Actually, the first signs of repression of the Amazigh culture go back to early 1930's when a conflict broke out between the Kabyle and Arabophone militants of the National Movement of Liberation. The ideology of the Kabyle militants was based on both the Amazigh traditional values and modern western values which included, among other things, laity and democracy, whereas the ideology of the Arab militants was exclusively inspired from Arabo-Islamic values. This conflict led to a cleavage between the two clans and accusations of division on the part of the Arabophone militants, which in turn, with the help of the Egyptian government led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, resulted in the alienation and physical liquidation of some of the Kabyle militants who refused to go along with the Arabo-Islamic ideology.

The first symbolic act of the government against the Amazigh culture was carried out in October of 1962, three months after the independence for which hundreds of thousands of Amazigh people had died, by closing the chair of Amazigh studies at the University of Algiers. This chair was created during the French occupation as a branch of the chair of ethnology and was held by both Algerian and French researchers. In later years, the government justified its action by labeling ethnology a scientific creation of the French colonialism for the purpose of instilling and promoting division and separatism within the nation. This act was followed by an armed repression against the people of Kabylia between 1963 and 1965, as a result of a major political disagreement between Ahmed Ben Bella, the newly elected president, and Hocine Ait Ahmed, an historical political leader and one of the fathers of the Algerian revolution and a deputy at the National Assembly, and also because of the dissatisfaction of the Kabyles with the policies of the government which kept them from a political victory. Ben Bella dreamed of making Algeria an Arab state, modeled after Nasser's Arabo-Islamic ideology, thus excluding the Amazigh heritage from the scene, while Hocine Ait Ahmed was in favor of a democratic government. This is not to say that Ait Ahmed incorporated the Amazigh revendications in his political platform. But because he was an advocate of democracy, freedom and tolerance, the Amazigh culture was more likely to flourish and prosper under his regime than Ben Bella's.

The government of Boumediene, formed in June 1965 after a military coup d'etat, launched an even harsher repressive campaign against the Amazigh culture. The government now targeted the Amazigh radio station that was created during the French occupation. The government threatened its closing several times, but settled for reducing its hours of operation, eliminating a host of programs in Amazigh and replacing them with Arabic ones, and keeping its transmitters weak to limit its audience, while the other two stations, Arabic and French, were equipped with powerful ones. In 1973, as a continuation of their agenda of repression, the authorities cancelled the Tamazight course offered by the University of Algiers and taught by the late Scholar Mouloud Mammeri, despite his insistence and the disenchantment of the students which resulted in a number of demonstrations followed by a walk-out. Ironically, the then Secretary of Education inscribed this action in the plan of higher education reforms.

Anyone who showed the slightest interest in the Amazigh culture was labeled by the government as an enemy of the Algerian revolution, a "residue of the French colonialism," and a threat to the unity of the nation, and the authorities did everything to discredit him or her and sometimes even eliminate him or her. Such was the treatment that the writers Mouloud Mammeri, Jean Amrouche, Taos Amrouche, and Kateb Yacine, just to name a few, received from the government. Although their literary work (see, for example, Les isefra de Si Mohand by Mouloud Mammeri, Les chants berberes de Kabylie and L'eternel Jugurtha by Jean Amrouche, Le grain magique and Les disques et concerts de chants Kabyles anciens by Taos Amrouche, La guerre de deux milles ans by Kateb Yacine) was written in French, its content was deeply rooted in the Amazigh culture and aimed to promote it internationally, and because of this they were the target of suspicions and attacks. The direct and absolute control of the government on the press, edition, and distribution excluded any written production in Tamazight.

From 1974, after demonstrations had taken place in Larba n At Iraten and Algiers --demonstrations which explicitly attested to the aspirations of the Amazigh people-- the government started arresting and throwing people in jail, and this sometimes affected people as young as high school students, for things as innocent as the possession of a Tifinagh alphabet or a book written in Tamazight. Singers, such as Ferhat Mehenni, Ait Menguellat, and Idir who claimed their Amazighity and denounced the injustice of the government were arrested, interrogated, jailed, their concerts cancelled, and some of their records banned. Intimidations in the streets by law enforcement agents of people for speaking Tamazight, dismissals from schools, passport withdrawals, interrogations, and prolonged arbitrary detentions were an everyday practice during that period.

The government of Chadli Bendjedid, formed in 1979 after the death of Boumediene, followed in the footsteps of the previous government in its repressive practices towards the Amazigh culture. On March 10th of 1980, the students of the University of Tizi Ouzou invited Mouloud Mammeri to lecture on ancient Kabyle poetry. But the local authorities received orders from the government to prevent such an event from taking place. This repressive act generated a wave of protests, strikes, and affronts in the entire Kabylia and in some parts of Algiers(1), which lasted several months, and culminated in the riots of Tizi Ouzou. On April 20th, at dawn, military forces assaulted the students in the dormitories of the University of Tizi Ouzou, injuring and arresting hundreds of them. A few weeks later, military forces occupied the two major campuses of the University of Algiers to control the fights that had broken out. In actuality, the government used the members of the Islamic movement, who strongly opposed the uprising, as accomplices to violently put an end to the strikes at the University of Science and Technology of Bab Ezzouar, by helping them organize an armed attack on the students who participated in the strikes. At least two students were killed, and several wounded. Similar attacks, but on a smaller scale, had taken place in the dormitories of the two campuses resulting in a number of deaths. During all that time, the government condemned the uprising, depicted it as a product of reactionary elements, linked with neo-colonialism, seeking to destroy the ideals and the assets of the Algerian revolution, and tried to mobilize the rest of the country against the uprising. In fact, according to an article in the New York Times, the government of Algeria went as far as accusing the U.S. and other Western countries of fanning the unrest.

After some press criticized the government for its handling of the affair, and especially after the government realized that it could not simply repress such a massive and decisive uprising without any consequences, the government then shifted its position towards leniency and dialogue. The government promised to open an institute of Amazigh language and civilization and at the same time open a national debate on culture. But in July of 1981, after the debate in question had ended with another denial of the Amazigh culture and a reinforcement of the Arabo-Islamic one, the Amazigh population understood that the government never had any intention of officially recognizing Tamazight nor addressing the Amazigh problem. As a matter of fact, the government immediately proceeded to arrest those who expressed openly their support of Tamazight during the debate as well those linked to the Amazigh Cultural Movement (MCB). In February of 1985, seven members of the MCB were arrested for denouncing violations of human rights and for attempting to create a league of human rights in Algeria(2). The people of Kabylia responded to this event with massive demonstrations which ended up in violent confrontations and hundreds of arrests.

Despite decades of severe repression of the Amazigh people, the government has not been able to eradicate their will and demands. On the contrary, this repression and especially the strong opposing forces that have resulted from it contributed profoundly in raising the level of consciousness of the Amazigh people in Algeria and other countries of North Africa as well, and strengthening their determination and commitment to their revendications. In fact, the events of spring 1980 were unprecedentedly the most serious popular challenge to the government in the post-colonial period. These events achieved major victories. In addition to the cultural and linguistic revendications, expressed publicly and crystallized in the demand for the official recognition of the Amazigh language as a national language on a par with Arabic and the promotion of the Amazigh culture, the movement was not only able to break the powerful walls of censorship and repression of the regime, but also to spur a political movement that set up the foundations of the democratic movements of 1988. Through their affirmations, the Amazigh people launched a new Algerian society: a society open to democracy, pluralism, freedom, and tolerance because Imazighen understood that their rights would be guaranteed only in such a society.

Today, almost seven years after the events of October 1988 --events that led to Algeria's seeming move towards multi-party democracy-- the Amazigh language is still not taught in schools, despite its being the daily communication medium to more than 8 million Algerians, out of a population of 26 million. After an eight month general school boycott in Kabylia, launched last September by the MCB to pressure the authorities into recognizing Tamazight as an official language --a boycott that was interspersed by several general strikes, demonstrations, and multiple talks and negotiations with the government--, the MCB and the Amazigh movements of Aures and Mzab were finally able to snatch from the government the institutionalization and the teaching of Tamazight. Rather than recognizing Tamazight as an official language, the government agreed instead to form a national commission, with executive powers, to study the possibility of introducing Tamazight into the school curriculum.