<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal>The following item from the American newsweekly, U.S. News
& World Report, was seen thanks to a pointer on ILAT.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The article doesn't mention a key factor - the traditional
Tifinagh script in which the language (known locally as Tamazight) is being
taught. The inclusion of Tifinagh in the Unicode standard in 2004 has made it
possible to do more with the language on computers and the internet. It would
be interesting to know how it has affected preparation of school materials in
the language.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>There are some interesting mentions of language policy and
its application (or not).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Don<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Morocco's Berbers Reclaim Their Language and Their
Indigenous Culture<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>By Emma Schwartz<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Posted March 13, 2008<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2008/03/13/moroccos-berbers-reclaim-their-language-and-their-indigenous-culture-.html<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>AIT OURIR, MOROCCO—From the day Omar Boutmouzzar began
teaching more than two decades ago, he could address students only in a
language other than his own. A Moroccan Berber, Boutmouzzar was barred by law
from using his native tongue—the one spoken by the country's sizable
indigenous population—inside the classroom.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>But the 46-year-old teacher doesn't have to hold his tongue
any longer. Once banned in schools across Morocco, his language, Tamazight, is
making a comeback as the result of an initiative by King Mohammed VI to integrate
the country's widely spoken language, and its speakers, into the education
system. The shift is part of a larger push toward pluralism and openness by the
44-year-old ruler who, since taking power in 1999, has moved away from some of
the heavy-handed tactics of his father. He has liberalized laws affecting women
(such as on divorce), forged stronger economic ties with the West, and created
a commission to examine past human-rights violations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Tamazight is another aspect of this trend. Teaching began in
2003, and by last year nearly 300,000 students—native Arabic speakers as
well as Tamazight speakers—were enrolled in Tamazight courses, according
to the Ministry of Education. The payoff has been broader: The official support
for Tamazight has helped fuel a larger revival of Berber culture and life in
the kingdom, where the country's native people have long been shunned, and
sometimes imprisoned, for public expressions of their heritage. Now, summer
arts festivals are common-place, Tamazight newspapers are thriving, and a
long-blocked translation of the Koran into Tamazight finally made it into
print. "It's a symbol of tolerance," says Ahmed Boukouss, director of
the national institution for the teaching of Tamazight, known by its French
acronym IRCAM.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Struggle. Of course, the transformations have been far from
uniform, and there are signs that the slow pace of change is beginning to
alienate Berbers from the king's initiative. Yet the story of the Tamazight
project and the challenges it has faced from politicians, parents, and Berbers
is in many ways symbolic of the broader struggle Morocco faces as it tries to
balance the competing interests of a multicultural country of almost 34
million.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Berbers have long dominated the population in North Africa,
and even today, most Moroccans trace their roots to the Berber tribes. Though
most are Muslim, many Berbers still practice local festivals and follow a
separate calendar. But this heritage hasn't always been recognized by the
state. After Morocco won independence in 1956, King Hassan II embarked on a
program of Arabization. Seeking to solidify a unified national identity and rid
the country of French colonialism, he banned Tamazight in schools and public
places. This forced a whole generation of children to enter school in a
language they had never spoken before, contributing to a higher dropout rate
among Berber children. Trouble for Tamazight-only speakers didn't stop in the
education system. Many continued to face other difficulties communicating in
hospitals and the court system, where Arabic and French dominate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>The king's mother. The frustration led to two major Berber
revolts—one in 1973 and a second a decade later—both of which the
Moroccan government suppressed. People who continued to assert their identity
were jailed. For instance, Hassan Id Balkassm, a longtime Berber activist who
now sits on the United Nations' Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, spent a
week behind bars in 1981 for simply hanging up a sign to his law firm in
Tamazight. (It was also in French and Arabic.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>But by 1994 the Berber movement was strong enough to catch
the attention of Hassan II, who publicly vowed to integrate the indigenous
tongue into the education system. In fact, though, there was little progress
until Mohammed VI, whose mother is Berber, took over. In 2001, he announced a
program to teach all schoolchildren Tamazight and bankrolled a research
institute, IRCAM, to develop a curriculum and promote study of the language.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>For Boutmouzzar, the initiative gave him the chance to spend
three hours a week teaching first graders Tamazight at Agadir Naet Lesson
school, located in a village about 20 miles outside Marrakech. Most of the
school's nearly 500 students come from poor families, who often eke out a
living picking olives or doing other day labor. Though classes are taught in
Arabic and, in the higher grades, French, most students speak only Tamazight
when they begin. "It's a catastrophe the first year," says Moulay
Hamad, the school principal.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>This is precisely what happened to Hind Bari, a 10-year-old
third grader at the school. Hind was excited about starting classes four years
ago, but the Arabic-only classes quickly curbed her interest. Her father,
Hajib, a construction worker, could do little to help because he had no formal
schooling, aside from a yearlong literacy course for adults. Unable to keep
pace, Hind failed first grade twice.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Worried about a repeat with his second daughter, Bari
enrolled Fatiha, four years younger, in a newly opened preschool near the
family's home. The classes exposed Fatiha to Arabic, but she had an additional
advantage beginning school: three hours of classes in Tamazight, her native
tongue. Now, 6-year-old Fatiha is on track to complete first grade in time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>On a recent Friday morning, Fatiha joined 22 students during
Boutmouzzar's Tamazight class, where students performed skits and sang songs
during the hour-long class. "It's a bridge between the reality and the
institution," Boutmouzzar says.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>But Fatiha's luck may be short lived. Though the government
initiative calls for adding a new level of Tamazight each year, the school in
Ait Ourir has offered only the first level for the past three years.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>It's a similar problem in schools across the country. Many
still have no Tamazight teachers, and the Ministry of Education won't allocate
money to recruit new ones—a position that many Berbers see as a sign that
the Arab-dominated government hasn't fully accepted the initiative. Textbooks
aren't always sent to rural areas, where Berbers are often the majority,
because they don't sell as well. Other promises, such as plans to launch an
all-Tamazight television station and develop university-level programs on
Berbers, have not materialized, either.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>As roadblock after roadblock stalls the pace of change, many
Berber activists are beginning to criticize and distance themselves from the
king's effort. In 2005, for instance, seven of the 30 board members of IRCAM
quit because of the constant pushback from the ministry. "If the
government doesn't go fast and the mentality stays as is, there won't be
progress," says Abdellah Hitous, head of Tamaynut, the country's leading
human-rights organization for Berbers. "In fact, I think there will be a
regression."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Copyright © 2008 U.S. News & World Report, L.P. All
rights reserved.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>**************************** Disclaimer
******************************<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Copyright: In accordance with Title 17, United States Code
Section 107, this material is distributed without profit for research and
educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material posted to this
list for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain
permission from the copyright owner.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Content: The sender does not vouch for the veracity nor the
accuracy of the contents of this message, which are the sole responsibility of
the copyright owner. Also, the sender does not necessarily agree or disagree
with any opinions that are expressed in this message.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>**********************************************************************<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>