For example, Mouloud Mammeri had created the Académie Berbère d’Echanges et de Recherches Culturelles (ABERC) with other intellectuals, that emphasized the similarities between the minorities in Algeria.

[3] The Berber Spring is traditionally dated as beginning on 10 March 1980, with the banning of a conference due to be held by the Kabyle intellectual Mouloud Mammeri at Hasnaoua University in Tizi-Ouzou.

A critical point was the coordinated arrest of hundreds of Berber activists, students and doctors on 20 April, sparking a general strike.

The Spring was also an important event for Algeria's nascent human rights community, including outside Berber circles.

[3] Since the dismantling of the one-party FLN system in 1989—followed by abortive democratization and civil war—a few of the demands of the Berber Spring have been met by the state.