!In the beginning were the Berbers
In the beginning were the Berbers. There was a land and the children of this land. A language, myths, women, a God and olive trees. And the dream lived in the heart of the songs.
• And one morning, hooded invaders appeared on the horizon. Dream rapists. They spoke another language and in their luggage another well-packaged God. War does not count its dead. He who is alive is he who does not lose his tongue. Converted to the Christian faith, willingly or by force, the children of the beginning have not lost their language or their myths. The Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba, Tunisia, bears witness to another faith. A witness who speaks of the plurality of Heaven.
• The first invaders withdrew, others followed them. And the children of the beginning have not lost their memory or their love of the olive tree. Each invader sees himself as the master of the place and the savior of the people vis-à-vis God and History!
• The Phoenicians. The Romans. Vandals. The Byzantines... And by another dawn, others arrived, this time they arrived from the land of the east. Like the others, they carried a Book, a language, a religion and swords.
• But the children of the beginning did not bend. A war has spoken for sixty-eight years. Converted to the new faith, willingly or by force, the children of the beginning have not lost their language or their myths. Even converted, the children of the beginning were in the eyes of the victors as infidels. El foutouhat el islamiya (the Islamic conquests) have passed by, but the children of the beginning have remained in oblivion and bitterness.
• From the sea, on another day, the Ottomans landed, in the name of religion, at the call of their Muslim brother to face the Christians, in the land of Juba. Under the muezzin's call to prayer to Allah, the Ottomans auctioned off the women and children of Kahena Tadlut (the beautiful gazelle). Cervantes captured, taken to the penal colony of Algiers (1575-1580).
• The deys continue to send slaves in women and children to the caliph of the high gate El Bab el Âli! And the governor of Beylek demands 10% of slaves as taxes on women and children from Tamazgha.
• But the children of the beginning have not changed their language, have not forgotten their myths or the smell of kinké lamp oil. If we lose the earth under our feet, we save the tongue in our mouth. Language is an inviolable magical homeland. The children of the beginning resist, the women are happy and sing so that the children never forget the hour of genesis.
• The Ottomans arrived but the children of the beginning remained foreigners in their land and expelled from their space. On a summer day in 1830, Dey Hussein signed his submission for the benefit of another invader. The governor of Beylik, humiliated, returns the keys to Algiers, loads his gold and his slaves and sets sail on the French ship Jeanne-d'Arc towards Alexandria in Italy. Another invader arrived with tanks, laws, torture and a tongue. And another Kahena, another adventurer called Fadhma n’Soumer takes out her horses and her claws.
• And on an autumn day in 1954, the fighters of the great war screamed. And there were martyrs, many martyrs. And on a summer day in the year 1962, independence is proclaimed, and the invader who replaced the other invader, who replaced the other invader, who replaced the other invader, who replaced the another invader has packed up!
• The ululations of independence resonated on Djurdjura, but the children of the beginning saw nothing coming for them and for their language and their holy olive tree! But these children of the beginning, great-sons of the children of Genesis, have not folded their weapon.
• The new owner of power with his lying slogan “socialism is the solution” has aborted their dream. And there is no spring without poetry. And Dda Lmouloud announces the colors of Berber spring. The children are waking up!
• Islamism arrives in Algeria with the Muslim brothers and the weddings of Youssef al-Qardaoui and Mohamed Ghazali, and the dream of the Amazighs takes a step back. And another war is started and with wars, many deaths... and the children of the beginning dream of their land, their tales and their olive tree and their language. “Islam is the solution” has failed, and the children’s dream from the beginning is postponed.
• But one day, everyone will leave again, and only the children of the beginning, the great-sons of genesis, will remain. In the beginning were the Berbers. In the end there will only be Berbers in Algeria.
Amin Zaoui
Source: websites