Now once the families are gone, the soldiers draw the weapons -- M-4 carbines for everyone, sidearms and Berber knives for some -- that they will carry until they come home.
Marc Garanger — who in 1960, as a young soldier in the French army, photographed hundreds of Algerian women without their veils, an assault on their identities as Muslim and Berber women, for identity cards — provides the historical context for Ritchin's exhibition.
It was Ms. Shamshiri who was able to take the couple's taste for contemporary things and produce traditional-looking interpretations: a set of George Nakashima Windsor-style chairs for the dining room, graphic black and white antique Berber rugs for the living room.
The soldiers rode roughshod over the country's diversities; the 20% Berber minority, for instance.
The rebel-controlled Libya TV, based in Qatar, now broadcasts in Tamazight, the Berber tongue, for two hours a day.
North African countries include large Berber minorities, for example, as well as some sub-Saharan ethnic groups, particularly in Libya.
Colonel Qaddafi has refused to acknowledge Berber culture for most of his reign, describing it as "colonialism's poison" intended to divide the country.
Medieval charts show it as Mogador, a corruption of an Amazigh (Berber) word for "safe anchorage". It stands on a peninsula 10 20 feet (3 6 metres) above sea level, and, at times with heavy tides, it is almost an island city.
That night, as we gathered around the campfire with our Berber friends for one last time, we shared our memories of the past year and our resolutions for the new one, and agreed that this trek had been a highlight.
In his country a new constitution, endorsed in a referendum on July 1st, officially recognises the Berber language for the first time, though parliament will decide what this means in practice; Arab nationalists and many Islamists have long demanded that Arabic be the sole language of administration and state education.In this section Unfriended Springtime for them too?
