North Africa

North Africa is a region generally considered to include:

Culture

North Africa is naturally divided into three rather distinct cultural regions: the Maghreb (Northwest Africa), the Sahara, and the Nile Valley.

Related Topics:
Maghreb - Northwest Africa - Sahara - Nile

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The culture of the Maghreb and the Sahara combines indigenous Berber and Arab elements. Most Maghrebis and Saharans have mixed Berber, Arab, and sometimes also black African, ancestry. They speak either Arabic or Berber, and follow Islam; however, the dialects of the Sahara (Arabic and Berber) are in general notably more conservative than those of the coast. These two languages are related, both being members of the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Maghreb (Northwest Africa) is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers since the beginning of recorded history. However, Berbers were influenced by other cultures that came in contact with them: Nubians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, and lately Europeans. In the Sahara, the distinction between sedentary oasis inhabitants and nomadic Bedouin and Tuareg is particularly marked.

Related Topics:
Arabic - Berber - Islam - Afro-Asiatic language family - Berbers - Nubians - Greeks - Phoenicians - Egyptians - Romans - Vandals - Arabs - Oasis - Bedouin - Tuareg

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The Nile Valley, tracing its heritage back to the Pharaohs, has more recently been inhabited by Arabic-speakers, most of them Muslims, though some - the Copts - are Christians. In Nubia, straddling Egypt and Sudan, a significant population retains the Nubian language. Further down the Nile Valley, in the southern Sudan, the culturally entirely distinct world of the largely non-Muslim Nilotic and Nuba peoples begins.

Related Topics:
Pharaoh - Copt - Christians - Nubia - Nubian language - Nilotic - Nuba

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North Africa formerly had a large Jewish population, a large portion of which emigrated to France or Israel when the North African nations gained independence. Prior to the modern establishment of Israel, there were about 600,000-700,000 Jews in North Africa, including both Sfardīm (immigrants from France, Spain and Portugal from the Renaissance era) as well as indigenous Mizrahi Jew. Today, less than fifteen thousand remain in the region, and are mostly part of a French-speaking urban elite. (See Jewish exodus from Arab lands.)

Related Topics:
Jewish - Israel - Sfardīm - Mizrahi Jew - Jewish exodus from Arab lands

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