kabylia region of Algeria. In Morocco also berber dialects are spoken in the Atlas mountains.

New Berber year: reclaiming the native cultures of North Africa

For centuries the Berber culture of North Africa was discriminated against and left aside.

the successive political, economic, cultural and religious imperialisms.

First it was the Phoenicians, then the Romans, then the Arabs, who imposed their language and religion, then the Ottomans and more recently the European colonial powers.

Now the Berber world continues to be colonized by the Arab-speaking majority, but gradually it is recovering the initiative and enthusiastically celebrating its traditional millenary celebrations.

Berbers in North Africa announce the Amazigh New Year, with festivities showcasing traditional food, music and dance planned throughout the region.

Friday marks the first day of the year 2968 for the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa, who are also known as Amazigh.

The Amazigh New Year, or Yennayer, as it is called locally, is the first day of the agricultural calendar used by the Berbers for millennia.

Ahmed Assid, an Amazigh activist, told Al Jazeera that the event has an "important historical connotation" for the Berbers: "It goes back to antiquity when the Amazigh king Shoshenq I was enthroned in Egypt, after defeating Ramses III." .

In Morocco, where Yennayer is celebrated by the Arab and Berber communities, some Arabs refer to the event as "Aam Alfilahi" or "Haguza", which means the "agrarian year".

The Berbers, on the other hand, refer to the event as "Id Suggas", which means "night of the year".

North Africans celebrate the occasion with activities such as Amazigh dance shows called "Ahwach" and "Ahidous".

The celebrations also feature performances by Berber artists, along with educational activities.

To commemorate the occasion, the Berbers prepare traditional dishes, such as the tagola, a meal composed of corn grains mixed with lard, accompanied by ghee and with the seed of a date hidden inside.

"It is believed that the person who finds the seed of the date inside the plate of the tagola is blessed throughout the year," said Hafida Id Abbou, a Moroccan Amazigh who celebrates every year.

Another dish, known as orkimen, is made with wheat and dried beans. It is served as a soup.

As with most meals in North Africa, couscous is also served.

Many Moroccans believe that, given the country's deep Berber roots, Yennayer should be a national holiday.

Neighboring Algeria, which also has a large Berber population, already declared January 12 as a national holiday, and Amazigh activists in Morocco want their government to do the same.

At the end of December, several Amazigh groups signed a memorandum addressed to the Moroccan Prime Minister, Saad Eddine el-Othmani, urging him to declare the national holiday in Morocco.

French repressive and bloody dictatorship in Algeria

Danilo Antón

One of the contemporary historical episodes of conquest and forced colonization that violated human rights was the one carried out by France in Algeria.
The conquest of Algeria by French imperialism began in 1827 and ended 135 years later, when the Republic of Algeria was established in 1962, and the French armed forces and settlers were forced to withdraw from the country.
The excuse for the beginning of the aggression was an incident of the Dey Hussein of Algiers with the consul of France in 1827. On this occasion France imposed a strict blockade to the port of Algiers. Three years later, in the midst of the decline of the French monarchy, French king Charles X sought to regain his prestige by taking the city of Algiers, This was done in 1830. When the Bourbon dynasty fell in the same year, the new French government decided to continue the occupation and began a large-scale invasion annexing much of the Algerian coastal strip in 1834. On occupied lands the French authorities took possession and redistributed lands used by tribes, religious foundations and villages.

From that moment on there was a great influx of Europeans, mainly peasants or working class origins coming from the south of Italy, Spain and France. The French authorities took possession and redistributed the lands property of various tribes, religious foundations and villages. During the conquest, French troops sacked, raped, desecrated mosques and cemeteries and massacred entire villages, setting the tone for what would have been 135 years of French rule.
The conquest was completed with the suppression of the independent Berber republics of Kabylia in 1857.
Algeria was declared an integral part of French territory and French citizens in Algeria (commonly called pieds noirs) were able to elect deputies to the Assembly in Paris while the Algerians remained second-class citizens without political rights and restricted in their individual freedoms.

The discriminatory authoritarianism of successive French governments continued throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and the first six decades of the twentieth century.
The Algerians rebelled on many occasions. There were many reasons: their property had been confiscated and granted to the French settlers, they had no political rights, their religious rights were limited and their economic situation impoverished and with no future prospects.
Over time the privileged stratum of the pieds noirs became settled. There were more than 1.5 million pieds noirs compared to a total population of about 10 million.
Faced with this situation the rebellion started growing and in the 1950s it became a real war.
The nationalist revolutionaries were organized in the National Liberation Front that carried out systematic actions of armed resistance, especially urban guerrilla, against French rule.
The war became bloody and the French authorities were losing control of the situation until the rebellion began to shake the foundations of the weak and shaky French Fourth Republic (1946-58). The repression against the Algerian population was brutal. Razzias indiscriminate, thousands of arrests, torture and executions were the methods used. While many FLN leaders were killed or arrested, French rule was discredited locally and internationally and forced France to change its policy.
The critical situation led to the establishment of a new republic (Fifth Republic) with Charles de Gaulle as President. After major demonstrations in Algiers and several major cities in favor of independence since the late 1960s and a UN resolution recognizing the right to independence, they led President De Gaulle to open negotiations with the FLN. These concluded with the signing of the Evian Agreements in March 1962. A referendum was held and the French electorate approved the Evian Agreements with 91% of the electorate. Later a second referendum was held in Algeria proper, where independence triumphed with 99.72% of the votes.
For the Algerians, at that moment the nightmare of colonial domination was over and new challenges would begin.