Amazigh.nl

Et tous cela pour la gloire des arabes!

Les Iktamiyen (ketama) et Iznagen (zirid/sanhaja) de Tamazgha central ont été les vassaux des pouvoirs arabes et c'est grâce à eux que les arabes ont pu dominer pendant des décennies notre région. 


PS: Visiblement tu persites toujours à vouloir insulter les Amazighs, tu es vraiment une personne méprisable !

 CGI cherche un partenaire sur le projet Souani

Les travaux de construction devraient débuter avant fin 2010 sur le projet Souani à Al Hoceima, indique M’hammed El Mrini, directeur général délégué du pôle tertiaire.

La CGI se fixe jusqu’à fin juin pour trouver un opérateur qui devrait développer le volet touristique. La réalisation du projet nécessiterait un investissement de plus de 1,5 milliard de DH.

bron: L'Economiste

The tragedies and convulsions of the past haunt, even poison, French relations with the Arab world. The medieval Crusades were inspired, led and financed by French princes, feudal barons and knights.

The French occupied Algeria for 130 years and abandoned it in 1962 only after a horrific colonial war that cost an estimated one million Arab and Berber lives. French and British paratroops invaded Egypt in concert with Israel, after Gamal Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956. France nurtured exceptionally close ties with Israel in the first two decades of its existence, due to postwar national guilt after Marshal Pétain’s. Vichy collaborationist government deported 80,000 French Jews to the Nazi gas chambers. French-built Mysteres and Mirages of the IDF Force utterly destroyed the Egyptian Air Force in the opening moments of the June 1967 Six Day War and enabled Israel’s seizure of the Sinai, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Paradoxically, despite the horror and sorrow of Algeria, the Suez invasion and the Six Day War, France enjoys unprecedented prestige in the palaces, salons, newsrooms and military barracks of the Arab world.

France’s successful Arab policy began after General de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel. His political heir Jacques Chirac cultivated Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to such a great degree that the French-built Osirak nuclear reactor outside Baghdad, destroyed by the Israelis in a pre-emptive air strike in July 1981, was known in Paris as “O Chirac”. President Chirac did not hesitate to court even rabidly anti-West radical or Islamist regimes, such as Libya, Syria or Khomeini’s Iran in his eagerness to promote French national interests in the Middle East. Chirac’s Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin became the most famous French diplomat on the world stage since Prince Tallyrand when he defied US plans to invade Iraq in the UN Security Council. Democracy or human rights, so often the rhetoric veneer of American and British diplomacy, played no role in the political calculus of the Elysee Palace. French national interests demand that it secure stable, long term oil supplies, protect defense jobs by selling high-tech warplanes and tanks to Arab regimes and preserve strategic interests in its former Maghreb and 
Levant colonies.

While the Middle East is no longer a central theatre of French-US rivalries, as it was under Chirac, Sarkozy has not hesitated to take advantage to the failure of the Obama administration to engage Iran by launching his own diplomacy in the Middle East. His Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has cut multi-billion dollar arms, oil and nuclear deals with almost every Arab state. The Amir of Qatar, the first foreign head of state to visit France after Sarkozy’s election, purchased a dozen Airbus 350 planes for $16 billion. Sarkozy secured the release of the Bulgarian nurses held in Tripoli and hosted Colonel Gaddafi of Libya in the Elysee Palace. The French presence in Abu Dhabi includes a branch of the Sorbonne, the Louvre museum a Total joint venture and a military base.

I doubt if France can replace the United States as the dominant superpower in the Middle East. The Shia political elite in Baghdad resents France’s past, intimate relationship with Saddam Hussein’s Sunni Baathist regime. Morocco negotiated its first free trade agreement with the United States, not France. Despite Renault’s car plants and Total’s gasfields, the French were unable to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear programme. Hezbollah, not France’s traditional Christian Maronite allies, now determines the politics of Lebanon. The Italian ENI, not Total, dominates the LNG and crude oil infrastructure of Egypt and Libya.

Sarkozy has played a critical role in Syria’s rapprochement with Lebanon’s Maronites and Saudi Arabia. He sought to broker a direct peace deal between the Israelis and President Assad. With the Americans unable to make even glacial progress on a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, the Elysee Palace has used the diplomatic vacuum to act as a secret channel between Damascus and Jerusalem, alongside the Turkish government. The French connection is reborn in Damascus.

nec min melegh iyya taghyuri, iwden tteggen am udji !


marra din cin ficta teggen imazighen gi tifeswin, nec war ttsinegh, marra cek tessed ficta-ya siwel x-anegh

Addi Ouadderrou poured Moroccan mint tea from high above the glass tea cups, partly to cool it off, partly for show. He offered some to me, along with drinking instructions: in Moroccan culture, it is okay to slurp. "We drink both tea and air." Ouadderrou said that Moroccans traditionally drink three cups of tea per day. Through a cup of tea, Ouadderrou shared an important part of his culture.

Moroccan mint tea is one of the many traditions Ouadderrou has been sharing with acquaintances since he moved from Southeastern Morocco to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1997 and opened a Moroccan imports shop, Moroccan Caravan, in Union Square. He also shares his culture by performing traditional Moroccan music in his band, Amoud.

"Amoud means seeds, seeds that can grow and prosper, and we symbolize ourselves as seeds of our culture that will grow and prosper and flourish," Ouadderrou said. The culture that they disseminate belongs to a particular group of Moroccans, the Amazighen.

The Amazighen (pronounced Am-a-zeer-en) are the people of North Africa who speak the language Tamazight (pronounced Tam-a-zeert). Ouadderrou gave some background on his language: "Tamazight is spoken all over Morocco, from the East to the West to the North to the South. Because Tamazight is the native language of Morocco. Not only Morocco, but all North Africa. Morocco's native language was Tamazight before Arabic became the official language there." Despite its age and its many speakers, Ouadderrou explained, Tamazight has an inferior status in Moroccan culture. "It's spoken by the majority, but it is considered the language of the minority," he said with regret.

Amoud extols Amazigh culture by playing traditional Amazigh music. Ouadderrou describes Amoud's style: "Our music is Amazigh music. The language spoken is Tamazight. And it takes from poems that are written by many other great poets, Amazigh natives of Morocco, and these poems talk about love, about nature, about the people."

The five band members, all Amazighen, play traditional North African instruments. They beat the djembe, the tamtam, and the allun drums. They jingle the qraqeb, or steel hand cymbals. They strum the six-string banjo and another stringed instrument, the sentir. Over the instrumentals, they sing in Tamazight.

The band formed in January, around the time of the Amazigh New Year. Amoud first performed at Boston City Hall on Morocco Day this February. The group's next performance will be at the Mimouna celebration at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville, on April 10.

Mimouna is a holiday that Moroccan Jews traditionally celebrate on the day after Passover to mark Passover's end and to hope for a year of prosperity. Mimouna began in Morocco but has spread to Israel and beyond.

Not only Jews, but also Muslims, participate in this holiday, as Ouadderrou described: "During Mimouna, both Jews and Muslims get together and they celebrate, they share, and they appreciate the life that they live together." This unifying tradition stands in contrast to the disputes over land rights in Israel that often divide Muslims and Jews. This year's Mimouna concert is a collaboration between two organizations that promote Jewish and Muslim cultures, respectively: Prism, the youth initiative at the New Center for Arts and Culture, and the American Islamic Congress.

Eva Heinstein, Co-Director of Prism, described how Jews and Muslims of Morocco would celebrate Mimouna. She said that, during Passover, Jews would symbolically sell their leavened foods to their Muslim neighbors. On Mimouna, she said, "the Muslim neighbors would bring back these things that were given to them for safekeeping over the eight days, and they would bring gifts of bread and desserts and leavened foods."

Somerville's Mimouna celebration will bring together Jews, Muslims, and anyone else who wants to make merry. The festivities will include refreshments, a fashion show, music, dance, and more. The revelry begins at 8:15 p.m. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Bringing together people of different cultures is just what Amoud hopes to do. Ouadderrou says, "We feel it's our duty to help people understand about us, about our culture. And also help create and enlighten people's minds and create better understanding, because I think if people, no matter where they're from, if these people interact and they learn about each other, I think there will be better understanding."

>> http://www.thesomervillenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=3623

Libyan vocabulary, an essay towards reproducing the ancient Numidian language out of four modern tongues : http://www.archive.org/stream/libyanvocabular00newmgoog

jij kan niet lezen?

Senior is on a mission to keep alive the poetry of a dying culture - her own

If you ask senior Soumia Aitelhaj's what she's planning to do after graduation, be prepared for quite an answer. This summer, the BC English major is starring in a film that will document her work to save the poetry of her dying culture in North Africa.

The task is a far cry from where the 22-year-old started. Aitelhaj is Amazigh (better known as Berber in the West), an ancient, indigenous people who inhabited North Africa and the Sahara desert.

She grew up in Morocco, and from an early age shunned the Imazighen culture in an effort to fit in with her peers. She studied hard, learned Arabic and quickly distanced herself from her heritage.

"I remember one day when I was around 10 years old, an Amazigh girl came to our school who did not speak Arabic. Other students started laughing and making fun of her. I joined in," said Aitelhaj.

"I have so much guilt surrounding that moment," she said. "As a child, you are confused about such things, but that decision haunts me to this day."

Aitelhaj's family eventually moved to the United States and started a life in Revere. She attended high school in Boston and, over her past four years at Boston College, has attempted to reconnect with her lost identity.

"I look it as an evolution of identity. When I arrived at Boston College, during my freshman year, I decided to remove my hijab [headscarf worn by Muslim women]. It was a scary experience, but one I could deny no longer. I knew I had to find myself and turned to the part of me that is Amazigh," said Aitelhaj, adding that the transformation caused some tension within her family.

Last semester, during an especially challenging Introduction to Poetry course with English part-time faculty member Kim Garcia, Aitelhaj started to take a closer look at her culture.

"Soumia came into my class with strong poetic gifts, although she hadn't written much formal poetry up until then," Garcia remembers. "She had an intuitive grasp of the importance of image and from her earliest work produced poems with remarkably rich imagery."
During Garcia's office hours, Aitelhaj shared her hopes to pursue a career in political science and law, possibly at the United Nations, so as to advocate for the Imazighen people. But she also shared her desire to have poetry play a role in her life.

"It was not until the last day of class when Soumia mentioned that her grandmother was a poet, one of the last of the elders who still recite the poetry of the Imazighen," said Garcia. "The idea of recording and translating the poems - and thereby combining Soumia's two passions - finally came together in our minds."

When her grandmother recently visited the US, Aitelhaj took the opportunity to interview her. Although illiterate, the older woman would often regale her family with stories that have been passed down by village elders for thousands of years.

"When I ask her about the poetry she learned as a girl, I see her smile," said Aitelhaj. "My mother also helps translate the meanings, which I am so grateful to have."

As part of a post-graduate research project funded in part through the Philanthropic Initiative, Aitelhaj will travel to Africa and begin to record and translate the oral tradition of poetry among the Imazighen. She has partnered with a documentary film crew, Closed Loop Films, who have already started recording her efforts - beginning with that first interview with her grandmother. The BC Human Rights Center and Law School have also offered support for the project, and at this time Aitelhaj is working to secure additional grants.

"This needs to be done now because so much of the poetry and stories are with the elders alone. As they pass on, the poetry slips away," said Aitelhaj. "So many people, like me, want to assimilate and often forget the poetry and traditions. Now, I'll be working to preserve that."

Garcia takes it one step further.

"If you want to destroy a culture, you attack where the meaning inheres most richly - its religions, its art and its poetry. Poetry is the way a culture knows itself. It can store everything from myths to village stories to love poems with rhythms and musical language in a way that allows generation after generation to access that passion and know who they are," said Garcia.

"Each time I heard Soumia's grandmother falter and then grow silent during the recording, I felt a pang, as though a page of The Iliad was just lost," said Garcia. "There are a handful of these poets occasionally reciting in her village. No one knows how old they are, even the poets themselves. No one knows how long Soumia has to record them before their poems are gone. Every minute is precious."

Ask Aitelhaj to share her favorite poem and she pauses, lost in thought.

"My favorite is one my grandmother tells about a man coming to the village," she finally says. "He offers praise for the beauty of all the women, but also makes fun of them for being so vain. It's not only the words that make it a favorite - my grandmother starts laughing when she tells it, laughing at the jokes the man tells. It's hard not to see the humor in the story when she laughs."

bron : http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/TopstoriesNewFeatures/features/aitelhaj033110.html

Tizi Ouzou (Algeria)- The inhabitants of Boghni chase terrorists and force them to come out

A major gathering was held yesterday at about nine o'clock in the morning, following the kidnapping by terrorist groups of the entrepreneur Ali Hassani, 83, in « Azghar », near Ath Koufi, in the province ofTizi Ouzou.

Hundreds of people from the six arouch (tribes) from the district of Boghni were present at this merger, these are from Ath Koufi, Ath Mendas Achtras, Bounouh Ammi Youcef and the arch of Taramtine. Mr Ouchène Idir, a member of the Coordination said in his statement "We do not want war with terrorists, we are here to negotiate peacefully. Our goal is to free Ammi (uncle) Ahmed unconditionally. We came unarmed with our strategy, the security services have their own strategy". He added "the delay that we gave the terrorists has expired today, that is why we have gathered here to take a decision."
     
Noting that the other sons of the hostage were absent in the gathering. Only his son Said was present. After controversy and disputes among the people, they eventually agree to go into the forest in search of uncle Ali. The group consists of about 200 people fitted with megaphones went about ten and a half through Azeghar, the village of Ath Ali Koufi. Arriving at a place called Tizar, the latter, using megaphones, called the terrorists in both languages Arabic and Tamazight. "Please, release uncle Ali, he is sick and you know it. You're hurting his wife and his children. We do ask that his unconditional release in the coming hours or we will be forced to resort to something else. Let the people of this region alone, let us live in peace. We are tired of all these problems you are causing. This region has paid for the liberation of the country; 480 martyrs. Please, get out, we came in peace, without arms."
     
Half an hour later, the group decided to continue walking, running the same slogans and calling for the release of uncle Ali. After twenty minutes of walking, a terrorist appears on Mount Talaghilef, a Kalashnikov in hand and a backpack. He beckoned with his hand. From his appearance, he could be the dangerous terrorist Ghazi Abderrahmane. An old man quickly took the megaphone and began to talk to them in Arabic, "Please, release him for the love of God." The group decided to continue walking. Some wanted to cut through the bush, but others suggest taking the road for fear of mines planted by terrorists. Suddenly two terrorists made their appearance, then four others joined them. Three were wearing red sweaters, the others were in black. It was 12:47. People started calling in their megaphone and terrorists waved their arms and hands. Everyone waited for the Said’s phone to ring son of the hostage). The terrorists disappeared after a quarter of an hour and the group continues to walk toward them, using a megaphone with the hope of succeeding in their mission.

They promised to resort to other methods in case the terrorists refuse.


bron: Ennahar / Katia A.

Niger authorities have arrested a Tuareg rebel leader who arrived in the capital last week in a bid to meet junta officials who took power in a February coup, a police source said Wednesday.

The capture of Rhissa Ag Boula on Tuesday follows the recent arrests of a dozen close aides of Niger ex-president Mamadou Tandja, including former ministers, for allegedly plotting against the new authorities.

In addition, Niger's security forces carried out a sweep this week that rounded up 618 suspects in a bid to crack down on rising crime, a police officer said. According to the officer, the sweep was unrelated to the arrests of Tandja's aides.

"Rhissa Ag Boula was arrested on Tuesday and jailed at the Niamey civilian prison," a police source said on condition of anonymity of the Tuareg rebel leader.

Authorities also arrested Kindo Zada, an ex-Niger army officer who deserted the military to join the Tuareg rebellion in 2007, the source said.

Niger Tuareg rebels gave up arms in October following mediation by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

All Tuareg rebels were given amnesty except for Ag Boula, who was sentenced to death in absentia in 2008 over the murder of a politician from the country's north.

Despite the sentence, Ag Boula arrived in Niamey last week along with all main leaders of the three Tuareg armed movements to meet junta officials.

Ag Boula served as tourism minister before being fired in 2004 then jailed for alleged complicity in the murder of the politician, Adam Amangue.

He fled Niger after his provisional release was negotiated in 2005 under Libyan mediation in exchange for the release of four hostages -- three police officers and a soldier -- who had been captured by ex-rebels.

The Tuaregs are indigenous, nomadic Berber tribes who roamed the Sahara for centuries before nations of the region gained independence from European colonial powers.

bron: afp

Citaat van: Amazigh/rebel op 03/04/2010 om 17:26:10
15 jaar

imghar-ek a3cmar ma la?

zi3enta xeli d cekk yuf-ek adji, enqass g wawal, arr-ay-d s tawengit



3ammas ma sdjegh cin ficta tteggen x tifeswin gi qa3ida n irrifien, manis d-ikka manaya ?

http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05302008-115128/unrestricted/Thesis.pdf

Citaat van: uzop op 03/04/2010 om 10:41:59In 2001, the new King in a public speech in the Rif Mountains recognised the existence of "a Berber identity" of the region's people and opened up for nurturing Berber language and culture and a possibility of teaching Berber in public schools.

het is niet in Rif, maar aan de midden-atlas.

A new report about the world's most threatened languages especially highlights the languages of the indigenous Berber people in Morocco and Algeria. Despite constituting around 50 percent of the population, their languages have been discriminated against and ignored.

The Germany-based Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in a 111-page report about threatened languages all around the world - which comes together with teaching materials to save such languages - has a special focus on Berber languages, or Tamazight as it is locally known.

The Berbers are considered North Africa's indigenous population. There is proof they inhabited the region in Phoenician times. The Berbers remained the dominant population group in North Africa long after the Arab conquer of the region.

In Morocco, it is estimated that around 50 percent of the population is Berber, although authorities allow no registration of ethnicity and claim numbers are far lower. In Algeria, between 25 and 30 percent of the population considers itself Berber.

Despite this long history and populous strength, Berber languages still are considered to be threatened in Algeria and Morocco. The reason for this is purely political, as the two countries consider themselves Arab and flatly deny the existence of a larger Berber population. Especially in Morocco, people have been fined and even detained for speaking Berber in public.

According to the GfbV report, at least six Berber languages are spoken in Algeria. Especially in the Kabylia area, where local groups have taken up arms, popular involvement has been great to defend the Kabylia Berber language and culture. There are an estimated 5 million Kabylia Berber speakers in Algeria and some 6 million living abroad, and this is one of the few Berber languages somewhat able to defend its survival through mere numbers.

Kabylian protest movements in 2002 led to the legal introduction of Berber as "a national language" by Algerian authorities. But this had little practical consequences as it was not accepted as an official language. There is no education in written and spoken Berber in Algerian schools and official documents are only accepted in Arabic.

And the 2002 guarantees to respect Kabylian Berber language have since been eroded. Attempts to organise Berber language congresses and meetings have been met with police brutality in 2008 and 2009, GfbV reports. In January this year, the celebration of the Berber New Year was "brutally stopped by police" in Tizi Ouzou, the capital of the Kabylia Berbers.

Other Berber languages in Algeria, including Chaouia and Chenoua, are less organised than the Kabylia Berber. They are thus stronger subjected to government's arabisation policy. "Thus far, the Algerian leadership is not prepared to give up its arabisation policy and accept Berber as a language sidelined to Arabic," the GfbV report concludes.

Morocco suppressing "majority language"

The GfbV in its report holds that a majority - up to 60 percent - of Moroccans indeed are Berbers and that most of these still have knowledge of one of the country's three Berber languages. In the High and Middle Atlas Mountains, Tamazight Berber is the majority language; in the northern Rif Mountains, most speak Tarifit Berber; while parts of the High Atlas are dominated by Tachelhit Berber language.

Arabisation in Morocco had been particularly tough during the rule of late King Hassan II, according to the report. Millions of Berbers, especially in mixed population areas, were forced to give up their language. Fines and even detentions were commonplace if Berber was spoken i public, and the King's secret police was active all over the country.

Only in 1994, King Hassan II in a public speech reluctantly admitted the existence of Berber, however insisting to call the three languages for Moroccan "dialects".

With the death of Hassan II in 1999, current King Mohammed VI eased repression of Berbers and Berber languages. In 2001, the new King in a public speech in the Rif Mountains recognised the existence of "a Berber identity" of the region's people and opened up for nurturing Berber language and culture and a possibility of teaching Berber in public schools.

In 2002, King Mohammed VI decreed the establishment of the Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe, IRCAM (the Royal Institute of Berber Culture), which was to further Berber language and culture. But the Institute "has no decision-making powers and is principally used as a figurehead for the alleged goodwill of the palace in Morocco," the GfbV report concludes.

Berber associations in Morocco are disappointed over the slow progress in accepting their minority - or is it majority? - rights. A 2004 census claimed that only 8.4 million out of a total Moroccan population of 31.5 million regularly spoke Berber languages. These low figures were "unrealistic", according to Berber associations.

Also the use of Berber in public schools is a slow process. While the teaching of Berber was first announced in 1994, only a 2003 "pilot project" allowed for the first small-scale use of Berber in a few lower grade Moroccan schools. Currently, only 317 schools teach Berber language in the kingdom, but plans exist to make Berber lessons obligatory nation-wide by 2013.

While the first TV programmes in Berber language were launched in January 2010 and Berber teaching soon may become universal, Berber activists still hold government is working against them. The Moroccan constitution still holds Arabic as the one and only official language in the kingdom, and King Mohammed VI has rejected a call to amend the constitution.

An attempt by the council of the northern Moroccan town of Nador to place street signs in Berber language was rejected by the Rabat Ministry of the Interior, which ordered their removal. Berbers are still denied giving their children traditional Berber names. Protest marches demanding Berber cultural rights are met with police brutality and human rights defenders have been imprisoned as late as in 2009 for speaking about the difficult situation of Berbers in Morocco.

"Morocco is still far away from being a democratic state that understands the rights of languages and opinion as a natural thing," the GfbV report concludes. "As the palace only is only willing to make small concessions on the language issue to maintain calm among the population, the Berber languages remain endangered."

bron: http://www.afrol.com/articles/35843