African Moors: The Appearance of the Original Berbers According to European Perceptions – By – Dana Marniche

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The Appearance of the Original Berbers According to European Perceptions

All the early major Berber tribes including the Masmuda, Sanhaja, Ketama Zenata and Nafusa are described as dark reddish brown like the “Indi’ or as “blacks” or Ethiopians in early documents. The notion of the early Berbers as being “whites” or Caucasoid is a new and racist one related to the concept of the African “Hamite”. Certainly the original Berber-speakers were never referred to as anything but “black” or something near it until the 12th century and were otherwise considered the color of Abyssinians and other so called “Indi”.

Kabyle Girl
Kabyle Girl

Even the Kabyles a notoriously fair-skinned “Berber” people of North Africa are up until the 19th century described as “brown” “apart from a few clans”. (See quotes below). The knowledge that Europeans were changing the complexion literally and figuratively of North Africa up until the 19th century has disappeared from modern European histories. Most know about the large part played by sub-saharan black slaves in the making of modern North Africa and Arabia while the white slave trade which was in fact dominant trade in North Africa until the fall of Constantinople (Istanbul in Turkey) in the 15th century had been largely ignored in historical writings of the 20th. Yet it was only a few centuries ago that Europeans visiting North Africa commenting on the fact that, “on almost every street of the cities of Barbary, Europeans could be seen harnessed to carts like draught horses or selling water from jars loaded on the backs of donkeys”.

1809 Commentary on those called “Moors” by an early 19th century observer: “They carry the Christian captives about the desert to the different markets to sell them for they soon discover that their habits of life render them unserviceable , or very inferior to the black slaves of Timbuktoo. “ from An Account of the Empire of Marocco, by J. G. Jackson published 1809 and 1814.

2003 – “From 1500 to 1650 when trans-Atlantic slaving was still in its infancy more Europeans were taken to Barbary than black African slaves to the Americas. See, Robert Davis Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800, MacMillan Publishers, published 2003.

The impact of the white slave trade and its contribution to the modern biology and appearance of the modern North African stems from before the Arabian and Muslim waves into Africa. The Roman ruler Claudian spoke concerning Gildo, the “Moorish” ruler of Africa and treatment of Roman women from the Levant by this North African chief and his countrymen:

4th century – Claudian wrote, “ when tired of each noblest matron Gildo hands her over to the Moors. These Sidonian mothers, married in Carthage city must needs mate with barbarians. He thrusts upon me an Ethiopian as a son-in law, a Berber as a husband. The hideous hybrid affrights its cradle.” Claudian, by Claudius Claudianus, translation by Maurice Platnauer, Published by G.P. Putnam’s sons, 1922 p. 113. (Gildo was brother to other Berber chiefs Firmus and Maseczel. Gildo is related to Aguellid or Galdi which remains the modern Tuarek word for chief. Masek, Amazigh ot Imoshagh was the name for the ancient and modern Tuareg clans in general. The Mezikes tribes were called “Ethiopians” in a Roman text of the time. )

berber-boy1
Kayble boy1

1stt c. A.D. – “Diodorus Siculus speaks in reference to the expedition of Agathocles a Sardinian general, of three Libyan tribes on the coast of Tunisia, the Micatani and Zufoni (see Zafan ),who were nomads and the Asfodelodi, who by the color of their skin resembled the Ethiopians” , p. 50 The Mediterranean Race Book XX, 38, 57 Guiseppe Sergi, 1901. The Micatani were also called Ukutameni and Khethim by Josephus. In later writings they are called Ketama Berbers. The name Maketa or Imakitan remains a name for the eastern branches of the Tuareg.

1st century A.D.– Marcus Valerian Martial was one of the earliest Europeans to use the phrase “woolly hair like a Moor” in one of his Satires, and the phrase was commonly used up until the Middle Ages. See Nature Knows No Color Line by J.A. Rogers, 1952. p. 50 The Muslim era didn’t begin until the birth of Muhammed, the Prophet, over four centuries after Martial. By the 7th century the word came to be used for Arabians who in the early era of Islam for the most part were also described as of near “black” complexion.

1st century Silius Italicus also describes the Moors with the term ‘Nigra’ meaning black. In the 3rd century Roman dramatist Platus or Plautus maintained the name Maure was a synonym for “Niger” which was a common term for the word black. 6th century Isidore Archbishop of Seville claimed the word Maure meant black according to Brunson and Runoko Rashidi in “The Moors in Antiquity” in Golden Age of the Moor, 1991.

6th A.D.- Corippus uses the phrase “facies nigroque colorus” meaning faces or appearance of black color to describe the North African Berbers. In his book Johannis, I/ 245.

6th A.D. – Procopius in his History of the Wars book IV contrasting the Germanic Vandals who had settled in North Africa with the Maures claimed the Vandals were not “black skinned like the Maurusioi” . The tribes he classified as Maurusioi are those now classified as ancient Berbers, the Numidians, Masaesyle, Gaitules, Massyles and Mezikes several other “Berber” tribes then settled between Tunisia and Morocco.

After the 8th century the term Moor came to be used for the many Arabian clans who had invaded the Mediterranean and Africa because of their complexions which were the same dark brown or near black to absolutely black color of the Berbers.
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1914 – Archeologists observance of the ancient North Africans portrayed in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings, “The brun Libyan type is the only one portrayed in the Old Empire, the xanthrochroids predominate in the New Empire representations.” P. 40 from The Eastern Libyan Oric Bates The intrusive xanthrochroids…do not appear before the XII dynasty… It safe to say that they were immigrants.” from The Eastern Libyans by Oric Bates Frank Cass publishers 1914. pp. 40 and 41. (These paintings of the ancient Libyans as a brown in color are in the works of Nina Davies.)

1939 – “The extreme long-heads, concentrated in the Hoggar and in parts of the Algerian plateau are the Tuareg and the purer families of ancestral nomadic Berbers, preserving the head form which they brought from East Africa, their Hamitic homeland.” Carleton Coon The Races of Europe, p. 257 1979 reprint.

Five major tribes of Berbers were spoken of by early Muslim writers including the Sanhaja, Masumuda Zenata, Ketama and Goddula which were categorized into dozens of others which in turn were divided into many more. Among them were the early Kabyles originally a group of Sanhaja Berbers. Most descriptions refer to the modern Kabyles as fair-skinned, but in the 19th century and early 20th, descriptions and in fact many photographs depict them as dark and near black. (Photos from the 19th century show both very dark-skinned and near white skinned Kabyle individuals from different villages in the region).

1890 – “The Kabyles or Kabaily of Algerian and Tunisian territories…besides tillage, work the mines contained in their mountains…They live in huts made of branches of trees and covered with clay which resemble the Magalia of the old Numidians…They are of middle stature, their complexion brown and sometimes nearly black.” Written in The Encyclopedia Britannica: Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature Henry G. Allen Company p. 261 Volume I 1890.

1834 The Scotsman Thomas Campbell says, “The Kabyles…dress like the Arabs and a part from a few tribes, are brown complexioned and black haired” p. 109 Barbary and Enlightenment: European Attitudes Toward the Maghreb in the 18th Century, Ann Thomson. Published 1987 by E. J. Bull

A description by Gillebert d’Hercourt in Etudes Anthropologiques sur Soixante-Seize indigenes de lAlgerie in 1865 said the Kabyle crania that were studied were generally dolichocephalic. In fact the physical anthropological studies done on ancient and modern North Africans show that early North Africans were dolichocephalic like the Tuareg and other dark-skinned berber tribes.
Not surprisingly most modern Berber-speakers who are fair skinned including modern Kabyles are predominantly mesocephalic (middle headed) or even brachycephalic. It is interesting that the dress of these modern Kabyle women resembles that modern women of the Balkans and that palm and blood group types are also like those of European Mediterranean Greeks. Many of these Kabyles also have a strong Turkish influence as judged from the recognizable Turkish Eurasian or even East Asian facial features. Obviously some groups other than a Berber one makes up the main genetic strain in many modern Kabyle-speakers. Culturally the modern fair-skinned Kabyles have been documented as among the most patrifocal people in North Africa whereas the ancient and modern Berbers like the Tuareg were notably matrilineal and matrifocal to the chagrin of early Muslim documenters who considered this among their ‘wicked” customs.

1901 – The Oases if Nafzawa and Wed Suef and Wed Regh and other Berbers of the Sus as “of very dark complexion” in Guiseppi Sergi The Mediterranean Race: The Study of the origin of European peoples The Walter Scott Publishing Company

On the Libyo Berbers called – Gaetules or Jeddala
The Gaitules were the most populous of the Libyan tribes of Strabo’s time (1st century AD). Josephus claimed they were descended from Havilah or the Avalioi who he says children of Kush child of Ham.

1st -2nd century – Juvenal, the Roman writer in his Satire V. 53 referred to “a Gaetulian, as a black a Moor “so black you’d rather not see him at midnight”.. Found in Madan’s translation of Juvenal, vol. I by J. Vincent published at Oxford.

Among the Gaetules were a tribe Dari or Darae Gaetuli, there was also a stream called Daradae Ethiopus (DARAE were a Gaetulian tribe in the W. of Africa, on a mountain stream called Dara, on the S. steppes of M. Atlas, adjacent to the Pharusii. (Plin. V. 1: Oros. i. 2: Leo Afr. P. 602.)
The Draa (Arabic: ???) (also spelled Dra or Draâ, in older sources mostly Darha or Dara) is Morocco’s longest river (1100 km). “The inhabitants of the Draa are called Draawa (an exonym), the most famous Draawi undoubtedly being mawlay Mohammed ash-Sheikh. Outside of the Draa region this name is mostly used to refer to the dark skinned people of Draa which make up the largest portion of its inhabitants.” Retrieved May 13th 2008 from
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Draa-river

Descriptions of the Masmuda, Sanhaja, Ketama, Zenata Berbers of coastal North Africa and the Upper Atlas

Most Arab-speaking historians beginning as far back as the 8th century when Wah ibn Munabihh a South Arabian and descendant of an Iranian mercenary claimed the Berbers belonged to black races of Ham. Several Muslim writers claimed the Berbers were the sons of Berr who were said to descend from Mazigh ibn (son of ) Canaan Ibn Ham Ibn Nuh (Noah). The tradition found cited in Nafousa: Berber Community in Western Libya, Omar Sahli citing Dabbuz. Retrieved on-line from http://www.tawalt.com/monthly/fessato_1.pdf , July. 12, 2008.
The Zenata are called a Canaanite race by other Muslim writers see ‘The Berbers” Geo. Babington Michell, Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 2, No. 6 (Jan., 1903), pp. 161-194. The traditions state that in fact Berbers were descendants of Amalekites (Amalek) from Canaan and Himyarite from Yemen both descendants of “Adites” that had invaded Egypt before 1200 B.C. and “advanced toward the Maghreb”.
The Berbers as represented by the Tuareg especially appear to have called themselves Mashek or Mazigh who are associated with bringing the camel into Africa. Mashek is still the name of a tribe of the Mahra of Oman and Hadramaut who also claim an origin in the Yemen.
( In early Arabian tradition the lowland of Canaan or the Kenaniyya tribe was in an area of the western region of Arabia north of Yemen and not farther to the north in modern Palestine or Israel. See the Bible Came from Arabia. Kamal Salibi )

11th century – “The Berber women are from the island of Barbara, which is between the west and the south. Their color is mostly black though some pale ones can be found among them. If you can find one whose mother is of Kutama, whose father is of Sanhaja, and whose origin is Masmuda, then you will find her naturally inclined to obedience and loyalty in all matters, active in service, suited both to motherhood and to pleasure, for they are the most solicitous in caring for their children. “ 11th century the Christian Iraqi physician Ibn Butlan quoted by historian Bernard Lewis.

11th century – Nasr i Khusrau, an Iranian ruler described the Masmuda soldiers of the Fatimid dynasty as “black Africans”. See Yaacov Lev, “Army, Regime and Society in Fatimid Egypt, 358-487/968-1094”, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 19.3 (1987) p. 342.

13th century – Primary Cronica General of Alphonso X of Spain describes the 300 Almoravid “Amazon” women whose leader is described as black and Moorish. They were “led by their leader Nugaymath al-Tarqiyya (the “star of the Tuareg archers” in Arabic) who led the Almoravid siege of Valencia”; cited in Nubian Queens in the Nile Valley by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Ninth International Conference of Nubian Studies, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. See also The Berbers in Arab Literature by H.T. Norris 1982.p. 20. Harvey , L.P. “Nugaymath Turquia, Primera Cronica General, Chapter 956” Journal of Semitic Studies 13, no. 2:232. Targiyyat or Targiya is a variant form or pronunciation in North Africa for the name Tuareg. 13th or 14th century Abu Shama, a Syrian, described the Masmuda Berbers as “blacks” in his, Kitab al-Ravdatayn. Found in Golden Age of the Moor, 1991 edition p. 57, edited by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.

14th – The Almoravid or Al Murabitun dynasty coming from the Atlas was one of the last dynasties coming from Africa to rule in the Iberian peninsula. One of the 11th century rulers of Andalusia and North Africa was Yusuf Tachfin who had come from a long line of miltary rulers. According to “Roudh el-Kartas” (History of the Rulers of Morocco) by Abd Allah, and A.Beaumier’s French translation of the 14th century work, Yusuf was of “brown color”, of “middle height” with , “ thin, little beard, soft voice” and “woolly hair”. The Almoravid dynasty was supposedly composed mainly of Sanhaja clans of Massufa, Joddala (Gaetuli) and Lamtuna (or Auelimidden Tuareg)- the Auelamidden have since moved southward and live in Niger.


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126 thoughts on “African Moors: The Appearance of the Original Berbers According to European Perceptions – By – Dana Marniche”

  1. Peace Brother Terrell Ali

    As you said Nehesy was a king in Egypt during the 14 th dynasty, and the “Nehesy” were the Nubians.

    The European Egyptologists liars translate the “Nehesy” by ” Negro” or “black african” , but in the sacred language (Medu Neter) of old Egypt (Kemet) , Nehesy means ” he who sing the praises ” or for many individuals ( In the plural) : ” Those who sing the praises”.

    It confirms the Greeks sayings about the great faith of the Old Ethiopians ( actual Soudan), they believed in God will all their heart and didn’t oppress people.

    Any Pharoah who looks TOO MUCH like an “african” is classified nubian by these liars…This is why they say the face of Narmer represents in reality a king from the 2nd Dynasty… This “Negro” face can’t be a representation of the first king of TA-MERY….

    The word for black was “Kem” and it was the most beautiful epithet for ancient Kemites or Kamites ( fasely called Egyptians because they didn’t know the world Egypt which from the Greeks, our students).

    The Nehesy were the forefathers of the Kemites / Kamites (Old Egyptians) this is why I like this name .

    Narmer (Mina) the African king from soudan ( The African King smith master and Craftsman) proceed to the reunification of the South and the North of Egypt. Djoser/Zoser and his great Djaty (Vizier ) Imhotep came also from Soudan the root of Egyptian civilisation. They were all Nehesys or Nubians…

    Narmer (Mina) raised the town Huw-Ka-Ptah ( Memphis) in order to honor the Master of all the Craftsmen and Architects : PTAH the great ancestor.

    But as I said early , lies are taught in every European school in the world and they spread their lies in all over the world.

    In Paris, when you visit the Louvres Museum, The old Egyptian section is full of African faces , nevertheless the French Egyptologists “sholars” [liars], say that they were mulattoes lol.

    They still refuse a TV debate with all the African Egyptologists in Paris because they know, they’ll be humiliated.

    In the Sir Flinders Petrie Museum in London , it’s full of pictures of the Ptolemy Dynasty in order to deceive the people, but when you look at the art : Pottery, Knives , Jewels , Sandals, Afro combs, it’s looks like an African village….

    When I first visited the museum a Jamaican brother who is working there, told me ( regarding the numerous Ptolemy pictures…) : ” They are falsifiers brother, but we do know the truth”…

    I saw in that Petrie Museum sandals , jewels for women (like some in my country they name them “Bean Bean”), knives and Pottery that you can see right now in Africa.

    The Only and best weapon we have is knowledge.

    Peace be upon you : brother Terrell , sister Dana and to all the brothers and sisters.

  2. one thing to correct the mancurians are in the ancient mix with the olmecs an hindus.let me not forget their contribution to this land though they are us.all brown or black eyed people come from the same mother regardless to shade of skin.proof being albinos come from us.we called them albions gauls romans an slavs in ancient times.

  3. So how do you explain the copious images of the Arab Moors/ancient Libyans? And 100% Berber Canary island Guanches; who never saw a European until the Spaniards landed; being described as blond and European looking?

    Guanches.. a village whose inhabitants were often fair hair with long and flaxen hair and the women of a rare beauty”

    Also ‘being tall with a great many blonds.’ The Canary Islanders are still mostly made up of these people, and they aren’t at all black. All the mummies are shown to have typically north African DNA, yet blond and no negroid traits to them.

    The Kabyles were NEVER depicted as dark. In fact Carltoon Coon who you carefully misquote, describes the modern Berber population as being in situ for at least the last 15,000 years

    Like all other Berbers, the Riffians include standard Mediterraneans in their tribal populations. Among these Mediterraneans the incidence of elements of blond hair and blue eyes is a bit higher than the usual twenty-five percent. I attribute the slight excess to several factors : isolation in a cloudy and cool mountain habitat and mixture with an older strain. Concentrated in the more isolated tribes in the central Rif, the older strain is characterized by individuals of stocky build, with large heads, broad faces, low orbits, large teeth, and broad noses. While variable in pigmentation, these individuals, who look like Irishmen, run to red hair, green eyes, and freckles. They cannot be explained by any historical invasion of North Africa, real or fancied; the bones of their preagricultural ancestors have been excavated from North African soil in sufficient quantity to confim the local antiquity of the genes which produces them. A broad head, a wide face, a snub nose, freckles, and other individual traits derived from this racial combination may be seen in other Riffians and in other Berber populations. Green eyes, for example, are common among the Middle Atlas Beraber (as anyone who was with the Goums in the last war may remember). Fair hair has been recorded from the Kabyles in Algeria, but actual statistical work shows them to be almost entirely Mediterranean with only a slight excess of blondism.
    Carleton S. Coon,

    The third discrete racial element in Africa is the Caucasoid, which, as indicated earlier, first entered the continent in massive invasions about 15,000 years ago, certainly from Western Asia and possibly also from Europe. The descendants of those invaders who are still fully or essentially Caucasoid are the Berbers.
    Carleton S. Coon

    So you either don’t know what you are talking about or you are deliberately lying, when you try to use Coons work to support your ‘black moors’ claim.

    You also either decline to point out assorted historical sources point out there were both Ethiopians and Libyans in Libya. So far, you have very carefully eliminated all the descriptions that describe Moors with fair and red hair, the Moorish art that shows them to be like modern Arabs and Berbers. Mostly Caucasian with a minority of black Berbers like the Haratin and Tuareg.
    http://www.angelfire.com/md/8/moors.html

    You also seem ignorant of the fact that the term ‘black’ has only been used for Africans recently. The Jews, Turks and Gypsies were all described as having ‘black’ skins. In older European lanuages anyone with a tan was called black, which was linguistically interchangeable with the terms dark and swarthy. It was quite normal to say someone with a tan had a black complexion right through Europe.

    Also, genetic/crania studies have shown modern North Africans to have been the same for at least the past 12,000 years. Even using studies done by renowned black scholars. Like Keita.

    Keita stated that “the data supported the comments from ancient authors observed by classicists: everything from fair-skinned blonds to peoples who were dark-skinned ‘Ethiopian’ or part Ethiopian in appearance

    You guys msirepresent history to a major degree. Black Africans had only a peripheral involvement in Europe at any time, and were a minority in the moorish armies.

  4. Nehesy doesn’t mention that that l1b mt dna in Iberia is dated to have arrived about 20k ago. AT the same time as the eurasian U clades arrived from North Africa.

    12,00o- year old DNA from Morocco shows the same Eurasian mt DNA you find there now.

    NO ANTHROPOLOGIST HAS EVER CLAIMED THEY WERE BLACK AFRICANS.

    Carleton Coon has expressely said the modern Caucasoid Berbers have been there at least 15,000 years.

    You lot lie your nuts off.

  5. “NO ANTHROPOLOGIST HAS EVER CLAIMED THEY WERE BLACK AFRICANS”

    How do you know ? The school of Frank Boas says that there was black people in Spain and Portugal , before and after the Moor Invasion of Spain ( see Gilberto Freyre “Masters and Slaves”).

    Everybody knows that Coon is a racist/supremacist: The Journal of the History of Biology says about him :

    “Segregationists in the United States used Coon’s work as proof that African Americans were “junior” to white Americans, and thus unfit for full participation in American society. The paper examines the interactions among Coon, segregationist [and Coon relative] Carleton Putnam, geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky, and anthropologist Sherwood Washburn. The paper concludes that Coon actively aided the segregationist cause in violation of his own standards for scientific objectivity”

    Please read this scientific and objective scientific report:

    http://comm.colorado.edu/jjackson/research/coon.pdf

    The notion of “race” has been created by racist Europeans, who applied intellectual and civilisation abilities to physical characteristics and features for each “race”. But it is bullshit because this is in Black Africa (East , West , South , Center ) that you can find the “finest physical features” according to the European standards…Go to Senegal, Mali , Ethiopia for example….And it’s not a surprise because Africa is the Motherland of all Mankind…

    The Black African Moors in Spain were present specially during the Almoravides and Almohades Dynasties.

    Among the Invaders of Spain there were :

    “White” and Black Berbers (from MOROCCO) ; Black Subsaharians ( Soninkés, Fulanis , Toucouleurs , Wolofs, Bambaras, Yourubas, Hausas) and Arabs from Arabia (they were the smallest portion of the invaders).

    In Muslim Spain there was many conflicts between Berbers (“White” and Blacks), Africans and Arabs. Both parties had Christian allies. This is how they lost Spain.

    In Tomboctou [Mali] , there is thousands of books dating from the Middle Age , which belongs to black african families and bequeathed by their Black moors ancestors…You can do your research from google…

    Even the modern North African Anthropologists like Malika Hachid (Algeria) say that the first North Africans and berbers were black Africans. If you read french you can buy her books…

    If they had denied the Tassili Frescoes are still present in Algeria…

    The oldest skulls found in Constantine (KABYLIE) by the French Anthropologist Raymond FURON , characterized the presence of black men , he even called them “NUBIAN SKULLS”…

    You’re crying for nothing, even the first Phoenicians (canaanites ) were black men. If you go to the British Museum in the Phoenician section you’ll see it with your own (racist) eyes…The Pharaoh Sa-Nakht ( 3rd dynasty Before Djoser) is also a Fullblooded Negro, his portrait at the British Museumcan’t let any doubt possible.

    But you won’t see their pictures in White racist books like those of Coon : his racist theories would happened to be bullshit in the face of the world ( those who study seriously knows it)…

    Please pay yourself a trip to London in order to visit the British Museum (Tube Station : Tottemham court Road) and Flinders Petrie Museum ( Tube : Euston) . I don’t know how the hell white guys could use AFRO COMBS for their hairs ?????

    Coon is considered as a Non Objective , twisted “scientist” by the majority of his pairs.

    Everybody knows that “Race” doesn’t exist scientifically speaking. The school of Boas knew it. The school of Coon denied it in order to persecute people all over the world and specially black people in AmeriKKKa: White men were the king of the world according to this liar ( which is of course bullshit).

    You guys don’t know the TRUE STORY of WHITE PEOPLE…If only you knew I think you’d be not very proud….

    The French scholar and Egyptologist Christiane Desroches Noblecourt , says that : ” when Egyptian built pyramids , we [Europeans] lived in caves” . And she is white and French…

    Could you please explain to us how the kings of the world lived in caves , when African built pyramids ? And semites were also civilized ( Assyrians , Akkadians , Syrians etc) ?

  6. The Berbers were and are still predominantly white. Many of the Berber tribes that populate the Atlas mountains have many individuals with light hair and light to medium skin tone and European features. Some actually look as Nordic as Swedes ( possibly descendants of the Vandals who were Germanicized Vikings).

    It is true that some Berber tribes integrated small numbers of blacks from the southern Sahara and the Senegal. Such people were mainly slaves, servants or conscripts in the Moorish armies.

    There exist “Berber” tribes that are predominantly black or mixed race, but they are not genetically or ethnically Berbers. These people are only Berber in the cultural sense.

  7. Black Kabyles/Black Berbers

    Here is an account from 1834 by Scotman Thomas Campbell: “The Kabyles dress like the Arabs and apart from a few tribes, are brown complexioned and black haired p. 109 Barbary and Enlightenment: European Attitudes Toward the Maghreb in the 18th Century, Ann Thomson. Published 1987 by E. J. Bull.

    In 1890 it was observed that: “The Kabyles or Kabaily of Algerian and Tunisian territories besides tillage, work the mines contained in their mountains. They live in huts made of branches of trees and covered with clay which resemble the Magalia of the old Numidians. They are of middle stature, their complexion brown and sometimes nearly black.” from The Encyclopedia Britannica: Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature Henry G. Allen Company p. 261 Volume I 1890.

    Think!

    Jahdey

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