IRCAM – The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture
By Allan Siao Ming Witherick
Morocco has a wide and varied cultural past, with those in the North being closer to Europe ethnically, the Mid and Southern claiming more Asian blood. Religion has also been equally diverse with all of the Abrahamic faiths represented in the mixture of Judaism, Islam and Christianity experienced over the centuries.
Today though we took a step further back, maybe 2962 years would be a good start, especially as that is the year which started a few months ago on the 13th January with the Amazigh system which predates Christianity and which can trace its roots back to past Amazigh pharaohs. The Amazigh are the original inhabitants of Morocco and held a huge kingdoms that, being further back in time, is often skipped over in our rush to reach modern history.
Found all over Northern Africa, this Semitic language sits in the same family as Arabic and Hebrew. Of course many of us recognise the name used by others, Amazigh is the proper name for the Barbari language. Amazigh means ‘free man’, compared to, Barbari, which of course traces it’s history back to the same roots as ‘Barbarian’. An interesting reflection of how our joint histories reach forward in to the present and still influence us today.
The Amazigh have historically been marginalised, no one knows how far back or why. But now they have been fighting back. The turn of the century, 2001, saw the recognition by the King until eventually in 2011 Amazigh was recognised as an official language. But what is the importance of this? Were we just here to hear of the Moroccan history? Or to learn about minority rights?
The danger of losing one’s language and culture.
Morocco is blessed with a tolerant society which has not suffered the racism and religious discrimination to the same extent as other countries. When you look to some countries it’s easy to make the mistake of assuming that everyone is the same. Yes, there might be some variations for example by religion, but in today’s globalised world we often forget about how diverse our world once was. Borders are just things which men have drawn on maps and once had far more malleability than they do today.
So if those of Amazigh heritage already have access to the same jobs and political opportunities, what more can be asked? The answer is one which perhaps others could learn more from, the desire for equal cultural rights; to be treated in the same way as Arabic and French. The written language of the Amazigh can be found in tribal areas and there are even rock art paintings which have been preserved, however the oral language is at risk as much of the culture and history is tied up with this.
It has taken a while to shift the attention and focus, and recognise others fears – eg that it is not done as a threat to the Arabic language in the country or for some other benefit. But that language plays an important role in supporting cultural identity.
It is not difficult to see how much the world has changed over the past few decades when it comes to minority rights and languages. From the efforts of the European Union to promote minority languages through to the efforts of China which even relaxes its own famous one child policy for those from ethnic minorities.
This centre is both compiling the oral literature, but also other aspects from architecture to jewellery. It has supported poetry, riddles and proverbs as well as new writers, helping to create new genres and literature grow. This is perhaps one of the most effective ways of ensuring that the teaching of the language remains current, fresh and interesting to today’s students. They have also enriched the language by translating from various languages in to Amazigh as well as from Amazigh to English, Arabic and others so that people might learn about the culture and widen its appeal.
In terms of our groups questions and the discussion, the focus looked at some of the practical aspects of this.
We heard that there are actually three different dialects of Amazigh, but that currently there were moves towards a more standardised Amazigh language. When we questioned this it was highlighted that this was not by ‘destroying’ three languages to create one which has a better chance of survival, but by collecting the words in a common dictionary whereby it might be possible to use words from the different dialects as synonyms, so for example the will be more than one word for head.
Indeed the language is not dead. A key to its future has been the creation of new words from Amazigh roots- something which perhaps would be of value in other languages which have in recent times focussed more on taking from English, although often English itself has adopted the word from the country of origin. It is interesting to note that we take our contemporary languages for granted and are in danger of missing something vital in our understanding; unless we record this history of words then we risk losing the vibrant verbose verbal history that silently surrounds us in the words we use every day.
Another difference compared to many dying languages, there was a clear steer that preservation of the language was the responsibility of all. So compared to the UK where the focus with Welsh has been on Wales and the home of the language, it has instead been pushed to all with its value being used in teaching history. So despite pressure from some parents to learn English instead of Amazigh It has been taught to preserve identity rather than to teach Mathematics in the language for example. The pupils like it as, like Cyrillic, every symbol has a sound, unlike the random and combinative nature of Latin script. Of course, just like Cyrillic it’s possible to write Amazigh in Arabic or French script, allowing it to be used more readily on keyboards and computers.
It was interesting to note that the IRCAM also has a clear political mission, advising the government and king on areas such as how the language should be preserved and supported. For example they had worked with the Ministry of Education on teaching in schools and Ministry of Communication to see an increase in its appearance in common media.
Perhaps if the British had something like this to bind them, different to other countries, they would be less Atlantic facing and perhaps more tolerant of other cultures with a better understanding of their own.
As to the future of Morocco? Well they are more Western facing, in part due to their proximity to Spain and history with Frances than perhaps compared to the Gulf. For sure there are fewer language issues and so they find themselves in a very different place compared to Turkey in the East.