Interview with Mr. Hammou Belghazi
Tiggurma/Holiness. Cult practices and cultural representations is the title of an excellent collective work, recently published by the Center for Anthropological and Sociological Studies of IRCAM. We owe it to experienced researchers, in this case MM. El Khatir Aboulkacem, Hammou Belghazi, Mohamed Oubenal and Mbark Wanaim. A publication which rigorously analyzes a “network concept” or a “crossroads concept” which constitutes one of the key elements for understanding our society in certain of its aspects and/or dimensions. To tell us more about it, we asked a few questions to H. Belghazi, sociology researcher.
Comments collected by: Moha Moukhlis
“A good number of Moroccans – Amazigh speakers and Arabic speakers – still devote themselves to the cult of the saints”
“Of all Muslim countries,” said the late Paul Pascon in 1985 , “Morocco is said to honor the greatest number of saints.”
To begin, a word on the genesis of the work.
The authors of this new work, at the end of their writing work (editing), exchange between themselves the texts of the typescript resulting from their joint research for reading or rereading and correction. Such a practice, which has become a tradition for years, allows us not only to adjust and improve our respective writings, but also to bring out some themes for a future action plan for our Center. The idea of devoting a study to the phenomenon of holiness emerged during the preparation for the publication of the book: Feminine creativity in Amazigh environments (Proceedings of study days), published in 2022 (Publications of the IRCAM). More precisely, it emerged during a discussion – between Mr. Wanaim and myself – around his contribution: “Creative spirit of healers in the Western Anti-Atlas”, and especially on their relationship to the worship of the saints. The idea of addressing the theme of holiness was then proposed in a meeting of the Center to our two other colleagues: El. Aboulkacem and M. Oubenal. It was widely discussed and then adopted. These are, in short, the circumstances of the delimitation of “Tiggurma/Holiness” as an object of research.
?How can we define tiggurma (holiness)
When we open, on page 619, the General Dictionary of the Amazigh Language , produced by researchers from the Center for Linguistic Development of our Institute, we can read: “tiggurma var. tigurrmt: being a descendant of a saint/Intisab ila wali salih; Sufism, Islamic mystical doctrine/Sufiya، Tsawwuf”. But, to quote Pierre Bourdieu, “grammar only very partially defines meaning”. Indeed, the term “tiggurma” (holiness), taken from the angle of social sciences (ethnology, anthropology, history and sociology), refers/applies to a reality as complex as it is complicated, whose content goes beyond the framework of aforementioned lexicographical definition. In social sciences, tiggurma designates a set of facts – material and immaterial – linked to the sacred as opposed to the profane such as the condition of the saint (sacredness, status, roles, etc.), places of worship (sanctuaries, caves, sources, etc.), practices (pilgrimage, prayer, offering, etc.), beliefs (total adherence to ideas without rational or empirical argument), etc.
Who says tiggurma (holiness) says agurram (holy) or tagurramt (holy). In reference to local knowledge, “every saint is endowed with moral virtues containing a fragment of divine energy” which is called البركة (the baraka): a kind of supernatural power. A power with which the Creator invests certain of his creatures: the chosen ones. These are generally classified into three groups: the descendants of al el-beyt آل البيت (people of the house or family of the Prophet Mohammad), individuals pouring their efforts and activities into the right path (pious holders of knowledge religious) and simple-minded beings ( buh a la ) or absorbed in mystical ecstasy ( mejadib ). However, baraka is not inherent to any simple-minded person, to any being belonging to the lineage of the Prophet or to any individual possessing religious knowledge. To benefit from it, it is still necessary to demonstrate the proof of the power granted by God by performing prodigies or “miracles”.
The word “saint” is also conjugated in the feminine form. There are women who are revered as much, if not more than men. One of the most famous saints is called Lalla Taâllat, patroness of a great votive festival of the same name. Celebrated annually in March, this employers' fair hosts the main regional meeting of tolba (Koranic school teachers). It is located near the sanctuary of the saint which is located in the rural commune of Tasgdelt (province of Chtouka-Ait Baha), 60 km southeast of Agadir. In fact, holy women ( tigurramin ), among certain ethnic groups in the Anti-Atlas, are more enterprising than men in terms of the dissemination of Islamic doctrines and the practice of traditional medicine. And for good reason: they are literate, an elite, living among a majority illiterate population. Their learning is provided by a tagurramt ; it takes on an esoteric character and is transmitted from mother to daughter or from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law.
The example of Lalla Taâllat, because of the preponderant position she occupies in the hierarchical structure of religion and holiness, undoubtedly gives food for thought on the authority that a woman can have over men in general and the bearers of religious knowledge in particular: the tolba . This case of female ancestry, which is far from being unique or isolated, goes against theories which classify Amazigh social environments among patriarchal societies where the man monopolizes power and imposes the rules.
?What is the added value of the work
Our work is not the first of its kind in Morocco. The phenomenon of tiggurma , studied totally or partially, is one of the social facts which has caused a lot of ink to flow. Many publications were devoted to it before, during and after colonization. We owe them to authors from various disciplinary fields such as E. Doutté, Ch. de Foucauld, É. Montet… (pre-colonial period), H. Basset, J. Berque, É. Dermenghem… (colonial period), E. Gellner, R. Jamous, El. Id Karroum, A. Mana, P. Pascon, H. Rachik… (postcolonial period). The bibliography relating to the cult of saints is not lacking; it is even abundant. What is missing from all the texts consulted, however, is in fact a research approach adapted to the nature of societal realities at the regional level; an approach similar to the method used in this new publication and which constitutes one of its major contributions. It is the combination of three elements of capital importance: local knowledge, the methodological we and epistemological positioning.
Local knowledge is the knowledge of current facts and statements in an immediate societal environment, acquired through observation, experience and/or transmission both vertically and horizontally. It is translated into/through oral information, that is to say all of the information provided by the people interviewed during an elaborate interview or a free discussion, carried out during field work. This type of information is an integral part of oral tradition. Oral information, a source of data necessary to embrace and decipher local realities, contains rich material which has provided opportunities to open avenues of analysis in order to identify and then deconstruct unfounded ideas or erroneous reasoning. The interviews collected are fruitful, given that they took place in a context where the investigator-respondent relationship is based on an investigation technique that I call the “methodological we”.
In terms of methodology, the “we” designates the investigator associated with the respondents in his field by the relationship of belonging to the environment studied. This “we” has the sense not of “I”, but of “I” plus “he-s” and/or “she-s”. It also differs radically from the meaning of the technique or strategy called “the methodological “I”, which French researchers are using more and more in sociology and anthropology. In these disciplines, the use of the first person singular: the “I” (personal, subjective), is introduced as a mark of respect from the investigator towards the people involved in the investigation. That said, the methodological we also draws on the knowledge learned through lived experience (that of the researcher); a personal experience where there is a part of the experiences lived by the respective generations of his parents and grandparents. For each of the authors of Tiggurma/Sainteté , the lived experience (their own) made it possible to achieve a double objective: on the one hand, the rapid establishment of a relationship of trust with their informants ( sine qua non condition for the collection of as much information as possible); on the other, the reduction or disappearance of the defense system that the respondent often tends to display. This type of experience has proven to be an excellent aid for the investigative approach of the researcher who studies his own culture and, in particular, a solid support for the methodological nous.
However, the methodological nous as a research technique and local knowledge as a source of information could only gain in reliability and effectiveness in the presence of a third element: epistemological positioning in the Bachelardian sense of the term. That is to say the objective and objectifying position of the researcher with regard to the relevance or impertinence of the written sources and oral information used for the study of the phenomenon of tiggurma . In other words, this positioning made it possible to place research both in the continuous action of firm control of data from popular knowledge and in the logic of incessant questioning which occurs at two fundamental levels: that of concepts and theoretical models proven or deemed inapplicable to the local societal construct and that of simplistic iterative, distorting or reductive interpretations of the realities of this same societal construct. It follows that the four chapters composing Tiggurma/Holiness are part of a scientific perspective which aims to apprehend, understand and explain the cultic substrate of holiness.
Chapter 1 focuses in general on the relationship between holiness and cultural production and in particular on a practice characteristic of southern Morocco: acrobatics, published in the zaouïa of Sidi Hmad u Moussa. Its author, El. Aboulkacem, thinks of acrobatic activity as a product of the action of maraboutism and considers it as a means used by certain descendants of this saint to benefit from his symbolic capital, in this case those excluded from the monopoly that dominant lineages exercise over the management of property and maraboutic paradigms.
In chapter 2, H. Belghazi makes the baraka (“ideal object” supposed to be the driving force of holiness and the intrinsic value of the saint) a cardinal fact to analyze the relationship of the Zemmour to the cult of the saints. This allowed him to explain, firstly, the different places of anchoring of the relationship in question and, then, the breaches which are produced there and have little by little generated a serious practical-spiritual disengagement in the matter, which It is appropriate to call it “cult withdrawal”.
Chapter 3, signed M. Oubenal, focuses on the socio-economic dynamics of sanctuaries and madrasahs in the Ait Baha region. It highlights the importance of the social role of the zaouïa of Tizi n'Lawliya (tribe of Tidli) and the dynamic phenomenon that the author describes as a “process of sanctification”. That is to say all the acts, actions and activities which allow local scholars to become igurramen ( saints) feared and respected by the inhabitants.
As for chapter 4, due to Mr. Wanaim, it concerns the universe of holiness in the Western Anti-Atlas. It covers the history of emblematic sanctuaries erected as high places of worship and the rituals linked to them. The author also looks at the evolution of these religious centers and their contribution to the formation of collective perceptions. And this, through socialization dynamics which are perpetuated in the practical-representational system of individuals and groups.
?What is the status of the cult of the saints today
“Of all Muslim countries,” said the late Paul Pascon in 1985, “Morocco is said to honor the greatest number of saints. » These words are still relevant today. Indeed, a good number of Moroccans – Amazigh speakers and Arabic speakers – still devote themselves to the cult of the saints. In recent years, we have been witnessing a dual action by the State in this area: stronger supervision of the religious field and significant support for traditional brotherhoods versed in religion and/or mysticism. This is a symbolic restoration of brotherhood Islam and its leaders: the saints. This has, in Amazigh environments, particularly in the South, encouraged local communities to reactivate their religious or mystical-religious institutions intended to fulfill various functions, including cultural functions. However, the revaluation of these institutions and their reactivation should not obscure the two fractures that have occurred in the framework of the cult of the saints: the deterioration of sanctuaries and the reduction in offerings. Such fractures are easily observed in the places studied, particularly among Zemmour.
First divide: out of eleven sanctuaries visited (observed) in the Zemmour region, in 2022, seven are neglected, abandoned or destroyed. People living in their immediate surroundings pointed out three categories of desecrators: treasure seekers, young delinquents and Islamist militants (Wahhabi movement). The information collected on this subject has been partly contradicted, invalidated by direct observation or by analysis of all the data collected in the field.
Second divide: in rural Zemmour, the practice of agrarian rites, and more particularly of offerings (alms, tithes, etc.), has declined remarkably. This decline is largely explained by a double fact: on the one hand, the appearance and development of new ideas intended to call into question the cult of saints, therefore an aspect of ancestral social representations; on the other, the reaction of rural people against the abuses of certain individuals who claim to be of the lineage of the Prophet or a saint (agurram). Are we in the process of bringing order to the sphere of the sacred, of desecrating part of it? If I judge by the current decline in religious offerings, everything points to this.
Your last word.
For a researcher in sociology, it is very difficult to talk about a social fact – here, the degradation of sanctuaries and the reduction in alms – without, at least, mentioning similar examples such as the abandonment of cemeteries and the dilapidation of tombs. The phenomenon of degradation is not limited to the domain of sacred monuments. Everyone can observe it in other sectors: schools, hospitals, administrative buildings, roads, etc. To be able to remedy these problems or dysfunctions, which are far from being cyclical, we must not only understand and explain their ins and outs, but also and above all have the political will and commit the financial means.
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