Tamazgha

Tamazgha is a term in the Berber languages for the lands traditionally inhabited by the Berber people within the Maghreb. It is written Tamazɣa in the Latin form of Tamazight and in Neo-Tifinagh script as well. The Berber Academy coined it in the 1970s, and since the late 1990s it has gained particular significance among speakers of Berber languages. Although it is a neologism, it is grounded in historical reality: it can be used politically, but it also simply names the land that Berbers have inhabited since antiquity. The territories it would encompass are the Canary Islands and the Siwa Oasis, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania and Western Sahara, and parts of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Senegal, so it crosses many modern state borders.