By Marina Gamil
CAIRO – 6 December 2018: A look into several places in Libya’s western and southern regions will show that the decades of fear have ended, and street walls are decorated with characters of a non-Arabic language, which was previously banned by the government of Muammar el-Qaddafi.
It is the language of Tamazight, the native tongue Libya’s Amazigh or Berbers ethnic minority, and it is written in Tifinagh, the Amazigh script.
Re-emerging as a political force in Libya after decades of oppression, the Amazigh are the indigenous people of North Africa, from Morocco to western Egypt. However, with the arrival of the Arabs to that region in the seventh century, the Amazigh have been actively Arabised.
Although there are not any reliable data about their percentage, most estimates set them at about 10 percent of the Libyans population.
In Libya, they live mainly in Zuwara, a town in the Nafusa Mountains, a mountain range in the western Tripolitania region of northwestern Libya, in Libya’s far south-west and areas around Ghadames, a town at the Tripolitania region in northwestern Libya.
Under Gaddafi’s regime, they were greatly suppressed as they were considered a threat to the regime’s ideology, which aimed to unify all Libyans under an Arab identity. Therefore, the language’s minority group of Berbers was banned, and the Berbers began to be persecuted.
The Amazigh language and script, Tamazight, which is distinct from Arabic, was officially forbidden at schools. Even giving children Amazigh names was forbidden.
Gaddafi also prevented them from singing traditional Amazigh songs, and those attempting to promote Amazigh culture, heritage and rights were persecuted, imprisoned and even killed.
Avava inouva – 1976’s famous Amazigh song by Idir
Furthermore, Berbers were unable to publicly speak or publish books in their language, or display symbols such as the Amazigh flag.
With Gaddafi now gone, Berbers began to revive their culture, and Tamazight classes started at schools in 2013.
Crossing the Tunisian-Libyan border at Ras Jedir, the Amazigh influence becomes immediately apparent as the blue, green, red and yellow Amazigh flag, is seen everywhere.
In Zuwara, almost everyone freely speaks the local Tamazight dialect or a mix of Tamazight and Arabic. In the town’s streets, signs in the Tamazight script appear everywhere although Arabic still dominates the scene. However, most people there only speak Tamazight, and can neither read nor write it. Hence, three lessons of Tamazight a week up until the fifth grade were introduced in several schools.
But Libya’s Amazigh want more to revive their language and culture. They want to be nationally recognized and to participate in Libyan political affairs after the uprising in which they have played a great role.
Berber activists called on the new rulers to recognize them and their tongue in a new constitution.
They first made the demand during a Tripoli conference in September 2011 to forge an Amazigh political agenda.
“Language rights are not a matter that is subject to a vote,” said Fathi Salem Abu Zakhar, an organizer of the conference. “We want the government, and the coming government, to comprehend that the language is part of the Libyan equation.”
The National Transitional Council (NTC) has vowed to establish a democratic state that ensures individuals rights regardless of ethnicity.
However, their demand has not been implemented, and the draft of the constitution, outlined by the ruling NTC in 2011, only mentioned Amazigh culture in broad terms.
To challenge the Libyan executive authorities, the Libyan Amazigh High Council (LAHC) declared in February 2017 the Amazigh language as an official language in the cities and districts inhabited by the Amazigh.
“We are not going to take permission from any dismissed and illegitimate legislative authority to decide our natural rights. We are native Amazigh and we have to protect our people as per international conventions and treaties,” LAHC’s member Siham Bentale said in a press statement in February 2017.
After a long period of denial, Tamazight has been recognized by both Morocco and Algeria as an official language in their respective constitutions since 2016, giving a glimpse of hope to these minorities to revive their identity.
