Tamazgha[a] is a fictitious entity[1][2] and neologism in the Berber languages denoting the lands traditionally inhabited by the Berber peoples within the Maghreb.[3] The term was coined in the 1970s by the Berber Academy in France[4] and, since the late 1990s, has gained particular significance among speakers of Berber languages.[5] Although Berberists see Tamazgha as the geographic embodiment of a Berber imaginary of a once unified language and culture that had its own territory,[6][7] it has never been a single political entity,[8] and Berbers across the Maghreb did not see themselves as a single cultural or linguistic unit, nor was there a greater "Berber community" due to their differing cultures and languages.[9] Despite this, certain (but not all[10]) Berberists such as members of the Algerian separatist Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia use the term to imagine and describe a hypothetical federation spanning between the Canary Islands and the Siwa Oasis, a large swathe of territory including Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Egypt, the Western Sahara, Burkina Faso and Senegal.[11][12][13]
Historically, Berbers did not see themselves as a single cultural or linguistic unit,[9] and there was no singular endonym for the speakers of the languages descended from what is now called Proto-Libyan nor was there a term for their land. Instead, more specific terms for each subgroup were employed such as the Kabyle term Leqbayel or the Shawi term Ishawiyen.[14] Berber peoples did not refer to themselves as Berbers/Amazigh but had their own terms to refer to their own groups and communities.[15]
The earliest known reference to the Berber people as one group comes in the form of Arabic بربر (barbar), as borrowed from Ancient Greek βᾰ́ρβᾰρος (bárbaros, 'barbarian'). The Arabic word barbar was applied to the people whose language seemed very strange, hence the name "Berber".[16] Berbers started being referred to collectively as Berbers following the Arab Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th century. This word referred mostly to groups in northwest Africa.[17] By the medieval period, Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun elevated the "Berbers" into a "race" or "nation", granting them equal status with the nations of the world.[16] This was then solidified during French colonization when the Kabyle myth developed and 'Berbère' became a relatively common term of self-identification.[18]
In an attempt to reclaim the identity from the history of colonization, the Agraw Imazighen (a Paris-based Kabyle activist association that dissolved in 1978 and was known as the Berber Academy before 1969) coined the term Tamazɣa using the pre-existing triconsonantal root M-Z-Ɣ[19] in the 1970s to refer to the lands where the different Berber languages were spoken.[20]
The term has been translated into Spanish as Mazigia, abbreviated as MZG and used as an alternative international license plate code for some people.[21]
"L'État marocain et la question amazighe: Rapport alternatif de Tamazgha au Comité pour l'élimination de la discrimination raciale (CERD)" (PDF). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 2010. Retrieved 2024-03-13. Tous les historiens de l'Afrique du Nord attestent que le pays est peuplé de Berbères depuis les temps les plus anciens. Ainsi, Ibn Khaldoun dans son Histoire des Berbères, peut écrire à propos du pays que l'on appelle le Maghreb et que nous appelons Tamazgha ou pays des Imazighen : "Depuis les temps les plus anciens, cette race d'hommes habite le Maghreb dont elle a peuplé les plaines, les montagnes, les plateaux, les régions maritimes, les campagnes et les villes.
Stéphanie Pouessel (2010). "Les identités amazighes au Maroc". Le Matin d'Algérie. Retrieved 2024-03-13. Le Mouvement d'autonomie de la Kabylie (MAK) de Ferhat Mehenni qui se dit kabyle avant d'être amazigh s'inscrit complètement dans ce mouvement fédéraliste qui englobe l'ensemble des composantes berbères nationales et des différentes diasporas dans un projet transnational porté par le Congrès mondial amazigh (CMA). Fondé à Saint Rome de Dolan dans le Sud de la France en 1995, le CMA a été dirigé par Mabrouk Ferkal, par Rachid Raha au IIe congrès de Lyon puis par Lounès Belkacem au Ille congrès tenu dans la banlieue lilloise en 2002. Au IVe congrès de 2005, tenu à Nador, il devait déclarer : "Nous revendiquons simplement le droit d'exister avec tous nos droits individuels et collectifs en tant que peuple. Notre pays est Tamazgha ; notre histoire millénaire ; notre culture a valeur universelle ; notre projet est démocratique et laïque, pacifique pour notre peuple. Notre espace régional n'est pas le Moyen-Orient, mais la Méditerranée occidentale.
Brahim El Guabli (2023). "The Idea of Tamazgha: Current Articulations and Scholarly Potential". Tamazgha Studies Journal. Retrieved 2024-03-13. Located between the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and the oasis of Siwa in west Egypt, Tamazgha is both the discursive and geographic embodiment of an Amazigh imaginary of a language and culture that were once unified and had their own territory.
Ramzi Rouighi (2019-07-05). Inventing the Berbers: History and Ideology in the Maghrib. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780812251302. At the same time, the military conquests gave the word Berber meanings that distinguished it from both 'barbarian' and 'ajam. Most notably, in conquest narratives (futūb), Berber refers mostly to groups in northwest Africa. With time, this specialization in the usage became the most dominant one, though the memory of the Berbers of eastern Africa did not disappear.
Jane E. Goodman (2005-11-03). Berber Culture on the World Stage: From Village to Video. Indiana University Press. p. 7. ISBN 9780253217844. Usage of the term 'Berber' by the populations themselves began to become more generalized under French rule. From early on, the French viewed North Africa through a Manichean lens. Arab and Berber became the primary ethnic categories through which the French classified the population. This occurred despite the fact that a diverse and fragmented populace comprised not only various Arab and Berber tribal groups but also Turks, Andalusians (descended from Moors exiled from Spain during the Crusades), Kouloughlis (offspring of Turkish men and North African women), blacks (mostly slaves or former slaves), and Jews. Of the various Berber groups, Kabyles were singled out for special attention—probably because of their geographic proximity to Algiers and France. In what came to be called the Kabyle Myth, a number of the French military men charged with governing the new colony contended that Kabyles were closer to the French than were Algerian Arabs and demonstrated greater promise of being able to assimilate into the French polity.
