Amazigh Identity and Morocco’s Multicultural Challenge

January 13th marked the Amazigh New Year – Eid Yanayir – celebrated by millions in Morocco and across North Africa.

January 13^th marked the Amazigh New Year – Eid Yanayir – celebrated by millions in Morocco and across North Africa.

Algeria recognized it in 2017 as a national holiday, though Morocco -known as more tolerant and inclusive – has not yet done so.

Some dismiss the holiday as a French invention with no authentic historical value, while others claim the holiday’s origins lie in the Amazigh victory over the Egyptians in the year 950 BC. For most Imazighen, the holiday marks the beginning of the agrarian year and is celebrated with festivals and other cultural events.

The holiday, while itself is not political, serves as an opportunity to raise political and historical grievances connected to the Amazigh struggle for equality and for recognition of their heritage and culture.

Around the world, many view Morocco as a symbol of tolerance and multi-culturalism. On the official-declarative level Morocco has indeed adopted a diverse and inclusive national identity.

Comparing Morocco’s 2011 constitution – which mentions Amazigh, Jewish, and other contributions to Morocco’s heritage – to Israel’s Nation-State Law of 2018, suggests Morocco and Israel are moving in opposite directions. The Arabic language in Israel has lost its official status and there are continuous attempts (albeit not always successful) to exclude it from the public sphere.

The Amazigh language in Morocco, on the other hand, has gained official status, and today it is learned in schools and appears on signage throughout the kingdom.

The treatment of Jews in Morocco attests to a positive attitude towards multi-culturalism. Many Jewish cemeteries and synagogues have been preserved by Muslims for decades and renovated under the king’s auspices in recent years. The inauguration ceremonies of many Jewish museums and houses of memory have been attended by the king.

Recently, Morocco decided to teach Jewish history as part of its school curriculum. Morocco reminds us that there are historical precedents of good relations between Muslims and Jews, and that Jewish and Arab (or Amazigh) identities can coexist both within the same person and within the same country.

Despite admirable co-existence, under the surface lie the complexities of Jewish-Muslim and Arab-Amazigh relations. When Moroccans meet, they quickly “position” each other geographically and culturally, and relate to one another accordingly, often exhibiting a degree of mistrust towards members of other communities. In other words, the salient identity of many Moroccans (mostly those who are under-privileged) is ethnic-linguistic-geographical rather than all-Moroccan.

The influence of Amazigh culture and language is felt in every corner and aspect of the kingdom, challenging Morocco’s official definition as an “Arab” country. Nevertheless, Imazighen in Morocco are marginalized and deprived in different ways.

To some extent, the marginalization results from existing realities rather than intentional policy, given that most of those living in Morocco’s geographical periphery – which are physically very distant from its center – are Amazigh.

Although efforts to decentralize began decades ago, Morocco inherited from the French a highly centralized political, administrative, and economic system which is hard to uproot, and poverty and underdevelopment have been cumulative over many years.

Despite this, among Morocco’s political and economic elites there are many whose ethnic-linguistic origin is Amazigh. Often definitions of Amazigh versus Arabs, like Israeli categories of “Ashkenazim” and “Mizrahim,” are related more to class and privilege than to Ethnic origin per se.

The situation of the Imazighen parallels that of Palestinians in Israel, in terms of their demands for equality and claims of indigenous rights, in the face of efforts to suppress their national aspirations; their inferior socio-economic status and their deprivation in development and in resource allocation; and until recently the marginalization of their culture and language.

The “folklorization” of the Imazighen – which often renders them “exotic” objects while neutralizing them politically and intellectually – reminds us of the “folklorization” of Bedouin, Druze, Moroccans, or other “Easterners” (“Mizrahim”) in Israel, whose place is usually limited to the fields of food and folklore, while their literary and intellectual contributions have almost no place in the Israel Canon. 

The affinity and empathy that many Imazighen feel towards Jews and Israel often stem from their historical grievances towards the Arabs (similar to “Mizrahi” affinity towards right-wing parties in Israel stemming largely from grievances toward the “Left”).

Likewise, accusations of solidarity with Israel are often a tool to delegitimize Imazighen. I recall how a visit I organized back in 2013 for a group from Israel to an Amazigh cultural club, was publicized the next day as a visit by “Jewish academics”, highlighting the club’s multi-culturalism.

The same visit was publicized in several Islamist (Arab) online outlets – by people who had not attended it – as “a visit of Zionist military veterans”.

Amazigh cultural activists our group had met in Rabat were described as anti-Islamists, and anti-Islamic insults – that had never been expressed – were attributed to them and to the Israelis. In other words, expressed attitudes toward Israel are often a manifestation of intra-Moroccan identity dynamics and rivalries between Arabs and Amazigh, or between Islamists and secularists/moderates.

Morocco can teach us about the ways in which it has chosen to encompass its multiple identities, and about inter-faith and inter-communal models for co-existence. However, idealizing or reminiscing over an imagined present or past do us a disservice.

There are some in Israel who claim that, as part of the struggle for social justice, Israel should “Arabize” or “easternize”. In and of themselves, these will not ensure social justice that includes gender, distributional, religious, or cultural equality. What we should do, is aspire to a society that adequately represents the identities, cultures, and aspirations of its members and which does not deny or marginalize them.

Morocco faces many challenges, among them demands by its marginalized communities for inclusion and recognition, and the full implementation of the changes included in the 2011 constitution. At least on the formal level, it seems Morocco is progressing in the right direction. If it continues this way, it is possible that in the future Eid Yanayir will be celebrated as an official holiday symbolizing recognition, inclusion, and tolerance.

Source: Morocco World News.