Amazigh Singer Dania Ben Sasi, left, performs with Amazigh musician Idir at 1st international Amazigh music festival, in Paris, Sept. 29, 2013. Photo: Aksel Ben Sasi via Bloomberg
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* “Morocco, where King Mohammed VI’s mother is Amazigh, is where the movement has scored its biggest gains. In 2011, Morocco became the first North African state to make Tamazight an official language, along with Arabic.” *
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Amazigh activism began in Algeria with singers like Lounes Matoub, seen here in 1995, whose assassination led to riots. Photo: Marcel Mochet/AFP via Getty Images.
Bloomberg News, by Salma El Wardany and Caroline Alexander (March 3, 2014) — A month after Muammar Qaddafi’s regime collapsed, Dania Ben Sasi swept onto a makeshift stage in the west Libyan town of Zuwara and filled its streets with songs in a Berber dialect that had been banned for more than 40 years. “I was shaking and had tears in my eyes,” said 25-year-old Ben Sasi. “The moment was bigger than all of us, it was like I was born again, it was the rebirth of me, my hometown and the whole Amazigh people of Libya.”
The indigenous people of North Africa, known as Berbers or Amazigh, have been oppressed by regimes viewing their language and culture as a threat to Arab-Islamic identity. The 2011 uprisings galvanized the campaign for equal rights, with musicians in the forefront. It’s another test for nations struggling to reconcile the forces, from political Islam to youth activism, unleashed by the Arab Spring. “The Amazigh have managed to raise serious questions about the nature of the state and the community,” said Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, author of The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States. “These are fundamental issues that speak to the ability of these states to create viable societies that can function in the modern world.” […]
Moroccan First
“We want our rights to be guaranteed by the Libyan constitution, and our identity and the language to be included in it,” she said. “Language is the rallying force behind the whole movement, the core value on which the Amazigh hope to revive their legacy,” according to Mohammed Errihani, who writes about language policy in Morocco. Morocco, where King Mohammed VI’s mother is Amazigh, is where the movement has scored its biggest gains. In 2011, Morocco became the first North African state to make Tamazight an official language, along with Arabic.
[Continue Reading at Bloomberg News…]
School teacher helps pupil read text in Amazigh in Rabat. Morocco, where King Mohammed VI’s mother is Amazigh, became first — and only — North African country to recognize the language alongside Arabic and French in the Constitution in 2011. It has the largest Amazigh population in the region and has had the most advanced status for them since the 1990s. Photo: Abdelhak Senna/AFP via Getty Images
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