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Morocco:Racism and Apartheid

category national | miscellaneous | news report author Tuesday August 06, 2002 15:58author by Moroccan Report this post to the editors

Morocco's Berbers are "people in their own country who don't exist," complains Mahjoubi Aherdan, the charismatic leader of the National Popular Movement, a political party that represents rural Moroccans, many of whom are Berber.

A war of words over the Berber and Arabic languages is heating up in Morocco, threatening to divide the kingdom in much the same way the battle between French and English speakers divides Canada.

Berbers were Morocco's first inhabitants, and today they are still the majority, accounting for about 60 percent of Morocco's 30 million citizens.

But when it comes to speaking their views, they are treated like a minority by the members of the dominant Arab culture.

"More than 40 years after independence (from France), the government still doesn't want to teach the Berber language and preserve or promote the culture, " says Ahmed Lachgar Agwilal, a Moroccan-born San Franciscan who is a representative of the Amazigh (Berber) Commission for Development and Human Rights in America.

"If you want to be Moroccan," he says, "you have to speak this language."

The government disagrees.

"Arabic is the official language of our identity, our Koran and our nation. The Moroccan citizen is duty-bound to speak his national language," says Khalid Shebal of the government's Institute for Arabization.

At the police registries where Moroccans go to officially designate their childrens' names, non-Arab names like Jurgurtha and Messina -- the names of ancient Berber kings -- are blacklisted. Only Arabic names like Hassan and Ahmed are allowed.

"To Berber militants, this is a case of trying to completely eradicate any Berber heritage," Jalali Saib, a leading activist who teaches at Rabat University, told the BBC earlier this year.

The first language of most Moroccans is some form of Berber, generally called Tamazight, though there are a number of variants. But the constitution recognizes only Arabic as the official language.

Arabic was imposed on the Berbers by the Muslims who conquered Morocco in waves of invasions beginning in the seventh century. Its influence waned a bit during the French colonial period, but after Morocco gained its

independence in 1956, it surged again. In the 1970s, the government launched a campaign to impose stricter standards for the use of Arabic in place of French in government and education.

Today, Berber activists say the "Arabization" of Morocco has led to discrimination and has marginalized their people. But the government has resisted calls for recognition of Tamazight as an official language of Morocco,

fearing that the crusade will spawn a separatist movement.

Morocco's Berbers are "people in their own country who don't exist," complains Mahjoubi Aherdan, the charismatic leader of the National Popular Movement, a political party that represents rural Moroccans, many of whom are Berber.

Even in schools in predominantly Berber areas, lessons are not taught in Tamazight but in Arabic. Government jobs are off-limits to those who speak only Berber, and Tamazight is prohibited in the courts; all legal documents must be translated into Arabic.

Television programming follows suit. One government-affiliated channel, 2M, broadcasts a mix of Arabic and French. The other, RTM, broadcasts predominantly in Arabic, with only 5 to 10 minutes a day of news in Berber.

Berber activists blame Arabization for the high illiteracy rate in Morocco - - 56 percent of its citizens cannot read -- because Berber children often drop out when confronted with teachers who speak only Arabic. They also blame it for the continued poverty of most Berbers. Fifty percent of Moroccans live on less than $50 a month, and most of the poor are Berbers.

Language is all-important to Moroccan Berbers because it is the main attribute that unites their pluralistic culture. Though most Berbers are Muslim, some are Jewish and others are Christian. They are ethnically mixed and spread over the country, from the Rif mountain range in the north to the Atlas Mountains and the desert in the south.

In Algeria, where Berbers make up 25 percent of the population, tensions have sometimes exploded into riots and bloody confrontations with police. The "Tamazight Spring" uprising of 1980 mobilized Berber anti-government sentiment,

and hundreds were killed in the "Black October" riots of 1988. More recently, thousands of Berbers rioted in 1998 over a government decree making Arabic the official language of Algeria and the subsequent assassination of Matoub Lounes,

a well-known musician and Berber activist, reputedly by the Armed Islamic Group, a fundamentalist insurgency.

Moroccan Berbers have been less violent in their resistance to Arabization. But the controls on political expression have loosened since Mohammed VI ascended to the throne in 1999 after the death of his father, Hassan II, and Berber activist organizations have become better financed. As a result, Berber calls to re-examine Moroccan society have grown louder.

Last March, Berber activists drafted and submitted to the government the "Berber Manifesto." It called on the state to recognize Tamazight as a national language, teach Tamazight in schools, license a Berber television station, allot government money to speed up development in historically neglected areas, and end restrictions on registering Berber names for their children.

Soon afterward, a government commission issued a much-publicized education charter calling for sweeping reforms of the Moroccan education system. The charter was commissioned by the late King Hassan II, who raised Berbers' hopes in 1994 when he said in a televised speech that Tamazight should be taught in schools, a pledge that was never fulfilled.

Berber organizations denounced the education charter. They pointed out that only two of its 100 articles deal with the question of Tamazight in school. The first said Tamazight could be used in primary school only to "facilitate the learning of the official language" -- Arabic. The second said that beginning this year, certain universities would have the means to study Tamazight and Berber culture.

The charter's provisions are "insufficient," says Lachgar. "The government has to provide money for teaching Tamazight because it's our language, it's our culture."

Not all Berbers agree. While the majority are poor, there is an entire class of super-rich Berbers. Discriminated against in areas like education and government, they have flourished as businessmen and have bought up entire neighborhoods of Casablanca, such as the enclave known as California, where mansions resemble those in Beverly Hills.

Some ardently support the Berber cause by funding activist groups, but others resist it. Says Ahmed Lousoure, a 34-year-old factory manager in Casablanca: "What good is Tamazight outside of Morocco? Our king is trying to modernize the country, not take a step back."

And there are divisions even among Berber activists.

Some militants are pushing for a political party exclusively for Berbers, while moderates worry that it would be interpreted as separatist, allowing the Berber movement to be written off.

Lachgar, who will travel in August to a U.N. conference on racism and indigenous peoples' rights in Durban, South Africa, to make the case for official recognition of the Berber language, shrugs off the government's suggestion that official recognition of Tamazight could lead to a separatist movement.

"They just want to confuse people," he says. "Nobody wants to separate because they consider all this land their land."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who Are the Berbers?
Long before San Francisco's waterfront was known as the Barbary Coast, the North African coast was known as Barbary (from the Latin word for foreigners), and its inhabitants were the people now known as Berbers. Today, they number about 20 million and call themselves Imazaghen, which means "free and noble men."

Spread across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and, to a lesser extent, Libya and Egypt, they were conquered during the Arab invasion that started in the seventh century and, after fierce resistance over several centuries, were converted to Islam.

Despite the conquest, Berbers retained their distinct culture, in which women have more freedom than among Arabs, and decisions are made communally. Two Berber tribes, the Almoravids and Almohads, built influential Islamic empires in northwestern Africa and Spain in the 11th to 13th centuries.

The development of a written Berber language was suppressed by the waves of Arab invasions as Arabic was adopted for all official documents. In the 10th century, the Bourghwata kingdom translated the Koran into Berber, but the kingdom was vanquished by Sunni Muslim puritans, who burned the Berber Koran. Now, 11 centuries later, a Berber version of the Koran is about to be published.

In later centuries, Berbers stubbornly resisted domination but were eventually pacified by the French, who ruled most of Morocco from 1912 to 1956.

In the post-colonial period, Berbers have been politically divided. Some fought the king, including the plotters of several coup attempts on Hassan II in the 1970s, but others, including much of the officers' corps, have been loyal to the monarchy.


A REPORT ABOUT RACISM AGAINST IMAZIGHEN
IN MOROCCO


A DOCUMENT TO THE UNITED NATIONS CONGRESS-SUMMER 2001 IN SOUTH AFRICA

The general assembly of the United Nations, gathered in 1965, approved the international convention to erase racial segregation. But the international community was obliged to wait for four years--until 1969--to have 37 countries sign; the international community waited for an other 21 years to have 138 countries adopt the convention (3 out of 4 of the members of the United Nations--it is the most one convention has signed to date). Morocco's and some other countries' governments do not fully respect the convention, mainly what concerns the commission of racial segregation. This has a negative effect on the convention. Now, and after 35 years of agreement on the convention, and 30 years after Morocco's agreement (18 December 1970), we wish to show how the Moroccan system treats the convention:

I-On the level of Moroccan legislation: Morocco has known many constitutional reforms (the last one was on 13 September 1996). The actual constitution affirms, in its introduction, that: Morocco is an Islamic country; its official language is Arabic; it is a part of the Arab Maghreb; and it works to realize African union. It affirms respect of international conventions and human rights, as it is known world-wide. The first chapter of this constitution re-confirms that the Moroccan political system is a constitutional social democratic monarchy; the community practices its direct sovereignty by referendum and, indirectly, through constitutional institutions. The 21st chapter comes to assert that the monarchy of Morocco and its constitutional rights goes directly to the oldest son of the king….and so on.

To sum up, the association Tamaynut (a non-governmental Amazigh organization, member of the Indigenous People's Movement), affirms that:

1-all the constitutions Morocco has known during independence were set by the king; the parliament has never interfered in the revision of the constitution; the political and cultural organizations were never considered in these revisions; the chapters talking about the king or Islam cannot be revised or changed, and this is a segregation internationally prohibited.

2- the referendum of 13 December 1996 has known much fraud concerning the results and the right to criticize or refuse.

3-the communal and parliamentary elections in Morocco have known much fraud and falsifications concerning liberty of elections and falsification of election cards……the laws concerning the elections strengthen segregation between participating and non-participating organizations in the elections.

4- the constitution insists, in its introduction, that Arabic is the one and only official language in Morocco. It refuses and eliminates the Amazigh language (the language of the indigenous people of north Africa) and does not accept it as a national and official language of Morocco. The Amazigh organizations have formulated many proclamations and presented it to the authorities, but have received no answers at all.

5-the fact that the constitution mentions that Morocco is an Islamic country, and that no other religion is recognized in Morocco, is another form of "racism." It is against the liberty of beliefs; and this has a negative impact on the laws concerning public services (such as the pre-condition for some professions that the candidates must be Muslims).

6-the forms of segregation mentioned above are a kind of racial prejudice because it takes the form of the dominance of a culture, language, and religion over others.

7-in the Moroccan constitution we find that "Moroccans are equal before the law," and Morocco has signed the international convention against racism. The eighth paragraph of the constitution affirms that "men and women are equal in rights and obligations," but in reality this equality is limited to some political rights and does not cover all areas: the female inherits less than the male; the wife needs the permission of her husband to travel out of Morocco; polygamy is permitted….

8-the law of 26 July 1939 is still in effect. This law was created during the colonial period and allows the administration to pursue activities of cultural, political and syndical organizations.

9-Imazighen do not profit totally from national institutions because: Tamazight is not allowed in the mass media nor in schools and administrations. Tamazight is not recognized as the mother tongue of Moroccans and is not considered a national language of Morocco.

10-concerning religious segregation, the laws of Morocco do not accept the marriage of a non-Muslim with a Muslim woman. This is at the same time a "racism" because this law allows the Muslim male to marry non-Muslim women.

11-polygamy is still allowed in Morocco. This, the man can practice just for his pleasure…

12-the man can divorce whenever he wants, he does not need a reason; in the case of a woman, if she asks for divorce then she would be asked to present a very good reason if she wants to obtain that divorce.

13-the Moroccan laws do not accept the testimony of women before the court.

14-even if Morocco has signed the convention prohibiting slavery, there are still some laws allowing the authorities to exploit persons against their will, such as Law number: 2.63.436. This law permits the authorities to put an end to a grievance by forcing the workers to return to their work.

15-Imazighen suffer severely from segregation because of their ethnicity and language: -the Moroccan laws forbid the use of Tamazight in courts, so Imazighen, especially those who do not speak Arabic, are considered second-class citizens. This system treats Imazighen as foreigners, or worse, because there are no translators of Tamazight in Moroccan courts. Imazighen are obliged to write all official documents in Arabic. The problem aggravates if the person does not speak Arabic.

16-the decrees of 08/03/1959 and 03/08/1996 have come to forbid Imazighen to give their children Amazigh names. The authorities affirm that these names are neither Moroccan nor Arabic. The Amazigh movement has protested this and demanded its change, but nothing has been done yet. In what concerns family names, the Moroccan law, especially Point 6 and 6 bis of the decree of 08/03/1950, forbids names resembling those of places, tribes, or names which are not "traditional" Moroccan names, or a name different from that chosen by a relative from the father's side. This last is a segregation of the female sex.

17-in what concerns segregation because of thoughts, language, or political beliefs.

Tamaynut would like to mention that:

1-Imazighen in Morocco do not have an audio-visual channel. More than that, our demand to create a private channel has been refused by the authorities, and the channels existing in Morocco now do not use Tamazight, the mother tongue of all Moroccans, in its programs, even though it is completely financed from the public wealth.

2-concerning financial aid given to some newspapers, we affirm that only newspapers of the political parties, having a representation in paraliament, and some other papers supporting the government, profit from this aid. On the other side, we find many good newspapers which do not have the right to benefit from public monies, and among these are included the Amazigh newspapers.

3-the monarchy system, religion, and the (Western) Sahara cause are still considered sacred, and noone can discuss or criticize them. We still see in Moroccan courts many persons sent to prison because they criticized the politics of the king, Islam or the government's official position on the Sahara.

4-many journalistes are being arrested and punished because of their publications giving some historical realities.

5-many members of an Amazigh association were arrested in 1994 and imprisoned for 3 months because they participated in the workday march and proclaimed Amazigh rights, and because they used the Amazigh alphabet, tifinagh, in the slogans they were exhibiting.

6-Professor Ali Sidqi Azayku was imprisoned for the entire year of 1982 because he published an article about racism against Tamazight in Morocco.

7-Mrs. Bouljid and Mrs. Idbelqassem were arrested because they used the Amazigh alphabet in their documents.

In what concerns general freedoms, especially the association laws, we would like to mention that:

1-the right to benefit from the public wealth is not very clear, and this right is not given to the associations deserving it. Among those associations deprived of that right, there is ours and other Amazigh associations.

2-the Moroccan authorities have not allowed many of our association's and other Amazigh associations' activities because we speak about Amazigh rights and the authentic Moroccan identity. On top of that, Imazighen are not allowed to give Amazigh names to their offices and companies nor to write in Tifinagh.

3-the Amazigh laws (izerf) concerning the propriety of fields, woods, and other natural wealth were deleted from Moroccan legislations during the colonial period. These assets were taken to benefit the colonizer. Governments of independence have not returned to the old laws that give the indigenous poeple the right to control their wealth and benefit from it collectively.

II-on the level of practice: Moroccan laws allow segregation on the basis of sex, language, and religion. The absence of effective application of the law increases the suffering of Imazighen:

1-the Arabization policy obliges Imazighen to ignore their mother tongue, Tamazight, and replace it with a foreign language: Arabic.

2-the Amazighophone regions do not benefit from the programs of social and economic development because of their Amazighity.

3-the Moroccan educational charter, adopted recently by parliament and the government, consider the Amazigh language a slave of Arabic (Tamazight is accepted in schools just to facilitate learning Arabic). This is a very harmful racism against Imazighen.

4-the Moroccan authorities presented a report to the Commission of Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations in 1996, whereby it affirmed that the Moroccan community is from an Amazigh origin, and they were Islamized in the 6th century.

Recently, however, the Moroccan delegation to the Commission of Social Culture and Economic Rights of the United Nations affirmed, in its report, that Imazighen are a minority recognized in Morocco. The non-governmental Amazigh association, Tamaynut, member of the Indgenious People's Movement:

1-attempt to solidify the United Nations' declaration of indigenous people's rights and tries to obligate the Moroccan authorities to adopt Convention 169 of the Indigenous People of the World's Rights work organization;

2-protests against Moroccan laws protecting segregation, racism, and xenophobia.

Therefore, on this occasion of the World Congress against racism, we insist on the fact that racism is a crime against humanity. We also insist on respect for our differences and acceptance of others, as it is very important to live in harmony. This obliges the authorities of north Africa, the Sahil, and the Canary Islands to prepare urgent laws to enable Imazighen to practice their rights as they are known in international laws.

PROCLAMATIONS OF THE ASSOCIATION TAMAYNUT:

1-a democratic constitution respecting human rights and recognising civilizationl, cultural, and linguistic identities of the indigenous people.

2-the legislation of some protecting laws to ensure equality of the sexes, religions, and languages in all public institutions.

3-the adoption of federal systems to allow populations to benefit from political and economic freedom within the nation of law and rights.

4-the rescinding of colonial laws, which have taken the land and its wealths from the indigenous populations.

5-the importance of adopting the world declaration of indigenous people's rights and the preparation of an internationl convention to preserve the rights of these people before the the decimation of the indigenous poeple.

Central Bureau Association Tamaynut, Rabat, 04/12/2001

 
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