North AfricaThe Berber cultural movement is the most signif-
icant minority sociopolitical movement to emerge
from North Africa’s rich racial, ethnic, and reli-
gious landscape. Berberophones constitute approx-
imately 25 percent of the population of Algeria and
40 percent of Morocco. With roots stretching back
to the 1920s, the contemporary movement consists
of a diffuse network of activists organized into cul-
tural associations and political parties primarily
located in Algeria (especially Kabylia), Morocco,
and the North African diaspora in Europe and
North America. The movement claims the indige-
nousness of Berbers (or imazighen, free men, in
activist discourse) to North Africa and contests
the “minority” label imposed on them by North
African states with official Arab nationalist ideolo-
gies. Berber activists advocate the recognition of
Berber language (Tamazight) as an official and
national language of Algeria and Morocco equal to
Arabic in the public sphere (education, media, gov-
ernment). Although generally marginalized from
leadership roles, women play significant roles in
the movement as salient symbols and outspoken
militants.
Berber activists underline the cultural distinctive-
ness of imazighen from the Arab populations of
North Africa. The elaboration of an Arab/Berber
ethnic divide derives to a great extent from the
efforts of French military and colonial administra-
tion to extensively document Berber legal codes
and oral poetry. Their divide-and-rule policies tar-
geted Berber populations for potential assimilation
due to their perceived sedentary nature, laboring
qualities, republican social organization, and lack
of visible religiosity (as indicated primarily by the
non-veiling of women) (Lorcin 1995). Such strate-
gies resulted in the 1930 so-called “Berber Dahir”
(decree) that created separate juridical systems for
Arab and Berber populations in Morocco.
Reacting to these policies, early articulations of
nationalism advocated the multicultural (Arab and
Berber) identity of Algeria and Morocco. In the
1960s, these were gradually replaced by an ideol-
ogy of Arab nationalism and policies of linguistic
Arabization by the ruling National Liberation
Front and Istiqlal parties. In response, Berber activ-
ists founded the Berber Academy and the Berber
Study Group in Paris, and the Moroccan Asso-
ciation for Cultural Research and Exchange in
Rabat, to standardize Tamazight, develop a Berber
script, and publish Berber poetry.
These efforts developed into a widespread social
movement after the Kabyle student uprisings of576 political-social movements: ethnic and minority
April 1980, known internationally as the “Berber
Spring.” The events provoked the founding of an
umbrella political organization, the Berber Cul-
tural Movement, as well as hundreds of cultural
associations throughout North Africa and the dias-
pora that sponsor courses in Tamazight and Berber
history and serve as loci for cultural expression.
Since 1989, the advocacy of Berber cultural and lin-
guistic rights has been further taken up by Kabylia-
based political parties: the Socialist Forces Front
and the Algerian Rally for Culture and Democracy
(RCD). A World Amazigh Congress was founded
in 1995, coordinating the efforts of Berber asso-
ciations across the globe. Through electioneering,
school strikes, and petitioning supranational human
rights bodies, the movement has succeeded in gar-
nering the official recognition of “Berberity” as a
constituent part of Algerian and Moroccan identity,
as well as the tentative introduction of Tamazight in
the media and education systems. However, strug-
gles continue, with violent encounters between
Kabyle youth and the Algerian military in July 1998
and April 2001 (Maddy-Weitzman 2001, Silver-
stein 2003).
Within this multi-stranded movement, women
have played an important, if often marginalized,
role. The movement has appropriated a number of
women from history into its pantheon of cultural
heroes, including Kahina, Kheïra, and Fathma
n’Soumer – women Berber leaders who fought
against the Arab and French invasions of the sev-
enth and nineteenth centuries (Ferrah 1997). Their
images adorn Berber cultural productions and
meeting halls, and songs memorializing their
achievements galvanize association meetings. These
historical women also function as an imagined
genealogy for contemporary female Berber mili-
tants, such as Khalida Messaoudi and Djura
Abouda, who look to them for inspiration (Mes-
saoudi 1995, 1998, 27–8, Djura 1993, 116–25).
Women’s participation in Berber militancy has
generally been relegated, however, to the sidelines
of direct confrontation, as the mourning sisters to
their fallen brothers. One of the strongest voices
from the Kabyle diaspora, Malika Matoub, re-
mains known primarily as the sister of the militant
folk-singer Lounès Matoub, having led rallies after
his 1998 assassination and written a biography
memorializing his life (Matoub 1999). Women
have often been leaders and founders of cultural
associations, but their role in the political move-
ment, particularly in Morocco and Algeria, has
been primarily limited to participation in organized
actions. Messaoudi, elected to the Algerian parlia-
ment in 1997 on the RCD ticket, perhaps represents