UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
As regards the zones which were quite free from external interference,
some of them remote from Vandal or Byzantine strongholds, in the former
Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana they enjoyed absolute
independence from +429 onwards and their rulers did not interfere in their
neighbours' affairs unless it was to gain some personal advantage.
Here we again come up against one of the main constants in the history
of the Maghrib of classical times - the tendency towards territorial
division and rivalry the moment a centralizing force has disappeared.
Political division is then governed by geographical considerations.
Very little is unfortunately known of the structure of this post-Roman
independent North Africa. Some kingdoms were formed there by large
socio-political federations, only revealed to us by rare literary allusions
or chance archaeological findings. There was, for instance, at the beginning
of the sixth century, in the Altaya and Tlemcen region, the government
of Masuna, 'king of the Moors and the Romans'; a little later, in the Aurès,
the reign of a certain Masties, 'dux for sixty-seven years, imperator for
forty years', who never repudiated his faith 'either towards the Romans
or the Moors'. Vartaia, another local ruler, pays his tribute; he is perhaps
ruler of the zone of Hodna. There is no doubt that the town of Tiaret,
a former citadel of the Roman limes, admirably situated at the junction
of the nomad and sedentary worlds, was also, as far back as the fifth
century, the capital of a dynasty whose power is still symbolized by the
Djedars of Frenda, great tombs of impressive majesty. The powerful
Garmul, king of Mauretania, who destroyed a Byzantine army in 571 ought
also perhaps to be considered in this connection. Lastly, during the sixth
and seventh centuries, an indigenous principality existed in distant
Tingitana in the northern part of where is now Morocco, whose vitality
is attested by the inscriptions at Volubilis and the Mausoleum of Souk
el Gour.
In most cases, the socio-political organization reveals a structure that
is neither sketchy nor anarchical. Original institutions combined Berber
traditions and the Roman administrative model. 'Moors' and 'Romans'
were associated, a formula which certainly implies collaboration between
the peasant element, non-romanized, and the city-dwellers, with several
centuries of Latin influence behind them. There was, then, no kind of
challenge to an administrative and cultural heritage which was foreign
in origin, and which at times was a source of some pride. The historical
map which we have drawn for these regions shows the survival of small
urban centres such as Tiaret, Altaya, Tlemcen and Volubilis, still Christian
in character, where the use of Latin was still current practice until the
seventh century.
But we must not delude ourselves concerning the existence of these
lingering effects. The future lay not in the nostalgic attachment of petty
kings to defunct prestige but in the irresistible drive towards independence
and breaking away with which the rural masses were inspired. The area
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