Radwan Bin Shekar hosts the Amazigh media and activist Amina Ibn Al-Sheikh in “Asmaa and Questions”
Each week, this series of dialogues with a creator, artist or actor in one of the vital fields stands in quick and succinct questions about his preoccupations, his new production and some aspects of his personality and his private worlds.
Guest of the week's episode, media and Amazigh activist, Amina Ibn Al-Sheikh
1- How do you introduce yourself to readers in two lines?
My name is Amina Ibn Cheikh Oakdort, I was born in 1966 in Bekjurt Avlagher, Tafraout, Tiznit Province.
Graduated from the Faculty of Law, Department of Private Law at Mohammed V University in Rabat, founder of the Amazigh publishing company, with my husband, Rachid Rakha, director and editor-in-chief of the “ Amazigh World ” newspaper , former member of the Administrative Council of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, former member of the technical committee that ensured the establishment of the Amazigh channel, member The Royal Committee that produced the organizational laws of the National Council for Languages and Culture of Morocco, President of the International Amazigh Gathering in Morocco, President of the Haj Hammad Ibn Cheikh Oakdort Foundation for Culture and Social Development, married and mother, I currently work at the head of the government in charge of the Amazigh file.
2- What are you reading now and what is the best book you have read?
Now I am reading the book “Amazigh in School Education” by Dr. Fatima Aknau. The most beautiful book I've read is La divine connexion.
3- As editor-in-chief of the “Amazigh World” newspaper, how did your media journey begin?
My journey in the field of Amazigh media began after I got to know my husband, Rachid Rakha, and this coincided with the suspension of the newspaper “Tamazight” founded by the late Ahmed Daghrni, as well as the discussion about the statement of recognition of the Amazigh of Morocco by Professor Mohamed Shafik, may God bless him with his health. Unfortunately, all this discussion was not accompanied by the Moroccan media, which we felt at a great injustice, prompted my husband Rachid and friend Ahmed Zahid to think about establishing a newspaper that would be the mouthpiece of the Amazigh language, and so it was. Young entrepreneurs, and so the first step began with the first issue at the end of May 2001. And now we are in our twenty-second year.
4- What city do you live in and nostalgia overwhelms you to wander in its alleys and between its paths?
In fact, I do not have a favorite city, but I align myself with the hometown of Tafraout, for many considerations, including it is my birthplace, as well as because my father is its founder, right after the late Mohammed V appointed it from 1956 to 1963.
5- As an Amazigh activist, an advisor in the Office of the Presidency of the Government in charge of the Amazigh file. How do you see the future of Amazigh in the near term?
First, I have been fighting in the ranks of the Amazigh movement since the beginning of the nineties, which is now over thirty years. I contributed to the establishment of the Tamaynot Association, and the Amazigh movement in Rabat in general, I contributed to the establishment of the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture, and also contributed to the development of the public perception of the Amazigh channel, and before that I contributed to laying the first building blocks Together with my colleagues at the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture in the joint committee between the Ministry of Communication, the National Company for Radio and Television of Morocco, Soriad 2M and the Moroccan Film Center, we contributed to the inclusion of Tamazight in the public audiovisual media, and other collective achievements, which means that I am very optimistic about the future of Amazigh, only Efforts must be combined and work with tight and diligent strategies, because the basic conditions for the success of this file exist, not in the ideal way that we all seek, but there is a minimum that will help the success of the file, and strive for more until the goal is achieved.
6- When will you burn your media papers and quit writing and journalism?
I do not believe in such terms as burning, retiring and extinguishing candles… I believe in moving forward and I do not pursue a hobby until I retire from it, I struggle and will remain so until my soul ascends to its abode, perhaps it will struggle there or be reincarnated in someone else and so on.
7- Why, in your opinion, this great delay in demarcating Tamazight on the ground, in the absence of actually downloading it into all state structures and institutions?
There is no delay in activating the official character of Amazigh, but rather there is a great void because Tamazight ten years ago, after its constitution in the 2011 constitution, nothing was done about it, because the regulatory laws did not come out until the end of 2019 and 2020, on their fault, and to download them it is necessary to have procedures Memoranda, decrees, leaflets, meetings and meetings, especially since the Organizing Law No. 26.16 set a set of deadlines for the inclusion of Amazigh in some facilities ranging between 5 years, 10 years and 15 years.
8- Do the media and the intellectual have an actual and influential role in the social system in which he lives and interacts with it, or is he just a tweeter outside the flock?
Yes, the media is necessarily educated because he cannot communicate his media message without a minimum level of culture, and therefore they have a great role in the advancement of societies, although unfortunately we no longer see that interaction between the educated and the media with the reader, because the new means of communication or the so-called communication sites Social has become like fast-food snacks that are satiating and do not benefit the body in anything.
9- What does it mean to you to live in forced isolation and perhaps less freedom? Is solitude a constraint or freedom for you?
I do not think that there is compulsory isolation. Isolation is a choice, and it is relative as freedom is. What you seek is isolation, perhaps in the other is freedom as well. The same thing for freedom. Everything is relative. Freedom for me is a principle and engine of my existence, my being and my identity.
10- A character in the past that you would like to meet and why?
If this is possible, I would like to meet my father, who died when I was a year old. I want to meet with him to learn from him a lot of what I do not know. He is the resistance who resisted colonialism in the capital, Rabat, with weapons. Al-Senhaji wrote about him in his memoirs that he generously financed editorial members, and he is considered, as I said, the founder of the city of Tafraout, and due to his dedication and love for his homeland, the late Mohammed V singled him out with a special visit in recognition of his tremendous efforts in building people and the field.
So I would like to meet with him to learn more from him and ask him why he submitted his resignation in 1963, immediately after the amendment of the constitution, was it because of his campaign against voting yes for the constitution?, as the son of his late friend Oshakur told me, or because of his shock at the so-called national movement? These are many questions I want him to answer.
11- What would you change in your life if you had the opportunity to start over and why?
In fact, if I had the opportunity to start over, I would not change anything in my life, because the path of my life is this way I chose it, because the lesson is in the end, and I am grateful first to God for all that He has bestowed on me and grateful to everyone I encountered in my life, whether those who dealt with me with good or evil because they are lessons All of them I learned from and Atra in my formation and in building my character.
12- What remains when we lose things? Memories or emptiness?
What do you mean by things? If you mean material things, then we are the ones who make them, losing them made us others, but if you mean reputation and morals, you will only live in emptiness, because memories at that time will be like a conscience that will not have mercy on you, but will reprimand and punish you for life.
13- Tamazight is an official language in Morocco. This is what the 2011 constitution stipulates: a formality or cultural and political recognition?
It is an official recognition by the highest authority in the country since the Throne Speech of 2001 and then the Ajdir Speech in the same year 2001 and culminated in its demarcation in the 2011 constitution, political integration and cultural inclusion, and we have no right to fail or return to the beginnings, we just walk and continue to struggle and work.
14- What do women need in our countries to reach the stage of equality with men in our patriarchal societies par excellence? To the cunning and wisdom of Belqis, or to the boldness and courage of Nawal El Saadawi?
Nowadays, women need both, and I add that they need more than that to acknowledge their abilities as well as to overcome and fight the masculine mentality of some women, especially some mothers.
15- How do you see the experience of posting on social media?
They are, as I said above, snacks that satiate you, but do not benefit you in anything.
16- The best and worst memory in your life?
The most beautiful memory is the moment of my son's growth and the moment of the announcement of the demarcation of the Amazigh language in the Moroccan constitution. The worst memory is the moment I was informed of the death of my brother Mustafa, may God have mercy on him.
17- One last word or something you want to talk about?
I thank you very much for this pleasant meeting, and I hope that all the dialogues will be collected in a book so that it remains documented and timeless.
https://amadalamazigh.press.ma/%D8%B1%D8%B6%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%86-%D8%B4%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B6%D9%8A%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7/