African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 451
History
From an historical point of view, despite differing theories, most scholars believe that the
territory that corresponds to the Algerian Republic today was probably settled, beginning
in the east, through successive waves of populations. From prehistoric times on, those
who defined themselves as Imazighen (sing. Amazigh, “a free man”) occupied a vast
region, the climate of which at that time was much more humid than it is today. Prior to
the long period of the Roman domination, Algeria witnessed several occupations, the
most important of which was unquestionably that of the Phoenicians (circa the twelfth
century BCE), then of the Carthaginians (starting in the sixth century BCE).
Subsequently, and for more than six centuries, the Lybian populations (ancestors of
the Berbers in Arabic and European historiography) would become Roman subjects,
spread out between the Numids (in the east) and the Moors (in the west). The history of
the Algerian peasantry has been characterized for a very long time by the experience of
dispossession (Bourdieu 1958). Nevertheless, as shown by relatively recent scholarship,
the resistance of the indigenous population to Romanization is a lasting and important
event (Benabou 1976; Lacheraf 1988).
Later, the collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Vandals, followed by
the Byzantines, would exacerbate the Algerians’ spirit of independence. Yet, when the
Arab-Muslim expeditionary force set out to conquer North Africa at the end of the
seventh century, Algeria underwent rapid Islamization, despite the many military
episodes during which the courage and pugnacity of the Berber tribes and the fierce
affirmation of a secular identity were strongly displayed.
Subsequently, the representatives of the various powers—mainly the Almoravids and
the Almohads—all the while seeking to preserve their autonomy, would oscillate for a
long time between the influences of West and East, seeking a political balance and a
coherent sociocultural structure between the great kingdoms of “Westernmost Maghrib”
(Al-Maghrib-al-Aqsa), Andalusia (Al-Andalûs), the dynasties of ancient Ifriqiya
(Tunisia), and those of the successive Oriental powers.
Beginning in the second half of the eleventh century, the arrival of the Hilalian tribes
and their gradual settlement throughout the country initiated the definitive and massive
Arabization of the indigenous Berber populations, especially the rural and nomadic ones.
In the sixteenth century, Algeria became an Ottoman province, governed by a dey
(governor of the regency of Algiers) who was a representative of the “Sublime Port”
(Constantinople, seat of Ottoman power). Whatever the real motives—a subject that has
given rise to bitter debates among colonial and Algerian historians—the Turkish military
intervention is best interpreted in light of the great geopolitical and economic upheavals
which reestablished a power balance between West and East in the Mediterranean basin,
with spectacular consequences for the whole world.
Turkish rule was applied only indirectly and was reduced, most of the time, to a mere
fiscal effort aimed at regularly draining the Algerian countryside of its meager surplus of
crops. There was a famous incident between the French consul and the dey of Algiers
when, during a financial dispute, the dey grazed the consul’s cheek with his fly-whisk.
This served as a pretext for French military intervention. The fly-whisk incident aside,