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At the beginning of the 19th century, political anarchy and economic dependency in the Maghreb made the region vulnerable to the imperial intentions of Europeans, especially the French. The region was under the control of the Ottoman Turks, in 1830, when the French took control of Algiers and then gradually extended military control over the coastal region.8 From the beginning, French imperial policy in North Africa proved to be destructive and violent.9 Militarily, the French controlled the whole region, with the exception of wide pockets in the Atlas Mountain highlands (that were inhabited primarily by Berbers).
The colonial French deliberately destroyed the local Maghreb economy while opening the gates to settlement by French civilians. The colonial administration used modern capitalistic interpretations of Roman Law as a means to dispossess the population (including the Berbers) of its territorial domain. By confounding pasture land with uncultivated land, and jointly owned property with collective property, and by extending the limits of forest lands, the French confined their colonized subjects to progressively diminished space and resources.10
The colonial policy was intended to divide and rule. Juridically, the French applied their own laws, while breaking down the Islamic legal structure. The policy of containment of Berbers (confining their territorial space), while suppressing the Islamic judicial system, drove a wedge between the traditional Arab elites and the Berber peasants. In Morocco (where the same French colonial policy as that conducted in Algeria led indirectly to the current national crisis between Arabs and Berbers), the French provided segregated schools for the Berbers, while they tried to rally Berber tribes to the tricolor behind Al-Glawi, a powerful caid (tribal leader) whose base was Marrakech.11
The most effective of the divide-and-rule policies was the infamous Berber dahir (decree) of 16 May 1930. The dahir was issued in Rabat ostensibly to set up tribunals to deal with civil cases in Berber-populated parts of the country. The decree established complete systems of penal and criminal justice, based on French law, which deliberately removed both systems from the jurisdiction of the makzen (traditional authorities). The French justified this "reform" on the need to provide formal recognition to Berber customary law, which was a loose body of tribal rules conforming to and supplementary to Koranic law. This was a transparent pretext for expediting French control of the country by creating division between Arabs and Berbers, through exaggerating their differences and antagonisms.12
The French were blind to the effects they created; they were assuming that "uncivilized" indigenous peoples were awaiting the arrival of the "civilization" they themselves possessed. As a result of the destructive consequences of colonial policy, a series of revolts against the French ensued. The Berbers were always in the forefront against the French, and organized their first revolt in eastern Kabylia, from 1859 to 1871.13 By the time of the Algerian revolution to gain independence from the French, after World War II, the Berbers were still leading the attack. The fact that the Berber areas of Kabylia and Aures provided the strategic bases for the revolution leaders indicates Berber involvement from the outset of the struggle.14
Despite the Berber commitment to the cause of national unity and liberation in North Africa, however, the legacy of colonial policy continued into the post-independence era in the form of intensifying antagonism between the Arabs and the Berbers, particularly in Algeria. Both the Algerian and the Moroccan regimes have systematically pursued de-Berberization and Arabization policies as well as discriminatory exclusion of Berbers from equal access to government services and political power, and the enjoyment of economic and cultural rights.
The neglect of and deliberate assaults against the Berbers' Tamazight language15 and culture are reflected in the economic policies governing the peripheral rural communities. In the past, these indigenous communities were based on the principle of collective ownership of the means of production and collective methods of dispute resolution. Now, traditional structures have been seriously eroded under the strong and sustained pressure of the monetary economic system which is founded on concentrated capital, individual ownership of property, and the proletarianization of the poor peasantry now transformed into wage earners who possess neither capital nor the means of production.
Berber cultural survival necessitates the comprehension
of the multidimensional character of North Africa. To
reduce North Africa to one cultural model would be neither
possible nor acceptable. Berbers view cultural domination by the
Arab-speaking majority and the attempt to capture and convert
non-Arabs as simply one more out of many experiences of
cultural
imperialism to which they have been subjected.
Today, Berbers vigorously oppose Arabization and demand
recognition of Tamazight as their national language, which
they have spoken for 5000 years and which has become
the foundation of their collective identity. They also
demand respect for the Berber culture and economic development
of the Berber homelands. Their demands correspond closely
to those enumerated in the Draft Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples.
Fourth World Bulletin • Fall 1994/Winter 1995
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
Created by Aigis Communications, Ltd