add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
Dr. Pelletier Addresses 2,000 people in Singapore - Healthy People,... drpelletier.com | people first, people always Toronto Private Hospital torontoprivatehospital.co... | Angiogenesis Foundation - ABOUT THE FOUNDATION / PEOPLE / PEOPLE / BOARD angio.org | People Walking: How Some People Enjoy Their Exercise Walking - Exercise fitnesslane.com |
.jpg) The Kabyles (Iqvaylyen or Leqvayel in Kabyle, are a Berber people whose traditional homeland is highlands of Kabylie (or Kabylia) in northeastern Algeria. Their name derives from the name of the mountainous region in the north of Algeria, which they traditionally inhabit. It originates from the Arabic word qabîlah, meaning tribe, the plural form of which is qaba'il. Kabyles speak the Kabyle variety of Tamazight, the generic name for the Berber languages. Since the Berber Spring in 1980, they have been at the forefront of the fight for the official recognition of the Berber language in Algeria (see Languages of Algeria). The Kabyle region is colloquially referred to as Al Qabayel ("tribes"), but its inhabitants call it Tamurt Idurar ("Land of Mountains") or Tamurt Leqvayel ("Land of Kabyles"). It is part of the Atlas Mountains and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.
[edit] LanguageThe principal language used by the Kabyle is Kabyle, which is spoken both at home and professionally. Speakers take pride in the Kabyle language and have resisted using Arabic. French is often also used in both trade and correspondence. [edit] GeneticsMost Kabyles are of typical Mediterranean appearance
[edit] Religionthe region is overwhelmingly sunni muslim followed by 99.9% of the kabyles. Thers is a growing christian and catholic community who number less than 0.1%. They are strong muslims even though they have tended to avoid arabisation. However, the main Berberist political parties, the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia (MAK) all claim secularism. These three parties together garner nearly 95% of the vote in the region. [edit] EconomyThe traditional economy of the area is based on arboriculture (orchards, olive trees) and on the craft industry (tapestry or pottery). The mountain and hill farming is gradually giving way to local industry (textile and agro-alimentary). [edit] Politics
[edit] HistoryThe landscape of North Africa has directly influenced the history of its inhabitants. The variety one can observe on the land, is reflected in the people, despite a common, rich and, homogeneous ethnic background and ancestry proper to this region of the continent. This unified background is found in attributes such as race, languages and the cultures that derive from them. From mythology, one can retain that once upon time, the peaks of the Atlas Chain of mountains rose above waters then covering the the great Sahara. This peninsula is said was the territory of a great man known by the name of Atlas, portrayed as an old man carrying the globe on his shoulders. Atlas, is said to have had five sons, to whom he gave one Island each to govern. Then one day, 9,500 years ago, the ground shook, and the water retracted back to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, leaving its bottom bear to dry out, little by little. Then sometime later (BC 850-400), commerce dockets began appearing along the Mediterranean, where merchants from Europe and the east came to exchange goods. Amongst them were a group known as the Phoenicians. Around year 250 B.C. these dockets became small towns, of which the most known to history, Carthage, located in today's Tunisia. In Carthage the Phoenicians established not only warehouses, but also military camps of private militias protecting the most important patrons. Consequently, and probably because of arising conflicts over centuries, resulted in the necessary gathering of self-defense melitias by the locals, as the build-up of troops were built by the Phoenicians on the African coast to support regular battles against the Greeks, and the Romans over the control of Sicily. By the mid 3rd century BC, the Phenician military had become a formidable army, whose defeat required the construction of a coalition of forces between Chieftains from Greece, Rome, and Numidia (North Africans). Numidia under its victorious King Massinissa, joined the Roman Republic with prominence and contributed to the construction of what came to become, the Great Roman Empire, with the annexation of most of Western Europe by the Numidian troops, whereas Greco-Italian troops were sent to expand Eastward. During the 55 years of reign under Massinissa, Numidians spoke Numidian Amazigh, Greek, and Latin, and consolidated their armies under one command. This arrangement lasted til the death of Massinissa, when the young chief of the Numedian forces, Jugurtha entered into a conflict over the succession of Massinissa, and his ambitions to cessation from Rome, which resulted a series of wars, documented by Sallust, in "The Jugurtinian Wars" (BC 116-105). Resulting from Jugurtha's incursion, is the breakdown of the north-African confederation built by King Massinissa; and thus appeared another configuration of the Kingdom with the remains of Jugurtha's followers in the remote and highlands of the eastern part of the great Atlas (Kabylias), Roman ally, Bacchus and his kingdom to the West(from modern Morocco to Mauritania), Lybia to the south, and the rest of the plains remaining under the direct control of Rome, with other Greek, Italian and other settlers. At the very same period of time, the city of Rome was under serious threat from the Germanic Cimbri, and Teuton invasion. The next four centuries, Roman armies spread throughout the middle east, the Jugurtha's clan reconstructs itself in high mountains, and the valleys of North Africa developed into villas, and agricultural domains to support the Roman decadence, and expansionist ambitions around the world, with manpower, horses, oils, wheat, and other goods necessary to sustain the Empire. During this period, much of early Christian migration westward took place, and concentrated in the provinces of North Africa. The spread of Christianity, in its early form took tool from Rome, as the supplies in manpower diminished drastically, and Africans became a source of inspiration for other Roman dominated provinces in the western hemisphere, resulting in the formation of new consciousness. In mainland Europe, the Vandals had already attacked and besieged the city of Rome itself, which required the recall of the Roman troops back, and the halt of the expansion. The Geiseric Clans A.K.A.Barbarians were temporarily chased southward toward the Iberian Peninsula, before finding an ally with the common purpose of defeating the Romans. The Numedian Highlands, and the remains of Jugurtha's followers were a natural match. Archeological findings trace their landing to small ports of the Kabylia region straight down the hills from the higher Kabylia where permanent camps were set. At less than 100 miles away, from the city of Carthage, and capital of Roman Africa, it was but a matter of time, before an attack from either side will occur. Around year 450, the Roman Senate launched the project of regulating the religeous practice, a move rejected by the locals, resulting an opportunity of alliance between the renegade clans, now doubled in size by the settlement of the Vandal clan. When the battles were over, the remains of the Roman troops were permanently evicted from Carthage and Numedia. Carthage was burnt once again, and declared as a cursed city. In his speech before the Senate, the defeated Consul of Africa, justified his defeat as a result of an unexpected treason of Rome, by the Numedians in favor of their new allies, the Barbarians, and suggesting that he would have defeated either of them separately. "Let them find their fate and be Barbarians as their their newly found friends". Thus, the first assignment of the term Barbarian to Numidians, specifically, for their alliance with the Vandals. [edit] Middle AgesThe Fatimid dynasty of the 10th century originated in Petite Kabylie, where an Ismaili da'i found a receptive audience for his millennialist preaching, and ultimately led the Kutama tribe to conquer first Ifriqiya and then Egypt. After taking over Egypt, the Fatimids themselves lost interest in the Maghreb, which they left to their Berber deputies, the Zirids. The Zirid family soon split, with the Hammadid branch taking over Kabylie as well as much of Algeria, and the Zirids taking modern Tunisia. They had a lasting effect on not only Kabylie's but Algeria's development, refounding towns such as Bejaia (their capital after the abandonment of Qalaat Beni Hammad) and Algiers itself. After the Hammadids' collapse, the coast of Kabylie changed hands regularly, while much of the interior was often effectively unruled. Under the Ottoman Turks, most of Kabylie was inaccessible to the Deys, who had to content themselves with occasional incursions and military settlements in some valleys. In the early part of the Ottoman period, the Belkadi family ruled much of Grande Kabylie from their capital of Koukou, now a small village near Tizi-Ouzou; however, their power declined in the 17th century. [edit] Modern age[edit] The French colonizationThe area was gradually taken over by the French from 1857, despite vigorous local resistance by the local population led by leaders such as Lalla Fatma n Soumer, continuing as late as Cheikh 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 deportations were carried out by the French, mainly to New Caledonia (see : "Kabyles du Pacifique"). Colonization also resulted in an acceleration of the emigration into other areas of the country and outside of it. Algerian immigrant workers in France organized the first party promoting independence in 1920s. Messali Hadj, Imache Amar, Si Djilani, and Belkacem Radjef 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, aided by the mountainous terrain, and French repression. The armed Algerian revolutionary resistance to French colonialism, the National Liberation Front (FLN) recruited several of its historical leaders there, including Hocine Aït Ahmed, Abane Ramdane, and Krim Belkacem. [edit] After the independence of AlgeriaTensions have arisen between Kabylia and the central government on several occasions, initially in 1963, when the FFS party of Hocine Aït Ahmed 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. The politics of identity intensified as the Arabization movement in Algeria gained steam 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), major riots — together with the emergence of the Arouch, neo-traditional local councils — followed the killing of a young Kabyle Masinissa Guermah by gendarmes, and gradually died down only after forcing some concessions from the President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. [edit] See also[edit] Notes and references
[edit] External links
|
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
