?Were there other “peoples” that we “do not know” that lived in North Africa before the Amazighs
This question would have been “scientific” and “academic” if it had defined what is meant by the phrase “peoples” and clarified whether what was meant by “peoples”
(1) A human group with a specific culture (or cultures), a specific language (or languages), and a specific way of writing (or ways of writing), or
(2) Human groups whose cultural features have not yet been formed, whose methods of linguistic communication have not yet been determined, and have not yet developed a known writing system.
If what is meant by “other peoples” is the definition contained in (1), then the scientific answer is that we do not know of any local culture in North Africa that preceded the Amazigh culture, nor do we know of any other language that preceded the Amazigh language, nor do we know of any other writing system that preceded the Amazigh writing system.
If what is meant by “peoples” is the definition contained in (2), then the question about the previous_peoples is not an empirical question (i.e. an experimental question = we answer it based on research, exploration and observation...) at all because it has a logical and necessarily known answer, which is that every human group has a culture and a language. A writing system that was in a period of its primitive history without these cultural, linguistic, and expressive components.
Man's culture, language, and methods of written expression are the basic features by which the Homsapian's existence was formed after it was merely a raw human existence with no features, no identity, and no features that distinguished its existence from the rest of the "peoples."
Therefore, the scientific question that historical linguists, philologists and anthropologists can answer, without obscure ideological presumptions, and relying on the accumulated concrete scientific evidence is: What is the oldest cultural formation known to North Africa? What is the oldest language known in North Africa? What is the oldest writing system known to North Africa?
The scientific answer that no one would deny (with some self-confidence) except an ignorant person while addressing an audience deprived of knowledge of the accumulated scientific evidence is: The oldest cultural formation known to North Africa is the Amazigh culture. The oldest language known to North Africa is the Amazigh language, and the oldest writing system known to North Africa is the Amazigh writing system.
Whoever does not agree with me on this scientific answer or on this question, its scientific formulation forces me to debate with him, and I will be happy to debate him in general.
This picture is a skull of an Amazigh Mori who was killed by the Roman enemy (see the iron arrow that still penetrates his skull to this day) while he was defending the city of Tamouda. This picture is for you from the Archaeological Museum in the city of Tetouan (you can find the details in the museum’s information panels)... The enemy’s iron arrows were penetrating The skulls of our ancestors in defense of their culture.
Scientific questions related to our collective identity should be discussed publicly because society needs definitive answers to the identity question.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Helwi
Forum translation of Arabic text