7th century† 688
Aksel Kusaila · chief of the Awraba
Around 683 his forces defeated the Umayyad general Uqba ibn Nafi near Biskra. He went on to rule Kairouan for several years before he fell in battle.
Against the Umayyad conquestFrom the peaks of the Atlas to the dunes of the Sahara: a culture that has outlived empires, and a people who never stopped standing up for their freedom.
Meet the resistance →Amazigh means "free person." The name carries a language, a land, an art and a way of governing that are still alive today.
One of the oldest languages in Africa, written in its own Tifinagh script. Official in Morocco since 2011 and in Algeria since 2016.
The Amazigh New Year, celebrated around January 13. The calendar counts from 950 BC, so Yennayer 2027 opens the year 2977.
Geometric tattoos, hand-woven carpets and silver fibulas (tizerzai). These are patterns that families pass down and read like a language.
Collective dance-poetry of the Atlas: rows of men and women, frame drums, call and response under the open sky.
Atlas, Rif, Kabylie, Aurès, the Sahara of the Tuareg, and the Canary Islands, home to the Guanches. Mountains have always been the fortress.
The village assembly, where the community decided its own affairs together. It's an ancient form of self-government.
Across thirteen centuries, Amazigh leaders rose against conquering armies and colonial empires to defend their land and their people.
Around 683 his forces defeated the Umayyad general Uqba ibn Nafi near Biskra. He went on to rule Kairouan for several years before he fell in battle.
Against the Umayyad conquestA warrior queen who united the tribes of the Aurès. Around 698 she defeated the army of Hassan ibn al-Nu'man and drove it back east. She became a lasting symbol of Amazigh women's strength.
Against the Umayyad conquestAt El Herri, near Khenifra, on 13 November 1914, his fighters dealt France one of its heaviest defeats in Morocco. He kept fighting until he was killed in 1921.
Against French colonialismIn July 1921 at Anoual, Rifian fighters dealt Spain a crushing defeat. He then led the Republic of the Rif until 1926, when France and Spain joined forces against him.
Against Spanish colonialismEach name stands for the countless others whose names were never written down.
Amazigh and allied forces stop the Umayyad advance and kill its commander, Uqba ibn Nafi.
The queen defeats Hassan ibn al-Nu'man's army and holds the region for several more years.
Moha ou Hammou Zayani's Zayane fighters inflict a major defeat on the French army in the Middle Atlas.
Abdelkrim al-Khattabi's Rifians rout the Spanish army, and the Republic of the Rif is born.
Resistance continues in the High Atlas, Saghro and the Sahara. Bou Gafer in 1933 is one of the final great battles.
The struggle continues by other means: teaching Tamazight, protecting the heritage, and rejecting extremism and terror.
Mountains don't move.
Neither does a people that remembers.
Imazighen today stand against extremism and terror. They do it the way their culture always has: through community, tolerance, the tajmaat, and a love of the land. Every word of Tamazight spoken is an act of continuity.
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