r/AmazighPeople

Im tired of seeing people use this term over and over again. U can call us amazigh, chloh or north africain just stop calling us berbers pls.

I've heard it but idk, I don't think it's like Arabic.

Like is it really bad, is it bad but you're used to it, does it not really matter much?

Asking for pure curiousity, thanks in advance!

Hello, I've posted about this a few times recently, but I found out recently that my grandfather was an Amazigh man from Southern Morocco.

I want to find ways to learn about and connect with the culture and language, but..my mother was not raised with the culture either. My grandfather has dementia and is often confused, and even when he's lucid, he will not speak of his past or culture. He has no living parents, siblings, or anyone else I can find to speak to directly. I live in the United States and speak only English.

I've been trying to research through google, resources for learning about Amazigh culture. Clothing, foods, holidays, language, but I've found remarkably little. I'm going to try to learn as much Tachelhit as I can from the few resources I've found so far, but if anybody has resources or information on..pretty much anything to do with Amazigh culture (especially within southern morocco) I would be eternally grateful if you could share.

Thank you.

Is there someone who wants to speak tarifit with me via voice memos or phone. I am trying to learn it at this moment its very broken i can probably speak 10% - 20% of it but i understand a lot.

> The Greeks called everyone who didn't speak Greek βάρβαρος/Barbaros. It's an Onomatopoeia which is meant to mimic how foreign languages sounded to them, “bar bar bar.” (Berbers, Egyptians, Persians, and at some point in time, even Romans were called Barbaros by the Greeks)

> The Romans adopted the term as Barbarus and used it to refer to people whom they deemed to be uncivilized. Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians (Although they still looked down on the Persians and Egyptians) weren't called Barbarus by the Romans, but the Germanic Tribes of Northern Europe and the Tribes of North Africa, west of Egypt, were (for the most part) referred to using this term.

> The Arabs loaned the term from Greek/Latin (Barbarus → Barbar) and used it to refer to the people west of Egypt. So technically, they were the first ones who used it to refer solely to the Berbers. In fact, the Romans used it more to refer to their northern neighbours. “بَرْبَرِيٌّ” developed in Modern Standard Arabic through later borrowings to unfortunately have two meanings: Berber and Barbaric.

> The French then loaned the term from Arabic (Barbar → Berbère) and used it to refer to the non Arab speaking population in their North African Colonies.

> The English word “Berber” actually comes from French (Berbère → Berber)

Personally, I don't have any problem with the term 'Berber'; I identify as Berber (Ashelhi, to be exact). While the word shares the same root as 'barbaric,' they aren't the same word. It developed independently as it passed from one language to another. It’s an exonym with a fascinating history, reflecting the different peoples and cultures we have interacted with over time.

This has been really confusing for me especially as i was growing up as a Mauritanian because whenever I was in the States and I said I am North African, i was told I wasn’t. Yet when i was in North Africa it was just fact. I looked into it and it seems like this is due to the French colonial boundaries in 1904 that removed Mauritania from the North and grouped it with the West. When Mauritania gained independence in 1960, the UN just built its modern regions on top of the colonial blocs made by the French for convenience. I think this could also have something to do with skin color as I notice other lighter Mauritanians don’t have this experience of being told they are not North African and that there is no chance they are Amazigh. If anyone has any knowledge about this I’d love to know

Hello. I'm sorry if this is a strange thing to bring here, but:

I live in the United States. I grew up being told my entire family were European, and that my grandfather was "German and Italian", though socially I've often experienced racism from people who believed I was Arab or North African (my grandfather is tanned, dark almond eyes, dark hair, a large nose, many traits associated with "nonwhite" people where i live, and some of these traits were passed to me). I also heard whispers among family members, and from my father especially, that my grandfather was not actually German and Italian.

I learned very recently that my grandfather was actually Moroccan (i do not know if he is 100% moroccan, i know he is at least half and likely more). Why I was lied to about this, I have no idea. I would like many answers from him, but he will not speak of his heritage to me or to anybody, though.

..I, honestly, would like to learn about and incorporate aspects of Amazigh culture and language into my life.

I know I was not raised with the culture, and I know I have a small blood percentage since only one of my grandparents is Amazigh, so I don't know if I have any right to engage with the culture as part of myself.

But it feels wrong, to let cultural assimilation win. My grandfather and mother both seem ashamed of his ethnicity, and I find that immensely sad. Furthermore, I figure, if I can experience racism my whole life on account of being part Amazigh, why not try to find joy in the heritage instead of only encountering it when it's used to harm me?

I guess the reason I'm here is because I wanted to ask Amazigh people if they would consider it inappropriate, for me to identify with this part of my heritage or try to learn about the culture and language. And, if it would be okay, where I would even begin with doing that. Again, I apologize if anything about my question has been inappropriate, or if this is the wrong place to ask these things.

Hello, I'm sorry for the ignorant question.

I have been researching the Amazigh people after finding out my grandfather is Moroccan. To cut a long story short, I live in the United States, my grandfather hid his North African heritage from me all my life and claimed to be "Italian and German", but I recently found out he's Moroccan.

At first I thought that would likely put me in line with being partially Amazigh, and nothing in my research so far has contradicted that exactly, but then I came across a Reddit thread where someone says that Amazigh identity is passed purely through the patrilineal line, and that if somebody has an Amazigh mother and a father from a different culture, they are not Amazigh at all.

Trying to google answers didn't come up with anything, so I'm verifying here, I suppose. If I have Amazigh ancestry through my mothers father, does that mean my mother is Amazigh but I am not?

And if I am not, then what would I be considered? I am mixed Moroccan, but aren't the Moroccan people Amazigh? Does that mean I can't call myself mixed Moroccan either? Does being Amazigh through my mother, rather than my father, erase that entire part of my heritage entirely?

I'm not asking to start an argument or be derisive, to be clear, I am genuinely looking for answers on how Amazigh identity is viewed, if it is in fact purely patrilineal, and how the identity of mixed race children of Amazigh mothers are viewed, because the only information I've seen on the subject has been in one reddit thread and I would like more insights, if anyone is willing to share.

Hello.

For context, I live in the United States. My grandfather was an Amazigh man whose family came from Morocco, but he hid it from me my entire life, and I only found out recently.

I want to connect with the culture, but since my grandfather will not speak to me of it (and has no living parents or siblings i can contact either), and trying to trace his genealogy has gotten me nowhere, I have no clue where exactly in Morocco he is from.

This makes it impossible to know what tribe, exactly, I descend from, and because of that I don't know where I would begin with things like trying to learn an Amazigh language, given there are several spoken within Morocco.

Hey, i ask claude ai for the translation of Maison d'hôtes » en Kabyle. Axxam n yiεrribn. ⴰⵅⵅⴰⵎ ⵏ ⵢⵉⵄⵔⵔⵉⴱⵏ .

Axxam = maison (le double x se prononce comme un "kh" guttural)

n = de/d' (particule de possession)

yiεrribn = des hôtes/étrangers (le ε est une consonne pharyngale, comme le « aïn » arabe)

Is this right?

i just found out my grandma zohra was amazigh from gafsa region in tunisia. she even had the traditional face and hand tattoos :)

i grew up in europe and i don’t know much about my family history and culture besides what im researching on my own. is anyone willing to share a little about local traditions? i’m especially interested in folktales and mythology, and food haha

thank youuu 🫶🏽

I want to ask my fellow secular and atheist Imazighen how they process the history of the Almohads, Almoravids, and Marinids.

We are talking about:

• The Almohad Navy: At one point the most powerful fleet in the world.
• The Currency: The Almohad dirham was so stable and dominant that Christian enemies were forced to use it for trade. It was the "Reserve Currency" of the era.
• Architecture & Science: The engineering behind the Giralda or the Marinid Madrasas was North African, not Middle Eastern.

As someone who is secular or atheist, how do you feel about this? It’s a paradox: our ancestors reached the peak of world civilization and proved we were superior to the East at the time, but they did it while being extremely religious (sometimes even fundamentalist).

Do you claim this as "Amazigh Pride" regardless of the religion? And does it frustrate you that people credit "Arab/Islam" for these achievements instead of acknowledging the masmoudas, zenatis etc power and organization that made it possible?