The Indigenous people, Imazighen (plural of Amazigh) in the Tamazight Indigenous language, have lived in North Africa from at least 3000 BCE. The word Amazigh means “the free person.” They were once frequently referred to as "Berber,” a term coined as an effect of colonialism and often considered pejorative by many Imazighen. Despite historical colonial powers, the Imazighen have resisted the oppression of their languages and identities. The Amazigh people inhabit lands reaching the Canary Islands in the West, Siwa in Egypt in the East and Mali and Niger in the South. Most of the Imazighen are concentrated in Morocco and Algeria, followed by Libya, with a small percentage in Tunisia and Egypt, and the Tuareg Amazigh in Mali and Niger.

The Amazigh flag was designated by Agraw Imazighen (the Amazigh Academy) in the 1970s and was officially adopted in 1998 by the Amazigh World Congress as the flag of the Amazigh people. The red symbol in the middle of the flag, ⵣ (yaz), represents the Imazighen (the free people) and their resistance. The colors symbolize the different geographies where Amazigh people reside: blue for the Imazighen of the sea, green for the Imazighen of the mountains, and yellow for the Imazighen of the desert