Karim Akkouche once wrote: “Africa has lost its North, said the poet. The North is searching for itself. The latter has its feet in Africa and its head in the East. It is called the Maghreb. Sometimes the Arab Maghreb. Every time someone utters this appellation, they stick a knife in the chest of an Amazigh child.” And I think of this often whenever I hear this term especially when it's used by supposedly "woke / anti-colonial" individuals. Maghreb which means west in Arabic is yet another linguistic attempt to put North Africa in the margine and to always define it in relation to other colonial forces. This name excludes North Africa from, well, Africa which in turn explains why the North is usually not included in pan-African sentiments. We're seen as outsiders in our own land and by calling ourselves that I believe we contribute to this exclusion. WE ARE IMAZIGHEN AND/OR NORTH AFRICANS. • An Algerian woman watching the first pan-African festival hosted by Algeria in 1969. • An Algerian Kel Azzejr girl in a festival in Djanet. • Portrait of a Moroccan woman from Ouarzazate. • Two Libyan women in the late 19th century. • A southern Tunisian woman wearing a M'lia. #africa #northafrica #afrika #afrique #berber #berbere #amazigh #imazighen #native #indigenous #anticolonialism #anticolonization #women #maghrib #maghreb #art #panafrican algerian women algeria #algérie #moroccon #folklore #morocco #marocaine #maroco #libya #libyan #tunisia #tunisie #tuarg https://www.instagram.com/p/CRbBFEjrRLS/?utm_medium=tumblr
