Up to 80 Berbers died in clashes with the security forces in Kabylie in north-east Algeria in demonstrations last week.

It is not many deaths for a country in which more than 1,000 people have died at the hands of armed Islamic fighters since January. But it is a lot for the Berber people, who are the indigenous population of north Africa.

The violence was sparked by the murder of an 18-year-old youth while in police custody. The demonstrators are now demanding an official recognition of their Berber identity, as well as access to jobs and housing.

Many of the six million Berbers who make up nearly 20 per cent of Algeria's population live in mountain villages in Kabylie.

The Berbers are a proud, independent people who have maintained their culture and identity despite successive invasions by Romans, Turks, Arabs and French.

Their symbol of independence is the amazight or "freeman", two half-circles placed head to head with a vertical line down the centre. It is rather like a stylised cross and is perhaps evidence of the Berbers' Christian heritage before the Arabic invasion in the 7th century.

The Berbers speak their native language, the tamazight, first, and then French. They speak Arabic only if absolutely necessary. They deeply resent the government-enforced "Arabisation" of their country and fervently defend their language, music and traditions.

In recent generations, Kabylie has witnessed a social revolution. Even 20 years ago, animals and people lived under one roof in traditional houses without running water or electricity.

OLDER Berber women still wear the traditional dress: a brilliantly-coloured tunic decorated with intricate contrasting braid and a red-and-yellow striped cloth around their waists. The young women prefer Western attire. In Kabylie, most women are unveiled. Instead they wear traditional Berber scarves twisted like turbans on their heads and fastened with woollen bobbles at their foreheads.

Berbers are now educated in their villages. Those under the age of 35 are the first generation of Berbers to have had access to secondary and university education. Those who grew up under French rule were forbidden to attend school - the French were cautious about educating the natives. Women married young into arranged marriages, and their education was rarely a priority.

But most school education is through Arabic. A few years ago Berber families boycotted the schools for one year in a demand to have classes in their language. Limited Berber instruction has since been introduced.

Nominally, Berbers are considered Muslims, although many are non-practising. Most villages have small mosques, but none save a few old people pay any heed to the five daily calls to prayer. Few of the men observe the Ramadan fast; the women do so out of tradition rather than belief.

Many Berber men are vocal in their rejection of Islam, equating it with a narrowing of the mind and the opposite of free-thinking and tolerance. They do not want Islam to take over their lives in the form of the state-enforced "Arabisation" of their Berber society.

I visited Illiten recently, a Berber village in the heart of Kabylie. I met a friendly, warm people who welcomed me into their homes and told me about their lives and hopes. We sat drinking sweet mint tea, and the men and women spoke to me of the importance of education in their lives. They see it as the only way to pull Kabylie and Algeria forward and to form a truly democratic, pluralist society.

The Berbers have a long way to go. Arabic is the only officially-recognised language in Algeria. Berbers are not allowed to call their children by their traditional Berber names: the government has issued a shortlist of approved Arabic names. No others may be used.

In 1998 Mr Lounes Matoub, a Berber musician, was gunned down in his home town of Tizi Ouzu. Mr Matoub was a Berber nationalist whose lyrics criticised the military-backed government and Islamic militants. Weeks of public protests followed his murder. Now Berber students are again demanding their right to their unique cultural heritage, and their right to be amazight or "freemen".

Victoria Bruce is married to a Berber national and works in IT in marketing