Who are the Amazigh (Berbers) of Morocco? A traveller's guide to Amazigh culture

The Amazigh (plural Imazighen), long known as Berbers, are the indigenous people of North Africa, settled here for thousands of years before the Arab conquest. In Morocco, about one resident in four uses an Amazigh language every day (24.8% in the 2024 census), and Amazigh heritage runs through the whole country, from the Rif to the Sahara. They are fully part of Moroccan society, overwhelmingly Muslim, and most also speak Darija, Moroccan Arabic.

On any trip from Marrakech you will hear "Berber" all day long: Berber villages, Berber tea, Berber camps. Here is who the people behind the label are, where they live, how to name them and what of their culture you will actually see, from a Marrakech team whose mountain days are led by guides from the valleys.

Amazigh or Berber?

The word Berber goes back to the Greek barbaros, used for anyone whose speech sounded foreign, and reached English through the Arabic barbar. It is still used everywhere, Morocco included: the museum of Amazigh arts at the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech is called the Musée Pierre Bergé des Arts Berbères. But it is an outsider's name, and many Amazigh people find it loaded, even pejorative.

Amazigh is their own name, often translated as "free man" or "noble man". Scholars still debate where the word comes from, but that is the meaning many Imazighen give it. The language is Tamazight. In this guide we say Amazigh, and add Berber where it helps, since that is the word most travellers search for. Amazigh is always the respectful choice, and you will still hear Berber from Moroccans speaking French or English.

In villages, people usually name their own community rather than use either word. Ait (or Ayt) means "the sons of" or "the people of": the Ait Atta of Jebel Saghro trace their descent to an ancestor, Dadda Atta, and the Ait Khabbash of the Tafilalet are "the people of Khabbash".

Where Amazigh Morocco lives

Amazigh languages are strongest in the mountains and the south, in three broad regions. They are not only rural, though: in the 2024 census, about one town-dweller in five used an Amazigh language daily, and one country-dweller in three.

Region	Language	Where you meet it on our trips
Western High Atlas, Anti-Atlas, Souss	Tachelhit	Asni, Imlil and the Toubkal valleys, the Ourika valley, Agadir
Middle Atlas, central and eastern High Atlas, south-eastern oases	Tamazight	the cedar forests between Fes and the desert, the Dades and Todra gorges, Jebel Saghro, around Merzouga
The Rif, in the north	Tarifit	Al Hoceima and Nador, off our usual routes

The lines blur where regions meet. The Ait Bouguemez valley, where our M'Goun trek starts, lies close to where Tamazight and Tachelhit meet. Jebel Saghro is the heartland of the Ait Atta, and around Merzouga and the Tafilalet oasis live the Ait Khabbash, a branch of the Ait Atta whose women weave brightly coloured carpets, alongside long-established Arabic-speaking families.

A short history

Amazigh peoples lived across North Africa for thousands of years before Arab armies arrived from the late 7th century. Islam spread among Amazigh communities over the following generations, and when Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed to Spain in 711, giving his name to Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq, Tariq's mountain), his army was mostly Amazigh.

Two of Morocco's great dynasties were Amazigh. The Almoravids, Sanhaja Berbers from the Sahara, founded Marrakech around 1070; the Almohads, who rose among the Masmuda of the High Atlas around Tinmel, built the Koutoubia mosque. Dynasties, kasbahs and ksour have their own section in our history and architecture guides. Jewish communities also lived for centuries in Atlas and southern villages, some speaking an Amazigh language at home, until most emigrated in the 1950s and 1960s.

Language and the Tifinagh alphabet

Morocco's three main Amazigh varieties, Tachelhit, Tamazight and Tarifit, are treated by the State as one language, Tamazight, official alongside Arabic since the 2011 Constitution. Since 2003 it has been written in Tifinagh, the alphabet of circles, lines and dots you see on town halls and road signs, and a standard form is taught in schools. For the census figures and which language to use where, read our guide to the languages spoken in Morocco.

The Amazigh flag and the ⵣ symbol

Three horizontal bands, blue, green and yellow, with a red sign in the middle: this is the Amazigh flag. The colours are usually read as the land of the Imazighen: blue for the sea, green for the mountains and fertile land, yellow for the desert. The red sign is ⵣ, yaz, the Tifinagh letter for the "z" of Amazigh, and so a symbol of the "free man".

The flag grew out of the Amazigh cultural movement. It is usually credited to the Académie berbère in Paris, around 1970, and was adopted by the World Amazigh Congress at Tafira, in the Canary Islands, on 30 August 1997. In Morocco you will see the yaz on silver pendants, rugs, T-shirts and murals, and the flag waved at concerts and festivals.

Amazigh identity in Morocco today

Recognition has come step by step:

• 2001: the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) is founded.
• 2003: Tifinagh is adopted to write Amazigh, and teaching begins in a first 120 schools.
• 2011: the Constitution makes Amazigh an official language, the common heritage of all Moroccans, and its preamble names the Amazigh component of national identity next to the Arab-Islamic and Saharan-Hassanic ones.
• 2019: organic law 26-16 sets out how Amazigh enters schools, the administration and public life, in stages.
• 2024: Yennayer, the Amazigh New Year on 14 January, is a paid public holiday for the first time, after a royal decision announced on 3 May 2023.

On 14 January 2027, the Amazigh calendar enters the year 2977. How families mark the day is in our calendar of Moroccan festivals.

What you will see of Amazigh culture on a trip

Villages and terraces

In the High Atlas, villages of stone and earth climb above terraced fields of walnut and apple trees, as around Imlil. Since the 2023 earthquake many families have rebuilt in concrete; our article on the High Atlas after the earthquake explains what has changed and why visits help.

Weekly souks

Rural Morocco shops once a week, and many markets are named after their day, in Arabic. Tnine Ourika, on the road to the Ourika valley, holds its souk on Monday (tnine), and a town whose name starts with Had, Khemis or Sebt holds its market on Sunday, Thursday or Saturday. Asni, on the way to Imlil, has a large Saturday souk. Come for vegetables, livestock and household goods rather than souvenirs.

Tea and a family meal

Mint tea is the first thing offered to a guest. On our Imlil day trip, lunch is at our guide's family home, and on our cooking class in the Atlas you bake bread and cook a tagine with an Amazigh family, then share the meal.

Music and dance

Village music is collective. In ahidous, from the Middle and eastern High Atlas, men and women stand shoulder to shoulder in a circle or in two facing lines, drumming, dancing and improvising poetry; ahwach is its counterpart in the Anti-Atlas and the Souss. Our guide to Moroccan music tells you where to hear both.

Rugs and silver

Amazigh rugs are mostly woven by women, with patterns that change from region to region, and silver jewellery is part of how brides and women dress for celebrations. Before you shop, the Berber arts museum at the Jardin Majorelle is a good introduction to the textiles, jewellery and carpets of the different regions.

Semi-nomadic families

In Jebel Saghro, some Ait Atta families are still semi-nomadic, moving their flocks between seasonal pastures; you may meet them on our Jebel Saghro trek. Who still lives on the move, and how to visit, is in our guide to nomads in Morocco.

Visiting Amazigh villages respectfully

Villages are homes, not open-air museums. A few habits make a visit easier for everyone:

• Dress for a village: shoulders and knees covered, for men and women alike.
• Ask before any photo of a person, and take no for an answer: in villages, women and older people often decline. Some older women have small tattoos on the chin or forehead, a custom that has almost disappeared; they are not a photo opportunity.
• Stay on the paths, and don't walk into courtyards or onto rooftops unless you are invited.
• Spend where it stays: buy from cooperatives, like the women's argan cooperative on our Imlil day, or from the maker directly.
• Learn two words: azul (hello) and tanmirt (thank you). Our Moroccan Arabic phrases include a short Amazigh section.
• Go with a local guide, who knows the families and the paths, and can translate.

The nearest Amazigh valleys are an hour to an hour and a half from Marrakech: our page on an Atlas Mountains day trip from Marrakech compares the options.

FAQ

Are Berbers Arabs?

No. The Amazigh were in North Africa long before Arab armies, then Arab tribes, arrived from the 7th century on. Centuries of shared faith, marriage and history have mixed the two, many Moroccans feel both, and the Constitution describes Moroccan identity as a convergence of Arab-Islamic, Amazigh and Saharan-Hassanic components.

Is it offensive to say "Berber"?

Not usually, and you will hear it in Morocco. But it is an outsider's word with an echo of "barbarian", and many Imazighen prefer Amazigh, so use Amazigh when you can, especially when you talk to people about themselves.

Are Berbers Muslim?

Yes, overwhelmingly. Amazigh Moroccans, like Arabic-speaking Moroccans, are Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school, and Islam spread among them from the late 7th century.

Do Berbers speak Arabic?

Most do. Darija, Moroccan Arabic, is used daily by more than nine Moroccans in ten, so nearly everyone you meet in an Amazigh village speaks it too, alongside Amazigh at home.

If you would like to share a meal with an Amazigh family or walk between villages with a local guide, ask us on WhatsApp which day trip or trek fits your dates.