Amazigh is an official language in Algeria after a long struggle
After a struggle for more than half a century, Amazigh, which is used by the Amazighs, became an official language in Algeria on Sunday, but Arabic still takes precedence over it as the state language.
The Algerian Parliament adopted, by an overwhelming majority, a constitutional revision that stipulates that Amazigh is considered a “national and official language” in the country, while Arabic is the “national and official language” and “remains the official language of the state.”
The representatives noted that the Amazigh language, in its various branches (Chaoui, Kabyle, Mozabite, and Tariqa), is used by ten million people, that is, a quarter of the population of North African countries.
Although the French language is widely used in the country, it is not officially classified and is taught in schools as a foreign language.
The officialization of the Amazigh language was welcomed by the Semitic Prefecture of the Amazigh Language, an Algerian governmental academic institution established in 1995 during the era of former Algerian President Liamine Zeroual, and concerned with spreading the Amazigh language, after the events of the “Amazigh Spring” in the Kabylie region.
The Secretary-General of the governorate, Si Al-Hashemi Asaad, said that this measure “means that the state will mobilize more resources and mechanisms to make up for the deficit” in spreading the language.
The state is particularly looking forward to establishing an academy to teach the Amazigh language, which will be responsible for providing the conditions for disseminating the Amazigh language with the aim of establishing it over time as an official language.
The Amazigh language was not yet recognized, and activists defending the language were persecuted in a country ruled by one party.
In 1980, this issue came to light after demonstrations were violently suppressed in the Kabylie region, where the Berber population is concentrated.
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In the 1990s, the state showed some openness to demanding identity and language for these residents.
Consequently, the Amazigh language was introduced into the school curriculum in 1995 in some regions of the country where Amazigh is the mother tongue.
In 2002, after bloody riots in the Kabylie region that resulted in 126 deaths, the state recognized Amazigh as a second “national language,” by decision of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Six years before that date, in 1996, the Amazigh language was recognized in the new constitution as a component of national identity alongside Arabism and Islam.
In 2009, a government television channel was launched that broadcasts programs in Amazigh in all its branches.
But more than 20 years after the founding of the Semitic Amazigh Governorate, education is still provided in only 22 districts out of 48, and the number of students is estimated at 277,176 people out of more than ten million students, according to the governorate’s statistics.
It will take a long time to formalize this language, pending a consensus on how to write it, amid controversy between supporters of the (original) Amazigh, Latin, and Arabic scripts.
Although the Amazigh language was recognized decades later, its formalization did not satisfy everyone, as fierce defenders of the language demanded its equality with Arabic.
The Socialist Forces Front, which also calls for recognition of this language, asked its members to boycott the parliament session.
In a statement published at the beginning of the week, twenty activists in defense of the language considered that the new constitution should have equated the Arabic and Amazigh languages in order to end the ongoing division since the period of French colonization of Algeria (1830/1962).
Source : websites