By Azzeddine Diouani
When I was pursuing my studies at the University of Mohammed First in Oujda and the University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah in Fez, It bothered me to hear labels such as “we Arabs” used by both teachers and students (I know that you would jump to the conclusion that I am just another chauvinist preaching chauvinism and racism; read the remainder of the essay before adopting such a simplistic approach) to refer to all the students the class consisted of. Most of the time, I, with my arms crossed, remained silent not because I was afraid to speak my mind but because my classmates would have taken me, mistakenly, for a chauvinist, a fanatic, and a Berbersit. This taught me that the Moroccan people are so ignorant of their history and that they tend to adopt the tabula rasa attitude before the arrival of “Arab Muslims” is in fact inconceivable.
Some of the commonsensical views put forward have been that since Moroccans speak Arabic, (they think Darija is a dialect of Arabic) it follows that they are Arabs. This is a common sense view. Speaking from experience, speaking for Amazigh language is sufficient to win one the label of a chauvinist. What this means is that if you ever dare to say that Amazigh and Arabic should be treated equally, you are running the risk of preserving some space in the ladder of chauvinism. Worse still, some single-minded “professors” are still thinking that Amazigh is a threat to our national identity. A friend of mine told me once that one of his “feminist teachers” was accustomed to saying: “In case the Amazigh dialects are promoted, the country will be divided”. This is a very old argument used against the promotion of Amazigh. In lieu of empowering students and sensitizing them to the marginalized issues, it seems that common sense views turn out to be a deeply rooted philosophy in teaching. The fact is that Imazighen (Amazigh people) have been denied their BASIC RIGHTS, though they were the first to defend the country once the protectorate was implemented.
Even if one claims to be of Arab origin, it is not fair to deny him/her that right. In the same way, it is not fair to deny Imazighen their rights on the grounds that such a step is going to fragment the Moroccan nation. Imazighen are not chauvinistic because they don’t insist that Morocco is an Amazigh country (though this cannot be denied), nor are they naming everything Amazigh to exclude their fellow Arabs but the ideas established by the so called the nationalist movement DO. Why is Morocco referred to as an Arab country? Is not this a falsification of our national history? Who is the chauvinist here? Why is our national football team, for example, referred to as Arab? Who is the chauvinist here? Why is Morocco a member in the Arab league? Why is exactly Arab and not north African or Muslim?
As illustration, if two people (let’s call them Mohamed and Masin for the time being) have helped in solving a particular mathematical equation, it is logical to reward both of the two; otherwise, what is the point of rewarding Mohammed and ignoring Masin? That is exactly the kind of logic promoted by single-minded people. One is rewarded while the other is denied his right because he is not Arab. He must be included as an Arab if he is to be accepted. Human beings have been accustomed to protect received ideas. They would resist any new ideas. History is full of examples.
You would say, perhaps, that Islam and Arabism are interrelated. Hence, one cannot exist in the absence of the other. This is nonsense. Islam is a religion, but Arabism is a racist ideology. Was Mohammed preaching Islam or Arabism? The answer is definitely going to be: Islam and this, or any other religion, has been integrated into Amazigh culture without questioning who we are. I know, for example, that the way Moroccans practice their faith is very different from the way people in the Middle East practice the same faith. From this, there emerged what we call the Amazigh Islam (a brand of Islam that has been influenced by the particularities of Amazigh people). There is nothing on earth that says you should adopt Arabism before converting to Islam. Islam doesn’t say that whether we like it or not. Islam stresses good manners; anything else is of no use.
Returning to chauvinism, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines the term as: unreasonable belief that the sex to which one belongs is better than the other sex. In the same way, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary suggests that chauvinism is
“an aggressive and unreasonable belief that your own country in better than all other”. Inherent in these two definitions is the idea that chauvinists believe, irrationally perhaps, that they are superior to other peoples (female Vs male, Amazigh Vs Arab), or else their countries (France Vs Morocco) are superior.
Taking this understanding into account, the question becomes: Do Imazighen (Amazigh people) think of themselves as superior? For the single-minded, the answer is a big yes. However, once one closely examines the idea, one concludes that this is not understandable because Imazighen are not asking for a “special treatment” in their home land; rather they would love to see (among other things of course) linguistic democracy being established as inseparable part of their reality.
When at university, I used to frequently join campus discussions. I felt extremely sympathetic with a Marxist group but the kind of culture roaming in the Marxist-minded students had no room for Amazighness. What has Max got to do with Arab nationalism? Although Marxists are opposed to “nationalism”, as far as my knowledge is concerned, such an idea has not caught the attention of mainstream Marxist thinkers, they have adopted Nassirism “blindly”. Was that a coincidence?
Normally, the spirit of the Moroccan left has to adjust to the Moroccan environment provided that Marxism is context-specific, meaning that each brand of Marxism stems from a particular context (linguistic and cultural specificities). Nevertheless, when one skims through what the Moroccan leftists write, one gets the impression that the Moroccan Left is like a branch of a tree whose roots had grown, for some reason, in Syria or Egypt. It is a fake copy of what has been dominant in the East from the time of Nassirism up to the moment, with varying degrees. The reason for this is that the Moroccan left never ever recognized the Amazigh either as a people, language, and culture or as an essential component of Moroccan identity. Even when the idea was raised by some people who have been thinking outside of the box in Marxist groups, trade unions, political parties, it met with harsh criticism.
The paradox is that the monarch whom the leftists assume is a very backward looking person (because he represents the bourgeoisie in their opinion) has proven to be more open to Amazighity than the Moroccan left which claim to be “progressive”!!!. If only
Arabic is worthy in the view of the Moroccan left, then “leftism” is no longer a liberating tool but an oppressive ideology. There has been, to my knowledge, an important shift in the attitudes of the Moroccan left; still, having previously read some leftist-minded writings (and listened attentively), it is my view that there is a long way ahead of us to go. The liberating discourse should include a more inclusive language. There is, in my opinion, no room for justifying the old fashioned ideas blowing from the east except for the alien individuals
