Were the colonies in North Africa Roman? Yes, depending on how you define Roman. First, Roman North Africa was not a Berber population- it was mainly the remnants of the Carthaginian empire, the Numidian kingdoms, and “Africa Vetus.” As Numidia was (generally) subservient to Carthage, Carthage was always the most important city in North Africa. After defeating and sacking Carthage in 146 BCE, the Romans left it (mostly) alone for a hundred years, until Julius Caesar wrote plans, and Augustus Caesar executed these plans to build the colonia Concordia Iulia Karthago. This initial colony was a deductio of 3000, along with the Third Augustine Legion, the only military force that would remain in Africa.

The Romans did a lot of work to make North Africa more “Roman.” Not like Rome, but how they wished Rome would be. For many cities, this meant building a very strict grid, with two main streets- a Decumanus and a Cardo. http://imgur.com/a/oPZAU Interestingly, for Carthage, they didn’t align the grid NWES, instead aligning it with the coastline. This is rare, because the Romans hated cities on the coast. To the point where they ordered Carthage to move 40 stades from the coast. The Romans also did a lot of work on infrastructure, creating better Roman roads, creating Roman aqueducts http://imgur.com/a/tTzVw and, of course, creating Roman “entertainment.” Turns out the Carthaginians really loved the horse races, because they have a lot of both mosaics and curse tablets. The curse tablets, of course, were for cursing the other team so you could win your bet. The races also used the same four colors as the Roman teams: blue, red, green, and white. http://imgur.com/a/zRlNL

There are certain other aspects that made Africa more “Roman” culturally. For one, many upper-class citizens adopted the Roman tria noma system. The Punic language died out eventually, speaking first, and over time, the Punic writing system devolved into an odd cursive script. Eventually, this became unintelligible, much like modern cursive. Certain forms of Roman entertainment like pantomime became popular (fun fact: Augustus loved mimes).

One of the biggest questions about Roman North Africa is how religion changed, and in my opinion, it didn’t change much. First, the Romans did import their native religion to Africa, and most large towns had a capitolium, or a temple dedicated to the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. In addition, the Romans also introduced many other cults such as that of Aesculpias, Bacchus, and eventually Christianity. What’s very interesting is that there is not a decrease in worship of the main Carthaginian gods, Saturn and Juno Caelestis. Sure, the Romans changed the names from Baal Hammon and Tanit, and did elevate the worship of Juno Caelestis. But certain trends in worship continued, so that these two remained the most popular gods on the continent. The Tophet, a Carthaginian practice which likely included infant sacrifice, was “outlawed” – allegedly, this meant sacrifices to Saturn became solely animal instead of human. However, the stelae involved remained the same, with Roman names. Juno Caelestis also developed more of a personality, absorbing certain Roman characteristics like a relationship with lions, but retained African symbols and worship. In addition, evidence shows that each city usually had a patron god, which remained constant through both the Punic and Roman periods. Overall, for the average citizen of Africa, worship likely didn’t change that much. If you lived out of the major cities, you had your patron god, and in the cities, you likely still worshipped Baal Hammon or Tanit, just under a different name.

This leads back to the question- how much did North Africa really change. The difference between Rome and other Hellenstic cities is slim. All Hellenistic cities first had the haphazard layout that Rome has, but the Romans then established cities with a much more ordered grid. The improvements that Romans made to Africa just standardized the country to that of the rest of the empire. As for daily life, it was similar in North Africa to throughout the empire, but that was also common in all Hellenistic cities. Life in North Africa would not have been that much different from that of Rome before it became a colony.

From the perspective of Rome, North Africa was Roman, but would never truly be Rome. That does not mean that it wasn’t Roman, but nothing except Rome could ever truly be Rome, so they still looked upon Africa as inferior. However, these prejudices were dying out by the time of Constantine. By this point, there had been prominent Africans in Rome for a hundred years. By 200 CE, there had been an African Roman emperor (Septimus Severus), so Rome definitely was not still a foreign invader.

From the perspective of North Africa, they were a big part of the Roman empire. North Africa was the breadbasket of the empire, having supplied grain to the Roman empire since the Second Punic war. They spoke Latin, worshipped technically Roman gods, and aspired to succeed within the Roman empire.

Overall, by the time of Constantine, North Africa was fully a province of the Roman Empire- a distinct province, like Texas, but still definitely part of the empire. However, the transition to Romanization was not nearly as drastic as, for example, the Celts, because the North Africans were not "savages", they were a competing Hellenistic power.

Sources:

James Rives “Religion and Authority in the Territory of Roman North Africa from Augustus to Constantine”

Susan Raven Roman North Africa

Serge Lancel Carthage: A History