Recent American news coverage of North Africa's Arab spring has almost entirely neglected the Berbers, known in their own language as Imazighen . They are the indigenous people of North Africa.
Hannibal and St. Augustine were Berbers. Berbers invented couscous and tagine.
Click here to read IBTimes World reporter Michael Martin's latest news feature on the Berbers' response to Constitutional Reforms in Morocco.
Lounes Matoub, Algerian Berber
Zohra, Algerian Berber
People from Amazigh, north of Morocco, hold a Amazigh flag and a banner, as they gather for a protest in Casablanca April 24, 2011. Thousands took to the streets of Morocco on Sunday in peaceful demonstrations to demand sweeping reforms and an end to political detention, the third day of mass protests since they began in February. The banner reads, "the Amazigh language is a statutory rightand acquired."
REUTERS
Shawia folklore dancers perform during a carpet festival in Berber village in the eastern city of Khenchela May 30, 2010. Berber carpets, which take up to three months to make, are the most expensive in Algeria. The patterns on these carpets represent the identity of the Shawia culture.
REUTERS
Ethnic Berbers hold the Berber flag as they celebrate outside a court following the acquittal of Algerian Christians Salem Fellah and Hocine Hocini (not pictured) at the Berber town of Ain El Hamam, about 150 km (93 miles) east of the Algerian capital Algiers October 5, 2010. Fellah and Hocini, on trial in Algeria for eating during daylight in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, were acquitted on Tuesday, a verdict their supporters said was a triumph for religious freedom.
REUTERS