Trail-blazing for Morocco’s Berber speakers
Posted by Jaiken Struck on September 3rd, 2009Aischa Bardoun sees herself as a trail-blazer. She is one of the first Moroccans to get a masters degree in the Amazigh language, spoken by the country’s Berber majority.
“We are very excited,” she says. “We studied the older texts that were passed down orally, but we are also writing new literature to reflect the current situation for Berbers in Morocco. It’s really ground-breaking.”
Although Berbers were Morocco’s first inhabitants and account for some 60% of Morocco’s population, they faced widespread discrimination and it is only now that the language is required to be taught in public school.
Their academic qualifications may not help them much on the job market, but the availability of a further degree in a subject that was once virtually outlawed in their North African country underscores Berber success in gaining official acceptance of the language.
As well as the University of Ibn Zohr offering degrees in Amazigh, an umbrella term for the three dialects of Berber that are spoken in Morocco, the previously oral-only language has moved further into the mainstream with the creation of a Royal Institute of Amazigh language and culture.
Although many Amazigh are illiterate, the government has put in place measures to assist schools to teach the written form of the language. The Royal Institute of Amazigh has overseen the creation of an alphabet based partly on the mystical signs and symbols of the Tuareg found inscribed on tombs and monuments.
This written form is expected to have a unifying effect. It is essentially a new form of the language which, it is hoped, all Moroccan Berbers will speak and understand.
And while Arabic remains the official language of the country, when it comes to music, young Moroccans either listen to Western music, or to rap in Amazigh.
Abullah Aourik, an artist and publisher of a magazine in Amazigh, wants to see Berber replace Arabic as the official language of the country. “We think it would be appropriate to change part of our constitution so that Arabic is no longer required for legal documents or for any official communication,” he insists.
“Most Moroccans grow up speaking Berber – why should they be at a disadvantage in having to use classical Arabic which is a foreign language whenever they brush up against bureaucracy?”
The government may not be ready yet to entertain this idea which seems far-fetched to even the majority of the Amazigh themselves, but the teaching of Amazigh in public schools and at university level could in the future lead to it being recognised as a national language – as it already is in Algeria, Mali and Niger.
Read more: BBC News
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