Across North Africa & the Sahara
Many places.
Many ways of belonging.
Explore starting points in the Amazigh world. Search a community, follow a region, or select two profiles to see them side by side.
Modern countries are navigation aids, not cultural boundaries. Communities cross borders and live in diasporas; this collection is a starting set, not a complete census.
Algeria
Kabyle (Iqbayliyen)
Amazigh communities of Kabylia in northern Algeria, with a substantial literary tradition, village institutions and an influential modern cultural movement.
- Tutlayt
- Kabyle (Taqbaylit), usually written in Latin script
- Regional setting
- Kabylia, the mountainous region east of Algiers: principally the provinces of Tizi Ouzou and Béjaïa, with Bouira, Bordj Bou Arreridj and Sétif at the margins.
Morocco
Riffian communities (Irifiyen)
Tarifit-speaking communities of northern Morocco’s Rif, with histories of anti-colonial resistance, oral poetry, migration and literary production.
- Tutlayt
- Tarifit, written in Latin, Tifinagh or Arabic script depending on context
- Regional setting
- Tarifit-speaking areas of northern Morocco, especially the central and eastern Rif; the wider Rif also includes Arabic-speaking districts.
Morocco
Tashelhit-speaking communities (Ishelhien)
Amazigh communities of the Souss, Anti-Atlas and western High Atlas, with a centuries-old written tradition and varied rural, urban and migrant histories.
- Tutlayt
- Tashelhit (Tachelhit), with a substantial historical literature in Arabic script
- Regional setting
- The Souss valley around Agadir and Taroudant, the Anti-Atlas, the western High Atlas, and the Atlantic coast south toward Sidi Ifni
Morocco
Central Atlas Tamazight-speaking communities
The Amazigh communities of Morocco’s Middle Atlas and eastern High Atlas, whose language gives the word Tamazight its most specific regional meaning.
- Tutlayt
- Central Atlas Tamazight — the variety whose speakers call it simply Tamazight
- Regional setting
- The Middle Atlas around Khenifra, Azrou, Ifrane and Beni Mellal, and the eastern High Atlas, with adjoining plateaux and the upper Moulouya
Algeria
Chaoui of the Aurès (Ishawiyen)
Tacawit-speaking communities of the Aurès massif in eastern Algeria, a region central to both the Umayyad-era resistance tradition and the Algerian war of independence.
- Tutlayt
- Tacawit (Chaoui), closely related to Kabyle within the northern varieties
- Regional setting
- The Aurès massif and surrounding areas of eastern Algeria: Batna, Khenchela, Oum El Bouaghi, and parts of Biskra, Souk Ahras and Tébessa
Algeria
Mozabite communities of the Mzab
The Ibadi Amazigh communities of the Mzab valley in central Algeria, whose five historic towns form one of the most distinctive urban and religious traditions in North Africa.
- Tutlayt
- Tumzabt (Mozabite), a Zenatic variety
- Regional setting
- The Mzab valley in the northern Algerian Sahara, around Ghardaia, roughly 600 km south of Algiers
Libya
Nafusi communities of Libya
Amazigh communities of the Nafusa Mountains and western Libya, long marginalised under state policy and central to Amazigh mobilisation after 2011.
- Tutlayt
- Nafusi varieties of the mountain region; do not use Nafusi as a blanket name for every Amazigh language in Libya.
- Regional setting
- The Nafusa Mountains south-west of Tripoli, including Yefren, Jadu, Nalut and Kabaw. Zuwara and Ghadames have separate profiles.
Algeria · Libya · Mali · Niger · Burkina Faso
Tuareg peoples (Kel Tamasheq)
Amazigh peoples of the central Sahara and Sahel, spread across five modern states, with their own script tradition, social organisation and a turbulent modern political history.
- Tutlayt
- Tuareg varieties: Tamahaq in the north, Tamasheq in Mali, Tamajaq in Niger
- Regional setting
- Southern Algeria (Ahaggar, Tassili n’Ajjer), southern Libya (Fezzan), Mali (Adrar des Ifoghas, Timbuktu, Gao), Niger (Air, Agadez) and Burkina Faso
Egypt
Siwi people of Siwa
The Amazigh-speaking community of Egypt’s Siwa Oasis, with a distinct language, oasis agriculture and histories of contact extending beyond the desert.
- Tutlayt
- Siwi, an eastern Amazigh variety with substantial documented Arabic contact.
- Regional setting
- Siwa Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert, near the Libyan border; the related Siwi-speaking locality of Qara is also identified in linguistic documentation.
Mauritania
Zenaga-speaking communities
Zenaga-speaking communities of south-western Mauritania, whose language documents a distinctive part of Amazigh and western Saharan history.
- Tutlayt
- Zenaga; the 2008 documentation reports endangered intergenerational transmission. No current speaker count is asserted here.
- Regional setting
- South-western Mauritania, principally in the Trarza and Gorgol regions between Mederdra and the Senegal river
Libya
Ghadames communities
An oasis community in western Libya with its own Amazigh language and a distinctive history of water, trade and urban life.
- Tutlayt
- Ghadames Berber; it should not be treated as merely another name for Nafusi.
- Regional setting
- Western Libya near the borders with Algeria and Tunisia.
Libya
Amazigh communities of Zuwara
A coastal community in western Libya whose language and recorded texts merit a distinct account alongside the Nafusa Mountains.
- Tutlayt
- Zuaran Berber
- Regional setting
- The western Libyan coast.