Académie Berbère d'Échange et de Recherches Culturels, usually shortened to Académie Berbère or the Berber Academy was a Paris-based Kabyle cultural association formed in 1966 and officially authorized in March 1967 with the objective of raising Berber consciousness. The association was renamed Agraw Imazighen (English: Assembly of the Imazighen) in

Tamazight The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berber communities, who ar ...

in 1969.

History

Berber Academy is primarily associated with

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

n activist Mohand Arav Bessaoud, who formed the group with a small group of "Kabyle luminaries from the worlds of scholarships, arts, and politics," including Ramdane Haifi, Mouloud Mammeri, Mohand Saïd Hanouz, and singer Taos Amrouche, who hosted their first meeting in her home in Paris. The association faced internal disagreement as to whether to have an intellectual or grassroots activist focus. The association relaunched in 1969 as Agraw Imazighen with the first Berber concert. The relaunch and Tamazight-language name change "marked a shift toward a more particularist, Berber-centered agenda" primarily concerned with making "the general public aware of the history and civilization of the Berbers and to promote their language and culture." This served as a turning point for Berber diaspora culture in France, as well as for the Berberist movement outside of it. The association published an influential monthly bulletin, ''Imazighen'' (French: ''Imazighéne''), in both French and Kabylian, the latter using Neo-Tifinagh. ''Imazighen'' and other publications were distributed by the association to thousands of Kabylian coffeehouses throughout Paris, and they were further circulated by readers in Algeria and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. Though ''Imazighen'' was viewed by many as overly radical, it was generally very positively received by Berber communities, with thousands of letters of support being sent from Algeria and Morocco. ''Imazighen'' ran for thirty issues. Berber Academy was dissolved in 1976, largely due to lack of finances.

Neo-Tifinagh

Berber Academy created a derivation of the

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym, depending on variety: ''Imuhaɣ'', ''Imušaɣ'', ''Imašeɣăn'' or ''Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit th ...

Tifinagh orthography, now known as Neo-Tifinagh, to accommodate Kabyle phonetics. They taught local members of the Kabyle diaspora community Neo-Tifinagh, and used it in their widely read bulletin, ''Imazighen''. Neo-Tifinagh has since undergone further reform and is used in various contexts throughout North Africa.

References

Cultural organizations based in France Kabyle diaspora Berber culture Berberism Berbers in France Diaspora organizations in France {{berber-stub

History

Neo-Tifinagh

See also

References