Christian Science Monitor comments on Berber teaching in Morocco: At last, an ancient tongue will be taught
Morocco, Politics, 8/20/2004

The Christian Science Monitor run on Wednesday a comment on Morocco's decision to start in 2008 teaching Berber in schools stressing in a headline "at last an ancient tongue will be taught."

The CSM, illustrated with a picture of children holding blackboards with "Tifinagh," the alphabet that Morocco chose for the teaching of the Berber language, writes that Berbers "have inhabited North Africa since 7,000 BC" and "their ranks have included St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and they have managed to preserve their languages despite French, Roman, and Arab conquests."

"Thanks to our mothers, and our grandmothers, 'Tamazight' [the term used to designate all Imazighen languages] is still alive," says Lahcen Ouberka, a high school teacher in Marrakech.

"This year, Morocco's Ministry of Education and the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) have introduced the 9,000-year-old language into some 300 primary schools throughout Morocco for the first time," the publication notes stressing that "some Moroccan educators also hope the use of the language in schools will lower the Imazighen dropout rate."

"Many Imazighen students do not follow the educational system and they do not succeed, and this is in part because they don't study in their own language," says Fatima Agnaou, a researcher at IRCAM.

In 1967, Moroccan university students had formed the first Imazighen association in North Africa, the Moroccan Association of Research and Cultural Exchange. In the years since, new associations have continued to spring up, demanding the teaching of Tamazight in Moroccan schools.

Finally, in 1994, the late King Hassan II announced the introduction of Tamazight in Moroccan primary schools, but no move was made by the Ministry of Education until 2000.

The daily further draws a comparison with other countries, like Switzerland, that comfortably mix languages in their public school systems as well as with other countries where the teaching of indigenous languages is a point of contention, such as Algeria, where the Imazeghen were harshly repressed. "It was even illegal for a child to be given a Imazighen name, and such cultural repression sparked violent reactions," the paper goes on.

In contrast, says the publication, the king of Morocco is cautiously pursuing a politic of incorporation. "I don't think we will have the same kind of problems that Algeria went through," says civil activist Jamila Hassoune. Use of Tifinagh, she insists, is "a cultural richness that, instead of dividing Morocco, unifies it."

Previous Stories:
  Morocco to celebrate 5th anniversary of Throne Day   (7/30/2004)
  Morocco promotes Amazigh (Berber) language in media   (7/17/2004)
  Teaching of Berber language to be generalized by 2008   (9/18/2003)

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