The climate of the region bordering on the Mediterranean has always been conducive to human habitation and bones from the neolithic cultures have been found there.

At the time of the last ice age the climate of the Sahara was quite different from what is now. There are traces of rivers and lakes, but the most striking evidence of the wetter climate of the time is in the cave and rock art of sites in the middle of the Sahara. This art shows animals such as hippopotamuses as well as gazelles.

The humans depicted in this art are of the Negroid type that exists in sub-Saharan Africa.

With the waning of the ice age the climate of the region became progressively drier until it was a desert.

The Berbers

According to a theory associated with Colin Renfrew agriculture was developed around 8000 BCE in the Anatolia or its vicinity. The peoples who assimilated this technology migrated away. Those who migrate to the north became the ancestors of the Ind-Europeans, those who migrated east became the Dravidians and those who migrated west into North Africa became the Berbers. The language of the Berbers is related to some languages of the Middle East. The name Berber was given to the people by Arabs who thought the language sounded incomprehensible, like the speakers were saying ber... ber... ber. The Berbers' name for themselves was Amazigh, (the free people). Their language was Tamazight.

Incidentally the name for coastal North Africa, al Maghrib is Arabic for the island between the two seas, the sand sea of the Sahara and the Mediterranean. But that came much later.

The Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthagenians and the Romans

The Greeks and later the Phoenicians established trading towns on the coast and controlled a bit of the hinterland surrounding the town. By the sixth century BCE some Greek authors made reference to the aborigine people of North Africa and their way of life. Later the Romans conquered the area. The Roman administrator and historian, Gaius Crispus Sallust, says of natives of North Africa.

North Africa was first occupied by Libyans and Getulians, who were a barbarous people, a heterogeneous mass, or agglomeration of people of different races, without any form of religion or government, nourishing themselves on herbs, or devouring the raw flesh of animals killed in the chase; for first amongst these were found Blacks, probably some from the interior of Africa, and belonging to the great negro family; then whites, issue of the Semitic stock, who apparently constituted, even at that early period, the dominant race or caste. Later, but at an epoch absolutely unknown, a new horde of Asiatics of Medes, Persians, and Armenians, invaded the countries of the Atlas, and, led on by Hercules, pushed their conquests as far as Spain.

The Greeks established trading stations in the Mediterranean but most of them were on the European side. Likewise the Phoenicians established trading stations. One of those trading stations, in what is now Tunisia, grew into a major power in its own right, Carthage.

The Carthagians built an empire that included the Iberian Peninsula as well as the western coast of North Africa. The Carthagenian Empire impinged upon the Roman Empire and Rome finally conquered and destroyed Carthage after several wars. The Romans built cities and facilities in North Africa but they and their European successors had almost no lasting impact on the culture of area. The influences of the Phoenicians, Carthagenians and Romans were limited to the cities. They made their peace with the Berber tribes near the trading stations, even hiring them as mercenaries.

The Coming of Islam and the Arabs to North Africa

It took only about fifty years after the death of Mohammad for Islam to reach al Maghrib in the form of raids into the coastal plains. By 710 massive conversions to Islam were being carried out.

There were two Bedouin tribes from the western side of the Arabian peninsula, the Bani Hilal and the Bani Salim, who migrated into Upper Egypt, the southern part. The text of Morocco: A Country Study refers to these Bedouin tribes as infesting Upper Egypt. They were marauders. When the Fatamids, a Shi'ite group, conquered Egypt and established a Caliphate in Cairo they decided to deal with the problem of the Bedouin tribes in Egypt by encouraging them to migrate westward to reassert Egyptian suzerainty over that region. The Bedouins, later known as Halilians, swept slowly across the Maghrib region of North Africa. They conquered and destroyed cities and they turned farm land into pastureland. The historian Ibn Khaldun described the advance of the Halilians across the Maghrib as being like a swarm of locusts. However the migration of the Hilalians had a significant demographic impact on the Maghrib. It brought a large number of Arabs into its population. Prior to that time the Arabs constituted a small elite among a predominantly Berber population.

The Hilalians

There were two Bedouin tribes from the western side of the Arabian peninsula, the Bani Hilal and the Bani Salim, who migrated into Upper Egypt, the southern part. The text of Morocco: A Country Study refers to these Bedouin tribes as infesting Upper Egypt. They were marauders. When the Fatamids, a Shi'ite group, conquered Egypt and established a Caliphate in Cairo they decided to deal with the problem of the Bedouin tribes in Egypt by encouraging them to migrate westward to reassert Egyptian suzerainty over that region. The Bedouins, later known as Halilians, swept slowly across the Maghrib region of North Africa. They conquered and destroyed cities and they turned farm land into pastureland. The historian Ibn Khaldun described the advance of the Halilians across the Maghrib as being like a swarm of locusts. However, Morocco suffered less from the Hilalians than the territory of the Maghrib to the east of it. However the migration of the Hilalians had a significant demographic impact on Morocco. It brought a large number of Arabs into its population. Prior to that time the Arabs constituted a small elite among a predominantly Berber population.

(To be continued.)

The Attempt to Create a Social Welfare State
in Independent Algeria

Medical Care

At independence the Algerian population had some very serious health problems. Tuberculosis was the most serious danger. Malaria too was a serious threat in the spring and autumn when standing water was available for misquitoes to propagate in. Flies spread the eye infection trichoma which could lead to blindness. In addition pneumonia was always an ever present risk. Likewise the infectuous diseases scarlet fever, diphtheria and venereal diseases were a danger.