THE HISTORY OF NORTH AFRICA (PART 2)

    

         The History of North Africa continues to tickle me, its unique past has propelled me to prod deeper. Learning about North Africa's chronicles has excited me. It has addressed numerous unanswered questions that have raced through my mind (is this how this has always been? Why is that like that?)  thereby satisfying my inquisitiveness. 

         Nabta Playa (Nubian Desert) was another interesting sophisticated artistic society in North Africa, around 5000BC Nabta Playa was a ritual core in the desert region of ancient Nubia. A gigantic sandstone sculpture similar to a cow was discovered, as many African cultures venerated their cattle and set up ecclesiastical structures formed around cattle coats. This statue believed to be a cattle is the earliest known statue in now "valley history" and is believed to have encouraged a lifestyle of stone carving and pharaonic Egypt. 

         An Astronomical Observatory was also uncovered at the place, around 5000 BC very developed cultures and communities began to develop in North Africa. The proto-Berber Caspian acculturation started to emerge as well, along the shore of North Africa. Now the ancestry of the Berbers is an issue of fierce argument among scholars. The recent trial of the Berbers to pin down their beginnings only made it more complex. The main hindrance in pinning down the origin of the Berbers is a lack of early written sources on the Berber language. Many Arab intellects considered the Berbers to be of Middle Eastern origin. Some analyses show that there is actual linguistic proof to support an association with the Phoenicians who settled along the coast of North Africa. 

            The Berbers of Morocco are believed to be the offspring of the prehistoric Caspian culture of North Africa. The De-Berberization of North Africa began with Punic settlement and sped up under Roman vandal Byzantine and especially Arab rule. The Arab invasion of the 7th century brought about Arabization as well as the final conversion of the Berbers into Islam. 

            In the face of several origin myths rest the irony that all of them may have some truth in them, given the multifariousness of the Berber people. It is not a surprise that they have numerous origins among the Phoenicians, Middle Eastern and even African people. Notwithstanding, Berbers see themselves as indigenous to North Africa.