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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
Part of what was once the dominant ethnic group throughout
North Africa, the Berbers of Libya today live principally in remote
mountain areas or in desert localities where successive waves of
Arab migration failed to reach or to which they retreated to escape
the invaders
(see
fig. 5). In the 1980s Berbers, or native speakers
of Berber dialects, constituted about 5 percent, or 135,000, of the
total population, although a substantially larger proportion is
bilingual in Arabic and Berber. Berber place-names are still common
in some areas where Berber is no longer spoken. The language
survives most notably in the Jabal Nafusah highlands of
Tripolitania and in the Cyrenaican town of Awjilah. In the latter,
the customs of seclusion and concealment of women have been largely
responsible for the persistence of the Berber tongue. Because it is
used largely in public life, most men have acquired Arabic, but it
has become a functional language for only a handful of modernized
young women.
By and large, cultural and linguistic, rather than physical,
distinctions separate Berber from Arab. The touchstone of
Berberhood is the use of the Berber language. A continuum of
related but not always mutually intelligible dialects, Berber is a
member of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It is distantly related
to Arabic, but unlike Arabic it has not developed a written form
and as a consequence has no written literature.
Unlike the Arabs, who see themselves as a single nation,
Berbers do not conceive of a united Berberdom and have no name for
themselves as a people. The name Berber has been attributed
to them by outsiders and is thought to derive from barbari,
the term the ancient Romans applied to them. Berbers identify with
their families, clans, and tribe. Only when dealing with outsiders
do they identify with other groupings such as the Tuareg.
Traditionally, Berbers recognized private property, and the poor
often worked the lands of the rich. Otherwise, they were remarkably
egalitarian. A majority of the surviving Berbers belong to the
Khariji sect of Islam, which emphasizes the equality of believers
to a greater extent than does the Maliki rite of Sunni Islam, which
is followed by the Arab population
(see Religious Life
, this ch.).
A young Berber sometimes visits Tunisia or Algeria to find a
Khariji bride when none is available in his own community.
Most of the remaining Berbers live in Tripolitania, and many
Arabs of the region still show traces of their mixed Berber
ancestry. Their dwellings are clustered in groups made up of
related families; households consist of nuclear families, however,
and the land is individually held. Berber enclaves also are
scattered along the coast and in a few desert oases. The
traditional Berber economy has struck a balance between farming and
pastoralism, the majority of the village or tribe remaining in one
place throughout the year while a minority accompanies the flock on
its circuit of seasonal pastures.
Berbers and Arabs in Libya live together in general
amicability, but quarrels between the two peoples occasionally
erupted until recent times. A short-lived Berber state existed in
Cyrenaica during 1911 and 1912. Elsewhere in the Maghrib during the
1980s, substantial Berber minorities continued to play important
economic and political roles. In Libya their number was too small
for them to enjoy corresponding distinction as a group. Berber
leaders, however, were in the forefront of the independence
movement in Tripolitania.
Data as of 1987
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