Berber flag

The Berber flag (Berber language: Akenyal Amaziɣ, ⴰⴾⴻⵏⵢⴰⵍ ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵗ) or Amazigh flag is a flag that has been adopted by many Berber populations including protestors, cultural and political activists.[1][2]

Berber flag - Ratio 2:3

The flag was inaugurated in Wadya, a town of Kabylia situated in Tizi Ouzou, a province of Algeria, by an elder Algerian Kabylian veteran, Youcef Medkour.[3]

History

Mohand Arav Bessaoud, Algerian activist and founder of Berber Academy, designed the flag in 1970.[4][2] It was used in demonstrations in the 1980s, and in 1997, the World Amazigh Congress at Tafira on Las Palmas in the Canary Islands made the flag official.[1]

Description

The flag is composed of blue, green, and yellow horizontal bands of the same height, and a Tifinagh letter yaz or aza.[1][2] Each colour corresponds to an aspect of Tamazgha, the territory inhabited by the Berbers in North Africa:[2]

  • Blue represents the sea.
  • Green represents the mountains.
  • Yellow represents the desert.
  • The red of the letter z (ⵣ in Tifinagh) represents resistance and the martyrs/free man of the Imazighen.

The letter z represents the word Amazigh, the root of which it is taken from.[1]

See also

References
  1. Ilahiane, Hsain (2017). Historical dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-4422-8182-0. OCLC 966314885.
  2. Fedele, Valentina (2021), "The Hirak. The Visual Performance of Diversity in Algerian Protests", Partecipazione e Conflitto, University of Salento, 14 (2): 693, doi:10.1285/i20356609v14i2p681, retrieved 2022-12-20
  3. Yahia ARKAT (10 January 2019). "Aux origines de l'emblème amazigh" (in French).
  4. Ilahiane, Hsain (2017). Historical dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-4422-8182-0. OCLC 966314885.
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