The Berbers are the most ancient inhabitants of North Africa. Their presence in the region can be traced back for millennia. They are found over a region of nearly 5 million km — from, Morocco to western Egypt — in different groups, with a common language and culture. In the Berber language, they are known as Imazighen, which means "free men". Their fundamental values include tolerance, freedom and non-violence.
Masters of the desert, the Berbers travel through an immense territory that most would consider inhospitable. Over the centuries they have had to develop ways to live in their own style in this very particular environment.
Bread, one of the pillars of the Berber diet, is a precious food, almost a sacrament. The bread of Berbers is unique for its flavour, ingredients and the manner of its baking. Berbers bake their bread in the Tabouna, and oven in the shape of an extinct volcano, built from a mixture of earth and clay.
Imazighen woman baking Berber Bread in a Tabouna oven.
To prepare their bread, they used the available ingredients, which turn out to be among the best that nature has to offer: grains, olive oil, fruits with many attributes, etc.
The Berber tribes have long lived in closed communities, and so have had minimal outside influences -- despite the various incursions over the centuries by Phoenicians, Byzantines, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, and French. This means that the Berber diet has remained close to its ancestral roots. This is the source of the Magrebia breads, which are authentic to a tradition that has not changed over long centuries.
