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Concept
Kabyle people
Summary
The Kabyle people (kəˈbaɪl, Izwawen or Leqbayel or Iqbayliyen, iqβæjlijən, al-qabā'il) are a Berber ethnic group indigenous to Kabylia in the north of Algeria, spread across the Atlas Mountains, east of Algiers. They represent the largest Berber population of Algeria and the second largest in North Africa.
Many of the Kabyles have emigrated from Algeria, influenced by factors such as the Algerian Civil War, cultural repression by the central Algerian government, and overall industrial decline. Their diaspora has resulted in Kabyle people living in numerous countries. Large populations of Kabyle people settled in France and, to a lesser extent, Canada (mainly Québec) and United States.
The Kabyle people speak Kabyle, a Berber language. Since the Berber Spring of 1980, they have been at the forefront of the fight for the official recognition of Berber languages in Algeria.
The word 'Kabyle' (Kabyle: Iqbayliyen) is an exonym, and a distortion of the Arabic word qaba'il (قبائل), which means 'tribes', or 'to accept', which after the Muslim conquest was used for people who accepted the word of the Quran. The term qaba'il was used, and is still somewhat used by various peoples in Algeria to refer to various mountain dwelling tribes, including the Kabyle people.
The term used for Kabyles specifically was 'Zwawa' ('Izwawen' in Kabyle, 'زواوة' in Arabic). This appellation has been used since the medieval era for the tribes of Greater Kabylia, and is featured in important medieval ethnographic works like Ibn Khaldun's. After the French conquest, the French often confused the term "Arabs" and "Kabyle" thanks to the widespread usage of Kabyle all over the country. Although initially the French used the term Kabyle to refer to all Berbers, it was later specified to mean only the modern Kabyle people during the colonial era, however, Zwawa is still the most used term for Kabyles in areas such as western Algeria.
Official source
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