Search

Amazigh women in Morocco have traditionally suffered triple marginalisation: as women, indigenous and rural. The language and geography of the Atlas Mountains where they live have also made it difficult for them to access the most basic educational and health-care resources. That is why Amazigh women are often represented in many studies as 'illiterate' and 'in need of help'. But a careful examination of the history and the daily reality of Amazigh women reveals another side of the Amazigh women's story that has yet to be told and on which we wish to shed light in this article. We will focus on the agency and resilience of Amazigh women and how they transform their daily reality and vulnerabilities into opportunities that empower them, their families and communities. Through their knowledge and practices, Amazigh women contribute as active agents of civil society, caring not only for the well-being of their own families, but for the development of their community and the legacy of their culture. We provide clear examples of how these women contribute to the local economy and rural development by organising and working in cooperatives dedicated to carpet weaving, argan oil production and arts and crafts. Culture and tradition, reclaimed and preserved by women, emerge as a source of recognition of Amazigh identity, of local community development and of feminist empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the production and circulation of Amazigh music among Libyans between 2011 and 2013. It takes as a focal point the performance archive of Serbian-Libyan Amazigh singer Dania Ben Sasi, whose Amazigh-language music found unprecedented fame in Libya in 2011. Through close readings of her initial musical recording of that year, interviews with Ben Sasi and listeners, analysis of performances onstage and in daily life, and drawing on ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Libya, Serbia, and Tunisia, I present a brief history of a temporary moment of political possibility. I suggest that the formation of an intimate public around Amazigh music in Libya offered glimpses of an unfinished future in which popular practices of recognition could still be built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language question in Algeria is far from a straightforward case and its complexity and multiplicity make it an original case to study due to the diversity of languages, its language politics in both the colonial and the postcolonial eras, and its tight relationship to different ideological movements, which still affect issues related to identity, religion and ethnicity. The distinction between the colonial and the postcolonial eras is a necessary step to understand the layers of complexity of its language policies and provide a context which helps explain the relationship between language politics and ‘soft power’, as theorised by Nye. It also provides a timeframe for when one can start talking about ‘soft power’, in contrast to ‘hard power’ where the coloniser imposed its language by force (what is known as the Frenchification project). The article seeks firstly to challenge the Arabisation project in relation to Algeria and presents its close relationship to the Islamisation of the country through soft power practices. Secondly, it questions the traditional linguistic dichotomy between Classical Arabic and dialects by adding to them a new language variety, which appeared as a result of soft power through cultural globalisation. The concept is developed further to highlight the emergence of a ‘new literary genre’ which also challenges traditional discourses, linguistic rules and literary canons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a multilingual setting such as Morocco, the dynamics of socio-political and economic relations are bound to be affected by power and status relationships among different ethno-linguistic groups and languages. The fact that there are several languages and dialects on the linguistic scene of Morocco makes competition and status allocation unavoidable. As such, the status of each language derives primarily from the function it serves within society. This paper argues that in addition to the utility of a language and its instrumental value in guaranteeing power and upward mobility, speaking with the ‘right’ accent can also confer status and prestige on the speaker of that language. In the case of Morocco, the variety of Arabic spoken in Fez is perceived to be the most instrumental and prestigious among all other varieties. The opposite is true for most other varieties, and the Berber language does not fare any better, for it continues to be viewed as having no symbolic capital because of its association with what is rural and folkloric in Morocco, despite the state’s recent official recognition of the Berber language and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to explore the dynamics of language attitudes towards the main languages used in Morocco, especially towards the Berber language, and the effects that these attitudes are likely to have on the implementation of the language policy that requires all Moroccan children to learn Berber, regardless of their linguistic or ethnic backgrounds. The article investigates the views of a large and representative sampling of Moroccans regarding the inclusion of Berber in the educational fabric of Morocco. The findings are based on information collected through interviews, participant observations, and a survey of 531 individuals who were asked to answer a 14-question questionnaire. The results of the survey are later on discussed and analysed in order to determine how the attitudes of the respondents might shed some light on the general attitudes of Moroccans towards the different languages used in Morocco, and in particular how these attitudes might eventually affect the state's attempt at implementing the language policy of making Berber a mandatory subject of study as a means of maintaining and promoting this language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]