Blog #3.11 Setting the Stage: Amazigh History and Identity

​​Traveling to Agadir from Tampa was a journey unlike any I’ve ever taken. After a deliriously long 27 hours of traveling and a day of recovery from the jetlag of a 5-hour time difference, our program activities began at lightning speed. We began our first day of programming at Foundation Dar Si Hmad where we had a short orientation followed by lectures that would help set the stage for the fieldwork activities to come in the next few weeks.

Lecture with Professor Hassane Oudadene from Université Ibn Zohr in Agadir (photo by Foundation Dar Si Hmad)

We were welcomed with such warmth by the Foundation Dar Si Hmad staff and Program Coordinators and given a quick introduction before our first talk. Prof. Hassane Oudadene – Professor of English and Director of the Master’s Program in Transcultural Memory Studies at University Ibn Zohr, introduced us to what he called the “Amazigh question”. As an Amazigh person himself, he beamed about the cultural revolution and recognition that the Imazighen (plural) have experienced in Morocco in recent years before he took us through the history of the Amazigh in Morocco. “Amazigh” meaning “free man” or “free people”, is used to describe this indigenous ethnic group of Morocco who have lived in the area since before Arab populations migrated to Morocco. Similar Amazigh ethnicities can also be found throughout several other countries in North and sub-Saharan Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Egypt (Siwa oasis), and in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger (Tuareg population), in a region collectively known as Tamazgha.

Amazigh Flag, symbolic of the cultural pride of the Amazigh people (Photo by amazighworldnews.com]

Prof. Oudadene shared in his talk that the blue represents the sky, the green for the mountains and yellow for the desert and all represent their attachment to the land and symbolic of their indigeneity. The Amazigh script for “Z” in the center of the flag is the symbol for the Amazigh people as a whole – representing them as a free people.

Amazigh collective identity has been contested in the region and in Morocco specifically throughout its history. The Amazigh encountered the Romans who referred to them as Berbers—a term which referred to anyone who was not Roman. The Greeks also used this name and described them as “Barbarians”. Since then, the term has been critiqued because of its more pejorative nature. For over 500 years, the Tamazgha area has been at the center of invasions and conquests from civilizations spanning human history in the region from the Romans to the French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

While this has given rise to the dynamic cultural and linguistic diversity that Morocco is known for, these influences have attempted to minimize the presence and significance of the Amazigh community in Morocco. It was not until 2001 that the Tamazight language was formally recognized by the Moroccan government and not until 2011 was it recognized as an official language in Morocco by the constitution. 

Prof. Oudadene shared more about some of the institutional efforts by Amazigh activists and the Tamazgha diaspora throughout this contested history to promote and celebrate their heritage and celebrate their identity. He enthusiastically listed the most recent academic efforts to promote Amazigh culture and heritage in the Anglophone world. I was especially inspired by his insistence on cultivation of a collective cultural memory that centers the Amazigh in the story of Morocco as a nation. His talk made me excited to connect with the women who are stewards of the Amazigh culture through their work with argan over the course of these next few weeks.

Tanamirt (thank you), Professor Oudadene!

Professor Oudadene with our Ethnographic Field School cohort at the end of his talk (Photo by Foundation Dar Si Hmad)

-By Melissa Eustache, PhD student in Applied Anthropology at USF