By: Rachid RAHA*
During a conversation with Princess Belkiss, daughter of the late great Tuareg resistor Mohamed Ali Ag Taher Al Ansari, originally from Timbuktu, she asserted that their tribe belonged to the lineage of the Shurfa, those Muslim saints descended from the Al Ansar who came from Arabia and trace their ancestry to Fatima-Zahra, daughter of the Prophet Mohammed.
I then pointed out to her that the most recent archaeological and anthropological discoveries invite a reassessment of this narrative, situating our origins not in Arabia, but in African soil itself, with the “Adrar Ighud Man,” identified as the oldest known Homo sapiens to date, dating back approximately 315,000 years.
At the Origins of Identity
This pivotal discovery was made in Morocco, between Safi and Marrakech, by paleoanthropologists Jean-Jacques Hublin (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig) and Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer (National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage, INSAP) [1].
The princess then responded, with a striking sense of humor: “So our ancestors left from here to the Arabian Peninsula, and their descendants are merely returning home!”
The Myths of Arab Origins
The idea that the Imazighen (Berbers) originated from Arabia remains widely circulated through official historiography shaped by Arab-Muslim nationalist ideologies. This view, promoted in several Maghreb countries, asserts that the ancestors of the Amazighs came from Yemen, crossing the Red Sea to settle in North Africa.
However, archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence clearly contradicts this mythical version. It is important to distinguish between the “Adrar Ighud Man,” the oldest identified Homo sapiens — the progenitor of all humanity — and Amazigh civilization, which emerged much later, around 9,000–10,000 years ago. According to archaeologist Gabriel Camps, Amazigh civilization arose in Tunisia, in the Gafsa region, giving rise to the Capsian civilization.
The Capsians, active from the 8th to the 5th millennium BCE, spread from east to west across central and eastern Maghreb. They mainly lived by gathering and hunting, including snails, as attested by numerous archaeological sites. One of the most complete human specimens, the Aïn Dokkara man (Tébessa), stands out for his harmonious morphology and a less massive skull.
These populations buried their dead according to varied rites, and their animal art, seen on ostrich eggshells or in the El Mekta engravings, demonstrates refined aesthetics and an advanced symbolic consciousness — traits that G. Camps associates with the earliest forms of Amazigh art [2].
Capsians and Ibero-Maurusians: The Two Prehistoric Strains of the Maghreb
The Capsians apparently succeeded an older civilization: that of the Ibero-Maurusians, whose remains — particularly the necropolises of Mechta Afalou, Afalou Bourhummel (C. Arambourg, 1928), Tafoghalt (Abbé Roche, 1953; D. Fermebach, 1962), and Colonnade (M.-C. Chamla, 1970) — cover the Maghrebine coast and Tellian mountains. These proto-Mediterraneans are considered the forerunners of the Amazighs due to anthropological similarities with present-day North African populations.
The Ibero-Maurusians, tall (average 1.74 m) and robust, practiced dental avulsion and various funerary rites. Their microlithic industry, highly developed, included scrapers, flakes, burins, and bone tools — evidence of a high level of technical skill.
Gabriel Camps estimated their origin as Near Eastern, while acknowledging their Mediterranean and African affinities: “This arrival is so ancient (10,000 years ago) that its descendants need not be classified as truly indigenous” [2].
Recent Discoveries: Towards a Saharan Origin
Recent advances in archaeology and genetic anthropology have profoundly challenged these Orientalist hypotheses. New data now point to an indigenous, Saharan, and African origin of Amazigh-Berber civilization.
The rock paintings and frescoes of the central Sahara — particularly in Tassili n’Ajjer — show that 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, this now desert region was green and inhabited, crossed by rivers and home to abundant wildlife.
Prehistorian Malika Hachid, in her major work Les Premiers Berbères (The First Berbers) [3], demonstrates that: “The Proto-Berbers Bovidians are heirs to the great Neolithic civilization of the Sahara, one of the oldest in the world, as ancient and innovative as that of the famed Fertile Crescent in the Middle East… Civilizers at the dawn of their existence, these first Berbers elevated this Neolithic to its peak; they benefited from the last humid millennia that made the Sahara green. Although belonging to the late prehistoric period, and in an environment still evocative of African landscapes with large predators, the civilizational aspect reflected in their art is closer to the Mediterranean world and history than to prehistory. Compared to other major ethnicities of this prehistoric Sahara, these Proto-Berbers stand out, as they no longer seem like mere pastoral-hunter communities, but a true society built around practices, conventions, and clearly developed values. Their art and external signs of abundance reveal a healthy, dynamic people, enjoying activity, whether hunting, sporting, or martial. A civilized people, evident in their care for hairstyles, clothing, ornaments, elegance of posture and gesture, and high-level social relations where discussions take on the character of court ceremonies.”
She adds: “During the Neolithic, thanks to favorable humidity, the central Sahara was at the forefront of progress. From the 11th millennium BP, humans engaged in an unprecedented innovative process in human history: they learned pottery-making. These ceramics are even older (11,000 BP) than those of the Near East (10,000 BP).”
This “green” Sahara therefore hosted one of the world’s earliest complex societies, whose rock art reveals aesthetic, social, and spiritual codes of remarkable sophistication.
Recent Excavations of the Middle Draa Project: Moroccan Confirmation
Contemporary archaeological work strengthens this hypothesis. Within the Middle Draa Project [4], a collaboration between the University of Leicester (UK), led by Professor David J. Mattingly, and Morocco’s INSAP, represented by anthropologist Youssef Bokbot, more than 2,200 archaeological sites have been identified in the Drâa Valley, between Agdz and M’Hamid.
Excavations conducted from 2016 to 2024 revealed over 22,000 protohistoric and pre-Islamic tombs, fortified villages, and medieval urbanization vestiges from the Almoravid and Almohad periods. According to Bokbot, this represents an absolute record for the Maghreb-Sahara.
Members of this Moroccan-British team are finalizing monographs that, according to physical anthropology, attest to the Saharan origin of Amazigh civilization. They even discovered extraordinary paintings illustrating matrilineality in these ancient Amazigh societies, a cultural trait that the Tuaregs continue today.
The Contribution of Genetics: Scientific Confirmation
As early as 2000, studies by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena and Jorge Alonso Garcia (Egipcios, Bereberes, Guanches y Vascos, Complutense University of Madrid) [5] suggested that a large Saharan population spoke a single language and shared a common genetic identity before migrating to the Mediterranean coasts following post-glacial desertifications around 20,000 years ago. These authors further argue, based on genetic anthropology, that: “The genetic study of Egyptians (based on HLA genes) and its comparison with other Mediterranean peoples places them in an ancient majority group including Egyptians, Jews, Cretans, Moroccans, Algerians, Italians, Spaniards, and Basques, who had genetic contacts and cultural flows over a very long period.”
Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena concludes: “There probably existed a large population along the Sahara and in North Africa, with a single language, and possibly a shared genetic identity… This people was forced to emigrate during the climatic fluctuations of desertification around 18,000 years ago, and when the desert became inhospitable, they migrated en masse to the northern Mediterranean coasts (Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy, western Mediterranean islands), the Atlantic islands (Canaries), and eastward to Egypt (6000 BCE).”
More recent genetic studies, including those published in Nature (July 2, 2024), confirm these findings: the genome analysis of a predynastic Egyptian (Nuwayrat, 4,600 years ago) revealed that nearly 80% of his ancestry came from Neolithic Morocco [6].
Amazighs and Egyptians: A Deep Kinship
These data strengthen a fascinating hypothesis: Egyptian civilization may have Saharan and Amazigh roots.
Egyptologist Zahi Hawass asserts that Egyptians are “neither Arabs nor Africans” [7]; while their Arabness is questionable, their African identity is undeniable. North American anthropologist Helene E. Hagan [8] notes that Amazigh and Egyptian cultures share numerous linguistic and symbolic traits, with the predynastic period (5000–3000 BCE) constituting the foundational link between the western Sahara and the Nile Valley.
Hagan explains: “I had vague prior knowledge that Libyan territory once extended to the Nile, and that the Amazigh language and the Egyptian language shared certain similarities, both classified as part of the Hamitic language family. I did not know that step by step I would encounter so many connections, so many clues and deep common roots, a vast array of etymological information I have not exhausted.”
Similarly, Algerian researcher Taklit Mebarek-Slaouti [9], based on Tassili n’Ajjer engravings, rock chariots, and burial tumuli, highlights the artistic and ritual continuity between Saharan peoples and ancient Egyptians. She emphasizes: “Before this desertification, lasting nearly 500 years depending on location and accompanied by forced migrations, the Sahara was distinguished by very high-level and diverse art, the ‘Round Heads’ and ‘Bubalin’. This art dates back to immemorial times, evidenced by layers of paintings and engravings at the same sites. These rock arts reflect idyllic life in the Sahara. Rivers, diverse plants, lakes allowed humans to fish, hunt, herd, and even practice agriculture… The Sahara also had abundant, diverse ceramics, identical across all sites and dating back to more than 8000 BCE, earlier than anything found in the Orient (Palestine or elsewhere). Moreover, in the Maghreb, the Berber people (since skeletal remains from tombs older than 8000 BCE are identical to ours today) raised sheep and goats and practiced agriculture, as most Capsian sites show overpopulation already in this period of 8000 BCE.”
Rewriting the History of North Africa
Archaeological and genetic discoveries of recent decades call for a profound revision of North African history textbooks.
The pan-Arabist myth of a Yemeni origin of the Amazighs must give way to a scientifically established truth: the Amazighs are indigenous, Saharan, and civilizing. This people not only contributed to the genesis of Egyptian civilization but also to that of the Guanches of the Canary Islands, the Iberians, Sicilians, and proto-Mediterranean peoples [10].
Ironically, according to some genetic studies, part of the populations of Saudi Arabia and Yemen may themselves descend from these same Saharan ancestors [11].
* Rachid RAHA is President of the David Montgomery Hart Foundation for Amazigh Studies and President of the World Amazigh Assembly
Notes :
[1]- www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl-yo49hGqg
[2]- Gabriel Camps: Les Berbères, Mémoire et identité. Errance, Paris, 1987 & Les Civilisations préhistoriques de l’Afrique du Nord et du Sahara, Editions Doin, Paris, 1974.
[3]- Malika Hachid : Les Premiers Berbères, entre Méditerranée, Tassili et Nil. Edisud, Aix-En-Provence, 2000.
& https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JIA/article/view/20440/24261
[5]- Dr. Antonio Arnaiz Villena et Jorge Alonso Garcia: Egipcios, Bereberes, Guanches y Vascos. Université Complutense de Madrid, 2000.
[6]- www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09195-5
ou https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:a8bc75bf-837c-4e9b-9269-5afc05fc8c7e
[7]- www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIqH20G2k1c
[8]- Helene E. Hagan: «The Shining ones; an etymological essay on the Amazigh roots of Egyptian civilization». USA 2000.
& Akhu, essai étymolorique sur les racines amazighes de l’ancienne civilisation égyptienne ; Xlibris, USA 2022.
[9]- Taklit Mebarek-Slaouti : Les Amazighs en Egypte. Des temps les plus reculés aux dynasties Amazighes. Editions ANEP, Alger 2016.
[10]- http://amadalpresse.com/RAHA/Origines.html
[11]-http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0192269&type=printable
