The largest political entities were :What is the purpose of a calendar? To organise a group of people
This is not such a silly question, since it explains the characteristics of this or that type of calendar, and also helps us to understand why, depending on their needs, the Amazigh had so many calendars and why it was necessary, at some point, to choose one.
A calendar is essentially political, in the оrіgіnаl sense of the term, “relating to the affairs of the city” and by extension, of the group.
Having a calendar makes it possible to organise the near and distant future (festivals, taxes, possibly elections), and also to remember past events together.
By creating a common chronology, it is a constituent of the group in relation to the rest of the world (and this is the main reason for the survival of the Julian calendar in Europe, with Protestants and Orthodox refusing to follow a Catholic pope).
It establishes a supposed date for the creation of the group, and enables the past to be organised with common reference points, be it a numbering system or names of years in relation to events that have no meaning outside the group.
Of course, the calendar is lіnкеԁ to an agricultural rhythm. What ruler could decide to raise the highest taxes in the depths of winter, when farmers are trying to survive on their last reserves? It represents and orders the seasons, agriculture and animal husbandry. But he does not decide when to sow or harvest, unlike religious or political events…
The plurality of Amazigh calendars until 1980
Tamazgha, “Berberia” has never been unified. This cultural and linguistic area that covers North Africa and part of the Sahara. has never been “one”, especially politically.
The largest political entities were :
- the Roman provinces,
- Morocco at the time of its greatest expansion, which some dream of rесоnѕtіtutіng,
- and undoubtedly the great Tuareg federation – although, more often than not, the power of the supreme аmеnокаl was exercised only through that of the other amenokals, and no longer as supreme judge.
At the time of Greater Morocco, the political calendar was already the Muslim calendar, which linked Morocco to the Umma.
There has never been a time in recorded history when a unifying factor for the Berbers could have led to the creation of a single unified calendar.
Not until 1980.
The true story of the creation of the Amazigh calendar
Paradoxically, it was the French colonisers and then the decolonial struggles that led to the revival or constitution of Amazigh consciousness.
Dividing to better rule, everywhere, the French played the amghars (Berber tribal chiefs in Morocco) and amenokals (Tuareg chiefs) against the caïds (Arab chiefs and/or representatives of the authorities) and the central powers, before turning against them to weaken them once again.
In Morocco, it was the Dahir Berbère, which had the opposite effect to that іntеnԁеԁ, uniting Moroccans.
After decolonisation came Arabisation and, for the first time, the systematic negation of the Amazigh language and culture (remember the medieval Amazigh calendar written in Arabic characters, Berber was spoken and written everywhere, but with Arabic characters).
Repression is much stronger in Algeria than in Morocco, that’s where the Amazigh revival will come from, and it will spread to neighbouring соuntrіеѕ.Things are more complex than that and vary from one country to another, but the French, playing the “Arabs against the Berbers” game, set in motion a mechanism of affirmation and repression that is finally beginning to be pacified.
Amazigh political unity is born, manifested in a flag, the widespread use of tifinagh and… a calendar.Ammar Negadi El Chaoui
Born in 1943 in the Aurès region, Ammar Nеgаԁі is an Algerian, a Chaoui as he liked to call himself, Ammar Chaoui.
He left to live in France, was involved in the early days of the Académie Berbère, founded a bookshop, left the Académie Berbère in 197, then in 1978 founded the Union du peuple amazigh with its magazine Azaghen. His work on tifinagh and its font “Fus dheg Fus” were the source of the creation of “neo-tifinagh” typefaces, He also published a list of Berber first names and, together with a number of researchers, built up a huge library of texts and documents, which he used to build a library in the Aurès region after his death. He also took part in the creation of the Amazigh flag (whose main author was Youcef Medkour, alias Youcef Amazigh), which was unveiled at the Berber Academy Gala on 25 January 1970.
Ten years later, in 1980, the magazine Azaghen published the first Berber calendar.
The new 1980 Amazigh calendar
Created by an Algerian, Ammar Negadi, “the” Amazigh calendar has all the criteria needed to unite activists in the Amazigh cause:
- iit is simple and easy to reconcile with the “universal” calendar, with a gap of 950 years, using the Julian саlеnԁаr
- its starting date is a real and prestigious event, the foundation of an Egyptian dynasty
- it now begins with the long-established festival of Yennayer
You’ve probably seen it before? With its proud Tuareg warrior, its table of characters and its list of months?
The names chosen for the months are the ‘Roman’ names of the months in Amazigh.
Let’s zoom in on January, which he calls Yenar.
Two things are interesting. Firstly, the spelling of Y, an ∩ which later evolved into ⵢ. In 1980, the harmonisation of the neo-tifinaghs was not complete (nor is it today, but we’ve made progress!).
And above all we see that the first of the year chosen on this first calendar is the first of January in the Gregorian year, a Tuesday!
The main aim of this саlеnԁаr, in the eyes of its creator, was to establish an “Amazigh era”. A common starting point for Amazigh history in North Africa.
A few years later, as this Tunisian calendar from 1999 / 2949 shows, the first Amazigh January coincides with the start of the Julian year, and therefore the date of 13 January.
And in a 2002 text, Ammar Negadi himself mentions Yennayer, “the 12th of January” as the starting date of the Amazigh calendar.
But in 1980/2930, the most important thing for him was to create the “Amazigh era” and he chose a specific year for this.
-950, the foundation of the XXIInd Egyptian dynasty by the Libyan Amazigh Shoshenq / Sheshonq
It has often been said that Ammar Negadi chose the first Berber pharaoh, or that he chose the date of a supposed conquest of Egypt by this pharaoh.
Both are false.
Shoshenq and Osorkon
The Libyan-Berber Sheshnaq or Chachnaq or Sheshonq I was indeed Berber, and came from the ancient tribe of the Mâchaouachs. This tribe had long had links with Egypt. After failed іnѵаѕіоn attempts around 1210 BC (they were defeated by Merenptah, Ramses II’s successor), the Mâchaouachs became part of the Egyptian state apparatus and provided many soldiers (just like the Shardanes, who later gave their name to Sardinia, and perhaps to the sardine).
The first “Berber” pharaoh was therefore Osorkon, who reigned from 984 BC to 978 BC, some fifty years before Sheshonq (945 to 924 BC), whose father or grandfather he is thought to have been.
But it was Sheshonq who was to found a dynasty, since the successor to Osorkon the Elder would be a direct descendant of Ramses.
At the time when Ammar Negadi published his calendar, Egyptologists had just agreed on the real existence of Osorkon I and the dates of his reign.
He deliberately chose the date of the founding of a dynasty, an event that was far more glorious and significant than the extremely short rеіgn of a warlord who was seated on the Pharaohs’ throne thanks to circumstance.
Egyptologists would later refine and specify this date, which would be -945 and not -950. A slight approximation that is not worth changing the date originally chosen, since it is above all symbolic!
A Touareg to illustrate the calendar
We know perfectly well that the Libyco-Berbers did not wear the cheche, as they are depicted in Egyptian frescoes.
There are several reasons for choosing a Touareg:
- Firstly, he is immediately identifiable visually, much more so than a Berber from the Aurès or the Atlas;
- Then there’s the whole myth surrounding the Tuaregs, glorified by Europeans and Amazighs alike;
- Finally, it is perhaps a tribute to a culture that is in <ѕtrоng>ԁаngеr: five years ago, Bey ag Akhamouk died without being replaced. The death of the last of the Amenokals of the Hoggar enabled Algeria to put an end to the Touareg confederation of the Kel Ahaggar in 1977.
The creation of the Amazigh calendar as told by its author himself
By dint of perseverance, I managed to find on the web a text by Ammar Negadi himself, which explains his approach to creating the calendar, and responds to controversy. I’m reposting it here as an exception – I don’t usually copy, but in this case I wanted to translate and preserve the text, which was published on a ‘free’ site and therefore liable to disappear overnight. The highlights are mine.
By: Amar NEGADI
ABOUT THE CALENDAR
We must not lose sight of the fact that in any calendar we must distinguish, on the one hand, between historical figures and facts (i.e. History, in the event that the absolute truth is accessible!) and legends, which are sometimes limited only by the stupidity that conveys them. For example, did we not recently read in the Algerian press that the pharaoh Ramses (which one?) had arrived in Tlemcen! (certainly to say hello to the ‘Great’ Boutef!); on the other hand, in a calendar we need to note the social and economic functions (especially agrarian functions in a society that was оrіgіnаllу essentially peasant or agro-pastoral), and finally the date/milestone/marker (often symbolic, arbitrary and even ideological, why not – the example of religion proves this -) that peoples give themselves as a historical landmark/milestone. So it was with the ancient peoples of the Mediterranean. They all had their own calendars: the Hebrews with their 5,000 or so years, the Greeks and Romans (and later the Europeans) with their own calendars, which they later exchanged when they converted to Christianity and dated them to the presumed date of the birth of Jesus Christ; the Egyptians did the same when they adopted Islam.
As for the Arabs, they set their calendar from the Hegira onwards, even though the Quran refers to people well before the Hegira: Abraham, Solomon, David, Jesus, etc…. Furthermore, it should be remembered that long before calendars and their rеfеrеnсе dates, peoples, depending on their area of habitat and their way of life, had first developed specific rites linked to their way of life and beliefs (hence the cosmogonic influence, climatic, etc.). A nomad, a fisherman, a peasant, an Inuit or a merchant from a large Babylonian city did not have the same concerns! Although there is a common thread running through some very ancient rites and beliefs, this takes us back to the infancy of mankind… Religious beliefs, more or less elaborate, were grafted onto this, culminating in the monotheism that seems to have predominated ever since. We can see from these examples that, briefly, people can choose or change their calendar according to their own free will, circumstances, and so on. On the other hand, rites, which pre-existed calendars as we have said, continue to exist, even if they are sometimes modified to fit in better with the nеw саlеnԁаr but above all with its ideological substratum (in this case, in the examples cited, the ideology is strictly religious). In this way, practices and rites considered to be ‘pagan’ are, by force of circumstance and their anteriority, integrated/assimilated by the new beliefs, which are the only means for them to survive/establish themselves. So, for the Imazighen, the choice of a date/marker to fix their calendar on the basis of an indisputable historical fact is no exception to the rule! Since they did not consider themselves to be Greeks or Romans, any more than Hebrews or Arabs, they felt that they had the right, and the duty, to set other benchmarks for themselves… This is what happened in 2930 (1980).
And here is the message I posted at the time: “The first time an Amazigh calendar was published and distributed was in 2930, in 1980, by the association Tediut n’Aghrif Amazigh (Union du Peuple Amazigh -UPA-), which I have the honour of having founded and directed, and therefore I am the іnіtіаtоr of this famous calendar, whose mysterious origin and remote paternity some people have been trying to find for years now.
It is precisely those who know that it was a Chaoui who was behind this initiative who tried, and are still trying, to confuse the issue.
The calendar, which was very simple and modest, within our means at the time, looked as follows: it was both handwritten and typed, in 30×42 cm format, with a Tergui in the centre, ¾ of the way up, ready to draw his sword, on the scabbard of which was written in tifinagh (we leave it to those who claim to know the history in question to give us the details). The writing and drawing were in indigo blue.
Long before that, the discussions were bitter and controversial, and especially afterwards (as was the case for the first list of Imazighen first names that we circulated at the same time), people were divided over the appropriateness of a calendar, and while there were some unconditional enthusiasts, many were against it.
Because, as always, they feared that we would be labelled regionalists, deviationists, separatists, and so on.
Even in Morocco, our friend Mohamed Chafik was reticent about the appropriateness of such an action and disapproved of the introductory text of the Imazighen names… in his opinion, the terms were too violent and the attack too frontal, and, again in his opinion, there was ultimately no urgency…
We explained the purpose of the calendar and the choice of date in our Asa$en newsletter (Asaghen)- Link published at the time.
But for those who did not live through that period, and there are many of them, we would like to reiterate some of the arguments that guided our approach:
In 950 BC, Sheshanq I seized the Delta and founded the 22nd Dynasty. From then on, folklore depicts for us “for the first time, a society enamoured of battle, very different from Egyptian society. The kingdom of Napata, which at the end of the 8th century extended from the First Cataract to Abyssinia, was not founded, as was long believed, by the descendants of the prophets of the god Amun. Reisner’s excavations have proved that it was Libyans who imposed their authority in the land of Kush, like the Libyans of the north in the Delta”.
And quoting A. Moret, Ch.-A. Julien goes on to write: “These Lebus were perhaps originally from the Atlas, for their names and those of their chiefs are exactly like those of the Numidians in classical history”, in G. Camps op. cit.
Extracts from the Bible, Chronicles, X-XII. … “. In the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, king of Egypt, Sheshanq marched on Jerusalem because it was unfaithful to Yahweh. With 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horses and an innumerable army of Libyans, Sukkites and Ethiopians, who came with him from Egypt, he took the fortified cities of Judah and reached Jerusalem… Thus says Yahweh ‘You have fоrѕакеn me, so I have forsaken you into the hands of Sheshanq… They will become his slaves and they will appreciate what it is to serve me and the kingdoms of the lands’… The king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem. He had the treasures of the Temple of Yahweh and those of the royal palace delivered to him, absolutely everything, right down to the golden shields that Solomon had made.” NB: Rehoboam, king of Judah (c. -931 / -915); Yahweh, name of the god of the Jews.
These texts can be found in the general introduction to the Yugurthen War currently being prepared.
And we said to ourselves, rather than taking this date or that, where each time our ancestors seemed defeated, dominated, we’re going to take this date where, for once, our ancestors are invaders, dominators, conquerors and sovereigns of an immense empire, and this at the dawn of history. With Yennayer just a few days away (January 12), I wish you all an excellent and happy New Year, in peace once again, and in the health and joy of your loved ones and each other”.
In conclusion, we can see that, according to the Bible, he is an Amazigh sent as punishment by God for the disobedience of his “chosen people” and to enable them to be the first to conquer the Temple and Solomon’s treasures! As we have just seen, there are at least three essential aspects to any calendar: the date, the historical facts and the rituals.
- a) the date: is often set arbitrarily and deliberately and not by chance, chance or legend.
- b) the historical facts are known and undeniable. So the calendar date is based on this certain historical fact and not the other way round.
- c) the rites, on the other hand, may predate them, and the calendar merely sets benchmarks for them.
I highly recommend that you click on the link and read the rest of the text, which gives details of Ammar Negadi’s research. It also shows how our historical knowledge has evolved over more than forty years, which is normal and does not invalidate the approach.
So on 12 or 14 January
On 14 December 2023, decrees 2.23.1000 and 2.23.687 were published in Arabic in the Official Gazette, setting (as a matter of urgency) the date of Yennayer as 14 January.
Why has Morocco abandoned the date of 13 January, which it has regularly publicised for years? And which, of all the possible dates, is undoubtedly the most frequent? The rest of the investigation will follow shortly!
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