Berber Academy

Académie Berbère d'Échange et de Recherches Culturels, usually shortened to Académie Berbère or the Berber Academy was a Paris-based Berber cultural association formed in 1966 and officially authorized in March 1967 with the objective of raising Berber consciousness. The association was renamed Agraw Imazighen (English: Assembly of the Imazighen) in Tamazight in 1969.

History
Berber Academy is primarily associated with Algerian activist Mohand Arav Bessaoud, who formed the group with a small group of "Kabyle luminaries from the worlds of scholarships, arts, and politics," including Ramdane Haifi, Mouloud Mammeri, Mohand Saïd Hanouz, and singer Taos Amrouche, who hosted their first meeting in her home in Paris. The association faced internal disagreement as to whether to have an intellectual or grassroots activist focus.

The association relaunched in 1969 as Agraw Imazighen with the first Berber concert. The relaunch and Tamazight-language name change "marked a shift toward a more particularist, Berber-centered agenda" primarily concerned with making "the general public aware of the history and civilization of the Berbers and to promote their language and culture." This served as a turning point for Berber diaspora culture in France, as well as for the Berberist movement outside of it.

The association published an influential monthly bulletin, Imazighen (French: Imazighéne), in both French and Kabylian, the latter using Neo-Tifinagh. Imazighen and other publications were distributed by the association to thousands of Kabylian coffeehouses throughout Paris, and they were further circulated by readers in Algeria and Morocco. Though Imazighen was viewed by many as overly radical, it was generally very positively received by Berber communities, with thousands of letters of support being sent from Algeria and Morocco. Imazighen ran for thirty issues.

in 1973, the Chaoui writer and Tifinagh advocate, Ammar Negadi, was elected secretary general of the academy with support from Mohand Arav Bessaoud. This step made possible for the academy's publications to reach the Aurès region in Algeria. Negadi reflected on that period saying:"'I distributed all of Agraw Imazighen's writings throughout the Aurès region starting in 1973. The goal wasn't regular correspondence but widespread dissemination of Tifinagh.'"The Berber Academy was dissolved in 1976, largely due to the imprisonment of Bessaoud and lack of finances.

Neo-Tifinagh
The Berber Academy tried to adapt the Tuareg Tifinagh script to suit Kabyle phonetics. They taught local members of the Kabyle diaspora community Tifinagh letters, and used it in their widely read bulletin, Imazighen. However, the effort was unsuccessful, as many prominent Kabyle figures like Mouloud Mammeri opted for the Latin script, seeing Tifinagh as archaic and impractical.

By 1975, Ammar Negadi, convinced that Tifinagh was the perfect tool to express Tamazight language, had left the academy to continue work on Neo-Tifinagh which underwent gradual standardization process since then.