North Africa is defined by the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Nile, as well as the sand sea of the Sahara. It has seen waves of invasion, be it Romans assaulting the Carthaginians, the Arab cavalry armies of the Caliphate, fleets of Spanish and Portuguese Crusaders, as well as the machinations of French imperialists and Italian Fascists. Its peoples have always resisted but also selectively assimilated, to create a complex range of societies, that now strongly identify with the other Muslim and Arab nations of the central Middle East, albeit with a distinct Berber-African base identity. We delight in re-telling the potent stories of such heroes, as Hannibal, Oqba ibn Nafi, Barbarossa, Omar al Mukhtar, Abel Kader and Abdel Krim, as well as the legends wrapped around Queens Dido, Kahina and Zaynab
