On April 20, 1980, like wildfire. By Hend SADI
When we go through historical phases where the fight, far too unequal, stalls, or even retreats but which always subsists in the depths of ourselves, against all odds, the instinct of insubordination, it happens that we are tempted to turn against his loved one. To attack one's brother to impute to him the difficulty which hinders us, the failure which threatens us and clings to our skin like a curse: to overwhelm the one who is at hand in order to relieve oneself in the absence of to be able to reach an inaccessible opponent to break free. In their dismay, some do not hesitate to incriminate the rare pioneers who opened up prospects for us when "on all sides was falling evening" and even go so far as to attack Mouloud Mammeri who, from 1939 when he was a young student, cared about the future of "Berber society" by publishing a memoir on this subject in the review Aguedal. For the despisers of this man, he would have "misguided", and with him all those he dragged in his wake, in the "tamazight" (Berber) when he should have fought in Kabyle in the service of Kabylie . Let's be clear, this dynamic is not only sterile, it is destructive.
For the proponents of this thesis, a cause is all the easier to defend when its space is circumscribed to a reduced territory. According to this conception, when Kabyles refer to the Amazigh ensemble, they disperse their forces to the detriment of Kabylie. This vision based on the Kabyle/Amaziγ (Berber) opposition is, it should be emphasized, new.
Amrouche, Mammeri, Bessaoud, Kateb
Need we remind you that:
Jean Amrouche entitled "Chants berbères de Kabylie", his collection of Kabyle poems published in Tunis in 1937,
Mouloud Mammeri called "Berber language course" the teaching he provided at the University of Algiers to a majority of Kabyles in the sixties,
"The Berber Academy" of Bessaoud Mohand Arab brought together mainly Kabyles,
That Kateb Yacine who himself rejected the term "Berber" but in favor of that of "Amazigh" spoke of "cut majority".
For all of them, expressing themselves in Amazigh, in Berber, did not weaken their point when they referred to the North African whole, on the contrary, they gave it all the more vigor as they anchored it in a geographically larger space, a historically deeper perspective that had its roots in antiquity.
It is a fact that the proliferation of first names Kahina, Dihia, Mazigh, Jugurtha or Massinissa in Kabylia after 1980 fueled the cultural struggle in Kabylia itself, just like the use of all Amazigh dialects in the development of neologisms has was beneficial for all.
In the same movement, this approach jostled in its foundations the Arab-Islamism which pushed the imposture until posing as "indigenous" - the Algerian Constitution affirms that "Algeria is an Arab land" - and dispossess thus the Amazigh from his ancestral land. But we can count on the authentic Arabs who miss no opportunity to bring back to their Amazigh origins these zealous converts to whom they deny the quality of Arabs.
Back to the news, that of April 20, now banned in Tizi-Ouzou, but celebrated elsewhere. If the Amazigh Spring has had the echo that is its own, it is precisely because the activists who have activated to bring it to life (there is no spontaneous generation) have worked to place it in a global perspective. Amazigh and not in a Kabyle regionalist framework in which the power wanted to lock him up to repress him even more harshly.
The emergence of Amazigh consciousness in Tunisia today, the Amazigh emblem that floated over Gaddafi's Al Aziza barracks, everywhere in Morocco and Algeria, in the Canary Islands in the streets of European or American capitals by our diaspora are the best evidence of the effectiveness of this approach.
?Today, should we regret that the "Amazigh Spring" was not confined to Kabylie alone
Moreover, this opposition of Amazigh to Kabyle, Chaoui, Mozabite, … has no place to exist. Jean Amrouche has summarized it in the very title of his book. Defending Amazighity does not mean denying the cultural and linguistic plurality of our countries. The Jacobin centralization inherited from the colonial system is not suited to the times we live in, nor to the size of our countries. Undoubtedly, we need much more flexibility in our institutions.
Two colleges
By integrating all North Africans into a whole with a common historical base but open to plurality, Amazighity does not divide but unites. By reconciling the citizen with his history without opposing each other, it does not cultivate hatred but appeases. By rehabilitating the real identity of North Africa, it does not cultivate imposture but restores authenticity.
Does that mean there is no problem? Certainly not. The challenges to be met are immense, numerous and urgent. It is still necessary to identify them well and not to get lost in a headlong rush that leads straight to the wall.
Here is one, for example, of a new type, born of an artificial recognition of the Amazigh language as the national and official language in certain countries (Morocco and Algeria, here is at least a point of agreement, congratulate?) They endowed the Arabic language with a status of national and official language which has all the rights, all the means, all the powers, worthy of the “first college”. And for the Amazigh language, ignored at the very top of the institutions, endowed with derisory means, they invented a status of adulterated national and official language worthy of the "second college".
?Who cultivates division, who sows contempt
*Hend SADI, Associate of Mathematics and animator of the Amazigh Cultural Movement
Source : websites