Pandaigdigang Kumperensiya sa Nanganganib na

Wika

(International Conference on Language

Endangerment)

Manila, Philippines

10-12 Oktubre 2018, 8:00nu–5:00nh

Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF)

From Oppression to Officialisation Revival of a Language, Survival of a Culture:

The All-Out War of Tamazight (Berber) in North Africa

Salem Mezhoud

ooo

Foundation for Endangered Languages

and

King’s College London

Language Endangerment has many causes

Most scholars agree on most of them

• Stephen A. Wurm:

Economic, Cutural, political influence

• Jean Aitchison:

Language dies because another language has gradually ousted it

Language suicide occurs when two languages are similar and the less

prestigious borrows from the other one with greater social approval and may

obliterate itself entirely in the process

Language murder: the old language is slaughtered by the new

[Monolingualism - to bilingualism - to monolingualism]

Politically-induced endangerment

and death

Claude Hagège speaks of

• Language(s) sacrificed on the altar of the State

• The State as committing “linguicide”

For Hagège the State uses as instruments of the

execution:

The Military (the Army)

The Media

Administrative / legislative powers

The Politics of Language Death

In the North Africa case

• A state policy: planning language death

• Supported by the military and the media

• Uses all resources of state:

education, propaganda, discrimination,

repression

= Death foretold

NORTH AFRICA

TERRA NULLIUS

Yet

They were there

They still are!

Death of Language = Death of identity

Linguicide excludes

– accident

– “natural” course

Linguicide is reminiscent (redolent)

or equivalent to

Ethnocide (Robert Jaulin) or any form of

cultural genocide

ALGERIA’S

HEADACHE

Survival of language = cultural survival

The Amazigh people equate language with

culture

• The way to survival of their identity is

through survival of their language

(Tamazight)

• To revive/revitalise their language is to

fight to ensure the future of their culture

The Executioner’s Tools

The State has a very full toolbox

• Does not recognise existence of Berbers

• Mention of Tamazight culture and language banned and

repressed

• suppression of all education in the language (Chair of

Berber studies at University of Algiers abolished as are

schools in Morocco)

• Media prohibited, tightly controlled and initiatives curtailed

• existing radio programmes gradually reduced , in

technological features and content (vocabulary, topics)

• Berber given names prohibited

• Toponyms changed (into Arabic)

MOTIVATION

The Land is Arab

V

JUSTIFICATION

State Ideology: Arab-Islamism

(Arabo-islamisme)

Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya

(Egypt)

INSTRUMENTALISATION

Arab + Islam =

Arabisation:

importation of Classical Arabic from Middle East

North African colloquial “Arabic” not allowed

Tamazight object of repression (cf above)

Islamisation:

observance of religion brutally enforced

non-observance punished

proliferation of mosques and “institutes of

Islamic studies”

The Amazigh People’s

Response

Death of Language is Death of Culture

Death of Culture is Death of Identity

= LANGUAGE MUST SURVIVE

» Prepare for a fight

» Proceed: inside out

SURVIVAL MEANS REVITALISATION

Part instinct, part science

Part resistence, part struggle

May steps: End decline (documentation)

preserve what is left (internal effort)

Revitalisation what is dormant

Recreate what is gone

The Way of the People

“in their efforts at reviving a language, Aboriginal

people may instead be recreating it”

Nicholas Thieberger

(in David and Maya Bradley, eds. Language Endangerment and

Language Maintenance. Reviewed by Mark Turin)

The Way of the People

- Tamazight -

• In their efforts to revitalise their language

the Amazigh people didn’t object to

“re-creation”.

• They wanted to revive, revitalise,

“recreate” a tool, not an “authentic”

museum piece.

• Authenticity is for regaining pride but

• New aspects are signs of “dynamism”

Revival

David Crystal’s criteria for success of EL:

• Speakers increase their prestige within the dominant community

• Speakers increase their legitimate power in the eyes of the dominant community

• Speakers have a strong presence in the education system

• Speakers can write their language down

• Speakers can make use of electronic technology

Resistance and Rebellion

An all-out “war”

Many fronts

• Awareness raising

• Educating (younger generations)

• Informing (older generations)

• Making public stand (speaking, defending)

• “militating”, engaging in activism (political)

• Producing material (political, scientific, educational)

Revival is about Commitment

Crucial factor:

Survival / Struggle for Revival is the

responsibility of entire community

However:

Road is long and success is slow

RE-WRITING HISTORY

Winston Churchill:

“History will be kind to me

for I intend to write it”

The victors get to write history

Romans wrote history of Carthage

The Spanish wrote the history of the Aztecs

Path to survival: re-write own history

>>> Provide Counter-Narrative

Writing Up History

• Official narrative: orality is bad

• Official weapon: Tamazight is oral

Official argument: Arabic only way for the country(ies)

• National unity

• Legimitacy (religion, civilisation)

• Response:

• Develop script

• Revive civilisation: pre-Islamic cultural heritage, pre-Islamic diversity (Christian, “pagan”)

A people without the knowledge of their past

history, origin and culture is like a tree without

roots.

Marcus Garvey

Writing Up History

Tamazight script 8th – 5th century BC

• Contemporary of Punic (Phoenician)

• Bilingual Latin

Writing Up History

History Past and Present

WRITING THE LANGUAGE

• Tamazight written in Arabic script (mainly

Morocco)

• French script

• Latin/Roman script

- French “spontaneous”

- French scientific

- Latin phonological

Scripting the Present

New Script, New Narrative

• Tuareg Tifinagh

• Neo-Tifinagh

- The “bricolage” period

- Kabyle phonetic /semi-scientific

- Pan-Berber phonological =

Kabylia + Morocco + Tuareg = Everywhere

> Linguistics is SEXY

- The technological period (ISO, unicode)

Preserve vs revitalise

• Governments promote “folklore”, tourist attactions: arts, crafts

• + Morocco: a revenue boon

• + Algeria: an eraser exercise

• + Elsewhere: under the carpet

• Governments stage death: falsify history, forbid archeology / anthropology (colonial sciences) invent origins, impose symbols (national anthem, flag)

• Choice or Opportun(ism)ity

• Eg Survival International vs Cultural Survival

Voicing the Revival: The Media

• Radio

• Underground journals

- diaspora

- national

+ Kabylia, Algeria

- Morocco

• Modernising the music

• Ethnographic publications

- academic

- lay publications

• Newspapers

Printing the Revival

• Literature

- poetry – modern

- preservation (folktales, legends, songs)

- new forms (novel, short story)

- translation (Becket, Molière, Brecht)

• Theatre

- Translation

- performance

Voicing the Revival

• Television – satellite (political/cultural)

• Cyberworld

Images of a Renaissance

• The Arts

– Painting

– Sculpture

– Decoration, illustration (motifs, symbols)

Film

– State films: Arabised

– Underground, independent in Tamazight

Remembering the Forgotten Hills

Spring is for Revivals

• The Berber Spring (1980)

• Human Rights

• Democracy

• Freedom of culture

• Freedom of belief (State religion, state

ideology)

The State and the Extremists: superficial

enemies but natural allies against Tamazight

Questioning the Ideologies

• Human rights (LADH)

• Democracy

• Tamazight vs The State, the Army, the

Bureaucracy, the Religious extremists …

• Pan-Amazigh union(s)

eg Amazigh World Congress (UN, EU)

• From the Forgotten Hill to a pan-North African

vision (aqbayli, acawi, acelhi, amzabi)=Amazigh

Rebels for the Cause

MCB – Berber Cultural Movement

• “Tamazight di lakul” (Tamazight in the schools)

• La grève des cartables (the school bag strike)

• Giant protest picnics during Ramadan

• Linguistics is SEXY

Schoolboy’s War

• Wildcat strikes

• Wildcat teaching

– University

– Primary schools

+Teaching materials

+Educational support

• “Black Spring” riots (2001) 162 deaths

• Civil society movement on ancient instituti

Teaching Materials

Teaching Materials

Teaching Materials

La Lucha Continua

• 1988 Riots opened way for democratisation

• Only possible because of Amazigh Spring

• Since 1992 – regression, even if not total retrogression to status quo ante 1980

• State and Islamists united against anything Amazigh

• 2001. “Black Spring” in Kabylia. Departure of Gendarmes form region.

• Revival of ancient social organisation (Aaruc- arouch) – new model of democracy

• Cultural autonomy

A Solid Constitution

• Language recognised and legalised

• Enshrined in the Constitution (Algeria)

• Taught in schools (Morocco)

• Taught at universities – very timidly

• Research at high level

• Morocco: Royal Research Institute for Tamazight Culture (IRCAM)

• Algeria: High Commissioner for “Amazighness” (HCA)

EPIGENESIS OR EMBRYOLOGY

OF REVIVAL

Steps of the stairway to Resurrection

1. Berbers and Tamazight do not exist

2. Ok. They exist, but only in folklore

3. Ok. They exist, but only as one foundation of our history / culture

which is now Arab and Islamic

4. Introduced as a subject in – some – schools in Morocco (2003)

and Algeria (semi-legal since 1980)

5. In Algeria becomes constitutionally a “national language” in 2002

(Arabic is “national and official”)

6. In Morocco, institutional progress: establishment of a Royal

Institute for Amazigh Culture – discussed during FEL Conference.

7. Algeria creates a High Commissioner for “Amazighness” (HCA)

EPIGENESIS OR EMBRYOLOGY

OF REVIVAL II

8. Algeria 2004. President in a speech “Tamazight will never be official

language”

9. Morocco 2011. New Constitution: Tamazight National Language

10. Algeria. 2016.Tamazight will be Official Language under revised

Constitution

11. Libya, post-Kaddhafi, recognises Tamazight (Kaddhafi denied its

existence)

12. Libyan Berbers refuse status of “second official language” with no

role in governmental institutions

13. Morocco, Algeria, Libya: Official but on paper only.

LA LUCHA CONTINUA!

From the Wise

“One does not resuscitate lost horizons. What needs to be done is to define the new horizons.(…) The greatest favour that one can do those likely to be subjected to ethnocide is to abstain from civilising them and from defining their happiness for them.”

Mouloud Mammeri

The Banquet or the Absurd Death of the Aztecs