North Africa

=== Historic movements ===
The Maghreb or western North Africa on the whole is believed to have been inhabited by [[Berbers]] since at least 10,000 B.C.,<ref>{{Cite book
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0E8qp_k515oC
|title=Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen)
|series=Historical Dictionaries of Peoples and Cultures
|page=112
|last=Ilahine | first=Hsain|year=2006
|publisher=Scarecrow Press 
|isbn=0-8108-6490-8}}</ref> while the eastern part of North Africa or the [[Nile Valley]] has mainly been home to the [[Egyptians]] and [[Nubians]]. Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber. As the [[Tassili n'Ajjer]] and other rock art findings in the Sahara have shown, the [[Sahara]] also hosted various populations before its rapid [[desertification]] in 3500 B.C and even today continues to host small populations of [[Tuareg people|nomadic trans-Saharan peoples]]. Laboratory examination of the [[Uan Muhuggiag]] [[Uan Muhuggiag#Tashwinat Mummy|child mummy]] and Tin Hanakaten child, suggesed that the Central Saharan peoples from the [[Epipaleolithic]], [[Mesolithic]], and [[Pastoral Period|Pastoral]] periods possessed dark skin complexions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Soukopova |first1=Jitka |title=Round Heads: The Earliest Rock Paintings in the Sahara |date=16 January 2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-4579-3 |pages=19–24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=07wwBwAAQBAJ&q=Tuareg&pg=PR5 |language=en}}</ref> The archaeological evidence from the Holocene period has shown that [[Nilo-Saharan]] speaking groups had populated the central and southern Sahara before the influx of [[Berber languages|Berber]] and [[Arabic]] speakers, around 1500 years ago, who now largely populate the Sahara in the modern era.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Drake |first1=Nick A. |last2=Blench |first2=Roger M. |last3=Armitage |first3=Simon J. |last4=Bristow |first4=Charlie S. |last5=White |first5=Kevin H. |title=Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=11 January 2011 |volume=108 |issue=2 |pages=458–462 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1012231108 |pmid=21187416 |pmc=3021035 |bibcode=2011PNAS..108..458D |issn=1091-6490|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Several waves of [[Arab migrations to the Maghreb]] began in the 7th century, including the migration of the [[Banu Hilal]] and the [[Banu Sulaym]] westward into the Maghreb in the eleventh century, which introduced Arab culture and language to the countryside. Historians mark their movement as a critical moment in the Arabization of North Africa.<ref name="AppiahGates2005">{{cite book|author1=Anthony Appiah|author2=Henry Louis Gates|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA360|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|page=360}}</ref> As Arab nomads spread, the territories of the local Berber tribes were moved and shrank. The [[Zenata]] were pushed to the west and the [[Kabyle people|Kabyles]] were pushed to the north. The Berbers took refuge in the mountains whereas the plains were Arabized.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Farida |first1=Benouis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmaWEAAAQBAJ |title=An Architecture of Light. Islamic Art in Algeria. |last2=Houria |first2=Chérid |last3=Lakhdar |first3=Drias |last4=Amine |first4=Semar |publisher=Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF (Museum Ohne Grenzen) |isbn=978-3-902966-14-8 |page=9 |language=en}}</ref> This heavily shifted the demographics of the Maghreb.