When the Arabs arrived in Algeria during the “coming of Islam”, they found it impossible to penetrate the eastern mountains. The people they encountered there became known as Kabyle, derived from the Arabic term for “tribe”. Under Ottoman rule, the Kabylia region remained independent.

During the French conquest of Algeria, France eventually infiltrated the Kabylia region – despite strong resistance. The Kabyle people suffered under French colonial rule, and formed a critical part of the resistance during the war of Algerian independence - between 1954 and 1962, the Kabyle lost 10 percent of their population fighting the French.

However, the new Algerian government sought to unite the country under an Islamic ideology and systematically arrested and killed Berber leaders who attempted to maintain their unique culture and governance structures. The government forbade the use of the Berber language in the media, schools, and government offices, and banned Berber names for children. 

In 1980, huge protests known as the Berber Spring broke out after the banning of a lecture on Kabyle poetry by a Kabyle academic. In 1982, Mustafa Booyali, who had been a leading figure in the independence war against France, led a rebellion against the Algerian government.

In 1988, students rioted across the nation, demanding reform. So called “Black October” saw security forces fire on protestors, killing 500 people and arresting 3,500. Kabyle resistance continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2001 the “Black Spring” uprising broke out after Massinissa Guermah, a 19 year old Kabyle student, was arrested and shot dead whilst in police custody. 200 people were killed during this uprising, and later that year a Kabyle organisation advocating for the revival of traditional councils of tribal elders as a locally-based solution to the region’s problems staged a protest in Algiers involving half a million people.