Yennayer Celebrates the New Year for The Amazigh people (Indigenous people of North Africa)

Assegas Amegazⴰⵙⴻⴳⴰⵙ ⴰⵎⴻⴳⴰⵣ

Numidia Art paintings - © Taziri Gadmour

The Amazigh’s New Year, also called Yennayer (ⵢⴻⵏⵏⴰⵢⴻⵔ or Tifinagh), is celebrated every year on January 14th. The history of Yennayer is 3000 years old.

The Amazigh people (plural, Imazighen (which means "free people" or "noble people") —are the original inhabitants of North Africa. Their Indigenous land, called Tamazgha, extends from the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, Mauritania, and parts of Egypt, Mali, and Niger (farthest reaches of the Sahara). Today, Morocco and Algeria have the largest Amazigh populations.

Yennayer comes from yan, which means 'first,' and ayur, which means 'mo" he’’. Yennayer is the name of the first month of the year of the Amazigh calendar, which also gives its name to the celebration of Yennayer held on the first day of the year of the agrarian calendar. Celebrated by the North African populations for many centuries or even millennia. The first day of the new year, 13 January, also marks the start of the coldest weeks of the year. The Amazigh calendar starts in 950 BCE, when King Sheshonq ascended the throne of Egypt, meaning this year is 2975.

Families reunite around a traditional couscous made with seven vegetables to celebrate the end of the most challenging winter months, representing abundance and sharing while hoping for a prosperous harvest.

The Indigenous community of North Africa has endured a long, hard, and sometimes bitter struggle to preserve its identity. Historically, Imazighen were non-Semitics until Arabs conquered them in the seventh century CE. During that time, North Africa saw the rise of a warrior queen named Dihya, also known as al-Kahina. The resistance level to the Arab invaders by the local populations in the conquered territories varied and depended on the region and its people. The Battle of Meskiana occurred in North Africa in 698 between the Umayyad forces of Hassan ibn al-Nu'man and Queen al-Kahina. She is considered one of the most famous figures in the history of the resistance to the Arab conquest in the 7th century. The Maghrawa were among the first tribes in Algeria to submit to Islam in the 7th century.

Since then, the Imazighen have struggled to regain their native culture, identity, and language. The Imazighen language dates back to at least 2000 BCE and has, over time, been called Tamacheq, Tamaheq, and Tamazight. The Imazighen regard their Tamazight language as divine, even sacred, importance. There are many dialects. Neither the language nor their script is related to Arabic but to the Chadic language from the Afroasiatic family. The dialects use the Tifinagh script.

Tamazight is one of the most widely spoken native languages, along with Tachelhit, Kabyle, Riffian, Shawiya, and Tuareg.

Amazigh arts, like the Tamazight language, have coexisted with other North African forms of expression since pre-Islamic times. Their symbols and arts express their worldview and vision through abstract designs and the embellishment of everyday objects such as pottery, textiles, jewelry, carpets, or tattooing. The colors and designs they use are different in each group. This is how groups show their differences. Women were the creators of many objects used in everyday life. Weaving and making pottery were activities carried out alongside other domestic work. In creating a decorated pot or textile, the woman gathered and drew on a shared vocabulary of geometric symbols that depict life while working within the design tradition of their tribe or village. Even the simplest objects expressed a highly developed aesthetic vision. Their geographic isolation in remote mountain and desert regions (Tuareg) helped preserve the cultural differences in language and culture. Their art, music, and traditions celebrate the richness of their identity.

The Amazigh people bring an ancient way of life and a worldview rooted in traditions and creativity. They are committed to freedom, justice, and cooperation. They carry the voices of resistance of our ancestors.

In Algeria, the celebrations were on a big scale this year. Over the weekend, Amazighs in North Africa attended dozens of musical and cultural events in Algeria’s 58 provinces. In Tizi Ouzou, the capital of Bejaia, the wilaya with the biggest Kbyali Amazigh community, a week-long market of traditional Amazigh goods was inaugurated to commemorate the new year and support Amazigh artisans. Amazigh songs, usually about political struggle and missing the homeland, have become a staple in “Idh Yennayer,” a celebration denied for decades. In 2018, Algeria announced the Amazigh New Year as an official celebration.

Assegas Amegazⴰⵙⴻⴳⴰⵙ ⴰⵎⴻⴳⴰⵣ to all Amazigh people around the world.

1-https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/don-t-call-us-berber-we-are-amazigh-1.965334

2- Becker, Cynthia (2006). "Amazigh textiles and dress in Morocco: metaphors of motherhood"African Arts. Los Angeles: James S. Coleman African Studies Center. 39 (3): 42–55.

4-  Artistry of the Everyday: Beauty and Craftsmanship in Berbert Art by Lisa Bernasek (Peabody Museum Press, 2008).

5- https://tamazghahistory.wordpress.com/2022/01/13/history-and-origin-of-yennayer/

6-https://gcclub.org/2024/01/15/assegas-amegaz-how-amazighs-celebrate-the-amazigh-new-year-of-2974-worldwide/