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Kabyle people

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Ethnic group
Iqvayliyen
Young kabylian woman
Total population
~5,5 Millions
Regions with significant populations
Mainly living in Algeria & France
 Algeria~5,5 Millions
 France~1 Million
Languages
Kabyle language
Religion
Sunni Islam, Roman catholicism, Protestantism, Atheism

The Kabylian people (Kabyle: Iqvayliyen) are an ethno-cultural and linguistic Berber community in northern Algeria. Their homeland is Kabylia (or Kabylie) in the north of Algeria, one hundred miles east of Algiers. Tradionally, they have also had a strong presence in the Algérois (Algiers region). There are also, due to emigration during the 19th and 20th centuries, large Kabyle communities in France who emigrated for work reasons and to a lesser extent in Canada.

Kabyles speak the Kabyle language, and since the Berber Spring in 1980, they have been at the forefront of the fight for the official recognition of the Berber languages in Algeria (see Languages of Algeria). The Kabyle region is referred to as Kabylie by the 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 and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean.

History

The Kabyles were relatively independent of outside control during the Ottoman Algeria era, depending principally on three different kingdoms: the Kuku Kingdom, the Ait Abbas Kingdom, and the principality of Aït Jubar, 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 deportations were carried out by the French, mainly to New Caledonia (see : "Algerians of the Pacific"). Colonization also resulted in an acceleration of the emigration into other areas inside and outside Algeria.

Lalla Fatma N'Soumer, a woman chief of the Rahmaniya Tariqa, led the resistance against French colonization 1851-57. She died in prison at the age of 33

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 oppression. 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.

After the independence of Algeria, tensions 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 Kabylia, called the Berber Spring. 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), 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.

Geography

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to itadding to it or making an edit request. (April 2012)

The geography of the Kabyle region played an important role in Kabylians history. The difficult mountainous landscape of the Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia Provinces served as a refuge, to which most of the Kabyle people retreated, thus preserving their cultural heritage from other cultural influences, such as romans, arabs and french.

The Djurdjura chain

Culture and society

Language

The language used by the Kabyles is Kabyle, which is spoken both at home and professionally. some Kabyles speak a second or third language: French, Algerian Arabic and to a lesser degree English and also we must highlight that most Kabyle don't speak any foreign language (Arabic,English or French).

Religion

Algerian Kabyle portraits


The Kabyle people are a mix between Muslim and a large Christian community (Roman Catholic and Protestant). 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.

Economy

The traditional economy of the area is based on arboriculture (orchards, olive trees) and on the craft industry (tapestry or pottery). Mountain and hill farming is gradually giving way to local industry (textile and agro-alimentary). The "Industrial Revolution" began early in Kabylia, in 1871, when France pronounced its colony of Algeria, . 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

Kabyle are among the fiercest activists in the cause of Berber (Amazigh) identity, though a three-way split exists: there are those Kabyles who see themselves as part of a larger Berber nation (Berberists), those who view themselves as part the Algerian nation (known as "Algerianists", some of these also view Algeria as an essentially Berber nation) and those who view Kabyles as a nation separate from (but akin to) other Berber peoples (known as Kabylists).

  • Two political parties dominate in Kabylia and have their principal support base there: the FFS, led by Hocine Aït Ahmed, and the RCD, led by Saïd Sadi. Both parties are secularist, Berberist and "Algerianist".
  • The Arouch emerged during the Black Spring 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 Kabylia) also emerged during the Black Spring, and is a political association that militates for the autonomy of Kabylia. On 21 April 2010, Ferhat Mehenni, the then leader of the MAK 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.

Diaspora

For historical reasons and Inequality , many Kabyles fled their homeland to emigrate to France,and elsewhere.Where in France they number about 1.5 million. Many famous French people such as Zinedine Zidane, Karim Benzema, Marcel Mouloudji, Dany Boon, Jacques Villeret, Daniel Prévost, Marie-José Nat or Alain Bashung 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 Kabylia : E1b1b1b (E-M81) (47.36%), R1*(xR1a) (15.78%) (later tested as R1b3/R-M269 (now R1b1a2)), J1 (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 (32.23%), U* (29.03% with 17.74% U6), preHV (3.23%), preV (4.84%), V (4.84%), T* (3.23%), J* (3.23%), L1 (3.23%), L3e (4.84%), X (3.23%), M1 (3.23%), N (1.61%) and R (3.23%).

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Kabyles around the world". Retrieved July 15, 2012.
  2. [http://books.google.fr/books?id=7CP7fYghBFQC&pg=PA600#v=onepage&q&f=false E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 4 publié par M. Th. Houtsma, Page: 600]
  3. L'Algérie en guerre: Abane Ramdane et les fusils de la rébellion by Bélaïd Abane; page: 74
  4. Le Djurdjura à travers l'histoire by Ammar ou Said Boulifa 1925
  5. « Kabyle », Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2011 : « they are mainly Muslims with a large up rise in Christians, many Communists, and Atheists. » Consulted June 10, 2011.
  6. Lucien Oulahbib, Le monde arabe existe-t-il ?, page 12, 2005, Editions de Paris, Paris.
  7. Abdelmadjid Hannoum, Violent modernity: France in Algeria, Page 124, 2010, Harvard Center for Middle Eastern studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  8. Amar Boulifa, Le Djurdjura à travers l'histoire depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'en 1830 : organisation et indépendance des Zouaoua (Grande Kabylia), Page 197, 1925, Algiers.
  9. www.kabylia-gov.org
  10. Salem Chaker, Pour une histoire sociale du berbère en France, Les Actes du Colloque Paris - Inalco, octobre 2004
  11. "Outside North Africa, the largest Kabyle community, numbering around 1.5 million, is in France", James Minahan, Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: D-K, ood Publishing Group, 2002, p.863
  12. Adams et al. 2008, The genetic legacy of religious diversity and intolerance: paternal lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula
  13. Arredi B, Poloni ES, Paracchini S, Zerjal T, Fathallah DM, Makrelouf M, Pascali VL, Novelletto A, Tyler-Smith C. (2004). "A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for Y-Chromosomal DNA Variation in North Africa". Am J Hum Genet. 75 (2): 338–345. doi:10.1086/423147. PMC 1216069. PMID 15202071.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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