Berber Languages - Status

Status

After independence, all the Maghreb countries to varying degrees pursued a policy of Arabization, aimed partly at displacing French from its colonial position as the dominant language of education and literacy. Under this policy the use of the Amazigh / Berber languages was suppressed or even banned. This state of affairs has been contested by Berbers in Morocco and Algeria—especially Kabylie—and is now being addressed in both countries by introducing the Berber language in some schools and by recognizing Berber as a "national language" in Algeria, though not as an official one. The 2011 constitution of Morocco makes "Amazight" an official language alongside Arabic. In Mali and Niger, there are a few schools that teach partially in Tamasheq.

Although Algeria considers Tamazight to be a national language, and regional councils in Libya's Nafusa Mountains affiliated with the National Transitional Council reportedly use the Berber dialect of Nafusi and have called for it to be granted co-official status with Arabic in a prospective new constitution, Morocco is the only country where Tamazight is an official language.

As areas of Libya south and west of Tripoli such as the Nafusa Mountains were liberated from the control of forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi in early summer 2011, Berber workshops and exhibitions sprang up to share and spread the Tamazight culture and language, after four decades during which there were severe punishments for speaking and writing Tamazight openly.

On June 17, 2011, King Mohammed VI announced in a speech of new constitutional reform that "Tamazight" became an official language of Morocco alongside Arabic and will be used in all the administrations in the future.

On April 30, 2012, Fatima Chahou, alias Tabaamrant, member of Morocco House of Representatives and famous former singer became the first one to ask questions and discuss the minister's answer in Tamazight inside the Parliament of Morocco.