Kabyle people
Encyclopedia
The Kabyle people are the largest homogeneous Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

n ethno-cultural and linguistical community and the largest nation in North Africa to be considered exclusively Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

. Their traditional homeland
Homeland
A homeland is the concept of the place to which an ethnic group holds a long history and a deep cultural association with —the country in which a particular national identity began. As a common noun, it simply connotes the country of one's origin...

 is Kabylie
Kabylie
Kabylie or Kabylia , is a region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Kabylia covers several provinces of Algeria: the whole of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia , most of Bouira and parts of the wilayas of Bordj Bou Arreridj, Jijel,...

 (or Kabylia) in the north of Algeria, one hundred miles east of Algiers. Since the beginning of the 20th century, they have also had a strong presence in the Algérois (Algiers region). Around 40% of Algiers's population is Kabyle.

There are also, due to emigration during the 19th and 20th centuries, large Kabyle (or Kabyle descent) communities in France and in the Americas such as in the United States and Canada.

Kabyles speak the Kabyle
Kabyle language
Kabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people north and northeast of Algeria. Estimates about the number of speakers range from 5 million to about 7 million speakers worldwide, the majority in Algeria.-Classification:The classification of Kabyle is Afro-Asiatic, Berber and...

 language. Since the Berber Spring
Berber Spring
The Berber Spring was a period of political protest and civil activism in 1980 claiming recognition of the Berber identity and language in Algeria with events mainly taking place in Kabylia and Algiers...

 in 1980, they have been at the forefront of the fight for the official recognition of the Berber languages and secularism ("laïcité") in Algeria (see Languages of Algeria
Languages of Algeria
The official language of Algeria is Arabic, as specified in its constitution since 1963. In addition to this, Berber has been recognized as a "national language" by constitutional amendment since May 8, 2002. Between them, these two languages are the native languages of over 99% of Algerians,...

).

The Kabyle region is referred to as Al Qabayel ("tribes") by the Arabic-speaking population and as Kabylie in French, but its inhabitants call it Tamurt Idurar ("Land of Mountains") or Tamurt n Iqvayliyen/Tamurt n Iqbayliyen ("Land of the Kabyles"). It is part of the Atlas Mountains
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...

 and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean.

Brief People's History

Kabylia is a series of villages on the peaks [altitude 6000–9000 ft.] of the eastern part of the Atlas (100 km east of Algiers) In ancient times, Kabylia was an empty, rocky and wild area, inhabited by various animals including bears, wild boar, wolves, monkeys, eagles, and even hyenas. No human settlement is mentioned in any historical books documenting the peaceful period between Numidians (east northern Africa approx. modern Algeria + Tunisia) with Rome through the alliance and dating back to 500 BC, against the Phoenicians.

It is not until the death of King Massinissa when his protegé nephew and General of Numidian Armies Jugurtha
Jugurtha
Jugurtha or Jugurthen was a King of Numidia, , born in Cirta .-Background:Until the reign of Jugurtha's grandfather Masinissa, the people of Numidia were semi-nomadic and indistinguishable from the other Libyans in North Africa...

 rebelled against Rome, from which he wanted separation, that the inaccessible highlands became inhabited. They are known as Jugurtha and followers' hiding, training and camping grounds.

These once forts of Jugurtha's warriors slowly became small villages with traditions of self-sustainability as hunters and farmers after the capture of Jugurtha.(Sallust
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, generally known simply as Sallust , a Roman historian, belonged to a well-known plebeian family, and was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines...

, Jugurthine Wars)] It is also where rebellion against Rome's attempt to administer Christianity was instigated, leading to the birth of the Protestant church under various denominations, amongst which Baptists, Donatists, Presbytarians, all of whom opposed Catholicism. For no less than three centuries, the relation between Roman Administration and the highlanders is one which can be characterized as a conflict of low intensity, through physical separation - the former controlled the coastal areas and the valleys and the latter the highlands.

In the late third century, the Gaiserics, also known as the Vandals, a Germanic people and enemy of Rome, cornered in the Iberian(Spain) peninsula, invaded North Africa and formed in Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

 a new kingdom and placed Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...

as royal lithurgy. At that time , the large core of the Berber population followed the Catholic Christian church of Africa allied to Rome.
Just days away by horse from Carthage, the Vandal-Numidian coalition successfully evicted Rome from North Africa. While this alliance earned the Numidians the Barbarians (Berberes fr.), by extension from their new allies, it also created the largest clan in the region.

The Vandales had to find a place and an ally to escape the Roman chase through Gaul(France) and west-southwest. The snowy, cold and inaccessible highlands of Kabylia and its likewise enmity to Rome is thus a natural match. The population of the villages of the Highlands, also known as Djurdjura, suddenly doubled, as no less than 80 000 warriors with wives and children, i.e. families, filled the villages of Kabylia. Whereas the military forts were set on the lowers peaks closest to the sea, known as Lower Kabylia, around the modern Algerian province of Bejia (Vgayet in Kabyle), the residential regions were in the higher lands of the Dhurdjura, also known as Great Kabylia. Thus, began the dense population of Kabylia

Numerous with their warrior-like, Kabyle are among the fierce activists in the Berber identity cause . The nominal Muslim attribute assigned to them in modern times is the result of colonial French ignorance and random classification, as well as the creation of the territory called Algeria by decree of General Sneider, French Minister of war, in 1871. This assignment as well as the term Arabs to Numidians and north Africans in general is a colonial construction followed by its maintenance by the alliance of the regime to the Ba'ath ideology, along with membership of the Arab League - source of all Algerian post-colonial ills, including continual rebellion by the Kabyles, till today.

Language

The principal language used by the Kabyles is Kabyle
Kabyle language
Kabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people north and northeast of Algeria. Estimates about the number of speakers range from 5 million to about 7 million speakers worldwide, the majority in Algeria.-Classification:The classification of Kabyle is Afro-Asiatic, Berber and...

, which is spoken both at home and professionally. Many Kabyles speak a second or third language: French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Arabic.

Religion

The Kabyle people are mainly Muslim with some Christians.

Recently, there has been a growing Protestant (chiefly evangelical) community.

Since the 19th century, there has been a large nominal Sunni Muslim community.

Among Kabyle Muslims, the main tradition is maraboutism, a version of heterogeneous Islam mixing Sunni tradition and many Kabyle cultural elements.

However, Kabyle society is known for its strong secular tradition. Religious differences play minor roles in political and social life.

Economy

The traditional economy of the area is based on arboriculture
Arboriculture
Arboriculture is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. It is both a practice and a science....

 (orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

s, olive tree
Olive Tree
The Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left Italian political coalitions from 1995 to 2007.The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former leftist Christian Democrat, who invented the name and the symbol of...

s) and on the craft industry (tapestry
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom, however it can also be woven on a floor loom as well. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length and those parallel to the width ; the warp threads are set up under tension on a...

 or pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

). Mountain and hill farming is gradually giving way to local industry (textile and agro-alimentary).

The Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

 began early in Kabylie: in 1871, there were already some factories. But it was in the middle of the 20th century, with the influence and help of the Kabyle diaspora, that industrialisation started to change the economic face of the region, which is today the second most important in the country after Algiers.

Politics

  • Two political parties dominate in Kabylie and have their principal support base there: the FFS
    Socialist Forces Front
    The Socialist Forces Front , , is a social democratic and secularist, political party in Algeria. It was formed in 1963 by Hocine Ait Ahmed...

    , led by Hocine Aït Ahmed
    Hocine Aït Ahmed
    Hocine Aït Ahmed is an Algerian politician....

    , and the RCD
    Rally for Culture and Democracy
    The Rally for Culture and Democracy is a political party in Algeria. It promotes secularism and has its principal power base in Kabylia, a major Berber-speaking region...

    , led by Saïd Sadi
    Saïd Sadi
    Saïd Sadi is an Algerian politician and President of the Rally for Culture and Democracy ....

    . Both parties are secularist, Berberist and "Algerianist
    Algerianist
    The term algerianism has had two meanings in history, one during the French colonial era, and another one after the independence of Algeria.-French period:...

    ".
  • The Arouch emerged during the Black Spring
    Black Spring (Kabylie)
    The Black Spring was a series of violent disturbances and political demonstrations by Kabylian Berber activists in the Kabylia region of Algeria in 2001, which were met by repressive police measures and became a potent symbol of Kabylian discontent with the national government...

     of 2001 as a revival of a traditional Kabyle form of democratic organization, the village assembly. The Arouch share roughly the same political views as the FFS and the RCD.
  • The MAK (Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie) also emerged during the Black Spring, and is a political association that militates for the autonomy of Kabylie.
  • On 21 April 2010, Ferhat Mehenni, the then leader of the (Movement for the autonomy of Kabylie
    Movement for the autonomy of Kabylie
    The Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie is a Kabyle political organization which demands self-government status for the region of Kabylie in Algeria...

    ) proclaimed a Provisional Government of Kabylia in exile (ANAVAD) which was established officially on 1 June 2010 at the Palais des Congrès. He was elected President by the National Council of the MAK and he named nine Ministers.

The French colonization

The Kabyles were relatively independent of outside control until the area was gradually taken over by the French beginning in 1857, despite vigorous resistance by the population led by leaders such as Lalla Fatma n Soumer, continuing as late as Mokrani's rebellion in 1871. Much land was confiscated in this period from the more recalcitrant tribes and given to French pieds-noirs. Many arrests and deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...

s were carried out by the French, mainly to New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 (see : "Algerians of the Pacific"). Colonization also resulted in an acceleration of the emigration into other areas inside and outside Algeria.

Algerian immigrant workers in France organized the first party promoting independence in 1920s. Messali Hadj
Messali Hadj
Ahmed Ben Messali Hadj was an Algerian nationalist politician dedicated to the independence of his homeland from France...

, Imache Amar, Si Djilani, and Belkacem Radjef
Belkacem Radjef
Belkacem Radjef was born in Fort-National , Algeria and spent 32 years of his life in the fight to liberate Algeria from French colonialism. He joined the first movement for independence, L'Etoile Nord Africaine, in 1930...

 rapidly built a strong following throughout France and Algeria in 1930s and actively developed militants that became vital to the future of both a fighting and an independent Algeria. During the war of independence (1954–1962), Kabylia was one of the areas that was most affected, because of the importance of the maquis
Maquis
Maquis or macchia is a type of high ground in Corsica covered in thick vegetation, where privateers used to hide. The name has been adopted by a variety of guerilla movements in francophone countries.Maquis may also refer to:-Geography:...

, aided by the mountainous terrain, and French oppression. The armed Algerian revolutionary resistance to French colonialism, the National Liberation Front (FLN)
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...

 recruited several of its historical leaders there, including Hocine Aït Ahmed
Hocine Aït Ahmed
Hocine Aït Ahmed is an Algerian politician....

, Abane Ramdane
Abane Ramdane
Abane Ramdane was an Algerian revolutionarist born in Kabylie. He was the architect of the Congress of Soummam in 1956....

, and Krim Belkacem
Krim Belkacem
Krim Belkacem was an Algerian revolutionary fighter and politician....

.

After the independence of Algeria

Tensions have arisen between Kabylia and the central government on several occasions, initially in 1963, when the FFS
Socialist Forces Front
The Socialist Forces Front , , is a social democratic and secularist, political party in Algeria. It was formed in 1963 by Hocine Ait Ahmed...

 party of Hocine Aït Ahmed
Hocine Aït Ahmed
Hocine Aït Ahmed is an Algerian politician....

 contested the authority of the single party (FLN). In 1980, several months of demonstrations demanding the officialization of the Berber language took place in Kabylie, called the Berber Spring
Berber Spring
The Berber Spring was a period of political protest and civil activism in 1980 claiming recognition of the Berber identity and language in Algeria with events mainly taking place in Kabylia and Algiers...

. The politics of identity intensified as the regime's policy of Arabization was implemented to appease Islamists in the 1990s. In 1994–1995, a school boycott occurred, termed the "strike of the school bag". In June and July 1998, the area blazed up again after the assassination of singer Matoub Lounes and at the time that a law generalizing the use of the Arabic language in all fields went into effect. In the months following April, 2001 (called the Black Spring
Black Spring (Kabylie)
The Black Spring was a series of violent disturbances and political demonstrations by Kabylian Berber activists in the Kabylia region of Algeria in 2001, which were met by repressive police measures and became a potent symbol of Kabylian discontent with the national government...

), major riots — together with the emergence of the Arouch, neo-traditional local councils — followed the killing of a young Kabyle Masinissa Guermah
Masinissa Guermah
Massinissa Guermah was a 19-year-old Kabyle high school student arrested by Algerian gendarmes on 18 April 2001...

 by gendarmes, and gradually died down only after forcing some concessions from the President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the ninth President of Algeria. He has been in office since 1999. He continued emergency rule until 24 February 2011, and presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002...

.

Diaspora

For historical reasons, many Kabyles have emigrated to France, where they number about 1.5 million. Many famous French people such as Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane is a retired French footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Zidane was a leading figure of a generation of French players that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship...

, Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani is a French film actress and singer. Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Awards for Best Actress with five, for Possession , One Deadly Summer , Camille Claudel , Queen Margot and Skirt Day...

, Kenza Farah
Kenza Farah
Kenza Farah is an Algerian R&B singer. She is considered the second internet success story in the French music industry, after Yelle...

, Dany Boon
Dany Boon
Dany Boon is a French comedian who has acted both on the stage and the screen. He takes his stage name from the television show Daniel Boone.-Life and career:...

, and Edith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...

 are of full or partial Kabyle descent.

Genetics

  • Y-Dna haplogroups, passed on exclusively through the paternal line, were found at the following frequencies in Kabylie : E1b1b1b (E-M81) (47.36%), R1*(xR1a) (15.78%) (later tested as R1b3/R-M269 (now R1b1b2)), J1
    Haplogroup J1 (Y-DNA)
    In human genetics, Y DNA haplogroup J1, also known as J-M267, is a sub-haplogroup of Y DNA haplogroup J, along with its sibling clade Y DNA haplogroup J2. Men with this type of Y DNA share a common paternal ancestry, which is demonstrated and defined by the presence of the SNP mutation referred to...

     (15.78%), F*(xH, I,J2,K) ( 10.52% ) and E1b1b1c (E-M123) (10.52%). The North African pattern of Y-chromosomal variation (including both E1b1b and J haplogroups) is largely of Neolithic origin.

  • MtDNA Haplogroups, by contrast, inherited only from the mother, were found at the following frequencies : H
    Haplogroup H (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup H is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup that likely originated in Southwest Asia 25,000-30,000 YBP.-Origin:...

     (32.23%), U*
    Haplogroup U (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup U is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup.-Origins:Haplogroup U descends from a woman in the Haplogroup R branch of the phylogenetic tree, who lived around 55,000 years ago...

     (29.03% with 17.74% U6), preHV (3.23%), preV (4.84%), V
    Haplogroup V (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup V is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup.-Origin:Haplogroup V is believed to have originated around the Western Mediterranean region, approximately 13,600 years before present- possibly on Iberia...

     (4.84%), T*
    Haplogroup T (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup T is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup.-Known Origins:Mitochondrial Haplogroup T derives from the haplogroup JT, which also gave rise to haplogroup J...

     (3.23%), J*
    Haplogroup J (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup J is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup.Haplogroup J derives from the haplogroup JT, which also gave rise to Haplogroup T. In his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes named the originator of this mtDNA haplogroup Jasmine...

     (3.23%), L1
    Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup L1 is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup common in Central and West Africa.-Origin:Haplogroup L1 is believed to have appeared approximately 110,000 to 170,000 years ago...

     (3.23%), L3e
    Haplogroup L3 (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup L3 is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. Haplogroup L3 has played a pivotal role in the history of the human species...

     (4.84%), X
    Haplogroup X (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup X is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. It has a widespread global distribution but no major regions of distinct localization.-Origin:...

     (3.23%), M1
    Haplogroup M (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup M is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. An enormous haplogroup spanning all the continents, the macro-haplogroup M, like its sibling N, is a descendant of haplogroup L3....

     (3.23%), N
    Haplogroup N (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup N is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. An enormous haplogroup spanning many continents, the macro-haplogroup N, like its sibling M, is a descendant of haplogroup L3....

     (1.61%) and R
    Haplogroup R (mtDNA)
    In human mitochondrial genetics, haplogroup R is a very extended mitochondrial DNA haplogroup and is the most common macro-haplogroup in West Eurasia.Haplogroup R is a descendant of macro-haplogroup N...

    (3.23%).

External links

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