Member of a non-Semitic Caucasoid people of North Africa who since prehistoric times inhabited Barbary, the Mediterranean coastlands from Egypt to the Atlantic. Their language, present-day Berber (a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family), is spoken by c. 10 millioni people: about one-third of Algerians and nearly two-thirds of Moroccans. Berbers are mainly agricultural, but some are still nomadic.
More than 100,000 ethnic Berbers from the Kabylia region of NE Algeria demonstrated Sept 1994 in their regional capital, Tizi-Ouzou, against the growing threat of militant Islam to their society and culture.
1. A cluster of related dialects that were once the major language of North Africa west of Egypt; now spoken mostly in Morocco.
2. A member of a Caucasoid Muslim people of northern Africa.