The Amazigh language of the Afroasiatic family has between 18 and 30 million speakers. Their activists have long campaigned for state recognition of their own calendar, with the people making up around 40% of Morocco’s population. Morocco has approved the new year of the Amazigh as an official national holiday.
KnowALLedge Plus: Berbers, also called Amazigh or Imazighen, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa. The calendar is said to have begun 2972 years ago when an Amazigh king defeated an Egyptian pharaoh.