PREHISTORY

THE VANDAL AND BYZANTINE ERAS

In 431, under the leadership of Genseric, Vandals besieged Hippone (Annaba). Berber land once again witnesses’ insurrections. Byzantines faced the same resistance. Thus, neither of them will succeed in occupying Central Maghreb for a long period.

During the Vandal and Byzantine eras Berber traditions were reinstated throughout the newly independent Maghreb thus leading to the establishment of Berber kingdoms in former Roman provinces, a change that was also supported by the intrusion of Zenete nomads. Descendents of Numidians and Moors, the Paleo-Berber Branes inhabited plains that were gradually replaced by Botr and Zenete nomads from the south and the east who spoke a different Berber dialect.
Eventually they would plant the seeds of nomadism in these formerly cultivated lands.