Berbers

Epic card · No. 7928

Berbers, also known as Amazighs or Imazighen, are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are primarily connected by their use of Berber languages, which are part of the Afroasiatic language family. The Berbers are indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger (Azawagh). Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa Oasis. Many in the community view the exonym "Berber", equivalent and related to the Arabic word for "barbarian" (بربر), as pejorative, and prefer the endonym "Amazigh". Descended from Stone Age cultures indigenous to North Africa, accounts of the Imazighen were first mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings. From about 2000 BC, Berber languages spread westward from the Nile Valley across the northern Sahara into the Maghreb. A series of Berber peoples such as the Mauri, Masaesyli, Massyli...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Mysid, Public domain