9 - Human migrations in North Africa

Summary

Introduction

It may be said of human migrations that they have simple and sometimes unique causes, but in reality these causes are multiple with varied consequences. North Africa is no exception to this formula. Here, I describe a few examples of migrations in the region. The territorial occupation by Iwellemeden “Saharan walkers” are followed by “Mediterranean sailor” invaders whose needs will be far more limited: ports, trading ports, and urban habitats were therefore limited to coasts. They are the Near Eastern Phoenicians of the twelfth century BC. Then others, coveting more farmland, food, and therefore territorial expansions, are the Romans, settlers of the Eastern Maghreb or “Ifriqiya” (present-day Tunisia).

The Magreb is a land of great immensity and infinite space, welcoming human activity. But it is also a land of great severity where the wind, this master of aridity, has established the largest desert in the world, the Sahara desert. One consequence is that since the Neolithic Era, the Maghreb has received far more successive civilizations than urban masses were able to erase and replace the prehistoric bases of its population (Bousquet, 1961). Despite the difficult conditions, humans have learned to master this space using mobility, especially in the Sahara, a key region of this “desert culture” born there tens of thousands years ago.