Phoenician settlement in North Africa produced sustained interaction with Libyan populations. Libyans may have formed much of the slave population in Phoenician cities, while prisoners of war from elsewhere in the Mediterranean were also used. Intermarriage is plausible but difficult to document, and religious practice offers one of the clearest possible areas of cultural exchange.

North African Phoenicians retained practices that had declined in the homeland, including human sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of infants. At Carthage, Baal Hammon and Tanit Pene Baal became the most venerated paired deities. Baal Hammon was associated with the Libyan sun-god Ammon, while Tanit may have been a Libyan goddess adopted by Phoenician colonists, although both the linguistic and cultural interpretation remain debated.

Influence also moved from Carthage toward Libyan communities. The Afri learned military techniques as heavy infantry in the Punic army and encountered Carthaginian administration, language, religion, and municipal institutions. Sicca became a major cult center, Thugga appears to have practiced infant sacrifice, and several Libyan towns adopted Phoenician-style constitutions with magistrates called sufets. Carthaginian technical influence may additionally have included arboriculture and iron-smelting.