An exuberant awakening for Libya’s Berbers

[tabatha]

By Alice Fordham
Perched on a peak in the heart of Libya’s Nafusa Mountains, the ancient town of Kabaw was bathed in floodlight, rocked by music blaring from gigantic speakers and overwhelmed by thousands of people dancing in its steep streets.

As the party ebbed and flowed up the steps of a castle, around a mosque with a seemingly misplaced steeple and down the sides of the mountain, the revelers waved the red, black and green flag of Libya’s revolutionaries. But they also flaunted another flag, with green, blue and yellow stripes and a curious red symbol.

“Azoul!” they shouted, before bursting into song in a language that is not Arabic. Kabaw is home to about 10,000 Amazigh people, also known as Berbers, who speak their own language, have their own customs and were intensely repressed by Libyan autocrat Moammar Gaddafi.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/an-exuberant-awakening-for-libyas-berbers/2011/11/11/gIQASov7NN_story.html

[ellisonz]

1. "Now we smell freedom, and we have to touch it and taste it.”

:applause:

[eridani]

2. Too bad that doesn't apply to black Africans n/t

[BlueToTheBone]

3. May all people be free.

May all people be at peace