Nofi presents an article by the researcher in cosmogony and African history, Abdoullah Aneowar, regarding the origin of North Africans.
By Abdoullah Aneowar, researcher in cosmogony and African history
To definitively put an end to the fallacious and bewildering theory that North Africa was once inhabited by “white” populations — to use the Africanist expression — I would say without hesitation that ideology has no place where only demonstrative methodology prevails. The proponents of this version of North African history did not hesitate to envisage a campaign of falsification, thereby justifying the European presence in this region and even excluding any possibility of a Black Egypt, depriving it of its geographically African nationality.
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop conclusively demonstrated the blackness of Egyptian identity through widely verifiable scientific evidence. It is evident that to clarify this major misunderstanding, which has provoked enormous controversy in intellectual circles, one must consider the historical re-contextualization of the Maghreb, in order to better understand its perspective and to restore the historical record of this region, which has been neglected and left in poor hands.
I insist that this discussion will focus solely on subjects concerning Antiquity, because North African Antiquity has long been neglected. We will address the topic in several parts in order to reconnect with our historical past.
I. Analysis of the Eurocentrism Phenomenon in Berber-Historical Intellectual Thought
How can this controversy be explained without first citing Jacques Bénet (July 8, 1915 – April 23, 2009), a senior French government official under Charles de Gaulle, who engaged with Mohand Arab Bessaoud, an Algerian activist for the Berber cause, former fighter in the war of independence, opposed to the Boumédiène regime, and living in exile in France? The objective of Bénet, like that of his peers retrospectively, was to destabilize Algeria to better secure French interests in the region. Indeed, Mohand Arab Bessaoud did not hide his esteem for this colonial figure (Bénet), as he stated:
“If the Berbers, my brothers, should one day remember me to the point of wanting to honor my name, I would earnestly ask them to associate it with that of Jacques Bénet, for without the help of this great friend of the Berbers, my work for our identity might not have achieved the success it has.”
Voir:http://ethnopolis-net.over-blog.om/2015/06/testament-de-mohand-arab-bessaoud.html
He would become one of the mentors of 21st-century Berberism in a pejorative sense, leaving behind a wave of eurocentric ideological thinkers such as Bernard Lugan and Mohamed Arkoun, whose approaches had consequential and disastrous effects both culturally and in terms of identity. Mohamed Arkoun, for example, presented a purely leucodermic description of North Africa derived from his own interpretive framework, which completely overlooked ethnic and geographic realities. Clearly, this charade ultimately served only to obscure the harm caused by Western colonialism, originating from the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, opening a breach for cultural alienation — sometimes anthropological, sometimes North African identity-related — depriving the region of its African civilizational foundation and leaving only the so-called Mediterranean approach.
Bernard Lugan contributed in part to this historical whitening, openly discrediting Cheikh Anta Diop and UNESCO editions without scientific analysis to support his claims. In short, he operated as an ideologue, a Trojan horse of sorts, but we will demonstrate the emptiness of his abundant theses. Other authors also aligned with Lugan in this biased and fraudulent approach to a Hellenized North Africa. Michel Abitbol, for instance, in his History of Morocco, supports a European perspective via the Aryan model, as expressed by the late Martin Bernal:
“They fought against the Greeks and the Egyptians, but attacked by sea by the Phoenicians and by land by the Saharan Gaetulians, they were gradually driven out of North Africa before disappearing completely, leaving in Morocco descendants… with blond hair and blue eyes.” [1]
This passage is revealing, as it suggests a substitution of Egyptians, Saharan Gaetulians, and Phoenicians in a depigmentation narrative. This assertion is historically insufficient. Notably, Abitbol’s book devotes only 30 pages to North African Antiquity in a 599-page history, highlighting the urgency of this article, which seeks to synthesize the true history of this part of the North African continent.
We continue with anthropological evidence that undermines all tendentious and ideological studies, particularly those referenced by Prof. Cheikh Anta Diop and Raimond Furond in the classic work Negro Nations and Culture:
“Contrary to hypotheses that North Africa was inhabited from ancient times by a white race, archaeological and historical documents unanimously prove that this region has always been inhabited by black people.”
Furond states:
“At the end of the Paleolithic, in the province of Constantine, five fossil human sites were found, indicating some Negroid features with affinities to the Nubians of Upper Egypt. In the historical period, Latin documents still attest to the presence of black people throughout North Africa. Latin historians provided indications about the populations, but these are often just names that no longer tell us much. It can be noted that there was at least a significant population of black people, the Ethiopians of Herodotus, whose survivors would be the Harratines of the Moroccan High Atlas.” [2]
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop, in his lifetime, affirmed the black origin of ancient North African populations during a conference held in Niamey, Niger, in 1984:
“The blacks who are in North Africa are not only there because of slavery in the Middle Ages; they are part of a very ancient stock.” [3]
I would add that this clearly demonstrates a distinction in endogenous heritage, which has been altered by successive exogenous invasions of North Africa, the extreme case being Emperor Scipio Aemilianus, devastator of the Black kingdom of Carthage in 149 BCE, who was even baptized Africanus to honor his exploits. This often leads to misinterpretations, such as the Gnawa being falsely described as descendants of Sub-Saharan slaves, when the Turkish trade occurred only in the 14th century and cannot culturally or linguistically determine that the Gnawa or any other black population in the region were not originally nomadic.
From this earlier stock, it could only have been the Mazigh or Tamazigh, forming different clan subgroups, as noted by historians specializing in Berber history, such as Gabriel Camps. We will focus on analyses by Prof. Stéphane Gssel, which align with Prof. Cheikh Anta Diop’s. Prof. Ivan Van Sertima also informs us that among these pastoral Berber clans were:
“The Luwata, Zanata, Nafusa, Zuwagha, Miknasa, and Nafzawa. Among the more sedentary Berber clans were the Sanhadja, Masmuda, Kutama, Ghamara, and Hawwara. Some of these clans played a decisive role in the Muslim invasions and the occupation of Spain, such as the Nafza, Masmuda, Luwata, Hawwara, Zanata, Sanhadja, and Zugwaha.” [4]
We will further develop in a second section the roles of Berbers in the Arab incursions around the 7th century.
II. Genetic Contribution
This claim is also supported by genetics, as the mitochondrial DNA of North African populations carries the haplotype “E1B1B1,” which first appeared in East Africa, in the Horn of Africa. This “E1B1B1” sequence, located on the Y chromosome (the male chromosome), indicates that North African populations have East African origins through their paternal line. To study paternal lineage, one must consider the Y chromosome haplogroup, while mitochondrial DNA reveals maternal lineage.
For example, haplogroup E1B1B1, also called “M81” in the North African version, is also found in the Balkans. Prof. Bernard Lugan marvels at this, concluding that North Africans are white or of European origin, ignoring the role of the Y chromosome. In any case, haplogroup E1B1B1 or E1B1B (new name), characterized by marker “M215,” belongs to the same paternal lineage. Terminologies such as E-M215 and M35 (a subgroup of M215) are from the same family. The most common in the Maghreb is M35 (also called E1b1b1), predominant among Berbers.
Summary of haplogroup lineage:
- Haplogroup E (Africa) >>> E1b1b (East Africa) >>> E1b1b1 (Maghreb).
This approach is crucial for understanding North African anthropology. Although history tends to favor the victors, it leaves behind a legacy through genetic analysis and historical testimony, as illustrated by the Moorish conquests, including Berbers who contributed to their peak.
Such groups include the Nafza, Masmuda, Luwata, Hawwara, Zanata, Sanhadja, and Zugwaha. The demographic variation between northern and southern North African populations is explained by migratory phenomena and the forced mixing with Western mercenaries, producing descendants with European-like physical traits. Pierre Gratiolet noted this in Memoirs of the Society of Anthropology:
“As for the Kouloughli families (Arab [Moor]–Kabyle Berber–Ottoman mixed), their origins date to 1520, and they were nourished only during our conquest. After three centuries of formation, what has become of this mixed population? Alas! It is not difficult to imagine, based on analogies, that what remains of this small agglomeration in Algeria, lost in a larger context, gradually disappears through maternal alliances, leaving only traces of a new blood mix.” [5]
The term Moor, in Greek “Mauros,” refers to a black man or woman in late antiquity North Africa. The term Ethiopian, meaning “burnt face,” is similarly used. Jehan Desanges explains:
“One can consider the presence of dark-skinned people in the Sahara oases, Fezzan, and the Saharan slopes of the Atlas, as a living memory of the original African unity; the Greeks called them ‘Ethiopians,’ that is, ‘burnt faces’.” [6]
Gillebert d’Hercourt similarly notes in Anthropological Studies on Seventy-Six Algerian Natives (1865):
“Kabyle skulls studied were generally dolichocephalic. Studies on ancient and modern North Africans show that the earliest North Africans were dolichocephalic, like the Tuareg and other dark-skinned Berber tribes. It is not surprising that most modern light-skinned Berbers, including Kabyles, are predominantly mesocephalic or even brachycephalic. Clothing of modern Kabyle women resembles that of modern Balkan women, and their blood groups are similar to Mediterranean Europeans. Many Kabyles also show strong Turkish influence, as seen in facial traits of Eurasian Turkish or even East Asian origin.” [7]
Hence the term Kouloughlis reflects forced mixing, partially confirmed by the frequency of E1b1b1. Excavations in Menton, notes Stéphane Gssell in Ancient History of North Africa, revealed Quaternary-era people related to the “Grimaldi” black race along the Ligurian coast [8], as well as in Algeria, Neolithic cave skulls near Oran showed Negroid features. This helps explain demographic fragmentation and counters anti-African ideological bias.
III. Linguistic Factor
The semantic study of the term Berber suggests a different perspective. Derived from Latin barbari, equivalent to English “barbarian,” the Romans used it for peoples speaking neither Latin nor Greek. Prof. Ivan Van Sertima notes in Golden Age of the Moor:
“The Golden Age of the Moors.” [10]
Moreover, this terminology does not exist in everyday language nor in the Amazigh alphabet, also called Tifinagh. In this sense, the term “Berber” is pejorative, just like “Chabin” or other derogatory names used to designate populations according to colonial criteria. In short, we can therefore conclude that this designation is false. The only viable approach is to adhere to the Tifinagh alphabet, whose heritage places the Tuareg as its sole protector, having preserved it like a golden treasure against all foreign influences, as Stéphane Gssell points out:
“This idiom, which has not produced literary works and has only retained its own alphabet among the Tuareg.” [11]
It is important to note that among the Kabyles, the very use of Tifinagh has had an impact, according to the testimony of Amirouche Chelli in Manuel didactico-pédagogique d’initiation à la langue berbère de Kabylie, sciences-humaines, I quote:
“Among the Tuareg, the only ones who had perpetuated the use of Libyco-Berber writing, several different alphabets were recorded under the name of Tifinagh. The Kabyles composed an alphabet by adopting and adapting the characters of their Tuareg brothers to write their own language.” [12]
IV. Conclusion
Thus, it follows that these populations, which have been the subject of so much ideological confusion, are now seen in a light other than through anti-melanoderm prejudices. What is certain is that the archives clearly bear witness to the Black heritage of North Africa, shattering hypothetical arguments.
It should be noted that there are four clans that historically constitute the North African civilizational core, namely:
- The Numidians
- The Getulians
- The Garamantes
- The Amazigh
These four groups demonstrably form the North African civilizational core. Ancient historians would speak of populations distinguished by lineage according to the Latinized patronymic system of the time, while others would refer to Automoles or Caucasoids in the case of the Getulians.
However, no historian, even one specialized in geography—whether of antiquity or the modern era—was better positioned than the Egyptian scribes to describe the customs of their neighbors, as they depicted them not merely as factions under the name of Lebou, whose four parts are included.
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop did not fail to address this in his book Antériorité des civilisations nègres, which classifies these Lebous as belonging to two distinct civilizations. He writes:
“The Black Libou preceded the White Libou ‘Tamhou’ in Libya and coexisted with the latter after its arrival, as confirmed by the Egyptian documents themselves. Regarding the stratification of races in North Africa and the precedence of the Black presence in this region, particularly during the historical period, one can refer to the sections in Nations nègres et culture that deal with this issue. Today, Berber is the most important linguistic monument available to a calm scientist for studying the process of acculturation of the Nordic element in a southern Negroid environment, a process that would have led to the emergence of Semitic languages generally in Western Asia, where Black populations also preceded Whites throughout the region from the Indus to Mohenjo-daro, in ancient Elam at Susa, in Mesopotamia at Ur and Lagash, in Palestine, in the land of Canaan, in pre-Islamic southern Arabia, long before the Black kingdoms of Saba and Hadramawt.” [13]
It should also be noted that the designation Lebou has remained intact demographically, as in Senegal there exists a tribe called the Lebous, constituting a community traditionally composed of fishermen and farmers, concentrated in the Cap-Vert peninsula (Dakar).
It is worth noting that the consonantal root L/B, which gives the name Libya among others, also appears in the name Lebou and is interchangeable with “R’bw” or “Rebou,” whose Arabic root “R-B” means “Black.”
According to Professor Adrianus Van Selms, a specialist in Afro-Arabic languages in Pretoria Oriental Series (p.107), the Arabic term could mean, in his words: “THE DARK PEOPLE.” [14]
— Abdoullah Aneowar, researcher in cosmogony and African history
Notes and References:
[1] Michel Abitbol, Histoire du Maroc, chapter: Morocco and North Africa in antiquity, p.13
[2] Cheikh Anta Diop, Nations nègres et culture: From Ancient Egyptian Black Antiquity to the Cultural Issues of Today’s Black Africa, ed. Présence Africaine
[3] Cheikh Anta Diop, The Niamey Conference (1984) (video: 02:24:50)
[4] Ivan Van Sertima, Golden Age of the Moor, pp.38
[5] Pierre Gratiolet, Mémoires de la société d’anthropologie de Paris, Tome 2, p.339
[6] J. Desanges, Histoire générale de l’Afrique, volume II, chapter 17: The Proto-Berbers, pp.461
[7] Gillebert d’Hercourt, Anthropological Studies on Seventy-Six Indigenous People of Algeria in 1865
[8] Liguria: a region of northwestern Italy
[9] Stéphane Gssell, Ancient History of North Africa, pp.210
Also see Paul Pallary, Instructions for Prehistoric Research, p.79, n.2
[10] Ivan Van Sertima, Golden Age of the Moor, pp.37-38
[11] Stéphane Gssell, Ancient History of North Africa, Chapter V, The Libyco-Berber Language, pp.309-310
[12] Amirouche Chelli, Didactic-Pedagogical Manual for Initiation to the Berber Language of Kabylie, social sciences, p.16
[13] Cheikh Anta Diop, Antériorité des civilisations nègres, pp.190-191, ed. Présence Africaine
[14] Pr. Fari Taheruka Shabazz, Negro-African Origin of the Arabs
