Like Ulysses, all his life was a kind of journey which took him back after long detours to his native land after a time consuming search to reconciliate his spiritual affiliation with his people. He made peace with himself but also with the legends, the values, the convictions and the aspirations of his fellow imazighen from Kabylia whose cultural heritage has been forgotten and persecuted. He became an “amusnaw” or a man of knowledge whose words, written or spoken have a special meaning for a whole people. He realized very soon that his people have made him the carrier of a torch which burns for freedom and democracy in a country were rational talk must overcome obscurantism, hatred and indifference.

Early in his life, Mouloud Mammeri became very fascinated by Amazigh poetry. His first book “La colline Oubliée” or “The Forgotten Hill” was written in French. It was not any kind of hill he had in mind, since Mouloud Mammeri was born in Kabylia in 1917 in a village called Taourirt or The Hill.

In the 50s, Mouloud Mammeri was a professor of French literature at the University of Algiers. He knew that Amazigh culture has contributed a lot to the Mediterranean culture since, after all, it belongs to a region which is a crossroad of civilizations. His first essay “La Societé Berbère” or “The Berber Society” published in the magazine Aguedal in 1938 showed a vocation at its early stage.

He already had a lucid vision of hispeople: a critical witness of the Amazigh society that he wrote “persists butdoes not resist”. The place of the Amazigh culture in the modern world was one of his earliest concerns. While surrealism was predominant in his first writings, like in “The Forgotten Hill,” soon he was backto earth with “Le Sommeil du Juste,” “L’Opium et le Baton,” “Le Banquet,” “Le Foehn” and “La Traversée.” At the same time Mammeri published essays on Amazigh literature. The publication of “Chants Berbères de Kabylie” by Jean Amrouche in 1937 was so emotional for him that he tried to get the original text ofthe book in Tamazight; he will preface the re-edited version of the book published in 1989, a book that he will never see because by that time he had already left us.

After the independence of Algeria, he thought for some time that the end of the tunnel for the persecution of the Amazigh culture was near. He had new dreams. He tried to persuade the Department of Education to implement the teaching of Tamazight in the system. Once more, he was denied because according to some officials of the same department “Berber is an invention of the Pères Blancs” (as the French catholic priests were called in Algeria). The rebuttal of the language of his ancestors by these officials pushed Mammeri to a kind of crossing a desert. It was hard to swallow that while French, the language of French colonialism in Algeria for 130 years, can have free ride while Tamazight was denied existence. To add injury to prejudice, it was obvious that at the same time these same officials were celebrating the teaching of the language of Moliere to their children; in public they were showing a hate-relationship with French culture and French colonialism.

In the late 60s, Mouloud Mammeri developed a new transcription of Tamazight with Latin letters, a new approach different from the one introduced in 1894 by Professor S. A. Boulifa of the University of Algiers. Historically, Tamazight is one of the rare languages that has its own alphabet called Tifinagh; early scripts of Tifinagh were recorded in North Africa more than three thousand years ago. We can also add that there are speculations that Latin is a language of Egyptian origin and therefore of north African origin even if it has been subject to many modifications by the Greeks and the Etruscans.

With his new transcription of his mother tongue, Mammeri wrote a new grammar (Tajerrumt ) and elaborated a lexicon of modern words; both were published in France because Tamazight was forbidden from being even shown in public in Algeria. Around the same period, he contributed to the writing of the French-Touareg lexicon with Jean Marie Cortade.

In 1969, Mammeri published in Tamazight the celebrated “Les Isefra de Si Mohand” or “Poems of Si Mohand,” a folk hero and poet of Kabylia which will be re-published seven times.

Mammeri became director of the CRAPE (Centre de Recherche Anthropologic Prehistoric et Ethnographic), which became under his leadership an ideal research center for Algerian and foreign students. The CRAPE Transactions on Prehistoric era and Anthropology became an internationally recognized publication in academia. All the success of the CRAPE could not help it to survive when an article written on cultural anthropology in the same transactions became the target of the political system in place that is denying one more time the existence of Berber history. The CRAPE was shut down. It was a great loss. No center of that dimension has ever seen life in Algeria since the date of its closing.

Mammeri was a persecuted man and he always managed not to show it in public: after all, he was a “Free Man,” an Amazigh.

In the spring of 1980, while just anyone from the Middle-East or Europe canbe invited to Algeria to talk about almost anything, M. Mammeri was one more time denied the right to make a presentation on Kabyle poetry in the city of Tizi-Ouzou, the heart of the Kabylia region. The local population saw that as an outrageous act of censorship, and soon the whole region was in ebullition to vehemently denounce this act of denial of the existence of the Kabyl language. Such an act will have repercussions in the whole country for years to come. It was this incident that opened a window to the rest of Algeria, a sign of a new hope for a better life; a sign that mediocrity, intolerance, exclusions, lack of freedom should not have their place in modern Algeria.

Mammeri, the skeptical and independent humanist, the man who never made a judgment about anyone, found himself under fire from a certain media which used just any kind of tricks in order to discredit the man and his vision. Even his nationalism was questioned by certain “journalists,” hiding behind other causes, but who did not know the man, his activism in the MTLD (an underground political organization of the 50s which already was calling for the independence of Algeria), and his suffering during the French-Algerian war. He never talked about it. Only those who fought with him knew the facts. His open letter in the newspaper Le Monde to answer those who targeted him was a lesson on the dignity and commitments of the profession of journalist: “only truth should prevail in their articles, not lies”, he said.

In 1982, Mammeri found some kind of niche in France where, with some of his former students, he discussed the idea of creating a center of the same dimension as the CRAPE. However, it was in Paris at “La Maison des Sciences de l’Homme et l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales” that Mammeri received a cheerful welcome to continue his research. He founded with his good friend Pierre Bourdieu a center for research on the Amazigh culture known as “Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Amazighes” and together published the review Awal or word in Tamazight. He found an ideal place to do research on his own society and his people, something that never stopped burning in his heart.

He dedicated his time to revive the Amazigh culture fromits ashes. No, the fire will never stop burning. His “Poemes Kabyles Anciens” published in 1980 were a robust reference to North African culture which has often been a victim of biased historians. While the culturalidentity of the Imazighen from Kabylia was beautifully narrated in “Poemes Kabyles”, other books like “L’Ahellil du Gourara” about the Imazighen of the southern region of Oran and and “Les Dits de Ccix Muhend U Lhusin” confirmed one more time his love and dedication to traditional life in Algeria. All his publications were beautiful contributions to universal culture.

It is, in fact, this universal perspective that became the focus of another one of his books “Le Banquet ou la Mort Absurde des Azteques.” Mammeri had a passion for history and truth; he is the man who wentto visit the roman vestiges of Rome, looking for traces of Jugurtha, the amazigh king who valiantly fought the roman legions. He narrated: “After being defeated, Jugurtha was thrown in the Latonies, a kind of underground cell used as a prison in Rome. I visited it. I have read the name Jugurtha among other names of enemies of Rome of that time. They thought that Jugurtha was going to die from starvation but it was not the case, so they forced a slave to strangle him. I always wanted to write a play called Jugurtha because he was the most magnificent of our freedom fighters.”

Mouloud Mammeri never wrote this play because of a car accident. On his way back from Morocco where he drove to participate to a conference, he was, according to the official version, killed by a tree that fell across the road. We may never know what really happened the day of his farewell to the man who loved so much Tamazgha , the ancestral land of millions of Imazighen.

He left us at a time where all the ideals he fought for all his life started slowly to become reality in Algeria. He can leave now. His work will be the main reference for many generations to come and the fire that he started in our hearts will never stop burning. Qim di Talwit a Dda Lmulud.

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Claude Lefebure wrote that it was at the teacher’s college that “as if he came out of hypnosis, he suddenly felt “Amazigh.” According to Brahim Aqdim, the president of the Mohamed Kaïreddine Association, he was treated as a “dirty Arab” in the French school and as a “dirty Shluh” in the Moroccan Arabized school. Perhaps that explains his early and very passionate search for an identity.

After passing his baccalaureate as an independent candidate, he attended the Faculty of Letters and the Ecole Normale Supérieure (The Higher Teachers College) and in 1968 he graduated with a License in history and geography. He then taught for two years (1968-70) in a high school in Ra- bat before attending the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.

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While in Paris he also attended Lionel Galand’s course on Tamazight at Langues’O. Back from Paris he started teaching at the Faculty of Letters and became an active member of the AMREC, an association devoted to the promotion of Amazigh culture.

Ali Sadki Azayku was an avid reader of history. He was interested in the true history of Tamazgha, not the one taught in Moroccan schools and which only starts at the advent of Islam. As he started to understand the true history of his land and his people, he also started to write. His writings were a key element in the identity awareness of the Moroccan Amazigh. He wrote in the newspapers and in the Amazigh magazine ran by Ouzzin Aherdane, the son of Mahdjoubi Aherdane, leader of the Peoples’ Party. It was one of his articles in this magazine titled “For a true approach to our national culture” that cost him 12 months in prison and made the Moroccan authorities close the magazine for good.

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Offered to retract his writings, Ali refused and became the first Amazigh activist to be thrown in prison. His stay in the Moroccan prison of Laalou helped Amazigh activists strengthen their resolve but most importantly, it had a great impact on the poet that he was. His poetry expressed the sorrow and hardship of life (his and that of his own people) and at the same time an immeasurable passion to live and fight. out of prison, with the help of his friends he regained his former job and continued to write about Amazigh culture .

In 1988, he published Timitar, a collection of 33 poems, followed by Izmullen in 1995 that he wrote entirely in prison. the reknown Ammouri Mbark and other Amazigh singers sang many to the board of IRCAM, where he was expected to continue his fight for the Amazigh identity.
Ali Sadki Azayku died on september 10th, 2004, and the Amazigh people and their cause lost in him one of the most respectable figures. he was 62, and he left two children, Tilila and Ziri.

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]nternational Women’s Day is an annual celebration of the respect, honor and appreciation towards women across the world. In recent years, the annual event has gained decent recognition, giving a chance to celebrate achievements in the women’s movement and to inspire further progress through both local and international action.

On this occasion, the Amazigh World News team would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all women across the globe including the Amazigh women of Tamazgha/North Africa, to whom we owe so much.

We also want to assure that we will continue to defend Amazigh women’s rights, try to help them in their daily struggle for a better life, work to promote their role in society, and create a suitable platform that helps them to actively participate in civil society, political leadership and economic development.[ads1]

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“Languages Matter!”

Tamazight language matters!

Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.

Among the list of recommendations made to the Member States by the declartion of this International day one reads:

(a) create the conditions for a social, intellectual and media environment of an international character which is conducive to linguistic pluralism;

(b) promote, through multilingual education, democratic access to knowledge for all citizens, whatever their mother tongue, and build linguistic pluralism; strategies to achieve these goals.

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The 21st of February is celebrated as World Mother Tongue Day. The UNESCO, which hopes to make people conscious of the importance of the mother tongue, declares in its latest publication Education in a Multilingual World (2003), that the most suitable language for teaching basic concepts to children is the mother tongue.

Indeed, the UNESCO declared this as early as 1953 in its report The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education. Yet, as the world modernized, the smaller and weaker mother tongues started dying. The schooling system, the media and the jobs all demanded the languages of power – the languages used in the domains of power i.e. administration, government, military, commerce, education, media etc. – which had to be learned by people in their own interest. As globalization increases, languages die.

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The 21st of February reminds us that, despite this inequality of power between our mother tongues and the languages of power, we must not give up hope. We must be conscious of the significance of our mother tongues, which give us identity; which are repositories of culture and which, in the final analysis, make us what we are.

Another great success in Boston for hosting—on September 23rd at Tufts University—the ninth annual of the Amazigh Film Festival for the second year in a row, film festival dedicated to Amazigh films and documentaries made by Amazigh and international filmmakers.

The festival was hosted by the Amazigh Cultural Network in America (A.C.N.A.) in collaboration with the Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity. Sponsored by the the BMCE Bank Foundation.

The festival featured a wide variety of movies, short-films and documentaries that spanned various cultural, societal, historical, political and artistic themes. The audience was well receptive and activrely engaged, and the intermission allowed people from a round-the-world diversity to intermingle, share and connect.

The festival ended with a live panel discussion spiced up with interesting interventions from the audience, as well as a vivid live performance featuring famous tunes from Rif and Kabyle land.

Special thanks to the organizers, coordinators, host at Tufts University and to all of the talented and ambitious Amazigh and international filmmakers that were featured in this years festival including Kamal Hachkar, Anita lewton, Izza Genini, Mohamed Bouzaggou , Dounia Benjelloun Mezian and Tahar Houchi. We’re well on our way to make this a standard festival going forward with even bigger exposures and impact in the years to come.

Boston is expected to host the Ninth Annual Amazigh film festival on Saturday, September 23, 2017.

Though in the past, the festival has been hosted across America, in cities such as New York and Los Angeles, this year, it will be presented at the Cohen Auditorium at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

The festival is presented through a collaboration between the Amazigh Cultural Network in America (A.C.N.A) and the Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity, and sponsored by BMCE Bank Foundation of Morocco.[ads1]The festival is a unique celebration of North African Amazigh culture through Film and documentaries representative of the Amazigh cinematic output, which extend from the Oasis of Siwa in Egypt to Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, the Canary Islands and the Sahara Desert.

Event will include documentaries by Dounia Ben Jelloun (Ait Atta Wedding, Morocco), Kamal Hachkar (My Liver, My Love, Middle Atlas Lore, Morocco), and Rebecca Murray’s Tuaregs of Libya (The Silent War, Vice News) – Short films, T-ydia” (UK/Algeria) and “Hope” (Canada/Algeria) and award winner “Kousayla” by Tahar Houchi (Switzerland/Algeria) – The Festival will conclude with the outstanding 2017 film by Mohamed Bouzaggou , ’lpertta”, (Belgium/Morocco), a panel of Amazigh film experts to engage discussion from audience, and live music.

The Boston Amazigh film festival event is free and open to the general public, but prior registration is required! Please fill out the registration form below and select the Register button.

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Amazigh people urge North Africa countries to respect the “UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples”

Tiznit, southern Morocco,  hosted the international forum on the rights of Amazigh people under the theme of “UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples”, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of its adoption, in Tiznit city from 28^th to 30^th of last April 2017.[ads1]

The forum was organized by “the Amazigh World” newspaper, Tiznit Anamour Association and Souss Abaraz Association, in collaboration with Friedrich Naumann Foundation for freedom, Tiznit Provincial Council, Tiznit Municipality and the Amazigh World Congress. The said forum took place at the same time of the sixth anniversary of the democratic spring of peoples. It is also part of the preparation for the ninth general congress of the Amazigh World Assembly which will take place in the Tunisian capital in November 2017.  

During the program of the forum, the participants concluded with a number of points and recommendations from a fruitful exchange on different issues and files concerning the Amazighs especially Tamazgha territory. Thereupon, we declare to the public opinion as follows:

• We affirm that the Amazigh, as indigenous peoples of North Africa, although they are the majority of the population of the region, are always facing many violations which conflict with the “UN declaration on the right of the indigenous peoples” and the “Universal declaration of human rights” as well as the other international covenants and charters concerning cultural, linguistic, economic, social and political rights.
• Although that the North African states have ratified several international human rights charters, their constitutions have not reached the degree of cohesion with these charters in terms of overriding international rights compared with the national legislations.
• All the North African states, although their constitutions grant this official status to the amazigh language and recognize rights, experience a contradiction between the legal texts and the policies of these countries in reality. This adds to the suffering of the amazighs vis-à-vis states which enact official laws and act according to a customary law. The fact which deepens such suffering resides inn the ongoing targeting of amazigh activists who defend values and principles as well as universal covenants in their struggle in the face of dictatorial and racist regims, parties and entities based on extremist Arabs nationalists’ constants and an extremist political Islam.

And the fact that the Northern African States do not enforce their laws and the fact that these laws contrast the majority of the content of the said laws and the provisions of the “UN declaration on the rights of indigenous people” as well as the international charters and the peoples, the amazighs suffer, in Morocco, in Algeria, in Libya, in Tunisia, in Azawad, in Niger and in other countries where Touareg live and in the Diaspora too, from wars and humanitarian crises. These crises are incarnated in the lack of food, famine, forced migration, repression, killings, racism, ethnic segregation, political, cultural, economic and social exclusion and marginalization in accordance with the following data:

In Libya:

• Immediately, after the collapse of Kadhafi’s regime, the Amazighs and Touareg, many times, were targets to military attacks. Besides, the suffered from the ongoing war between the other Libyan components, causing deaths and injuries. Many were forced into exile either southward for the Touareg and westward for the Amazighs.
• In all the negotiations and through the different stages of the inter-Libyan dialogue, all the parties refused to recognize the amazigh rights, especially the revision of the article 30 of the Libyan constitutional declaration, in order to provide an opportunity to recognize the Amazigh, Touareg and Toubou as official languages in Libya along with Arabic in accordance with the international charter on human rights and the “UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples”, ratified by the Amazigh Supreme Council of Libya.
• A number of Amazighs and Touareg were subject to killings, threats if not ethnocide from ‘the Arab Army” led by the general Khalifa Haftar who gained the support of Toubroq parliament the mandate of which is well accomplished.
• The Amazighs have opted for all forms of peaceful protests during the last six years, including sit-ins, walks, strikes and rebellion. However, the other Libyan parties (including Arab and moderate and Islamist or extremist nationalist organizations) did not change their minds and kept refusing the recognition of the Amazighs’ rights in the post-revolution Libyan constitution. The parties which benefited from the support of the middle eastern arab countries in terms of weapons and money and which participated from time to time with military aircrafts in operations.

In Tunisia:

• The post-revolution Tunisian constitution makes reference neither to the presence of amazighs nor to their language or culture in the country which has undergone arabization for centuries. Moreover, the post-revolution Tunisian constitution established the Arab identity of the country and, Arabic as the official language and Tunisia as a part of the Arab world and Maghreb. This exclusivist constitution contains an article which makes the Tunisian identity an Arab one. Another article stipulates that it would not be possible to reform or amend the previous article. Fact that eternally and symbolically condemns the recognition of the Amazighs rights in Tunisia.
• Racism and segregation against the amazighs embodied in the post-revolution constitution lead to the foundation of a number of Amazigh associations the majority of which requested the recognition of the Amazigh linguistic and cultural rights.

The Tunisian republic is contradiction with the provisions of the “UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples” and the “Universal declaration of Human Rights” as well as other UN charters and recommendations.

In Algeria:

•  Algeria recognized the amazigh as an official language for more than a year. However, this recognition depends on an organic law which has yet to be proclaimed.  Hence, this formalization remains on paper.
• The Algerian authorities kidnapped 165 Amazighs rights activists, from Oued M’Zab, including 43 detainees. Among them, there is the amazigh rights activist Dr. Kamal Eddine Fekhar who spent two years in prison alongside his friends without trial. An arbitrary rrest which respects neither the Algerian nor the international laws. A number of mozabite people detainees of rights died in prison. Others have been on hunger strike which threats their lives as it is the case of Dr. Kamal Eddine Fakhar who has been on hunger strike during 110 days. He stopped his strike without receiving any response from the Algerian authorities concerning his claims. Claims similar to those proclaimed by the amazigh and international legal organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. These organizations demand to bring the detainees before the court or provide evidence about their accusation, otherwise, release them.
• After these outlaw killing and detention crimes in Kabylia region, the Algerian regime carries on these methods against the Amazighs of Mzab. This through encouraging           and supporting Chaamba “arab” militia which attack the Amazighs as shown by the the photographs and videos released by the Mzab amazigh activists. Thses actions resulted in dozens of deaths, injuries and exiled people. Subsequently, this regime carried out an arbitrary detention operation against activists and mozabite rights defenders without respect for the international norms and laws.

In Azawad:

• Following the suffering of Touareg of azawad from marginalization and repression of the Malian regime which compelled them to military confrontations, France intervened under “Serval” operation to put an end to the touareg aspirations as for their independence in Bamako. Before doing so, with neighboring countries, under UN sponsorship, a dialogue for peace, reconciliation, in accordance with the Algerian process which enabled the signature of a convention in Bamako in 2015. However, none of the articles of the convention was applied, apart from the establishment of a company grouping the Azawad movements and the Malian forces, led by the French forces.
• The touareg citizens suffer from severe humanitarian crises inherent in lack of food, famine and different types of humanitarian suffering. Neither France nor Mali made an effort to reduce such suffering. On the contrary, the French and UN political discourse focused on combating the terrorist groups supported by the neighboring countries including Algeria.
• The solution to the insecurity in Azawad would not be resolved with French nor Malian military intervention, only the application of the “UN declaration on the rights of the indigenous peoples” and granting the political autonomy status to Azawad may resolve this regional conflict.

In Morocco :

• The Moroccan state recognized the Amazigh as an official language in 2011 to calm down the protests of the democratic spring of peoples. But, it associated such recognition with an organic law which has not been enacted since that time. Also, the recognition of the amazigh language remains open. Far more, this recognition depends on an organic law which has been used by state institutions and some political parties to put into question all the fragile achievements of the amazigh language in education and media.
• The Moroccan state resorted to an extensive use of violence against the amazigh peaceful protests as the case of Rif protests which triggered following the murder of the citizen Mouhsin Fikri, crushed in garbage truck. The state repressed the protesters, although it should assume the responsibility of its officials by having a number of them arrested and brought to justice.
• The marginalization policy of the Moroccan state lead to the death of “Idya” in Tinghir city, as result of lack of adequate health facilities which must have been equipped with the necessary means, in a region where there is the largest silver mine in Africa.

We, within the framework of the « International forum on the rights of the Amazighs under the « UN declaration on the rights of the indigenous peoples », request all the global organizations and bodies of human rights as well as world countries, in addition to the United Nations, to intervene to protect the amazighs in North Africa. And this, by forcing the states of the region to respect the terms of the “UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples”, the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and the different national and international covenants and charters. We call the Amazighs to adopt “Tamazgha charter for a democratic, social and transnational confederation based on the right to self-government of regions” » , which was adopted by the Amazigh World Assembly during its seventh general meeting in Tiznit in December 2013.

We also call for operational measures and coordination, on the basis of the results. With any party able to put an end to the suffering of the Amazigh people as part of clarity and transparency, respect of norms and laws, respect of fidelity to references based on the international covenants of human rights of peoples especially the “UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples”.

And we reaffirm, therefore, the necessity to grant a representation to the amazigh in the UN structures, as peoples without a state in the Northern African countries.

To conclude, we draw the attention of all Amazigh activists as to vigilance concerning the continuous targeting of Amazigh activists and to their exploitation by entities and Arab nationalist, racist or islamo-extremist countries which reject the other.

When:
May 23, 24 2017
Where:
Fundación Euroárabe de Altos Estudios
Calle San Jerónimo, 27, 18001 Granada, Spain
Event Website:
www.fundea.com

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t happened by chance that I was born in the mid-atlas mountains where life is natural, humble and eternal. My village is surrounded by huge mountains and there is a firm belief that those giant mountains are mythic meant to protect the natives from evil, hidden power and invaders that have threatened their existence since the old days.

Berbers, as a word, refers to the natives by others who wrote down history. “History is a lie,” said my ninety years old uncle who kept talking and insisting, “Strangers came from all over the place, somewhere I know nothing about. They made us adopt the mountains that turned to be a part of our identity. The mountains are always there and have never moved away; they looked after your ancestors and still do the same thing for us and they will do for generations to come, they are eternal. They are indeed a symbol of resistance and existence. The mountains made us resist and exist, my boy”.

Itto is my uncle’s wife; she brought tea, mint, “hayati” glasses, silver pot and sugar in a locally fabricated silver tree decorated with a star similar to the one said to be the Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David. The star in the tea tree looks like a rare to-find-piece, beautifully designed with a shape of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles. Accordingly, with Berber traditions, my uncle started preparing tea while his wife setting up a fire, going back and forth to the kitchen making sure bread is ready. My uncle loves to sit around the fireplace made of stones, and that is his favorite spot where he feels warm and can enjoy sipping tea with mint and a lot of sugar. The fire was burning down and then he added more cedar and oak wood. “The burned wood has a pleasant odor”, I said.
“Where did you get the tea tree dear uncle?” asked I.
You like it. Right?
Yes I do.
How old are you?
Don’t you know, uncle?
I know but I am asking in case I missed couple of days! He smiled.
I am 22 years old, dear uncle.
Which year we are in now dear son?
it’s 1998.
What is that? I can’t believe it is only 1998.
Yes, it is dear uncle.
The last winter, we did celebrate the year 2950 and never forget that you “Amazigh” or as some named us “Berbers”, I hate this name and it’s up to you to correct it. The Amazigh people celebrated the New Year 2950 and I have no clue about 199…8…9, whatever!! where did you get that?
That what we use at school dear uncle!
School school school! School has taught poor people the wrong history that was written by outsiders… years and years ago, before the birth of “Sidna Aissa”.
Who were they uncle?
I don’t know…people from somewhere else.
“He probably meant the Greek, the Romans may be and many others including the Arabs, the Moorish and the list is longer”. Said my cousin.
Don’t you have something to do Boy! yelled my uncle.
No, I am all-set “Ibba”. Replied my cousin.
Wake up dear! How is your school by the way? My uncle asked me.
Fine and soon, I will graduate from college.
Is that why you left the mountains? We no longer see you that often.
Yes uncle!
Shame on you! Look at that mountain over there, in front of us, how beautiful it is.
Yes it is pretty.
Do you know what they call it?
No…yes yeh, it’s mmmm Akka Mountain!
Do you know who Akka is?
No
Never mind, you people lost everything! Don’t you know that Akka Mountain never left this place dear nephew?
Yes, I know, it got nowhere to go uncle.
Why should he? Wondered my uncle.
It’s a mountain and no power can change its place uncle.
Yes, true! Very true, none can change its place except God right!
right uncle.

…and that how you people should be, exactly like those mountains, solid, defiant, big and committed to their roots.

God determine where we can be dear uncle. and I strongly believe in God and his prophets. “La ilahe illallah””La ilahe illallah””La ilahe illallah”. My uncle repeated. “

God is the east and west; and wherever you turn, there is God’s countenance. Behold, God is infinite, all-knowing”. I recited and copied God’s words as revealed in the Quran.

The tea was ready and we still waiting for bread and olive oil. Hey woman! Shouted my uncle calling out his wife to get bread and olive oil as soon as possible. “Still need time for bread to be ready!” Iitto, my uncle’s wife, said.[ads1]
My uncle’s house is located in the outskirt of the village, I might say 20 miles away and no paved roads can get visitors there. “Could you ask your government to get the road fixed, that way we can visit you and Akka mountain, anytime, it’s not that easy to connect to the place… dear uncle”. Said I. “The tribe is happy about it, no need for paved roads and only people that belong to here and love us would make it here and never complain. Easy roads dear son means strangers would invade our virgin paradise and Akka would be upset, and you know…they did before. I don’t need to worry about my property, my land and my people, the area is safe this way, and since you’ve complained, don’t come again as simple as this. Your beloved parents, may God bless their souls…”
“May god bless their souls…Amene”, I repeated after him, then he continued saying:
“….I mean, their souls must be comfortable right now to feel that you happy to be here and not somewhere else”, said my uncle in a very harsh tune. “Very true dear uncle, very true dear uncle, very true dear uncle”…..I woke up murmuring “it’s not my fault” while the door bell kept ringing. “Indeed, it has never been my fault”, said I consciously. “What time is it now? Asked myself, and “who’s ringing the bell at this time… it’s one pm right? But am I expecting somebody today”, asked myself nervously.

Actually, I was not expecting anybody to visit me that day as I know. I opened the door then two nice gentlemen apparently Indians asked me if I could attend a street play that would take place in Boston, Massachusetts on August, 25th 2010 around 7:40 in the afternoon. “What…! and…. what’s that and why me, I am not Indian”, I replied with a smile.

Their invitation to me wasn’t random but they thought that I belong to the Indian community in Boston since my building is ethnically diverse with a decent number of Indians living there. They perhaps noticed my name in the mailbox label and thought that I am Indian based on my last name and even my first name. I do know that my last name does exist in Asian nations including India itself. My first name Ahmed is global, universal and pretty. it is said that Jesus Christ was the first to utter that name referring to a future prophet to come for the whole humanity and save them from evil. “I am not Indian; but why not, I would be there for the play”. To be honest, the idea sounded perfect and for me it was very interesting.” Though I do not speak Hindi, I made up my mind to go and watch the play simply because I admire such a literary genre with which I am too familiar. Morocco is my home country where I grew up enjoying the street plays; they are so popular in Moroccan culture, especially in Medina. Marrakech is known for “El jamaa al fana” square where plays have been performed daily for centuries. Sharing that experience with my fellow Indian community would be definitely a great experience to have.

My experience with the play was interesting and challenging at the same time in the sense that linguistic barrier was a natural obstacle behind my difficulty in understanding the content, but such a language issue made me more interested in the play from the beginning to the end. Just to let you know that we Moroccans are familiar with the Indian movies. Those have been so popular back home and I have always known the Indian culture through the movies that I have watched. The fact that made me quite able to decipher at least the general message conveyed by the play.

What I understood is that the events took place in a medical facility and certain people were trying to get access to health care, but they couldn’t, due to the corrupted health providers in particular. The play was over, and while thinking to leave, a group of people among whom some performers, people in charge and audience came to me and thanked me for attending the play. I felt embarrassed to be thanked for being there with them enjoying their culture, but I felt proud to realize how universal I am though my dear uncle insisted that I am rooted in the mid-atlas mountains where life is natural, beautiful and eternal. I could not utter a single word to them; it was a surprise to me and It was a pleasure as well to have that chance to see and share that human experience which do not relate only to the Indians, but also to the whole humanity. I am convinced to say that Akka Mountain is too far away from Boston.

However, it happened that the Berber and the Indian shared a human experience in the land of the free called Boston- a city that was established by the puritans who came from the Saint Botwulph town, England.

I strongly believe that we human beings share the same circumstances, challenges, feelings and experiences and certainly, if my uncle still alive, I would tell him the story while sitting in front of his simple fireplace sipping the tea together and chatting about life in the Atlas Mountains during his childhood. My uncle is a good man, he is humble, simple, easy going, welcoming, generous, and doesn’t need much to feel happy, he is always thankful to his God as he used to say all the time. My dear uncle is a treasure for me, he is more than that actually, he is a history to rely on, he is an eye witness and he is the truth I am looking for to understand who am I. I cannot go beyond that to get that truth. My uncle knows many things about the family and about the tribe and he can talk about my “ibahnini” and my “innahna” and his grandpa and ma; he got many stories to tell.

Nevertheless, the world is huge, pretty and divers and it must be beyond my tribe left back home. The play for me is universal more than local and my dear uncle and Akka Mountain and Boston among others contribute to the richness and the beauty of human world. The play treats universally human issues like corruption, and human sufferings. It uncovers the daily challenges of the powerless and the dominance of the powerful. It conveys the exact story my uncle told me about the Mid-atlas Mountains when invaded by outsiders. The play and my dream of my dear uncle reminded me of Gandhi, extraordinary man from India who fought for a nonviolent, peaceful existence and set an entire nation free. Ghandi is like Akka Mountain, my uncle admired much and Boston where I watched the play are all stand for resistance, human existence, tolerance, freedom and human dignity. Gandhi is not Indian for me, instead, he is a human being who was born for the whole humanity; the same thing can be said about the play performed by my comrades in Boston Common and the same thing can be said about Akka Mountain located in my dear uncle hometown in the Mid-atlas Mountains.

[author image=” http://www.amazighworldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12247011_1178367322177421_7709178449260194666_n-e1456096325897.jpg” ]Ahmed Zahiri is a human rights activist; He settles down in Boston Metropolitan, MA, USA. He is, as well, one of the active members of Moroccan American community and cultural center. Ahmed’s interests can be various which may include culture, literature, media, linguistics, interpreting and translating field. He writes for Amazigh World News in what concerns the Amazigh issues, identity, history and culture.[/author]