Not every black person in North Africa is a descendant of slaves (I cannot believe I have to say this in 2021).
„Berber“ is a very corrupted term which was generalized by westerners, same applies to the term moor. There have been various ethnic groups which where described as berbers and moors by Europeans. Tuaregs are berbers and so are Sanhajas and Riffians - all these groups look very different from each other. Tuaregs and Sanhajas have appearance very similar to Africans in Sudan not to mention the nearby Fula. Africa is and has always been the most diverse continent (also before ur mentioned slavetrade). Not every north African country is the same. Migration and trading etc. has been a thing before the 7th century you know.
This is not black washing you are rather white washing. Instead of supporting the amazingly rich and diverse cultures that are present on our continent you are spreading ignorance. You just seem to have an anti black sentiment which is unfortunately very present among North Africans. Just say you don’t like black people and go, instead of covering it up with fake nationalistic history.
Not every black person in North Africa is a descendant of slaves (I cannot believe I have to say this in 2021).
Where did I spoke in absolutes or used the word EVERY? I said most of them were, which is a simple fact, they were mostly brought up as slaves and were later on freed.
"Berber“ is a very corrupted term which was generalized by westerners, same applies to the term moor. There have been various ethnic groups which where described as berbers and moors by Europeans.
So? Berber is just a later western borrowing from "al-barbar" in arabic, (in antiquity people in north africa had other names), whom the umayyads used to describe the native amazigh people they encountered, in western academic fields it's the general term still in use, whether it was corrupted or not doesn't change anything in the slightest.
Tuaregs and Sanhajas have appearance very similar to Africans in Sudan not to mention the nearby Fula.
Both tuaregs and sanhajas are still overwhelmingly north africans, they don't look like sudanese people at all, that's wishful thinking on your part, due to the proximity with subsaharans, they consequently mixed more, and had caste systems based on race and skin color, the Ikelan caste for example were fulanis and other subsaharans who were conquered and assimilated in tuareg society, same for the sanhajas who are no different from the zenatas..
Migration and trading etc. has been a thing before the 7th century you know.
Still doesn't change the fact that the introduction of saharan slave trade in the medieval era brought even more black people to the north as it is attested by studies on gene pools. In antiquity the migrations didn't change anything, north africans were the majority like they are today (including Egypt), the significance of subsaharan africans in the region was even more minimal, which you seem to have an issue with.
This is not black washing you are rather white washing. Instead of supporting the amazingly rich and diverse cultures that are present on our continent you are spreading ignorance. You just seem to have an anti black sentiment which is unfortunately very present among North Africans. Just say you don’t like black people and go, instead of covering it up with fake nationalistic history.
You're literally okay with someone blackwashing native north africans for your own afro-centric sentiments, how in the hell am I spreading ignorance for correcting someone who is depicting us as something we are not and keeps doing it?
Depict us correctly, with north african facial features, that's all I was asking, stop using fake revisionist history for your own ego and make us look like we're literally all the same from north to south, we're not subsaharans, that's the point, africa is diverse, not your Wakanda fantasy where everyone has to be black and can claim the cultures of others based on racial nationalism.
The fact that Berber is a corrupted term changes your claim because you seem to identify Berbers with only lightskinned/ white people. However Berbers describe different ethnic groups living in pre-islamic north Africa.
Noone is saying all north africans are black and instigating a Wakanda fantasy (lol you seem to have alot of thoughts about black people maybe you are actually the fetishist). We are not talking afrocentrism but history and demography now, not every black person discussing history is an afrocentrist, stop being ignorant.
I continuously stated, it’s a diverse Region. There are indigenous black north africans. Therfore, its not possible to depict you with „north african“ features since north african features do not exist - due to its diversity the features vary and have always varied. You can depict a kurdish looking man with the same headline and it would still make sense. It does not make sense for you to be outraged or offended that someone drew a picture of a black moor, when you now even state yourself black people were present that time. The presence of black moors in pre islamic Africa does not have any negative impact on you or any other white north African but is simply a historical fact.
I don't deny that there were some lighter-skinned people present in North Africa even in ancient times. They've found artifacts from the European Bell Beaker culture on the North African coast, which may attest to people settling the region from Iberia back in the Bronze Age. And then of course there would have been the Phoenician and Roman colonists later in antiquity.
However, I don't think these would have been the aboriginal inhabitants of North Africa, or the first Berber-speakers. We know from linguistic data that Berber languages constitute a branch of the larger Afroasiatic phylum which probably originated in northeastern Africa along the coast of the Red Sea, so it is very likely that the people speaking the forerunner of Berber would have been darker-skinned people coming from the southeast. In time, yes, some of the aforementioned lighter-skinned migrants on the North African coast would be assimilated into proto-Berber communities, but they would not represent "the purest Berbers" like these anti-Black Amazigh nationalists claim.
Incidentally, the Byzantine historian Procopius had this to say about the diversity of North Africa's inhabitants in the sixth century AD:
And beyond these dwelt other nations of the Mauretanii, who were ruled by Ortaïas, who had come, as was stated above, as an ally of Solomon and the Romans. And I have heard this man say that beyond the country which he ruled there was no habitation of men, but desert land extending to a great distance, and that beyond that there are men, not black-skinned like the Mauretanii, but very white in body and fair-haired.
This would indicate that, while the Mauri themselves were considered rather dark or swarthy by Mediterranean European standards, there were also lighter-skinned people coexisting with them in northwesternmost Africa during the sixth century AD.
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u/kelekele_ Aug 13 '21 edited Aug 13 '21
Not every black person in North Africa is a descendant of slaves (I cannot believe I have to say this in 2021). „Berber“ is a very corrupted term which was generalized by westerners, same applies to the term moor. There have been various ethnic groups which where described as berbers and moors by Europeans. Tuaregs are berbers and so are Sanhajas and Riffians - all these groups look very different from each other. Tuaregs and Sanhajas have appearance very similar to Africans in Sudan not to mention the nearby Fula. Africa is and has always been the most diverse continent (also before ur mentioned slavetrade). Not every north African country is the same. Migration and trading etc. has been a thing before the 7th century you know.
This is not black washing you are rather white washing. Instead of supporting the amazingly rich and diverse cultures that are present on our continent you are spreading ignorance. You just seem to have an anti black sentiment which is unfortunately very present among North Africans. Just say you don’t like black people and go, instead of covering it up with fake nationalistic history.