The United States and the Berbers

This book is about the historical relationship between the United States of America and North Africa. For Americans, the Berber people are relatively unknown. For most people, they are some obscure exotic tribes that live somewhere in the Moroccan Atlas and some parts of Algeria. Berber identity therefore remains obscure and there does not seem, in their eyes, to be of any particular interest with these people. No person is known to have come from this people and their history does not bring back any good memories for most people, not just Americans.

However, there were indeed relations between Americans and Berbers, and it would be interesting to recall them to enlighten the public. Uncle Sam's children should understand why the oldest city in the United States is named after a Berber character and how the father of their civilization was a North African. This book is then about Berbers in America and Americans in North-Africa.

There have been many important figures in North Africa who played important roles in the development of Western culture and civilization: the man who carried the cross of Jesus and his children, the author of the earliest gospel, five Church Fathers, Three Popes, three Roman emperors, numerous thinkers and theologians and writers, some of whom have left traces in our modern life. We must also mention the invention of the Novel, the Candle and the so-called “Arabic” numerals used throughout the world.

This insight should help Americans better understand their own history, especially since over the past centuries, there have been numerous exchanges between the two continents, both in war and in peace.

This book brings together several articles written and published in the press, both by myself and by others who I felt should be used to contribute to this insight.

I have not always given the exact references of my sources. But I do not claim to be the originator of all this information, and I pay tribute to all those mentioned there, and I apologize to those I may have forgotten.

I hope that this book will be useful for those who love North-Africa, prays for its people, preach to them or do business with them. Whether in North-Africa, in America or elsewhere in the world.

Nabil Z.