The Amazigh Voice The Amazigh Voice

Summer 2007 Volume 16 Issue 1

Taγect Tamaziγt Tasγunt n Tiddukla Tadelsant Tamaziγt deg Marikan

The Amazigh Voice www..tamazgha.org

A magazine published the Amazigh Cultural Association in America 3959 Welsh Rd. #320, Wilgrove, PA 19090, USA —Phone/Fax (215) 886-5063

Inside this issue:

Editorial by Arezki Boudif

1

Echoes from North Africa

2

Amaris-inu sγur Hsen Umeftah

3

Amazigh Story Telling by Samia Kebir

5

Mutual Aid in the Kabyl Society by M. Feraoun

6

Teaching Tamazight: The Canadian Experience by Karim Achab

10

UCLA Lecture on Ancient Berbers by Helene Hagan

13

The Ethnologist by Tarik Yacine

15

Women’s Poetry during the Algerian Liberation War by Ramdane Lesheb

18

Ttṛad n Yugurten

22

sγur Salluste Tadyant n Siyd At Ccix sγur Remdan Lesheb

27

Tamedyazt n L. Lmasri Tasuqelt spur Brahim. Tazapart

29

Web News

32

Editorial by Arezki Boudif Once more, the present issue of Amazigh Voice may convey to its readers a puzzling picture: from the bright side, one can appreciate the momentum gained by the production of written materials in the different varieties of Tamazight and in different arts and literature. Artists in North African countries, as well as in the Diasporas, steadily continue to widen the use of Tamazight and strengthen its potential as a language capable of entering the fields of science, technology and the new media. Indeed, we are announcing in this issue the creation of Wikipedia in Taqbaylit, a Kabyl version of Wikipedia, the free and collaborative encyclopedia on Internet.

duty to translate the huge commitment in a political, social and economic agenda.

Among other positive notes, it is worthwhile to mention the renewed commitment of Amazigh movement for universal values such as democracy, tolerance, freedom of speech and the virtue of non-violence as a way to defend our rights to live in accordance with our culture.

You will find in this issue reports on a harsh repression to which Amazigh militants are subjected on the campuses of Moroccan universities. In Algeria, after failing to impose the Arabic (some would say Aramaic) scripts for Tamazight, the government announced the creation of an Amazigh Academy, nothing less! But, let’s not turn our sight away from the guiding star. While doing that, let’s learn to channel our energies, learn to work with each other, and hopefully; we will reach the top of the hill that will reveal the light of the rising sun.

On the other side, the institutional status, development and the promotion of Amazigh culture and identity suffer from the lack of an efficient and independent organization that can serve as a junction between the grassroot movement and the intelligentsia who has the

As a consequence of this situation, governments of the North African states have the easy role. They promise without delivering. They impose (or they try to) the scripts that Imazighen should use to write their language. They create empty-shell institutions for the Amazigh culture and they appoint as head individuals of their obedience who exclude from the decision process Amazigh activists. And, when they can not control the grassroots movement, they strike, harass, jail, repress, destroy and…forget all about their promises.

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T he A m a zig h V oice

The Amazigh Voice (ISSN 1526-5730) is a quarterly publication of the Amazigh Cultural Association in America Inc. (ACAA). All Rights Reserved ©2006 ACAA is an international nonprofit, cultural, and scientific organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of the Amazigh (Berber) culture in the USA and abroad. Chief Editor Arezki Boudif Editors Rabah Seffal Akli Gana Hsen Medkour Sarra Seffal Design Hsen Larbi Distribution Arezki Boudif Layout and Production Hsen Medkour The Amazigh Voice welcomes articles, columns, reviews, editorial correspondence, and poems in Tamazight or English. Contributions should be sent to: [email protected] or Amazigh Voice PO Box 265 Malden, MA 02148 Phone/Fax: (781) 322-0965 Opinions expressed in The Amazigh Voice are not necessarily those of ACAA representatives and do not reflect those of ACAA. Material may be reprinted only with permission.

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Echoes from North Africa Tiγlaγalin si Tmazγa Moroccan Consulate in France refuses to register a child with an Amazigh first name The consulate of Morocco in Lille, France, refuses to register a little girl with an Amazigh first name " Numidia Tin-Ass ". Ironically, Numidia Tin-Ass has already been registered by the civil administration of the city of Roubaix, in the North of France. The officer at the Moroccan consulate argued that the first name in question is not authorized. The Amazigh Voice team and the Amazigh community in the USA is outraged by this discriminatory behavior and urge the Moroccan officials to cancel “the listing of authorized first names” which is nothing less than a discriminatory tool against Moroccan Amazighs. In this occasion, we would like to assure M. Lhoussain Azergui, the father of the child, of our solidarity.

An Amazigh activist indicted by the Moroccan justice after a talk given at a conference. Speaking at a conference organized by the Amazigh World Congress (AWC) and the Amazigh League for Human Rights entitled “The land and the related rights”, M. El-Wazzani has stated that “ During the tribal era, problems could be resolved, even with violent means sometimes. Today, the force of law is unable to achieve the same thing”. He added that “The Moroccan sovereignty is questionable”. M. El-Wazzani is the president of the Association for the Development of Ait Ouzgan. Following this conference, representatives of the local administration, known for their hatred of the Amazigh

culture and identity, and independent leaders of the civil society have found the opportunity to sue M. El-Wazzani.

A wave of anti-Berber aggressions in Morocco Since December 2003, recurrent assaults and aggressions targeting students, members of the Amazigh Cultural Movement (MCA), within Moroccan universities have been reported. Indeed, students known for their obedience to the Arab-Islamic ideology, and supported by groups of outsiders have perpetrated attacks against militants of the MCA, at Imteghren (Errachidia). Worse, the phenomenon has spread to all Moroccan universities where members of the MCA are present. What is disturbing is the fact that no one is prosecuted; no investigation by neither Universities nor by Moroccan authorities is conducted. Therefore, involvement of the Moroccan administration and the police is a plausible explanation. The Amazigh community in the USA condemns these despicable aggressions against Amazigh students on Moroccan campuses and supports their struggle to promote their culture and identity.

New Movies Produced in Kabylia Two movies have been produced in Kabyl language this year. One is a fiction about the life of the late bard and activist Lounes Matoub , produced by a young moviemaker by the name of Mokrane Hemmar . The other one is about the phenomenon of fake marriages facing the Kabyl society today. (continued on page 31)

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AmarisAmaris-inu Sɣur Ḥsen Umeftaḥ

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iwet n tikkelt , yenna-yi yiwen n iminig: “Nekni s yeqbayliyen, amaris-neγ deg tmurt kan. Ekkes Pari d taddart, ur telli tmurt neγ tamdint nidden nessen.” Atas d aseggas tura yezrin deg ass-nni. Asmi i yi-tettef tegnitt ur liγ ara kra n lekwaγed, turza ɣer tmurt d awezγi; wd eγ atas d tamurt: Telyan, Kanada, Beljik, Porto Rico… d tiyad. Seg imi iten i d-hellaγ, yal amarisiw deg tmurt. Yuγal uwezγi-nni mačči d tamurt, d timura niden. Tuγal-iyi tarzeft ɣer tmurt am tgella, ma ulac-itt, tafekka-w ad tt-yeffeγ iziγer, ad tezzem, ad teqqar, ad tuγal am ufurk n tzemmurt. Aherkel fell-as mačči d ussan neγ d imalasen, d agguren, tikkwal d issegassen, acku d tacematt ma teddid γer taddart-ik s ifassen d ilmawen. Dayen i dğğan imezwura, mačči dayen i d-yennulfan. Cfiγ asmi lliγ d agrud, am nekk am tizyiwin-iw, nettgani iminigen, acku nessaram sγur-sen kra n tuntict: acett id neγ tizidanin. Ih i muqqret tumert-nni ma ar aγ-d-yettunefk kra! Tura hulfeγ am akken th ettem fell-i ad d efreγ abridnsen; ayagi yuγal d ansay. Daymi seg imir ara ad uγaleγ, issefk ad bduγ ad zdiγ taxridt i tikkelt i d-ittedun. D ayagi kan i ywulmen, imi iyi-terra twenza-w ula d nekk d iminig; tessawd-iyi-d almi d Marikan. Anwa ara as-yinin akk ara ad tedru! Wi’zran i aγ-yettrağun γer zdat! Maca tasebba nig akk tiyad i iyi-ttawin ar tmurt d imawlan-iw i ğğiγ wesren. Lemmer dayen i yra wul, ad illiγ yid-sen, γer tama-nsen, ad herbeγ fell-asen am akken hurben nutni γef wid-nsen. Aγrum yekkes-ap tissas; nger di tatut i nhettem i yimanen-neγ. Allaγen-neγ nfan tidett, acku nugad-itt am akken it-yewwi Mohya deg awal-is: “Tidett iγuba yismis, ttagaden-tt yemdanen.” La nettekellix deg imanenneγ, nugi ad namen ad yawed yiwen wass, taqriht i aγyegunnin, tamettant-nsen, ad rzu γer-neγ. Ass-nni win ur nettawi ul-is deg zagur-is, att yerr i ymetti, ad yezzay wul-is, as yuγal umegrez d taεkemt ara at yesdegdeg-n. Ih! Akka i d tudert-neγ, seg zik, mačči n wassa. Wa yqubl-itt yerna-tt, wayed yekna-yas, ngum tefra fell-as yiwet n taluft, rzant-ed mraw fell-as. Llan wid yebran i tbel deg aman, yeqqaren γer yillu frant akk!

Aseggas-a, jbiγ per tmurt deg furar. Ngum ad wdeγ γer dinna, zriγ sin wussan deg Pari γer wletma, imi tamurt neğğa-tt-id akk. D tagnitt deg i d-mektiγ issegassen-nni n temzi i dreγ dinna, tallit-nni deg i ur ssineγ ara ahebber neγ ahezzeb. Mi rseγ deg unafag n Lzzayer, tamuγli-w tamenzut d imdanen s iqendyar d iččumar; nniγ deg ul-iw: “Ad twalem, ttfen tamurt.” Nnuγniγ mačči d izli. Cwi adeffar, nnan-iyi d ih eğğağen. Mi ttganiγ iqraben-iw, mlaleγ yiwen wemdan n At Wagennun. Netta it-yewwin ar tmurt d tamettant n baba-s. Rriγ tabladt i wul-iw, zemmeγ tiwwura i wallaγ-iw, nfiγ deg-s axemmem γef tmettant: “Ad aγ-yenğu Rebbi!” Uziγ γer tewwurt n tuffγa, la sekkideγ anda ara yilli baba. Muqleγ, ulac; nnuγniγ cwit. Tagara, sliγ: “Wa Hsen!”. Tt urceγ, cbiγ adarus ma ara beddent tmezzuγin-is d tjehnidtis. Tura zṛiγ yewed-ed. Greγ tamuγli tannegarut, ha-atan s tcacit taberkant, yettwahi-iyi-d; yedda-d yid-s yiwen n ilemz i n taddart, win i d-inehren takerrust. Tignewt tufrar, maca d asemmid. Nemsalam s temγawlit, nessuli iqraben γer tkerrust, nekcem. Nekkar ad neddu, yewded-ed yiwen, yesteqsay-aγ-d, wi’zran d acu s taεrabt, amenhar-nni yerra-yas s teqbaylit. Ziγen mačči d nekk kan, llan wiyad i yγunzan tutlayt i ran ad sbibben fell-neγ s tmara. Гef win i yecban d tumert. Adeffar, ad affeγ mačči d yiwen akken. Newwi abrid s unecrah, xas takerrust d tasemmadt. Nekcem akal n Yiflissen Umellil, asigna yebda yettbeddil. Muqleγ idurar, walaγ-ten γman s wedfel. Nekcem Tizi n Wuzzu, xas ulac ageffur, aman lehhun d tiregwa. Nezger asif n At Σisi, iqqubl-aγ-d wedrar n at Yiraten irreqen d amellal almi yestullus allen. Tura zriγ taddart ur tugag ara. Cwit kan, nekcem akal n At Frawsen; Meqleε tessaγ s wedfel. Semmal nettali γer idurar, semmal irennu. Deg taddart, ufiγ azal n sin iγallen. Nezzuγer iqraben s axxam, kecmeγ, griγ-d nnehta. Tura d tidett, aqli deg axxam-neγ, anda tdeγ izzir-iw amenzu, γef tiγerγert γef i mmurdeγ, tinna mech eγ yal tikkelt ma ara mderkaleγ. Qqimeγ caxeγ la sekkideγ iγraben, allunen, idekkanen… Seksu yers-ed yakkan d ahmayan s irragen. Atas seg imi ččiγ seksu am inna, tizedt-is ulac-itt deg inig. Azekka-nni, mi d-ukiγ, sekked-γ taddart, tizeqwa selγent

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s wedfel, izeblac uglen fell-asent, tizegwa redxent, tissedwa n isekla knant. Rziγ γer wid akk i iyi-ttillin, yal wa s tuntict-is. Deg ussan-nni i d-yernan, wdeγ γer tferkiwin neγ, anida leqdeγ azemmur, ksep tibexsisin, neqceγ, ferseγ, ksiγ akraren… Taddart tura tbeddel. Ixxamen iqburen gran-d d imexda, yernu ur ttwazdaγen ara. Wa yedrem, wa γzan yeγrabenis am wefwad n weγyul ččan wuccanen. Atas n twaculin i tt-yefγen γer yinig. Iberdan-is xlan. Seg asmi i duγalen waman γer yexxamen, ula d tilawin ĝĝant tikli γer tala. Zik, cfiγ, tala tezga teččur d tilawin d igerdan, γer tama-s tissirt tzedd azemmur. Ass-a tala ugten deg-s idumman, akud yesseftutus iγuraf n tissirt-nni cituh cit uh. Yernu anda tessakded d ixxamen imaynuten. Tuddar n at Yiraten njebadent am yildi, izuγar n at Jennad ččur en d tinezduγin…Deg id, yal tama tsaγ d tiftilin, ad astinid fukent tfarkiwin. Deg kra n issegassen, ugaγ ad netdent tuddar ta γer ta. Awal n taddart n yeqbayliyen ad yegri kan deg idlisen n umezruy. Cfut a yimusnawen! Hemma a wid i yerha yimal n tmurt n yeqbayliyen! Ekkess iḥbayriyen imdanen ur crihen ara am asmi ĝĝiγ tamurt. Xas kubren-iyi, hulfeγ i yiman-iw d awerdani. Tilawin dhant d umahil n yexxamen d yeqwiren, irgazen,deg lqahwa, tturaren tikardiwin neγ dduminu. Ameslay-nsen γef tsersit; zik taddart tebda d iderman, ass-a d ikabaren. Ufiγ taddart tettherkil i tεaccurt. Imalas -nni amezwaru, at taddart gumman ad tt-gen γef sebba n wedfel. Gunan imalas it-d-idefren. Nekk fell-i d tagnitt i gerzen, atas aya, ur hdireγ i tεaccurt. Seg kra kan issegassen i d-heddar tεaccurt deg taddartiw. Zik nettcebbih tafaska-yagi i taddart niden n yimr abden. Ttawin-d imezwura awal dakken yella yiwen n uxuni n taddart-agi n yimrabden yettwassen. At taddartiw qudren-t nnig n wid-is. Yeččeh fell-asen, yeggul ad yemd el deg taddart-neγ. Asmi yemmut, bnan-as taqubbett deg akal n taddart-neγ. Yal assegass dukkulent i snat n tuddar akken ad gen taεaccurt. D acu kan taxridt ttawin-tt nutni, nekni qqaren-aγ-d nettawi lbaraka i ylan azal nnig n texridt. Ini kan nniya-nni n zik tekfa, tura d tadamsa i yesselhuyen timsal. Tella yiwet n tqaεett deg anda tettas-ed zik yiwet n txunit i wumi qqaren Lalla Hlima tacrift. Tga deg-s taxelwit-ines, taddart-is tqerb-ed nezzah γer tin-neγ. Deg umezruy i d-yeqqimen deg imi γer tmezzuγt, ixedb-itt-id ccix Muhend wulhusin, nettat tugi-t. Asmi tedda d tislit, yugad ad as-terwel, ihebs-itt deg texxamt. Tameddit n wass , tuγal d titbirt tesraffeg almi d taddart-is. Mcawar en, ufan taqaεett twulem i tεaccurt, yernu daγen wa yufa deg-s izimer, wa d izem, wa d agenduz, xas zran akk d timucuha. Deg tamnadt n at Frawsen, ngum ass n tεaccurt, imdebr

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en ttawin taεllamt n taddart deg uxxam γer wayed. Yal axxam anda kecmen, ad awin tazwayt n uza wan s tbel d leγwadi, ad rnun cdeh. At wexxam-nni imir, ad asenfken isurdiyen neγ timellalin. Isurdiyen-nni ad dduklen γer texridt n taddart, ma d timellalin-nni ad wwent i ynebgawen ara ad yasen deg ussan-nni n tεaccurt, acku γer-neγ taεccurt tla qrad n wussan. Igerdan, daγen, teddun d tirebuyaε, s uzawan γer yexxamen akken ad sisen kra umesruf akked timellalin. Ass amenzu, begseγ s iselsa zeddigen, wwiγ abrid γer tqaεett n taddart. Ufiγ atas n yelmezyen i yetteherkilen deg tanzit. Cit kan akka, la ad ttasen yemdanen, taqaεett teččur, ulac anda ara trefded adar-ik. Nekk imi d iminig, fkan-iyi amdiq γer sdat, wissen ma uklaleγ-t. Bdan azawan, imdanen zhan, cedhen, tikwal d irgazen, t i k wa l d tilawin, d t i k wa l d Deg taddart, ufiγ azal n sin t i w a c u l i n . iγallen. Nezzuγer iqraben s axDeg teswiεt xam, kecmeγ, griγ-d nnehta. γer tayed, ad Tura d tidett, aqli deg axxam- h ebsen az awan, ad neγ, anda tdeγ izzir-iw amenzu, a d r e n γef tiγerγert γef i mmurdeγ, ismawen n tinna mecheγ yal tikkelt ma ara wigad yefkan tiγawsiwin i mderkaleγ. taddart. Mi d Qqimeγ caxeγ la sekkideγ udren ism-iw, iγraben, allunen, idekkanen… rnan-d atas Seksu yers-ed yakkan d ahma- γ ef ayen yellan deg-i. yan s irragen. i wallenAtas seg imi ččiγ seksu am inna, Briγ iw γer tmurt, tizedt-is ulac-itt deg inig. setheγ deg iman-iw, nekk yeğğan widiw geddac issegassen aya xas mačči s lebγi-w. Usan-d yemdanen seg At Jennad, At Yiraten, At ГebrI, Tizi n Wuzzu, Idekkaren, Tizi n Wudi: udren-nten-id akk deg sawad s tγawsiwin-nsen. Usan-d yemdanen γer usawad, wa yewwi-d usefru, wa yennemred taddart γef tεaccurt i ggerzen. Akud imekli, tagella tella i yal yiwen deg tdefsit s seksu d weksum, wammag timellalin-nni d tanalt kan ngum neγ adeffar imekli. Ass-nni annegaru, yal yiwen yuγal γer wexxam-is neγ taddart-is, aγben iban-ed deg udmawen n yelmezyen. Ma d nekk umreγ atas imi ansayen-neγ ddren ar tura. Deg ussan-nni i d-yernan, taddart daγen texla; yal yiwen yedha d umahil-is. (continued on page 32)

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Amazigh Story Telling Rituals by Samia Kebir

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n traditional Amazigh culture, elderly ladies (timγarin) hold the monopoly for story telling. It's an indisputable privilege. Women, through generations, orally transmit Berber stories. Elderly women collect and pass on stories to their children who, in turn, pass them on to the next generation. This tradition is, however, being abandoned because people prefer to watch TV. In families where traditions are still observed, story telling follows very specific rules. Elderly women, surrounded by the whole family, observe strict traditional rituals before the story begins and after it ends. Rituals are meant to cleanse the vicinity where a story is being narrated. Thus, you cannot tell a story any time you wish. You can do it only after sunset for otherwise a curse can befall on the listeners and the storyteller herself may become mute. Usually, to start a story, Berber women recite a ritual to chase evil spirits away and cleanse the vicinity where listeners are gathered. The ritual begins by invoking God's name. It is followed by incantations and gestures to bring positive energy to the family. After the introductory ritual, the story teller sprinkles salt around to keep evil spirits at bay. In Berber traditions, salt is used to protect people as well as objects from malediction and evil eye. It is believed that, when a room is cleansed, spirits of ancestors as well other good spirits are assembled to enjoy the story. The beginning ritual lets the listeners settle into a groovy and magical mood while awaiting for the true story to begin. The narrator creates a fairylike universe that ties the listeners with a magical thread. It is customary to start a story with a preamble of this sort: Tamacahutt-iw amzun d asaru, Ṛebbi a tt-id-yessefru. am usalas, ad telhu. Ṛebbi a tt-id-yessefru. which translates into: This story is like a woolen belt May God let it proceed in harmony This story is like a master pillar This story is beautiful

May God let it proceed in harmony Similarly, a story ends like this: Asif, Asif Tamacahutt-iw sawleγ-tt I warrac yecban imnayen. Tamacahutt-iw am terga Sawleγ-tt i wat yiseγ d tirrugza Meaning: River, River My story has been narrated To warriors and noble children My story is like a brook I told it to great knights Rituals, to begin and end a story, are discerned great respect and uttered with a most serious tone. Beware that these traditional rituals are duly invoked, for serious misfortunes await the unsuspecting listeners. Here is a short one, entitled: Amɣ ɣ ar d uqecwal (The Old man and the basket) Yella yiwen wemɣar yezdeɣ d mmi-s d tmeṭṭut n mmi-s (neɣ tislit-is) akk d mmi-s n mmi-s. Tislit-nni tekkat ad tessufeɣ amɣar-is seg wexxam. Tekker tenna i wergaz-is: “Awi-t ḍeggeṛ-it deg teẓgi (lɣaba)”. Di tazwara, yugi wergaz ad iḍegger baba-s. Imi tezga tettḥaḥi-t, yuɣal yeqbel. Ihi yiwen wass deg ussan n Ṛebbi, yekker wergaz di tafrara, yessaki-d baba-s, yegger-it deg uqecwal. Yerra aqecwal Ŵef waarur-is, yekker ad yebdu abrid. Mmi-s amecṭuḥ yesla-d i uḥerkel, yenna i baba-s: “A baba ad dduɣ”. Ihi baba-s yeǧǧ a-t yedda yides ɣer teẓgi. Ǧǧ an at wexxam deg imeṭti d leḥzen. Lḥu ma ad telḥuḍ… armi wḍen ɣer yiwen wemḍiq deg tlemmast n teẓgi. Ibedd wergaz, yessers-d aqecwal i-deg yella wemɣar, yeǧ ga-t din, yebda abrid n tuɣalin ɣer wexxam. Yenṭeq weqcic ɣer bab-s, yenna: (continued on Page 9)

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Mutual Aid in the Kabyl Society by Mouloud Feraoun Translated from French by Akli Gana

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n their study on Kabyl society in 1817, Hanoteau and Letourneux said: « The political and administrative organization of the Kabyl people is one of the most democratic and at the same time one of the simplest. » This is one of these succinct, quick judgments that is accepted by laziness or by indifference but whose validity is questioned as soon as some thought is required for its understanding. But in 1857, the curious minded people in the Kal mountains were straightaway facing the following obvious observation: the government, the administration, the justice did not cost anything and communities did not have salaried civil servants. They were forced to admit that this situation was a natural consequence of the spirit of association and solidarity, which enlivened these mountain dwellers. The Kabyl society is The Kabyl society is built acbuilt according to the cording to the principle that emanate from this spirit; every- p r i n c i p l e s that emanate where one finds, at various lev- from this els, the spirit of association, be spirit; everyit in the affairs of private life as where one finds, at variwell as in the relations of the ous levels, family, village and tribe. the spirit of association, be it in the affairs of private life as well as in the relations of the family, village and tribe.

The village or “taddart”, in Tamazight, constitutes the political and administrative unit. This is an entity that has its own life, its autonomy; it chooses its leaders, legislates and manages its affairs. The combination of two or more villages, united by some affinity relations, often is a geographic area with its natural limits (mountain/hill crests, rivers), constitutes the tribe. The union of several tribes forms the confederacy, Taqbilt, from which the word qbail (Kabyl) is derived. Alliances are born, then perpetuate themselves or disappear according to circumstances and necessities. The federation can occasionally grow up to the union of several groups of tribes. This is what must have happened in the distant past, during the multiple invasions that the Kabyl society had to put up with or push back. While remaining the corner stone of the Kabyl society, the village was comprised of tikherubin. Takherubt (singular of tikherubin) is generally comprised of a number of families of the same ancestry, therefore linked by the blood relation. Around them there are families of outsiders, a sort of clientele, which transforms the takherubt into an adrum. The adrum outgrows the blood relation clan and expands its political base to progressively become the first entity of a political party. But from one takherubt to another, and more generally from one adrum to another, there exist relations whose remembrance or trace is transmitted without failure from one generation to the next. New relations are formed, which tighten and strengthen the network, in such a way that inevitably in the territorial entities of villages, one hardly can find a person that is totally foreign to another.

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That's why the village remains the indestructible entity, the administrative and social unit whose life is important to know. It is the single entity that is capable to globally receive any impulsion of happiness, which in turn brings evolution and progress. The direction of the village belongs to the citizens’ General Assembly ---women excluded. This Assembly or “tajmaat”, in Tamazight, has all the powers, her decisions are sovereign and she sometimes takes care of executing them herself. But to look after the daily needs, the respect of its decrees, the execution of its bylaws, she designates an executive among the best of her members: the amin or the trusted one. The amin chooses his aide in each takherubt; it is called the tamen, the one, who guaranties that the decisions are executed in the takherubt. The amin and his tamens constitute both the village executive power and its Committee of surveillance. These are not paid positions. The amin’s mandate length is not fixed and the job is not well sought after. Not only it is costly but it always causes enmity and dissatisfaction towards the amin. Very often, as soon as an amin notices that his popularity is falling, he hurries to resign. Sometimes he also dies while in office, he is regretted by all, and his memory is respected. Then his children become « the children of the amin », his grandchildren « the grandchildren of the amin ». The formal written record keeping is unknown and the tajmaat’s decisions are recorded in memories. In very rare cases, they are recorded by the marabou, a sort of religious teacher, who is also the secretary. This absence of archives and paper trail requires, certainly, a lot of rigor in the execution of the laws. In fact the Kabyl democracy joins together the extreme coarseness and the extreme simplicity. It is interesting to get acquainted with an extract of quanuns or laws applied in the last century in a village of Great-Kabylia: 1. The woman who becomes pregnant without being married is put to death. 2. The one who is found guilty of adultery pays 20 reals (real is unit of money) and is forced out of the village. 3. The one who is found guilty of 3 thefts is forced out of the village. 4. The man who does not perform his prayers 3 successive days is fined one real. 5. The one who violates the fasting during the month of Ramadan is fined 3 reals. 6. The one who hits an individual in the presence of his wife, daughter or sister is fined 5 reals. 7. The one who fights with a man who is ill is fined 1 real.

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8. The one who insults a woman is fined 2 reals. 9. A woman who insults a man is fined 1 real 10. The one who does not plant 10 trees in a year is fined 1 real. 11. The one who burns down a harvest must indemnify the victim and is fined 50 reals. 12. In case of war, the one who asks for the aman (safety) is fined 10 reals. 13. The party which requests assistance from another village is fined 100 reals. 14. The combatant who surrenders/collaborates with the enemy is fined 100 reals in order to stay in the village.

Our purpose is not to examine the details of the communal institutions but it is simply to indicate in passing the numerous preoccupations of Tajmaat, which has the right of dealing with the public life as well as the private life of each. Our purpose is not to examine the details of the communal institutions but it is simply to indicate in passing the numerous preoccupations of Tajmaat, which has the right of dealing with the public life as well as the private life of each. For the needs of the administration each member voluntarily participates in paying two kinds of taxations and, in this domain, Tajmaat is sovereign. Taxes are paid in silver and in kind. They can be assessed per individual or per household. The silver tax is uniformly the same independently of the wealth of the taxpayer. The tax in kind is assessed by household and is a function of the known resources. The payments in kind are established according to customs for certain jobs of public or peculiar utility. Every time that it is legally required, the man, under the treat of severe penalties---excommunication for instance---, owes his personal labor, the labor of his animals of value and the labor of his oxen. There are some categories of citizens who are exempt of taxes; always for legitimate reasons, often to compensate them for their public service or for the accomplishment of a special task of collective interest. These are: the amin, the tamens, the marabous, the town crier (usually the caller to perform community tasks), the performer of the washing of the dead, the blacksmiths and masons, the butchers, finally the sick and the elderly. Obligatory work is required for the benefit of the village, the tribe or individuals. For the village or the tribe, it is necessary to construct

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For the benefit of individuals, the men of the village have to intervene each time that someone is engaged in a difficult job such as: transport of the framework for a house, millstones for the mill, impossibility of picking up olives or other fruits, or harvesting the fields, or to thresh the cereals (in general wheat and barley). Hence the mutual aid, which was originally a vital necessity, became very quickly, it seems, an institution thoroughly codified, equal for all, accepted by all even with its imperfections. or repair roads, public places, fountains and to develop public lands. For the benefit of individuals, the men of the village have to intervene each time that someone is engaged in a difficult job such as: transport of the framework for a house, millstones for the mill, impossibility of picking up olives or other fruits, or harvesting the fields, or to thresh the cereals (in general wheat and barley). Hence the mutual aid, which was originally a vital necessity, became very quickly, it seems, an institution thoroughly codified, equal for all, accepted by all even with its imperfections. But in parallel to this official administration that everyone is subjected to, willingly or not, the spirit of mutuality and cooperation plays freely with affinities within the tikherubin and families. This free cooperation is called twiza or more exactly tiwizi. The day of tiwizi is a day of celebration, which brings together all the members of a collectivity, on which intestine quarrels are forgotten. Some verses sung during tiwizi are: A yiwaziwen O helpers! Rebbi a ken-ioawen May God help you Kemmelt-ap tirni Continue your work Akka d asawen All the way to the top of the hill A yiwaziwen Ay at ccemla Kemmelt-ap tirni Alamma d laoca

O helpers! With turbans Continue your work Until sunset.

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Iwaziwen are workers, but happy workers. Happy to be young or happy in strength of age, happy to show off this strength to the women who flatter them by their singing, in sometimes audacious verses that they brilliantly extemporize, taken in their game, more excited than men. And since the young women observe, sing and, maliciously, are able to indirectly address one man or another, to demonstrate a preference, flirtingly show a kind of consent or vague promise, the work without failure will be continued to the top of the hill and nobody will think of stopping until sunset. This is what is tiwizi: a rural festival comparable to Dionysius, a pretext to express one’s joy and health, an opportunity to glorify the gods of the earth, harvests, melted since centuries in the mould of Allah the Unique One, but being able to still manifest themselves individually in favor of the believers thanks to the old oaks and oleasters that remain their traditional shelter. When I was young, I participated in these spectacular rural festivals. I remember them as a collective communion between people of my Takherubt: uncles, aunts, cousins, sisters, more than hundred people, all together in the field, from the morning till evening, to pick up olives of the most fortunate among us. This field without limits that spreads over the whole mountain, from the top to the bottom of the valley, we had the impression, we the children of the poor, that it was ours on this day, while before, it was a kind of inaccessible paradise where we boldly entered (without permission) to pick up a fruit. Olives that my sister picked up, I had the impression that they belonged to me as much as my fortunate cousin, to prove it to him I wickedly trampled small heaps to use them to draw on schist rock. In the middle of the day, we gathered around the dishes, in the sun on beds made of olive tree leaves and we drank from the neck of the huge water jugs the fresh water scooped out from the creek. Then the men restarted to hit the olive trees branches with long sticks, in order to shake down the olives, the women picked up the fallen olives and the children carted the baskets of olives onto the courtyard made of beaten earth in front of the hut. Whether it is for the harvest of grain, the gathering of olives, figs or grapes, the land lord reserves the best lot to tiwizi (the group of voluntary workers). It is a rule that no one can ignore, a compulsory concession to his community. For all other parcels, he can do as he pleases, such as hiring workers, choosing participants whom he would

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pay with a third or a quarter of their harvest, renting such and such plot, that he cannot exploit, to less fortunate people. And the same rule requires that those who have worked for him, during the season, those who have relations, in one way or another, with him come to the day of tiwizi. They come to work or to assist to the show, but at least to participate in the meal and to enliven the day. For the youth, the hardest workers and the agile workers, they know that it is necessary to confront one another under the mocking look of women, the strictest of referees. Nobody evades the competition and one is sure that at the end of day, the task at hand will be easily fulfilled

In principle, on the day of tiwizi, a portion of the harvest is reserved to the participants. So, after having reserved his best plot to the members of the community, having fed them well, the owner distributes, to all the members of the community, his symbolic give away, which is an act of affectionate submission that strengthens the relations and is also a likely mean of stopping disagreements. After an expensive tiwizi, the rich farmer could say that « No one can brag to not need others », but one should not make such a mistake because tiwizi is not only a filial homage of the individual to the group, it is especially, in all circumstances, an efficient and basic assistance that the group offers to one of their own in difficulty. Being able to give a tiwizi without a real need, is an affectation of the rich man accepted by all with joy. Here is another emotional form of tiwizi, the one that consists of relieving families from all the materiel worries at the time of death or to provide food sustenance, by a spontaneous and discrete collection, to those in need. Finally, except for these special cases, direct mutual help is part of everyday habits that we call “timaawna”. We lend arms in the same way that we lend a plow, a pair of oxen or braise that will make a fire in a home. All of this is for the same good reason of being parents, living together and being neighbors. But truth be told, are such customs peculiar to only the farmer of this country and century? It is precisely because under any latitude, the peasant resembles himself. What ever the peasant realized elsewhere in the field of agrarian cooperation seems in the same way possible to be realizable here. And, if they have the means, the questions of adaptation will only be a minor one. This is at least our conviction.

aazaa

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(continued from Page 5 ) Yenṭeq weqcic γer bab-s, yenna: A baba ilaq ad nerr aqecwal-a γer wexxam-nneγ. I wumi i s-nesra? Ur t-neḥwağ ara!

Awwah a baba, a t-neḥwiğ! Acu i-deg ara k-id-rreγ asmi ara tuγaleḍ d amγar akka am Jeddi? Argaz yewhem deg awalen yesla. Imeyyez, yufa yessexseṛ deg wayen yexdem. Yezzi γer baba-s, yessuter degs ssmeḥ, yerfed-d aqecwal-nni akk d wemγar, uγalen-d di tlata s axxam Tamacahutt-iw tekfa..

Once upon a time there lived a man, his wife, his son, and his widowed father. The wife didn't like her father in law and wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible. She ordered her husband to take him away to the forest and abandon him there. The husband was hesitant to do that at first but eventually gave in to the strict demands of his wife. Thus, one morning, he woke his father up and loaded him in a big basket called “aqeshwal or aqecwal”. It was a very sad day and there was a lot of crying. The grandson, hearing all the commotion woke up and inquired about what was happening. When his father told him he was going to the forest he begged to go along with him. His father hesitated at first but then decided to take him along anyway. They walked deep into the forest and then came the time the father thought it was the right spot to leave his father. He unloaded him down and was ready to head back home. His son shouted: "Dad, aren't you going to bring the basket back home?" The father replied: "Son, we don't need the basket anymore." The son replied back: "Dad, I need it so I can carry you to the forest when you are very old like Grandpa!" The father immediately realized the big mistake he was going to make. He sincerely apologized to his father and brought him back home.

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Teaching Tamazight : the Canadian Experience by Karim Achab*

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hree multi-level classes of Tamazight have been opened in two Canadian public schools in Ottawa since September 2000. These classes are mandated under the Ministry of Education of Ontario through its International Languages Program within the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). Two of these classes are available to elementary school-age children (Junior kindergarten to Grade 8), while the third class is open to secondary level students as well as to adults without any restriction of age or origin. All three classes take place on Saturday morning, from September to June. The present article focuses on the experience regarding the secondary level class, which I have been teaching since its inception, in September 2001. The International Languages Program The International Languages Program, mandated under the Ministry of Education of Ontario, aims at teaching languages other than English and French provided there is a cultural or linguistic community that speaks the language in the attendance area administered by the local district school board. Through this program, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has been providing instruction in various languages in Ottawa for over 25 years. This is just one of the numerous examples that illustrate how Canada values and respects cultures and identities whose roots lie elsewhere. We can read in the website of the Ministry of Education of Ontario, “Language programs also introduce students to the heritage of other societies, and so increase their awareness and appreciation of other cultures. Through the study of languages, students gain a greater understanding of the perspectives of the different peoples who comprise Canada’s diverse society, and develop a deeper appreciation of and respect for the identity, rights, and values of others.” Knowing the ban and denial imposed upon Tamazight by the different regimes in North Africa, these words certainly sound more significant to our ears than initially meant by their author(s). I remember very well how animated we all were -

We can read in the website of the Ministry of Education of Ontario, “Language programs also introduce students to the heritage of other societies, and so increase their awareness and appreciation of other cultures. Through the study of languages, students gain a greater understanding of the perspectives of the different peoples who comprise Canada’s diverse society, and develop a deeper appreciation of and respect for the identity, rights, and values of others.” Knowing the ban and denial imposed upon Tamazight by the different regimes in North Africa, these words certainly sound more significant to our ears than initially meant by their authors I remember very well how animated we all were - students, parents, community members, and teachers alike - the first day our Tamazight program started. students, parents, community members, and teachers alike - the first day our Tamazight program started. It is the aim of this article to share this somehow unusual experience with the Amazigh community, and more particularly with those concerned with the defense and promotion of Tamazight. Tamazight in the Ontario Curriculum The secondary level Tamazight program contains four distinct courses, corresponding to grades 9, 10, 11, and 12, in conformity with the requirements outlined in the Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: Classical and International Languages, 1999; and the Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 to 12: Program Planning and Assessment, 2000. These courses are accepted as credits in the student’s credentials towards a high school

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diploma. An additional fifth level has recently been added, that is meant to give students the opportunity of one more year of exposure to the target language in an academic environment. These courses are not restricted to secondary school students as they are also open to adults within the community. The program aims at developing the language knowledge and communication skills of students. On average, about 24 students register for the secondary level course every year, while about half of them mostly high school and university students - attend on a regular basis. This secondary class is multilevel because the number of registered students is not high enough to open more than one class. Therefore, the content of the course sometimes needs adjustments so as to meet the needs of the students. However, two main levels within the course may be distinguished, which correspond to native and non-native speakers. Native speakers The first class that started in September 2001 and finished in June 2006 was essentially composed of native speakers who had spent a period of their lives in Kabylia, a Tamazight speaking region in Algeria, before immigrating to Canada with their parents. Thus, when they started the program they were already fluent in Tamazight. Their needs therefore were not about acquiring basic linguistic skills; the students were instead interested in learning how to write the language. This first year was therefore devoted to the notational system based on the Latin alphabet in use among Tamazight scholars. This instruction was given in parallel with teaching the grammar of the language, where the rules and the mechanisms governing the language were revealed along with the different parts of speech used in . Tamazight including nouns, verbs, prepositions, pronouns, adverbs, participles and adjectives. During the first year, I had to make up the didactic material myself from the different books and notes I had compiled while I was a student of Tamazight at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris (INALCO). For the following year, the OCDSB made available to us 25 copies of the book entitled Afus n Tmucuha, written by the Amazigh linguist and scholar Madjid Allaoua. Later on, thanks to a subsidy from the OCDSB a number of books and dictionaries were shipped to us from Algeria, with the help of the Amazigh-Cultural Association in Ottawa-Hull (ACAOH). The Amazigh Cultural Association in America (ACAA) also

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contributed dictionaries, as a reward to the most assiduous students. Once the basic writing principles were acquired, we were then in a position to explore different texts from various resources including the encyclopedic Fichier de Documentation Berbère. The students showed tremendous interest in all academic fields pertaining to Tamazight, including the historical background of the Tamazight language studies, the development of its notational system, poetry, history, sociology, and anthropology of the Amazigh, geography of the Tamazight speaking areas in north Africa, oral literature and so forth. All these topics were explored through texts from various resources including the written literature produced in the late 19th and early 20th century by , among others, Said Boulifa, Belkacem Ben Sedira, Renet Basset, Andre Basset, Hanoteau, Letourneau, when Tamazight had its place in academic institutions during the colonization era. The content of the texts studied was so rich that they revealed to us hidden facets of the Tamazight language, culture, literature and civilization including such diverse aspects as sociological, anthropological and psychological traits of the Amazigh society. The students’ interest in all these different aspects was so high that they contributed with group-based research in the topics of their choice. The result of their research was presented to the rest of the class, in Tamazight. The Saturday morning Tamazight classes also provided the students an opportunity to meet, to share their childhood memories, tell jokes and riddles in Tamazight and listen to Kabyl music. The students also took part in a cultural event organized every year at Glebe Collegiate, the high school where secondary level Tamazight classes take place; here, they performed choreographic shows representing different facets of Kabyl life in the village, at home, and working in the fields. Two years ago we acted out the ritual Anzar, the pagan god of rain in ancient Amazigh paganism who is paid tribute when drought jeopardizes the harvests. Luckily enough, it rained cats and dogs in the aftermath for the whole weekend and we were all amazed at the timing. The following Saturday, in jest, I apologized to the administrative staff at Glebe Collegiate on behalf of Tamazight students for causing such a deluge. Obviously, they got the joke. Non-native speakers While most of the students attending between September 2001 and June 2006 were native speakers, a

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new category of learners, namely those who left Kabylia at a very early age, started to arrive after September 2006. These “new” learners had not been exposed to a Tamazight speaking environment for a sufficient period of time to learn the language. Given that the number of students was not high enough to open more than one class, non-native speakers who have little or no knowledge in Tamazight are incorporated in the same class as native speakers, which makes the class a multilevel one. Accordingly, the course has to be adjusted in order to meet the needs of some students, although grammar and spelling courses were common to both categories of learners. Obviously, the needs as well as the challenges of non-native speaker learners are different from those of native speakers. Although it is too soon to decide whether such challenges are being overcome, we can identify some issues which have arisen so far. The first issue that imperatively needs to be settled is what to teach at what level. In other words, we need to determine the content and the concepts, including grammar and vocabulary, to teach at each level. The second issue is how to teach the level-specific content once determined. We all know that the strategies used by previous generations among Amazigh emigrants, mostly in Europe, to transmit the Tamazight language to their children are no longer valid as current generations of parents speak less and less Tamazight to their kids at home. Most of the existing textbooks devised for the teaching of Tamazight are unsuitable, not to mention the criteria required for teaching Tamazight as a second language. As a matter of fact, from the language acquisition perspective, Tamazight taught to learners born or brought up in Canada has to be viewed as a second language. Another challenge that needs to be addressed is the one concerning lack of words in academic and scientific domains. Thus far, discussions in Tamazight have been confined to “prosaic” topics. As soon as one starts talking about a scientific or academic subject we feel the need to switch to another language for lack of appropriate vocabulary. All these issues reveal how underprivileged Tamazight is as compared to other languages taught at the OCDSB, notably in the exploration of the interdisciplinary approach advocated by the International Languages Program: “The study of classical and international languages leads naturally to the exploration of topics related to the language under study and the culture of which it forms part. Such topics include art, history, geography, and social customs. Consequently, courses in classical and international languages lend themselves to

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an interdisciplinary approach. Subject matter from any course in classical and international languages can be combined with subject matter from one or more courses in other disciplines to create an interdisciplinary course. The policies and procedures relating to the development of interdisciplinary courses are outlined in the interdisciplinary studies curriculum policy document.” All these issues raised above point to the urgent necessity for the Tamazight language to be taken care of by specialists working in such different academic areas as linguistics, language teaching, and language acquisition. All in all, the experience of Tamazight teaching in Ottawa is typical from many perspectives. Other than the academic aspect mentioned above, this experience also highlights the contrast between the regimes in North Africa and Canada in the way states and governments treat their own citizens with respect to their culture and their identity. It helps Canadian citizens of Amazigh origin to keep in touch with their roots, and thus gives them the feeling of belonging which responds to a basic human instinct. The Canadian mosaic model of multiculturalism is praised worldwide. Mosaic is not simply a metaphor, as we see its reality every Saturday morning at Glebe Collegiate in Ottawa. We see the name of Tamazight listed prominently among international languages although the Amazigh community is itself substantially modest in terms of number. Therefore the Canadian model of multiculturalism protects and guarantees the visibility and the promotion of the undersized. This undoubtedly is an advantage over the US multicultural melting pot model, let alone the French Jacobin model, at war against multiculturalism disguised as anti-“communautarisme” to make it sound more legitimate. As to the attitude towards Tamazight adopted by the regimes in North Africa, it is just another story…. aazaa * Karim Achab graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Ph.D. in linguistics. He also holds a license degree in Tamazight studies obtained from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO). He is currently working as a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa and as a postdoctoral researcher in linguistics.

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UCLA Lecture on Ancient Berbers by Helene E. Hagan *

I

recently received an invitation to attend a lecture entitled “The Ancient Berbers” which was sponsored the African Studies Center of the University of California in Los Angeles, on April 27. I was definitely intrigued by the short paragraph that promised “a new interpretation of the structures that supported the existence of ancient Berbers.” The lecturer, Dr. Ramzi Rouighi, received his Ph D in history from Columbia University and teaches medieval and modern Middle Eastern and African history at USC, Los Angeles. Dr. Rouighi opened his PowerPoint presentation with an apology about the fact that his research is ongoing and far from being completed and that the theory he was about to introduce was a result of preliminary research. He then introduced the topic by stating that “Berbers” did not exist as such in ancient time, that there were no Berbers at the time the Arabs invaded North Africa and that the term “Berber” was a social category that emerged out of Andalusian history in medieval times, around the 9th century. With the help of archaic maps, Dr. Rouighi proceeded to demonstrate that the region of North Africa known today as the Maghreb was known to ancient historians under other names and that the existence of “Berbers” was not recorded by those historians. The Greeks, he said, used the word of “Barbaroi” to describe many groups outside the Greek culture, and not necessarily and restrictively to designate the inhabitants of that region. Indeed, the only part of a Ptolemaic map that contained the word “Barbaria” was located in eastern Africa and not in the north. When the Arabs invaded North Africa, they found Romans and Byzantines, and essentially the Arab conquest transferred the rule over the region from the Romans to the Arabs. At this point, having refrained from making any comments about the lack of information provided by Dr. Rouighi on a “Berber” presence from prehistoric to Roman times, I inquired of him what he made of the Treaty of Barca. In Arabic documents on the conquest of North Africa, the 1643 Treaty of Barca in Cyrenaica (Libya) marks the first success of the invading forces over Berber forces, and the imposition of a war tax on the Berber people including several hundred heads of women and children in annual payment. (1) The Arabic record also indicates that this Treaty was a prototype for

the treatment of other Berber groups brought into submission during the next few decades, from Libya to the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Rouighi stated that he did not know what I was talking about and had never heard of that treaty, but that he would get back to these matters later. He never did, of course. He went on rapidly covering the period of the conquest of North Africa in a few words, passing almost immediately into a time and place with which he was evidently more familiar, the medieval period of Al Andalous that followed the conquest of Iberia. In Iberia, he indicated, ethnic identities were not immediately at issue. A Latin Chronicle that covered the years 611-754 does not mention any “Berbers’ but refers to people originating from Mauritania (presumably Mauritania Tingitana, the Roman province of what is now northern Morocco.) It is not until the 9th century AD in Al Andalus that a social category of “Berbers” emerged as “the original inhabitants of the Maghreb,” to differentiate them from “Arabs.” The semantic term Arab itself, according to Dr. Rouighi, had a different meaning in that context from that in the Middle East. To be an Arab in the world of Al Andalus meant to be part of an elite of Arabic descent. Then, as Dr. Rouighi entered the domain of linguistics, someone in the room immediately asked whether Berbers

He then introduced the topic by stating that “Berbers” did not exist as such in ancient time, that there were no Berbers at the time the Arabs invaded North Africa and that the term “Berber” was a social category that emerged out of Andalusian history in medieval times, around the 9th century. With the help of archaic maps, Dr. Rouighi proceeded to demonstrate that the region of North Africa known today as the Maghreb was known to ancient historians under other names and that the existence of “Berbers” was not recorded by those historians.

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spoke Arabic or another language, and I quickly made the comment that even now, there were over 30 million people in North Africa speaking Tamazight, or some form of Tamazight. I also mentioned that the very word “Berber” was a word alien to the vocabulary used by the original inhabitants of North Africa who call themselves “Amazigh”, and that the word “Berber” was a label imposed by outsiders, not a term of self-reference. A woman remarked that the period of history under study was the 9th century and not the present, and I replied that the present only reflected continuity with the past under consideration. Dr. Rouighi then skimmed over the linguistic question entirely to “summarize” and conclude the lecture. In conclusion, he brought out a quote from “The Berbers,” the book by Brett and Fentress. The quote pointed to the numerous dialects spoken by the inhabitants of North Africa, sometimes incomprehensible to each other, and how difficult it is to refer to groups of people with disparate customs as a nation of Berbers. Similarly, he concluded, there were no Berbers in ancient times, let alone “proto-Berbers” in archaic times. The Berber seems to be a semantic innovation introduced in medieval times. An African American man made the remark that when the Arabs invaded North Africa, they met people of his skin color, black Africans, and those were the Moors of medieval times. Another African American man made the comment that it was useless to categorize people by skin color or other physical features, anyway, since we all come from Africa, and differences are all human invention. Dr. Rouighi protested that such a simplistic approach merely states that we are all belong to the same humanity, but that the subject of history is precisely to investigate how human beings variously formulate ideas and convictions, and that this work is a valuable one. I remarked that indeed statements such as the quote he selected point to the richness and diversity of elements pertaining to an Amazigh culture with ancient roots predating the arrival of Arabs in North Africa, and that the history of this culture has heretofore been mostly written by non-Amazigh historians, but this may not be the case in the future. I added that the book titled “The Berbers” that Dr. Rouighi quoted is a very basic book and that more sophisticated research has been conducted for instance by Dr. Malika Hachid and her team in Algeria, and couched in her remarkable book “Les Premiers Berberes.” In a near future, more works written by Amazigh historians will be published. One is scheduled for publication in the United States in 2007.

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I remarked that indeed statements such as the quote he selected point to the richness and diversity of elements pertaining to an Amazigh culture with ancient roots predating the arrival of Arabs in North Africa, and that the history of this culture has heretofore been mostly written by non-Amazigh historians, but this may not be the case in the future. I added that the book titled “The Berbers” that Dr. Rouighi quoted is a very basic book and that more sophisticated research has been conducted

In my opinion, such a lecture did not present the available ample record that exists on Amazigh groups in North Africa, from the time of the Egyptian civilization to the end of the Roman era. The lecture did not depict the nature of the Arab invasion and its encounter with Berber resistance throughout North Africa, from Libya to the Atlantic Ocean. Its emphasis on the emergence of the semantic category of “Berbers” as a medieval phenomenon taking place in Al Andalus to differentiate between an elite “Arab” caste and the original inhabitants of the Maghreb is in my view a contrived theory which attempts to revision history as if to fit a political agenda of some sort. (1) In 642, an Arab general under the rule of Caliph Umar I, by the name of Amr Ibn Al As , invaded Libya from Egypt, conquered the province of Cyrenaica and established his headquarters in Barca. There was fierce Berber resistance in Tripolitania for years, broken by the forces of a subsequent invasion under Uqba Ibn Nafi. In his march across North Africa, Uqba Ibn Nafi applied the same rule of taxing each subdued group with a heavy war tax including an annual contingent of slaves as part of the booty. * Helene Hagan is an ACAA member and a regular contributor to the Amazigh Voice.

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The Ethnologist by Tarik Yacine (Translated from French by R. Dahmani**)

Akli, the hero of this novel stated that “the struggle for his culture was deadlier than the one for the liberation of his country”. This statement would be so prophetic if Akli’s story were not a fiction. In a narrative style, mastered to perfection, Tarik Yacine takes us back into the Kafkaian atmosphere of the early militants for the revival of the Amazigh culture, during the Algerian Liberation War. Akli was suspected of holding a subversive document because it was written in an unknown alphabet to the French soldiers: the Tifinagh. *Tarik Yacine is a French language teacher at a high school in Kabylia, Algeria.

T

hey have just brought a new prisoner. The skull ploughed with a razor that left small islands with thin hair in some places, and barely healed scares in others. He had blackened eyes from sleep deprivation, a tired head on top of a thin silhouette. Tapping on his shoulders, as one does to a friend, the compassionate-looking sergeant made him move towards the middle of the room where walls and floor were perfectly organized in large blocs of cut stones, which are relics of the ancient roman thermal baths where the resisting Numides served as bait for the starved morays. These stones, the humidity of the place, and the resonating sounds that could be produced were what was left of the decor used for these scenes, which were almost identical to those of ancient times. In the meantime, electricity and detergent were invented. “You see over there, little Akli? I know that you know him, he is from the same region as you. People know each other in the tribe, don’t they? He is not a pleasant sight, huh? You better talk then,” says the sergeant to the newcomer, while rubbing the back of his neck, already saturated with sweat and the ambient moisture. The one the sergeant was showing him, by making him turn his head towards one area of the room, did not any longer look like the Akli he knew before. The person he was looking at in that moment was a wreck. He resembled a piece of a man, huddled up in a corner of the torture room, which used to be the ancient purgatory. He barely perceived what was being said or done around him. The poor idealist has just gone through the whole panoply of the profession practiced there. The quest for information stopped when pain had

no more effect on the body. To overcome his suffering, his spirit reread some passages from “La question”, by Henry Alleg, that he, fortunately for him, had finished right before his arrest. At that moment, he had most of the answers to that question. He thought that, perhaps, the experience of a non-native would help him better resist. Akli doubted that the “Operation jumelles” would spare anyone. Even domestic animals were suspected. Between his patriotism and the horrible reality he was living through, the gap widened and time expanded. During these moments, he only remembered the last sentence from the interrogating officer: “Kill him!” In another area of the room, this one well lit, seated around a table to take a break were two hefty men, with hairy arms and chest, reviewing the documents they found at Akli’s place after his arrest. When they were shown to him, pressed against his face to the point of choking him, he smelled the scent of his house, saw the faces of his elderly mother, his five children, and his pregnant wife. He almost forgot about his excruciating pain. He hoped that later on his folks would understand. He was not trying to forgive himself for the risks they were taking. He was prepared. For him, destiny is not written in advance, it is written when they take him by his throat. Only the idea of separation, maybe too early, made him sad. To love his country is his way of loving his family. Something that looked like a letter particularly interested the two soldiers. It was a text written in characters they had never seen. They knew some Sanskrit, and heard about ancient Chinese characters. If they were hieroglyphs, they had Champollion to

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decipher them. They spent hours trying to make Akli confess to the coded nature of the message, destined for the resistance. Deep inside, Akli started to believe that his struggle for his culture was deadlier than the one for the liberation of his country. They went on picking at this paper, yellowed by the passing time and blackened by its handling with dirty hands. With their eyes wide open, pleated along the front, they strove hard for a hypothetical key to this enigma. Despite Akli’s insistence that the characters had been used in North Africa for a long time, they were not convinced. The answer from the dominated was too easy to be accepted by the dominant. The whole armada that came to Akli’s bedside was convinced that it was a secret code. How could he explain to them that there were only few, in this vast country, who could write with these characters? That he was among the handful indigenous who were trying to safeguard this heritage, under colonization and in the middle of a war of liberation, for which he was being tortured? He read and reread, translated and retranslated many times the content of this letter from an old friend and relative who helped him discover the writings of his ancestors. “My spiritual father,” as he liked to call him. On occasions they helped him sit down, since he could no longer do it on his own, supporting him on each side and helping him keep his eyes open so that he could coherently read this scrabble, and tell the truth as he should have done in the first place. That is, a coded message between the members of the rebellion. His stubbornness was suicidal. He already heard the sentence that awaited him. He thought about his past, and the first event that came to mind happened at some point in his life, fifteen years ago, well before the beginning of the war of independence. A phrase from an old colleague, Georges, a civil servant like him, came to mind. It was the day in his office, from which he was expelled because of his subversive activities while he was a young clandestine militant of the Parti du Peuple Algérien (Algerian People’s Party), also clandestine, when he was thoroughly answering a letter from his old friend Da Mohand, professor of Berber language and script. They were proudly writing each other in this language, like clandestine linguists. They were exchanging their opinions on the consequences of the end of the Second World War. Akli had almost been drafted. He was a studious kid who knew that he had to persevere. Claiming back their history was, at best, chimerical. But, there they were, firmly convinced that they came from somewhere and that the Gaulois were not their ancestors. Georges has just come in and approached Akli to greet him. As he

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Wanting to impress the speaker, he looked at him from the bottom up and answered: “This is our script; it is called Tifinagh, the script of the Berbers of all of North Africa.” “Huh, because you have a script, joked Georges, who quickly added: ”you are not serious?” “But of course we are! Here is the proof,” replied Akli, pointing towards the text he had yet to finish writing. Hence Georges had this reaction that triggered off Akli’s recollection. “You know, Akli, you are doing an autopsy on a cadaver.” Having lost his father prematurely due to silicosis he contracted while working in the mines of northern France, it was thanks to his uncle Ali that he had the chance to go to school. With his indigenous education certificate in his possession, his pronounced desire for literature was his first means of research. His fondness for history was the source of his essays that took him to the writings of Ibn Khaldoun. He was a “melon”1 proud of his “melonness”, as he liked to say at his political meetings. When the village youth came to buy bread from the bakery that he run with his cousins, he enjoyed talking to them about Hannibal, Jugurtha, and Tariq Ibn Zyad. It was with a preacher’s fervor that he preached about his heroes who wrote about those rare times when his fellow-countrymen were not pariahs. To explain to them that they were not born to be submissive, he could, with the ease of a historian apprentice, go back all the way to biblical times, including Noah, if necessary. During these history lessons, at the entrance to the bakery, it happened that on the opposite sidewalk a Caïd 2 would walk by followed by his flock licking his white burnous. With the ritual salamalec of allegiance, stooped for a moment, and, being aware of their indoctrination of dissent, starred on top of his oiled moustache at these youth who never greeted him, and almost disdained him. With his look he signified to them that he was not a fool. One day he told Akli, who was surrounded by his comrades: “If the path you are trying to follow at this time were to get you somewhere one day, I would have been the first one to follow you, before anybody else.” This handful of rebellious youth was not sensitive to the words of the one who represented the opposite of their aspirations, and the negation of their self-affirmation. These were rather scrutinizing this olive oil flowing from his mustache, thinking that it could only be a gift or a bribe against a more bearable life of these poor peasants for whom the Caïd became a representative of God here on earth. This has almost been legitimized when the Caïd made the village religious representatives say in a perfect Kabyl that: the

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state is in the image of God, we owe it our obedience.” Our rebellious youth in turn knew how to use the best arguments from this same religion to recruit their faithful. During these albeit short rambling moments, Akli thought about long stretches of his own history. Faces and scenes rapidly paraded, in a total chaos, in this skull that could bear no more. Images that his memory wanted to project to him, to comfort his loneliness and dismay. As if to save them from a physical death. The main summary of this lived life, as predicted by common destiny, when all this little world would be gone up there, it would come back to life with its proofs. Because, in the interlude of these successive sequences, he could not avoid thinking to what awaited him, or ignore this last sentence from the officer that became a master of his destiny and that still resonated like a death knell which would have participated in its own death. That sentence always brought him back to this reality from which his spirit has always tried to escape. The projection of these images continued in this spirit over which he has no control, to the liking of another Akli nestled deep inside him who just got full freedom to talk. The decor caught up with the characters and events. From within his head, he was holding on to the old stone houses and old red roof tiles, he walked along the cactus hedges, crossed the olive groves, cheered up by the yellow color of the blossoming broom under a blue sky, felt the taste of sainfoin (tasulla) stems in his mouth, and listened, with an exceptional enjoyment, to the frou-frou of the fig leaves, as they were moved by the see breeze. There existed in this endearing nature that he embraced with his guts, a harmony that did not exist in his fellow humans. Suffering returned to him anew, as he thought that he could no longer gaze at, smell, and feel this mother nature. The door at the entrance of this roman site, which was grossly rehabilitated for the same ancient needs, squeaked. It was a thick and heavy metallic door that was rusted by the marine air. Shafts of light emerged around a man as he entered. The people present came to life with straight faces and tightened their posture to

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stand at attention, while the imposing character closed the door with an identical squeaking noise that closed off the daylight. For the captain who was there for the news, the information is what mattered. The manner was left for the inventiveness of his subordinates. The sergeant approached his captain to read the report. “Sir, we found a coded message with the guy from Tigzirt. We could not extract any information from it. The lieutenant thinks that we should sent it to Algiers. He said that there, they have had more experience with this stuff.” “Show me that,” requested the captain. As he handed the piece of paper, the sergeant resumed with the same pep: “This scum is talking nonsense since this morning, and he speaks our language very well.” The captain, whose face we could say that it was illuminated, became surprisingly interested. The sight of this piece of paper produced sparkles in the eyes of this unsuspected researcher. He approached Akli to address him: “You who knows how to write Tifinagh?” Knowing that the word was pronounced incorrectly, Akli could turn his head for the first time and lightly acquiesced, with a slightly stunned look. He felt a sensation of relief. “At last an ethnologist,” he thought, “now they will know that I speak truthfully. If I have to die, at least it will be in the name of all truths.” The captain who was waiting for a verbal response then noticed that Akli’s tongue was tumid under the effect of electricity. He understood that it was hopeless to continue to make him talk. Looking a little embarrassed, the military man at this instant ordered: “Take him back to his cell!”Another short sentence that produced a different destiny. Akli will live again slowly in a prison camp in southern Algeria, until independence. He will see his family again, and will discover the last one he did not see being born. Today, his grave is the only one in the cemetery, where he is buried, that carries an epitaph in Tifinagh . aazaa ** Rachid Dahmani is a member of ACAA. He is a regular contributor to Amazigh Voice 1

Nickname given to indigenous Algerians settlers. 2 Administrator for indigenous poeple

by French

A comment by Ahcene Medkour If, in this time of confusion and mistrust, Akli were arrested and tortured by the French army in ignorance of the Amazigh language and scripts, many young Kabyls were imprisoned for the same reason in post independence Algeria . In a country that was liberated from foreign domination, young people were punished for their attachment to their mother tongue and their culture and accused of being a threat to the unity of the new nation. Ironically, some government officials declared Tamazight a legacy of the French colonialism.

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Women’s Poetry from Kabylia during the Algerian Liberation War ( 1954-1962 ) by Ramdane Lasheb (Translated from French by Arezki Boudif) doubt that oral literature is changing, evolving. Some inefuring fective traditions are the Aldropped (…). Conger ia n versely, other genres l ib er a of oral literature are tion war (1954being developed that 1962)1, poetry was adapt better to the one of the most evolution of the modcommon forms in ern societies seen towhich oral literaday around the world. ture was expressed. Besides we can conIt was the expressider that the radio, sion of women as a television, advertisesocial group, as ment, and computers, well as of the comthe multimedia of munity as a whole. tomorrow, are buildA group of Kabyl women singing the traditional poetry During those years ing and conveying during the ceremony and afterwards, ponew oral forms rangof henni, at a wedding party etry was a mirror ing from of the eduthat reflected the cational (interviews, concerns, the needs, the dreams, and the values of the debates, talks and cultural programs) to the more popupeople. Those who investigated this field are lar (songs, shows, games, concerts, sport, theater, hu“unanimous to say that it was the heart where the deep mor…)”5 2 soul of the people flourished" . One can add that this genre of poetry preserved the memory of the community, The end of the war that led to the independence of the through the years and generations. The depositories of country in 1962 has interrupted the social, anthropothis heritage, whom Rabia3 refers to as “the spiritual logical, as well as political conditions, that allowed the heirs”, can be seen as living libraries4 and a priceless poetry-of-the- war to thrive, to spread, and to be pretreasure for the researchers (ethnologists, anthropoloserved. Today, only those who participated in its creagists, linguists and others). Unfortunately, these “heirs” tion and in its spreading can still sing or recite their powho knew how to immortalize their art, living with it ems. For this reason, these poems could only be coland by keeping it alive, are leaving one after another, lected from those women involved in their production, and taking everything with them. Since the first reduring the war. The compulsory education for the chilcording of these poems in 1992, some of our contacts dren and the access of women to outside work created a passed away, taking with them pieces of the treasure we new situation in which "the mothers’ role and status were unable to save. changed, they are no longer in charge of passing on the traditional knowledge. (…) As a consequence, the Confronted with the modern ways of expression, many knowledge that was the prerogative of women is lost genres of oral literature are on the fringe of extinction. little by little, and the same is happening to oral literaAs stressed out by Chadli, oftentimes, it is just a mutature”6. Therefore, its preservation becomes a necessity. tion to new forms of expression, and he added: " No IOrality/ modernity:

D

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In order to insure the safeguard, the development and the promotion of our culture, moving to a tradition of written literature is the best option: " apparently, recording in writing literary works has been instrumental in the evolution of the major literatures in the world such as Russian, French, Arabic, English, Spanish, etc”7 II - Women and the war Unlike men who often worked outside, women, wives, were in charge of the home and the education of children. The Kabyl proverb " Tame..ut d llsas$ argaz d ajgu alemmas" the woman (or the wife) is the foundation, the man (or the husband) the main supporting beam, describes very well the place the woman holds within the household and in the Kabyl society in general (a family is built around a woman). Consequently, she represents the main channel through which the transmission of the language, the traditions and the oral literature, in all its components, is achieved. For the first time, the passion for independence and freedom, led to an armed conflict that involved the entire society and lasted about seven years. The commitment of the women in the liberation war was instrumental. The following numbers will give you a sense of women’s involvement in the region of Kabylia known as the Wilaya (province) number 3, "In Wilaya III figures of

“In Wilaya III figures of female participation.were very high They amounted to 35 % of the total number of female activists nationwide whereas the population of the province represented only 17,4 %” Although their handling of weapons was limited, they certainly were involved in equally important activities such as logistics for the resistance fighters, intelligence and communications. They were also at the forefront in activities such as nursing, supply and management of the shelters. More importantly, they participated, unknowingly in the propaganda of the FLN(10) (acronym for the National Liberation Front) through their poetry . Women, were then, both the

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female participation were very high. They amounted to 35 % of the total number of female activists nationwide whereas the population of the province represented only 17,4 %”8,9. Although their handling of weapons was limited, they certainly were involved in equally important activities such as logistics for the resistance fighters, intelligence and communications. They were also at the forefront in activities such as nursing, supply and management of the shelters. More importantly, they participated, unknowingly in the propaganda of the FLN10 (acronym for the National Liberation Front) through their poetry . Women were then both the authors and promoters of this poetry. The executions, the bloodshed and the tears inspired these poet-activists. In front of this tragedy, these women composed a number of poems telling the village life, the various clashes, and battles with striking details. Naturally, the resistance fighters were honored and the collaborators with the French army vilified. The following is an example of such sentiment: Axabit

Win yellan d axabit Ncallah leqder-is yeγli Cfant ula d lxalat Lba.el ixdem idelli Ma yemmut yeγba yisem-is Ma yedder leqder ur t-isεi The Traitor He who is a traitor May God disgrace him Women will also remember The harm he caused yesterday Dead, his name will be forgotten Alive, he will be a subject of shame.

This poetry was born in the context of, and for the war of liberation. It was a collective work of illiterate women. There is a legitimate question to ask: who are the authors of these poems? The women involved in composing this poetry are unanimous to say (d nekenti ak), all of us! Although those among these women who have some natural inclination for poetry recognize some pieces as theirs, they all assert gladly that they contributed to its spreading by singing them on occasions: They were a broadcasting network. Every village had its repertoire of poetry. Its zone of exe-

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cution rarely exceeded the geographical boundaries of the village. Pieces of this poetry were sung or declaimed in solo or in a chorus. The public was in perfect communion, and the poems were well appreciated and endorsed. We have noticed that the audience of that period was sensitive only to one theme, that of militancy which was in a perfect accordance with the political role of resistance. Moral support for the resistance fighters reached levels that these women were unable to imagine or conceptualize. An officer cadet (Aspirant) by the name of Aissa Blinde made this stunning confession, saying: " When I hear women’s dinghies (Tiγratin), I lose my mind and I run straight ahead, firing at the enemy’s positions. In general, by listening to the poems of the war and/or women dinghies, our fighters turn into tanks capable of returning the most desperate situations”11. That is the reason why, women poets’ performances were sometimes used for political propaganda purposes, and to enhance national awareness. These poems also provided moral support for the families of the resistance fighters, as exemplified by this one: Tilawin n yemjuhad Tilawin n yemjuhad Berkamt iciddi n lfuva Irgazen-nkent deg wedrar Lmitrayuz a tesqaqay Rebbi ad kem-isebba\r  a yemma-s Ad am-d-yawi lḥuriya Resistance Fighters’ Wives O wives of the resistance fighters! Stop your coquetry Your husbands are in the mountains Firing machine guns May God comfort their mothers Whom they left for the sake of freedom. III - Historic approach: Today more than ever, it is obvious that the poetry of the

war played a major historic role. Not only were the poems remarkable by their number, but also by what they represented as historic evidence that will be an instrument in the writing of the history of the war " The Kabyl oral poetry of resistance is a historic poetry because it takes its origin from a genuine historicity that arose from factual historic events”12. The poems were exclusively

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When I hear women’s dinghies (Tiγratin), I lose my mind and I run straight ahead, firing at the enemy’s positions. In general, by listening to the poems of the war and/or women dinghies, our fighters turn into tanks capable of returning the most desperate situations collected from the women who composed them during the war. As previously stated, rare are those women of the after war generations who preserved them. Even today "these poems managed to keep a special status as they are recited and sung only to evoke a striking historic situation" wrote Ben Brahim. As if they were suspended in some timeless space, far from any falsification, they remained authentic; what makes them an inescapable element for the writing of history of the war of liberation. In other words, the oral literature generally and the poetry of the war in particular, thus become an unexplored field waiting to benefit history: " not only, can it be a historic document, it can also be, a historic production of a history molded by its producer”13, wrote Lacoste Dujardin. It was a powerful tool that allows the description of events the way they were witnessed, as shown by the following poem:

La.ak ikkren di ssaεa Ay teqwa lmuta Kul yiwen isriddim izri-s Yiwen yuli tazemmurt Yewwet-d γer tmurt Di ssaεa idda lεemr-is Yelsa abernus n lubar Aqrab yeççur d lakis Wwin-t γer Larbεa ttqelliben tamurt-is The battle was sudden The dead were many Everybody was moved From an olive tree, a survivor Counterattacked vainly He succumbed shortly after Dressed with a camel wool burnous* Carrying, in a bag, the funds of the front The enemy took him to Larbaa*** to be identified14 aazaa

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13

*Burnous = Kabyl clothing in the shape of a cape. ** Front = relates to the National Liberation Front. ***Larbaa = a city in Kabylia.

COURRIERRE YVES ; 1992 La guerre d’Algérie, le temps des colonels, Rahma,Alger. 14 DEJEUX JEAN ; 1983 La poésie algérienne de 1830 à nos jours, Paris, Publisud, Alger.

References: 1

A/EVENO P et PLANCHAIS J ;1990 La guerre d’Algérie, dossiers et témoignages, Laphomic Paris . FERAOUN MOULOUD ; 1989 Les isefra de Si Mouhend ou Mhend, Bouchéne Alger; GUENOUN ALI ; 1999 Chronologie du mouvement national, Casba, Alger ; KEDDACHE MAHFOUD ; 2003 Et l’Algérie se libéra, 1954-1962, EDIF 2000 Méditerranée, Paris. LACOSTE DUJARDIN CAMILLE ; 1992 Des mères contre les femmes, La découverte, Paris. 2 AMRANE DJAMILA ;1991 « Répartition géographique des militantes de la guerre de libération nationale (1954-1962) » in Revue Awal N° 8, Awal, Paris. 3 AMROUCHE JEAN; 1988 Chants Berberes de Kabylie, L’Harmattan ,Paris. LACOSTE DUJARDIN CAMILLE, 1970 Le conte Kabyle, étude ethnologique, La Découverte, Paris. 4 ATTOUMI DJOUDI ; 2004 Le colonel Amirouche, entre légendes et histoire, Edité à compte d’auteur ,Tizi Ouzou. 5 ATTOUMI DJOUDI ; 2005 Avoir 20 ans au maquis, , Edité à compte d’auteur, Tizi Ouzou. BEN kHEDA B ; 1989 Aux origines du 1er novembre 1954, Dahlab, Alger. 7 BEN kHEDA B ; 2000 Aban Mhidi, leur apport à la révolution, Dahlab ,Alger. 8 BENBR AHIM MELHA. ; 1979 « Poésie orale Kabyle de résistance, 1830-1962 », in Actes de la table ronde, Littérature orale, CRAPE . LACOSTE DUJARDIN C ; 1982 « Littérature orale et histoire », in Actes de la table ronde, littérature orale, OPU, Alger. 9 BENJAMIN STORA, 1993 Histoire de la guerre d’Algérie, repères, La Découverte, Paris. 10 BOUAMARA KAMAL ; 2004 Si Lbachir Amellah (1861-1930), Poète Chanteur de Kabylie, Tatlantikit Bejaia ; MAMMERI MOULOUD ; 1969 Les Isefra de Si Mouhend ou Mhend, François Maspero, Paris ; MAMMERI MOULOUD ; 1988 Poèmes Kabyles Anciens, Laphomic Alger; MAMMERI MOULOUD ;1990 Yenna-yas Ccix Muhend,Edité à compe d’auteur. 11 CHADLI EM ; 1977 Le conte populaire dans le pourtour de la meditérannée, EDISUD, Paris. 12 CHAKER SALEM ; 1982 « Structures formelles de la poésie Kabyle », in Actes de la table ronde, Littérature Orale, OPU, Alger.

An Academy and a High Council for Tamazight in Algeria?

A

ccording to Algerian newspapers, the Algerian government examined and endorsed two presidential decree projects related to the Amazigh language and culture. The bill creating a National Education authority (Academy) and High Council for Tamazight, is presented by the Minister of Education. Allegedly, the objective of these two institutions is the promotion and the development of Tamazight in all its linguistic varieties used in the country "* Few months ago, questioned about the number of Tamazight teachers in the capital (Algiers) not exceeding two, the same Minister of Education answers in a rather provocative manner: " I cannot urge people to learn Tamazight "…as if people of Algiers refuse to learn Tamazight.

6

Here is a comment from Professor Abdellah Bounfour ( INALCO, Paris) that summarizes very well the reason of our skepticism.** There is a striking resemblance between the Moroccan initiatives and those of the Algerian regime. It lays in the decrees creating institutions in charge of the promotion of the Amazigh culture and the preparation of the ground to the teaching of the language. The H.C.A (High Commission for the Amazighity) in Algeria, the I.R.C.A.M (the Royal Institute for the Amazigh culture) in Morocco are both institutions put under direct control of the President of the Republic for the first one and the king for the second. The same will to take over a domain they do not want to leave in the hands of independent institutions such as universities; Almost the same wording defining their status and their missions and also the same definition of the Amazigh dimension as "national heritage" so no group (not even the Amazigh people) (continued on page 26)

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Ttṛad n Yugurten (Aḥric amenzu) Sγur Francois Richard (Tasuqelt si tefransist sγur Karim Achab)

Wagi d aḥric amezwaru si tsuqilt n ttṛad n Yugurten. Ttṛad n Yugurten d yiwen n wedlis i yura Sallust di leǧ wahi n useggoass - 40 (weqbel Oisa) γef ttṛad i yedṛan ger Ṛṛum d Yugurten deg iseggasen -111 d -105 (weqbel Oisa). Maca Sallust d ajininiṛ n loaskeṛ n Ṛṛum, ittekka di ttṛad-nni. Amezruy n ttṛad -agi yura-t akken yebγa ad t-isinen medden. Nekkoni m’ar a nγeṛ ayen yura, ilaq ad nerr di lbal-nneγ belli tamacahutt-a tettunefk-aγ-d kan si yiwet n tamaṭ.. D win i tt-ixedmen, i tt-irebḥen, i tt-yuran. Tasuqilt-a yerra-tt-id Karim Achab si tefṛansist « La Guerre de Jugurtha », akken i tt-id-yerra François Richard, si tlaṭinit, di GF-Flammarion, Paris, 1968. Dpa yebda tasuqilt-a seg tsedda\\ṛ\t (paragraph) tis 5 imi tiseddaṛin timezwura (1rut alamma d tis 4) deg wedlis n Salluste ur aonint ara ttṛad n Yugurten. Adlis akken i t-yura Sallust s tlaṭinit isem-is Bellum Jugurthinum

V. Ad awen-d-iniγ tura acu i yi-d-yewwin ad awen-dmmeslayeγ γef ttṛad i yeḍran ger wegdud n Ṛrum d Yugurten. Bγiγ ad awen-d-mmeslayeγ fell-as acku, tamezwarut, ttṛad-nni yezga-d yewoaṛ aṭas aṭas ; yerna, per tazwara, ur aγ-d-iban ara ad t-neγleb amecwaṛ kan akka. Tin yernan γer-s, d tikkelt yakko tamezwarut deg umezruy i d-yekker yiwen, yaoffer, yebγa ad d-yekk wawal-is nnig wawal n imeqranen-nneγ. Amennuγ-nni i d-yellan gar-aγ yid-s ihewwel akko ddunit. Ihewwel ddunit n Ṛebbi yerna tin n loabd. Tewweḍ taluft armi i tendeḥ ula ger wegdud n Ṛṛum, sekkren taluft ula garasen, armi cwiṭ i snegren ula d Ṭṭelyan. Maca uqbel ad d-bduγ ameslay γef ttṛad n Yugurten, yessefk ad dsmektiγ amek tella taluft, i wakken ad tfehmem ayen yedṛan akken i ywulem. Ihi di lallit-nni n ttṛad tafniqt tis snat, tinna anida akken i yefka Ḥanibal i Ṭṭelyan tiγrit-nni la yeqqaren d nekk aya, Agellid n Imaziγen, Massnsen, yella yaodel netta d Sipyu1, winna i wumi qqaren Sipyu Aferkiw (Scipion the African). Massnsen inehl-d γef Ṛṛum, yennuγ akken ilaq, ibeggen-d iman-is mačči d yiwen n webrid. Asmi i teγli Qerṭaj, yekker Ṛṛum yefka-yas i Massensen kra n temdinin d wakal i d-iḥella netta s yiman-is seg Ifiniqiyen. Ihi neqqim akken naodel yid-s, acemma ur yelli gar-anaγ. Maca asmi i yemmut Massnsen, teγli ula d tamurt-is. Syen γer zdat, d mmi-s n Massensen, Massibsen2, i yuγalen d agellid imi atmaten-is, Mastanabal akko d Γulusa, mmuten. Massibsen γer-s sin warrac, Aderbal akk d Ḥemvsal. Ma d Yugurten, d mmi-s n gma-s s babas kan, winna i wumi qqaren Mastanabal. Yerna Masta-

nabal ur t-yeḥsib ara yakko baba-s seg yigelliden imi γer tme..ut tayed i t-id-isoa, mehsab mačči d tame..ut-is n tidett, ur tt-yuγ ara. Ihi γas akken Yugurten mačci d mmi-s, Massibsen igga-yas leqṛar, yessekr-it-id, iṛebbat-id akken i ylaq, am akken d mmi-s.

VI. Asmi i yewweḍ Yugurten d ilemẓi, d acu d lǧ ehd, d acu d zzin, d acu d lfehama, ur yeǧǧ a ara ad t-yeγdeṛ cci, neγ zzhu, neγ iγimi. Yedfeṛ abrid n imezwura: d amnay n tidett, yufrar-d nnig tezyiwin-is, yerna yugariten di yal tapawsa. Γas akken yif-iten, ḥemmlen-t yakko. Rnu yettseggid aṭas: ad yewwet izem d amezwaru, yerna d netta i d aneggaru per zzux. Ihi per tazwara, Massibsen yefṛeḥ s mmi-s n gma-s d ayen kan. Yenwa ad izux cwiṭ yis. Maca mi i ywala Massibsen iman-is la yettiwsir, arraw-is meẓẓiyit, ikcem -it weγbel, ladγa imi Yugurten yettali ccan-is. Yuγal-as d aγbel n yal ass, izdeγ-it yiwwass. Akka, aγbel tamara: tamezwarut, Yugurten yugar atmaten-is, yerna imdanen smenyafen win meqqṛen, ḥemmlen akko medden temγoer, bγan akko ad awḍen γer -s. Tis snat, agerruj n Massibsen mačči d yiwen kan ar a yesseḍmao. Taneggarut, yugad ma yenγa Yugurten ad ttewoaṛ fell-as acku Yugurten hemmelen-t Imaziγen mačči d kra.

VII. Asmi i ywala ur yezmir ara ad yekkes Yugurten ama s tin n yiγil ama s tin n tiḥeṛci, yeggora-yas-d kan ad t-yazen γer lfinga, s imenγi. Ammer ad yemmet dinna Yugurten, ad frunt tlufa n Massibsen. Dγa tettunefk-as tegonitt mi d-yeḥdeṛ ttṛad n Numance,

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di tmurt n Ṣpenyul, anda yettnaγ Ṛṛum. Massibsen iceggao imnayen d iterrasen i wakken ad εiwnen  Ṛṛum, yerra Yugurten d imḍebbeṛ fell-asen, ddan γer tmurt n Ṣpenyul. Deg wul-is yessaram ad dyemmet s yenna Yugurten. Maca mačči akken i ttyebγa i teffeγ. Yugurten yefhem tikli n P. Sipyu, imḍebbeṛ n loaskeṛ n Ṛṛum, yerna yefhem tikli n yaodawen-is. Yuγal yufrard di ttṛad n Numance, hemmlen-t ula d loasker n Ṛṛum imi yesdukel tirrugza d tmusni.


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tebratt-nni,ha-t-a wayen i s-yenna: “Di ttṛad n Numance Yugurten yufrar-d nnig akko wiyaḍ, yessebgen-d iman-is d ayen kan. Annect-a zriγ d ayen i yess ar a tfeṛhed a.as. Yugurten yuklal sγur-neγ leqdeṛ d ameqran. Nekk sγur-i ad xedmeγ tazmert -iw i wakken ad yimγur wazal-is deg wegraw4 akko d wegdud n Rrum. D abrid-nwen kečč d Massnsen i yuγ.”

Yufa-d lḥal isal-agi i dyefka Sipyu i Massibsen di tebratt yuγ akko tamurt n Imaziγen s umata, ala fell-as i ttmeslayen lγaci. Dγa Sipyu γur-s kan i yetIhi Massibsen yewwitarra, yal taluft yellan ffruyas-d kan ad ibeddel tikli tt kečč a Yugurten. Yuγal Massnsen, agellid n Imaziγen -s γer Yugurten, yuγal d ameddakel-is, ttmezran Idder seg 238 - 148 (weqbel Oisa) iteddu-yas s tin n lxir, yal ass. Yerna Yugurten yerra-t am mmi-s, yaozeddig wul-is, d aya i yasqed-as tamurt i wakken d-yerran a.as seg Iṛumyen ad yewwṛet ayla-s am warraw-is. Ioadda acḥal d asegd imeddukal-is. goas, Massibsen iwala iman-is yewweḍ γer tizi n lmut, yessnejmao-d arraw-is, imeddukal-is d wigad akko i sVIII. Di tallit-nni, igen3 n Ṛṛum ggoten deg-s wid yesyettilin; ḥedṛen akko mi i s-yenna i Yugurten aya: menyafen idrimen γef tirrugza, rran-tt ala i tandit deg temdint n Ṛṛum. D wigi yakko i yas-yesseḥman abenX. “Tezriḍ a Yugurten, asmi i fkiγ laoqed i wakken ad dayer i Yugurten. Zgan qqaren-as: d kečč kan ar a iyi-twerteḍ am kečč am arraw-iw yufa-d lḥal meẓẓiyeḍ yuγalen d aqerruy γef tmurt n Imaziγen asma ar a yemaṭas, ur tsoaḍ la baba-k, la ttrika, ur yelli wayen i γer ar a met Massibsen, tuklaleḍ, yerna deg temdint n Ṛṛum kulci tessirme ḍ. Tura nekk aqli wwḍeγ γer tagara n tmeddurtyettnuz. iw. Ad ḍelbeγ deg-k ad tbeddeḍ i warraw-iw i wakken a Asmi i teγli temdint n Numance, P. Sipyu yerra loaskeṛk-afen γer tama-nnsen, i wakken d nitni ar a tafeḍ γer nni i t-ioawnen γer tmura-nnsen, netta yuγal γer Ṛṛum. tama-yinek ula d kečč, mačči d wid akkoed ur tecrikeḍ Yefka-yas i Yugurten ayen yuklal, ickeṛ-it akko zdat azaṛ neγ wid akkoed ur teččiḍ tagulla d lemlaḥ. Cfu d iεeskṛiwen-is; ssakin yewwi-t s aqiḍun-is iweṣṣa-t s tuftaddukli n tegmatt i d leqrar n tgelda mačči d lwiz neγ d fra, yesfehm-as belli ma yebγa ad tennerni lemḥibba-s loaskeṛ. M’ar a dduklen watmaten, yiwen ur yezmir ad ddeg wulawen n wegdud n Ṛṛum, ur ilaq ara ad yegg yekk nnig-sen. Gma-k ma yella issekk fella-k lbaṭel, neγ lemxalfa ger medden, ilaq ad iḥemmel medden d tirni, tesseked fell-as lbaṭel, ur yelli ubeṛṛani γer ar a teccetkiḍ mačči ala kra n yemdanen kan. Yerna yenna-yas mačči s neγ i γer ar a yeccetki netta. Ilaq ad tezṛem belli tagelda i tjuεal ara yessnerni lemḥibba-s deg wulawen. Inna-yas yawen-ǧǧ iγ ass-a ad teǧ hed ma yella tezḍam tagmatt gar ma yella ikemmel kan deg webrid-nni i d-yewwi, -awen, ad teγli ma yella tezḍam gara-wen lebγeḍ d temγwer ad γer-s yaweḍ yiwen wass. Yesfehm-as d aγen lexsaṛa. Ma tessersem-d talwit gara-wen ad awen-ternu belli ma yella yedfeṛ abrid n tjuεal, d idrimen-is ar a di tezmert, w’ad awen-tdum teswoit. Ma yella d ccwal i yawin yiwen s asif. d-tessersem gara-wen, a-t-an ihi d ccwal-nni ar a koenIX. M’i d yehder ad yuγal Yugurten γer tmurt-is, yefkaisγeḍlen. yas Sipyu tabratt i wakken ad tt-yawi i Massibsen. Di

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Kečč a Yugurten tugareḍ atmaten-ik ama di laomeṛ ama di lefhama d tmusni, d kečč i d-tewwi ad tnadiḍ i wakken ad teddu teswoit akken ilaq. Ma yella tennuγem garawen d kečč ar a sḍelmen medden imi d kečč i tenyugaren. Ma d kenwi a Ḥemṣal d Uderbal, yewwi-yawen-d ad tqadṛem Yugurten, ad as-tefkem azal, ad tdefṛem abrid i d-yewwi i wakken ur as-qqaren ara medden win akken rriγ d mmi yif wid i d-soap”.

Xi.

Yugurten iḥulfa belli imeslayen-agi yakko i s-dyenna Massibsen mačči seg wul yeṣfan i d-kkan. Γas akken, yerra-yas s tin n leqdeṛ. Massibsen yerna kan kra n wussan immut. Neṭlen-t warraw-is, rran-as tanṭelt akken i tt-ttarran i ygelliden n lweqt-nni. Arraw n Massibsen - Ḥemṣal akk d Uderbal - akko d Yugurten nnejmaoen i wakken ad frun kra n temsal yaonan tamurt. Ḥemṣal, d ameẓyan akko deg-sen, qesseḥ yiles-is, yerra iman-is yekka-d nnig wiyaḍ, yeḥqer aṭas Yugurten imi mačči seg igelliden i d-tectel yemma-s. Di lweqt-nni γer Imaziγen, ma ar a d-yili unejmao, d win meqqren i yettγiman di tlemmast, wiyaḍ ttγimin deg imukan i d-yezgan di leḍruf. Ass-nni, Ḥemṣal yaana talemmast, i wakken ur yettγimi ara dinna Yugurten. Ur siǧǧ i ara amekkan-nni armi i t-iḥawet gma-s Aderbal. Deg unejmao-nni, mmeslayen ayen din γef temsal n tgelda. Yugurten yenna-yasen belli ilaq ad kksen akko leqwanen i yessoadda Massibsen di semmus (5) iseggasennni ineggura n tmeddurt-is, acku tefsed cwiṭ ṭṭbiεa-s si tewser. Yerra-yas-d Ḥemṣal yenna-yas: “Akken a Yugurten! Ihi ula d kečč ad tedduḍ acku kṛad (3) n iseggwasen kan aya seg wassmi i k-d-yaoqed babat-neγ tamurt.” Imeslayen-a ḍurren Yugurten mačči d kra. Yuγal seg wassen, Yugurten yettqellib kan amek ar a yeγḍel Ḥemṣal s lexdao. Maca taluft ad tetteddu ddac ddac, Yugurten iḥar; ur yezmir ara ad yeṛǧ u. Yuγal yeg men ad ikkes ugur-agi n Ḥemṣal s imenγi i wakken ad yaweḍ lebγi-s, s ani i s-yehwa i taluft taweḍ.

XII.

Deg unejmao-nni i d-bedreγ llina, igelliden-nni Yugurten, Ḥemṣal d Uderbal ur msefhamen ara amek ar a feṛqen agerruj d ttrika i sen-d-yeǧǧ a Masibsen, w’ ad rren tilisa i wakken ad d-iban i yal yiwen deg-sen anida ar a yeḥkem. Zwaren-d qbel si temsalt n wedrim. Ihi mi yefra unejmao, yal yiwen yerra γer temdint i dyezgan di tlisa-s, maca daγen yal yiwen yextaṛ amḍiq i yqerben amkan-nni anida akken yers ugerruj i d-yeǧǧ a Massibsen. Ḥemṣal yerra γer Tirmida, s axxam n yiwen n lliktur5 i yuγ lḥal ixeddem γer Yugurten yerna yaodel yid-s ayen din. Asmi i yesla Yugurten, yessumeṛ lliktur-

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nni i wakken ad yerzu s axxam-nni, ad yerr iman-is d timzṛiwt kan i yerra γer-s ad t-izeṛ, netta awelḥal i wakken ad d-yexdem tasarut tis snat n wexxam-nni. Akkenni, Yugurten ad yizmir ad iceggao loaskeṛ-is ad fetken γer Ḥemṣal m’ar a d-yeḥdeṛ lawan i deg yebγa a t-ineγ. Ihi lliktur-nni yuγ-as awal, yexdem akken i s-yenna Yugurten, yessekcem aosekṛiwen-is s tuffra s axxam-nni i deg yella Ḥemṣal, deg yiḍ. Akken wwḍen γer daxel, aosekṛiwen-nni ttin akko ddunit anida ar ay afen Ḥemṣal, nnγan akko assasen-nni i yas-yettqaraoan axxam, nudan γef Ḥemṣal ufan-t yeffer deg yiwen n umkan i fkan i yiwet n taklit yuγ lḥal txeddem dinna. Ḥemṣal oarqent-as akko n wakken ur issin ara mliḥ axxam-nni. Ṭṭfen-t loaskeṛ n Yugurten, gzemen-as aqerru, wwin-as-t, meḥsab xedmen akken kan i asen-d-inna ad xedmen.

XIII. Amecwaṛ kan, lexbaṛ yaonan timenγit n Ḥemṣal yuγ yakko Taferka, yesseγli-d lhiba γef Uderbal d wid yeddan d Massibsen zik-enni. Imaziγen uγalen ferqen γef sin leṣfuf. Amur ameqwran yeḍfeṛ Aderbal, maca loaskeṛ-nni meṛṛa i yfazen ddan d Yugurten. Yugurten netta ifreq akko ayen i ysoa d leslaḥ i wid i yeddan yides. Din din kan Yugurten d loaskeṛ-is aanan yakko timdinin n Numidya, kra s tin n lxir, kra s tin n yipil. Aderbal yuzen imazanen ad ssiwḍen lexbaṛ n wayen yedṛan i wegraw n Ṛṛum, ma d netta yeqqim ad ibges i loaskeṛ-is s amennuγ. Maca uroad kan yebda umennuγ, iban-as-d i Uderbal belli mačči d ayen ar a yqabel, yuγal yerwel s amḍiq6 n Iṛumyen di Tmazγa, s yenna iṛuḥ γer Ṛṛum. Yugurten, netta, yewweḍ γer lebγi-s, Numidya yakko iḥkem-itt. Maca ikcem-it weγbel n Ṛṛum d wegdud-is. Yezṛa ma ṭṭfen-as cceḥna ala s wedrim d tjuεal i ymeqranen-nsen ar a t-isellken. Yerna kan kra n wussan, yuzen ula d netta imazanen γer Ṛṛum, yektal-asen ddheb d wedrim s umud ulufa. Inna-yasen ad d-zwiren qbel deg imeqranen-nni i yessen si zik, d yemddukal-is, s-yenna ad mmuqlen amek ar a d-zḍen tamusni tamaynutt d imeqranen nniḍen, ad rnun ad zzerwoan adrim i kra n win ufan tella deg-s lfayda. Mi wwḍen, imazanen i yuzen Yugurten γer Ṛṛum bdan qbel seg wid i ysteṛḥben yis-sen di twacult n ugellid, rnan imeqranen-nni n wegraw n Ṛṛum i ysoan leqdeṛ γer lγaci. Imiren texsi cwiṭ taluft: Yugurten yeḥbes imenγiyines, di Ṛṛum llan wid i yqeblen leḥkem-is, wa yewwi-t usirem, wa yettwaγ s tjuεal, ddan-tt γef imeqranen n wergraw-nsen i wakken ur ttaṭṭafen ara cceḥna i Yugurten. Asmi i walan imeqranen n wegraw n Ṛṛum taluft ters, msefhamen gar-asen, fkan ttaεud i Yugurten d Uderbal ad d-asen γer Ṛṛum i wakken yal yiwen deg-sen ad d-yini ayen yellan. Γef akken i d-ḥekkun, ha-t-a wayen i sen-d-

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yerna ufan-koen s idis-nsen di tizi n ṭṭiq εad dγa a nekkoni, taddukli ger twacult-nneγ nettat d wegdud n Ṛṛum tlul-d o XIV. “Asmi qrib ad yemmet baba, iweṣṣa-yi akken ur di teswaot-nni n ttṛad k enwi d Qerṭaj, asmi teswa γerwen lemḥanna akteṛ n ttrika d wedrim. Ihi a Syadi imeqraḥettbeγ ara iman-iw nnig wayen swiγ γer-wen: d awkilnen, ur cukkeγ ara ass-a ad awen-yeffk wul-nwen ad teknwen di tgelda n Numidya, tagelda i γef tesoam izerfan d sem tamεiwent-nwen i tarwa i d-yufraren sseg-s, i mmi-s leḥkoem. Iweṣṣa-yi daγen ad xedmeγ tazmert-iw i wakn mmi-s n Massnsen. Ad as-negg ur uklaleγ ara tamεiwent ken ad iliγ s idis n wegdud n Ṛṛum, ama di teswaot n -nwen, γas ma s tin n leḥnana kan, γas ma d aγiḍi kan a ttṛad ama di teswaot n koen-iγaḍ lmektubtalwit, w’ad rreγ di agi amessas i deg dddehn-iw belli d γliγ ass-a, nekk i yuγ kenwi i d imeddukallḥal iḍelli kan d ageliw, d kenwi i d imawlid bu-yiγil, ama di lan-iw; ḥṣiγ ma yella ccetla, ama di leqdeṛ ddiγ deg webrid-a, ama di ttrika; imi i dula d kenwi a kenggoraγ ass-agi d afeγ s idis-iw, taameγbun, ula d ayen musni d tezmert n kesbeγ yettwakkes7 wemrig -nwen ad ttiyi, ihi ad d-iniγ ma afeγ d llsas i tgeldayella tḥarbem fell-i yinu. ass-a ad awen-d“D lewṣiya-agi n yegori d iseγ ama i baba i yi-gan akka koenwi, ama i wegdud armi ass-agi, nekk s -nwen, imi γef lḥeq ar yiman-iw, mmi-s n a tewwtem, i wakken mmi-s n Massnsen, ad tekksem lbaṭel, i ameddakoel aqdim n wakken ur tettoamiṚṛ um, yenfa-yi-d dem ara i tgelda ad Yugurten, aqettal ters γef llsas n lbaṭel d werǧ in nelli, si tgelda tmenpiwt. Lemmer ad o -w d ttrika-w, ur k en nuγal γer tin n tidett, -yugad ur ko enaql-i nnejlaγ-d si iqudar! o tmurt i tefkam koenwi “Ihi imi i d-g riγ di s Iṛumyen i lejdud-iw, yir teswaot am ta, i d-yekkes baba d jedlemmer ufiγ ass-a d di, asmi i ddan yidlxir i wen-xedmeγ wen, i Siffaks d Yefnekk, mačči d lxir i niqen. Ihi d ayen i γwen-yexdem baba d Yugurten mmi-s n mmi-s n Massnsen tefkam koenwi i yijeddi, ar a d-bedreγ i Idder seg 160 - 104 (Weqbel Oisa) ttwakksen ass-a a wakken ad n-ssutreγ Syadi imeqranen; s deg-wen ad iyi-toawnem lbaṭel-agi i ssekken fell-i, am akken i koenwi i wumi i di teswaot yecban tin n wass-a a syadi imeqranen. Lemkksen leqdeṛ. mer ufiγ tilli ad as-iniγ ass-agi agdud n Ṛṛum ad iyi“Goran-iyi-d yir wussan! A Massabsen a baba, atan tura oawen mebla lemziya-s imi d lxir-iw i yezwaren. Maca lxir i txedmeḍ: d win akken i twessaḍ ad yefreq s lqis ṣṣfawa weḥdes ur tettfukku ara, yerna nekk ma čči d lebγtagelda netta d warraw-ik ar a yessnegren ccetla-k! I iw neγ d ṛṛay-iw imi yaobed Yugurten lebγeḍ d lexsaṛa. melmi ar a nissin talwit? I melmi ar a teḥbes fell-aγ tazzla D aya i yi-d-yessawḍen ass-a γer laonaya-nwen a syadi n idammen, I melmi ar a yekkfu fell-aγ imenγi d neffu? Meqqar assm’ akken d Qerṭaj nebna fell-as, terra tmara. imeqranen, w’ ad ssutreγ deg-wen i wakken ad iyi-tilim di temεiwent-iw uqbel ad awen-iliγ di temεiwent-nwen. Imiren γas akken aodaw iqerb-aneγ, γas ma koenwi “Acḥal igelliden yellan zik d aodawen-nwen uγalen d tbaodem, nettkel γef yiγallen-nneγ d leslaḥ-nneγ. Asmi i imeddukal-nwen; acḥal igelliden i d-yezzin γer-wen yekkes wugur n Qerṭaj, ters-d fell-aγ talwit, ur nesoa aoyenna Uderbal ass-nni:

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daw seg waodaw-nwen akkin. Ihi tura bitt yerna-d Yugurten ur nebni fell-as, issers-d fell-aγ ddel, yenγa ula d gma-s yerna yewwi tagelda-s d wayla-s am akken d cciεa. Lemmer yufi yegla ula yiss-i; asmi ur iyi-waoa ara, yenfa-yi-d si tmurt-iw, seg wexxam-iw akka a tettwalim, yessnegḥ-iyi, yerra-yi d ameγbun, yessuγal-iyi tamurt-iw d lfinga i deg ur zmireγ ad idireγ, nekk γilleγ imi ddaw laanaya-nwen i lliγ, yiwen ur yezmir ad iyi-dyaweḍ! “A syadi imeqranen, sliγ tenna-m i baba γas ma ẓẓayet fell-aneγ tdukli yidwen, xersum akken yiwen ur yezmir ad aγ-d-yaweḍ. Tawacult-nneγ d lebda tezga s idis-nwen di yal lgirra i tesoaddam ala ma yella d tazmert i s-ttyekksen. “Baba yeǧǧ a-d sin warraw-is, nekk d gma, yerna yejmao Yugurten, iḥesb-it am mmi-s; iγil meskin ad yecfu γef lxir i s-yexdem, ad aγ-d-yuγal d lxir i nekkoni. Hat-a twalam d acu i yedṛan, yiwen yenγa-t d timenγiwt, nekk d Ṛebbi kan i yi-imnoan. I tura d acu ar a xedmeγ? Anida ar a dduγ? Wid γef i zemreγ ad ttekleγ ṛuḥen: baba yemmut lmut n Ṛebbi, gma-nni i nγil yeddura ugar n medden nniḍen yenγa-t win akken akkoed i yecrek azaṛ. Imeddukal-iw d wid i yeddan yid-i, d wid i yi-ttilin, tedṛa yid-sen twaγit akken ma llan: wid yeṭṭef Yugurten wa yenγa-t, wa yefka-t d imensi I lewḥuc. Wid yeǧǧ a i dyemnoan ideggeṛ-iten γer tesrafin, la ttεummun deg imeṭṭawen d leḥzen, goran-d di yir tudert i tif ula d lmut. “Γas ula ma ur iyi-ittwakkes ara yakko wayen soiγ, γas ula ma imeddukal-iw merra i soiγ zik-enni ur iyi-duγalen ara d aodawen am wass-a, d koenwi kan, a syadi imeqoranen, i wumi i zemreγ ad d-ssiwleγ i wakken ad iyi-tfukkem ma yella kra i yedṛan yid-i; tḥettem fellawen tezmert-nwen ur tettaǧǧ am ara lḥeq ad yettwarkeḍ, i wakken ma yella win yessekken lbaṭel ad t-ixelleṣ. D acu ar ad d-iniγ dγa di teswaot yecban tin n wass-a: aql-i nnfiγ-d si tmurt-iw, seg wexxam-iw, goraγ-d weḥd-i, yekkes fell-i yiseγ: anida ar a dduγ? anwa i wumi ar a ccetkiγ? Ad ssiwleγ i ygellidan d yegduden-nni iyi-dyuqlen d aodawen di ddra-nwen? Yella s ani i zemreγ ad ṛuḥeγ mebla ma mmugreγ lǧ eṛṛa. Zemreγ aani tura ad γiḍ eγ wid-nni meṛṛa akko ed tennuγem zik? “Iweṣṣa-yaγ Massnsen, a syadi imeqranen, i wakken ur neddukul, ur nettemsenfal, ur d-nesnulfuy aγan8, ur nessutur tamεiwent si nnig wegdud n Ṛṛum akkin; ma yehwa-yas ay asif yewwin amenkud9-nwen yawi-yaγ ula d nekkoni. S tissas-nwen d lebγi n Ṛebbi yennerna wazalnwen, w’aqel-akoen-id d inesbaγuren10 imeqranen; tetwaobojem di kullec, tekkam-d nnig akko wiyaḍ, ur iwoaṛ ara fell-awen ad tessiwḍem bab n lbaṭel ad ixelleṣ ayen yexdem.”

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1

Sipyu (Scipion) d yiwen n ujininar n Ṛṛum. Micipsa 3 Laaskeṛ 4 Ssina n Ṛṛum 5 Llusi di ddewla n Ṛṛum. 6 Amdiq n Ṛṛum di Tferka. 7 Laaskeṛ 8 Treaty 9 Empire 10 Senator aazaa 2

(continued from page 22) can claim it. We see clearly the hidden idea behind these initiatives, which is simply the exclusion of the Amazigh activists with a multi-decade experience. * Source: El Watan of June 20, 2007 ** The comment of A. Bounfour is extracted from his talk during the conference “Flashback on the Berber Cultural Movement and the Berber Spring of 1980". Source:www.tamazgha.fr.

Here is a selection of websites where you can find information on the Amazigh Culture: ACAA website/ www.tamazgha.org Imyura/ www.imyura.com Ayamun/ www.ayamun.ifrance.com Monde Berber/ www.mondeberber.com Racines-Izuran, a bilingual biweekly www.racines-izuran.com Assoc. Tamazgha website/ www.tamazgha.fr

magazine/

Kabyle.com/ www.kabyle.com Kabyles.com/ www.kabyles.com Berberes/ www.berberes.com Chleuhs/ www.chleuhs.com Imazighen of Libya/ www.libyamazigh.org Culture and Touareg societies/ http://tamedourt.nomades.info You can find more site addresses at: http:// www.mylinea.com/mgouna/mouvement_amazigh

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Volume 16

I ssue 1

Tadyant n Siyd At Ccix (Tullist 1) sγur ur R em an an Las  eb Remd em La heb

Tagi d tullist i d-yelqed Remdan Lesheb ger tullisin yettuqten deg tudrin n yeqbayliyen. Deg umegrad i dyezwaren wagi i wumi ysemma : « Tamedyazt n tlawin di trad-nni n tmunent », yesbaned amihi yellan mačči kan γef tmedyazt maca γef yedles-neγ s umata. Ahat γer kra gar-aneγ, tullist agi ur tla ara azal meqren, maca llant attas n tullissin niden i yzemren ad skeflent kra n temsal yeffren deg umezruy-neγ, neγ ansayen i negren, neγ izumal-neγ D acu kan, am tmedyazt, tullisin ula d nutenti d ayla n kra n tsuta. Ma ĝĝant-aγ, ad glunt yis-sent. Daymi tira γur-s azal meqren nezzah ; kra n wayen i d-leqden imusnawen d atas. Ma zikkeni, ayen yenna yimi, tettef-it tmezzuγt, ass-agi imdanen dhan d wallalen atraren yecban amett af., tilizri…. Timucuha, tullissin, ansayen, d cfawat n wagad wesren, ma d nekni s wid iten i d-idefren ur negzi ara azal nsen. Tamusni i d-nemger deg uγerbaz, texneq ayen i yaγ-dğğan imezwura almi nuγal nettsethi s wayla-neγ . Ihi, a win yufan ad ugten imagraden yecban wagi.

Zik, At Tgemmunt Ukerruc γur-sen yiwen n ccix si taddart n At Buyehya, isem-is si sayd at ccix. Iγra γer ccix Muhend u Lmexttar deg wat Yenni u netta d si Muhend u Mhend myussanen d imeddukal. Si Muh Sayd-agi iqqar zik, akka i yihwa, imi d bab n ddraε, yettεeddi wawal-is. Yettwaqader nezzeh, d bab n lefsih u yessefruy. Ircel seg wat Hlal, yuγ yelli-s n lhağ Ali u Sayd. Ssawalen-as Fetta n lhağ Ali u Sayd, agur deg yigenni nettat di tmurt. Qqaren-d, sut At Hlal mi ara hejbent ur seεεunt ara dderya, d ddeεwa n jedd-nnsent. Seg tuγ ccix tehjeb, ur tesεi ara dderya. Myefken lεahed netta yid-s, netta yenna, ma temmuted tamezwarut, ur rniγ fell-am tamettut; nettat tenna-yas, ur rniγ fell-ak argaz. Assen, di taddart –nni, yiwen uqcic kksen-as tamett utis, wwin-tt imawlen-is:baba-s n teqcict d baba-s n weqcic nuγen amennuγ ameqran. Nutni myeh malen seg wul maca mxalafen imawlen-nnsen. Wigi ceyyεen tajmaot ad tt-id-erren, wid-nni ugin. Wigi suturen tiririt, widak berru, nutni mtawan, bγan ad ten-bdun. Lhan imrabden ad tt-id-erren, imawlen ugin. Imiren si Sayd at Ccix hemlent nezzeh din, ttqadarent at as. Ittef deg-s weqcic, inna-yas ad iyi-tt-id-terred. Iwwed ccix ihawet, ihawet, imawlen ugin. Iguni-t uqcicnni alammi d-yeffeγ, yenna-yas:Amek akka a ccix? -Yenna-yas ccix: Beddel abrid a mmi, ugin imawlen. Mi t-iwala ccix inuγna, yentaq γer-s, yennayas: themled taqcict-a! -Wwah a ccix!ma hemleγ-tt! D tudert-iw !.

- Yenna-yas ccix: Ruh ! ma ur n-tbedd ara wehd-s, nekk maççi d si Muh Sayd. Iwwed ccix s axxam, iddem-d azmam, yura-yas tah erzett, ifka-yas-tt, inna-yas εalqas-tt deg ubrid n tala u γur-k wi k-id-i ttwalin. Aqcic ixdem akken i s-d-yenna ccix. Mi d-tuγal teqcict si tala terra srid γer wergaz-is. Iffeγ lexbar di taddart, ğğan-ten weh d-sen. Lhan acu lhan, di lexrif, ssawlen-as i ccix ad d-yas, ad yaru i tmudint. Yaf tamettut iwumi ara yaru,isem-is Mehjuba. Iddem-d azmam, netta yettaru aqelmun alammi d allen. Yiwen wergaz iqqim-d γer tama-s, sin ddurin-d di tkenna, wayed yedduri-d addaynin. Win diqqimen γef tama-s yeεred ad t-ixnaq s weεmam. Yerra -yas ixebbic ccix deg wudem-is. Rsen-d wid nni n tkenna, yerna-d win n waddaynin, ddmen-d taqabact, qeddren-t. Armi d id, suffγen-t-id di tcekkart, sersen-t di tezrutt n Amar u Buyeh ya di ttnasfa n taddart. Deg id-nni, iffeγd yiwen, ad isefqed i ttarha-s, yufa-d tacekkart deg ubrid, illi-tt, yufa d ccix i yemmuten. Yessaki-d lhag Muhend u Sliman, imiren d netta i d lamin n taddart; isekker-d taddart, εazren fell-as. Azekka-nni, nudan, ufan wid i t-inγan . Si Muhend u Mhend tuγ-it deg usammer n tmurt, iqqim di lqahwa. Ufan-t-id ixeddamen ihzen, iggugem. Nnanas :d acu k-yuγen? D acu i k-ixusen? Yella wi k-id elmen?

Volume 16

I ssue 1


Si Muh yerra-d nnehta, yenna: Yewwed-iyi-d lexber d uswid Ul-iw yettnehdil-d Lfahem irekb-it lγac Tγad-iyi tarrawt n sid Si Muh Sayd Tamtilt-is berra ulac Iγder-it lqum lyazid Wwten-t s lhid Qedren-t s uqabac I εawed, inna: Γedren cbab Ur t-iklal Tamtilt-ik ur d-tettili

Ufan-ten uroad ukin, teγli yemma-tsen, tefsex. Yers-d si Crif, ibardiyen-is rγan ak, thelj-it ak tmes. Mi d-tefd en trumit-nni, tenna-yas: D acu i tebγid? Yenna-yas i si Muh Ccrif : d acu i bγiγ! Akken tebγid arraw-im i ten- bγiγ!. Tenna-yas trumit: “D tufγa i tebγid ad tefγed! Ma ur teffiγed ara! Ma ur uγaleγ ara deg umkan-ik! Nekk maççi d leflentega! Truh, tura fell-as, tenna-yas argazagi yenγa yiwen, icfaε sin. Dγa suffγen-t-id. Tamettut-nni n si Sayd at Ccix truh-d s axxam n babas. La d-kkaten medden γer-s akken ad tezwej, nettat tugi. Tmekta-d lεahed i tefka i wergaz-is. Seg la dkkaten ixxamen ilhan, inna-yas baba-s, ad tzewĝed neγ ad kem-selmeγ. Ihers-itt, iwwet γer-s lha= Belqasem, yuγ-itt: A sidi lha= Aεli Nγil-ik d argaz lεali Tefkid yelli-k i wakli

Asmi ixeddem deg yir lamal Ilehhu s wuzzal Anda i s-ihwa i yettili Ma d tura itbaε lehlal Ittwaxda deg uzal Imzel timezla uhuli Wwin-t-id s akal aberkan, imd el dinna. Ibedd gma-s, si Muh Crif at ccix γer uqerru-s, inna-yas: «Fkiγ lεahed, ffkiγ-t i Rebbi, ur settl eγ tamart, wala acebbub, ur ttekcimeγ s axxam alamma rriγ-d ttar-ik neγ rniγ-n γurk..» Lfuci γef tayett-is, iffeγ d lmenfi. Iruh uqcic-nni iwumi tettwakkes tmettut γer-s, yeggul, yenna-yas, ma ==iγ-k, ara k- εiwneγ. Assen, uγalen-d sin seg wid yenγan si Tizi-wezzu, si ccraε. Rekben-d γef iserdyan deg wasif n lqennar ger teγzut d wat Mesbah, wa yewwet wa, wa yewwet wayed . Γlin-d di sin. Aqci-nni, n Tgemmunt ukerruc yerwel d asawen, yemnaε. Ma d si Ccrif, yerra d akoessar, γer tγezza; ikka-d fell-as laoyad, tfen-t-id wid ikerzen din, wwin-t γer lqayed. Azekka-nni, wwin-t ixeyyalen yidsen, hekmen-as sebεa iseggasen. Ssyin wwin-t γer Kayan. Yewwed γer Kayan, isεedda xemsa iseggasen, tamurt-is ak tekfa s lbiε. Yiwen wass tekker tmes deg uxxam n tmettut unemhal n lhebs, ala tettuγu, huzen-as sin warraw -is, aqcic d teqcict tts en deg uxxam-nni i deg tekker tmes, wi ara dyekksen arraw-is. Yuzzel si Muh Crif, netta εaryan, yewwed, yufa-ten ttsen deg umetrah. Yenned-iten-id di tfarsadit, iccud-iten-id s umrar, isers-iten-id.

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Asmi yesla si Muhend u Mh end, yewwi asefru, yennayas: Awwah a lmutt d-yettassen Γer lbaz mezziyen Wagi d lwaed n rebbi Zwa=-ik ara t-id-xettben Iεdawen-ik ferh en Kul wa ansi d-yed dili A sidi Aεmar u Brahem Aql-aγ netwehhem Yeεreq ubrid ad nawi . Teqqim γer lha= Belqasem d acu teqqim, ssyin truh-d, yuγ-itt Muhend at Allal, yiwen umarkanti n at Meh mud. Teqqim d acu teqqim, diγen truh-d. Ar taggara yuγ-itt si Hmed u Lεarbi si taddart n At Buyeh ya. Netta yemmut d amezwaru, nettat temmut d tamγart di lgirra nni n 54. aaAzaa 1

Tadyant n Si Sayd At Ccix akken i γ- tt-id –yewwi Si Wyidir si Taddart Ufella..

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Volume 16

Tamedyazt  Sγur ur lalam lmesr lmesri Brahim Tazaγart) (Tasuqilt sγur s

Amenzu

uzegzaw d uquran n lfe\rh;-iw#

Tilawin am nekkini

Wis krad

Ur d-salayent ara ameslay$ Awal yettpimi yassent di tgerjjumt Am tsennant I yesseblaoent# Tilawin am nekkini snent kan ad runt$ ime..awen ixenqen$ akka kan$ tegrurucen-d$% tmirin-d$ am uzar igezmen# Tilawin am nekkini$ Sebrent i yiceqqiren$ ur ttarant ara tiyita$ Tergigint seg zoaf i yeskufurent# Am yizem di lqefvṣ tilawin am nekkini$ ttargunt#.# .. tilelli#.# .. Wis sin Iman-is$ War ma necdep-tt-id$ trezzu-d fell-i$ Tettferfir nnig-i$ sqerqirep-tt dpa tettupal$ am yizi aberkan am yizi ucmit aberkan$ tettafeg sya$ tesneznuz dihin$ tettrusu di tleqqa;t n wul-iw# Tuččha$ DD tafunast tawessart yettaran ife/ẓ

Ssakdep pur-s Seg yineziz n tafat I d-yenesren Seg ..aq n lempi,at-iw# Tafekka taoeryant Izlen per yidis-iw Telluz am nekkini# Wehap i wufus-iw Ad imize, yegguma# Snedhep-t$ yedda yi di nneqma$ Smarip-t$ iqerreb s tergagayt n lqer;ḥ n usami n tfekka nni,en# Wis uqus Acku ur d-qimen ara gar-anep Lmerqa ta;ḥmayant neskaf D umeslay imuzeplen nteffe/#ẓ Acku ur d-qimen gar-anep anagar ame.re;ḥ Deg ur d-imeqqi ;ala wadal$ DD yi, ur iseff,en Oeyyu n wass# Acku ur d-qimen gar-anep anagar dderya$ umi nettheggi deg u,ebsi n tudert$ tirga nnep yedgedgen# Acku nupal$ ugar n yiberaniyen$ le;hdaqa ddaw n yicenga ao=ab#

I ssue 1

Volume 16

I ssue 1


Acku ur d qimen ara gar-anep Ta,sa yetteneqniqen$ DD weslaf ineqqan DD lbenna N tament d ilili$ Pef yicenfiren nnep. Acku$ ur d yeqqim kra$ gar-anep... Wis semmus Gar tallit d taye, Ileddi ..iqan$ Gar tallit d taye, Yettbelliε-iten$ Tili-s tetteldi-it-id$ DDeffir n yisabaren# (curtains$) Yettruh;u$ yettupal$ Yettmi/ẓid$ yettwexxir# Yessalay tapect n radyu Akken ad yeččar \rru;h-is s lmusiqa$ (a/ẓawan) Akken ad pilen l=iran$ Yettidir menwala# Nettwali-t$ Yettoeddi s tempawla$ Aqerruy di lqaoa$ Aprum ddaw n tepru.-is# Ikeččem Sanida Ur t-yettraju yiwen. Wis sdis S leodez i yupal$ Ur yesčernen ara am leowayed-is$ Iger tasarutt deg usekrun Yekcem# Usu yeqqim akken yella$ Afen=al n latay Pef .abla$ DD ifetfuten n weprum aquran$ Ulac zhir$ ulac l;hes$ Anagar lheffa n tikli-s$ DD nnefs-is# Ulac rrih;a

Anagar rri;ha n tfekka-s$ Yegnen deg wusu# Yekkes akebbu,-is Ibda ifessi tiqefilin n tqemjett-is tamellalt# Ikeyyef yupal yessaked sya u sya## Aql-iyi :Heznep fell-ak$ Ay argaz$ Ğ=ip. Wis ssa Tameddit-a Ad yeffep wergaz$ Akken ad inadi Pef syada (lefrisa) Ar a yesse\rwun lba,na n lebpi-s# Tameddit-a Ad teffep tme..ut Akken ad d-nadi Pef wergaz ar a tt-yerren DD tagelli,t n wusu-s# Tameddit-a Ad yeddukel useyyad d syada$ Ad rtin$ (they will mix) Nep ahat## Ahat Ad mbeddalen timliltin# (roles) Wis tam YYesoa snat n tlawin$ YYiwet teggan deg wusu-s$ Taye, teggan deg wusu n tirga-s# YYesoa snat n tlawin i t-i;;h;emmlen$ YYiwet tettimpur per tama-s$ Taye, tettak-as temẓ/i-s$ Txetti# YYesoa snat n tlawin$ YYiwet deg wul n wexxam-is Taye, deg wexxam n wul-is#

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Volume 16

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Web News Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Will Tamazipt be able to make it into WIKIPEDIA?

The disastrous economic and political situation in Kabylia is forcing many young people to flee their motherland by any means necessary. The latter was produced by the popular and humoristic singer Younes Boudaoud. Best wishes to our new producers.

Kabyl Symbols Ruined

Wikipedia is a free collaborative encyclopedia on the internet (www.wikipedia.org). The principle of this collaboration is that anyone can create a page in his (or her) own language on a chosen topic. Full versions already exist in the main languages listed below. How about our dearest Tamazight ? Actually…It made it ! Ta qba ylit is on Wikip edia . Here is the address: http://www.kab.wikipedia.org

Statues of various Kabyl notorieties have been damaged in the past months by unknown individuals or groups. The most recent is that of Belaid Ait Medri in the village of Ait Hichem near Michelet in Tizi Ouzou. Belaid Ait Medri was an Amazigh activist in the forties and belonged to the group of young Kabyl militants responsible for the so called “Berberist Crisis”, demanding the recognition of the Amazigh presence in Algeria. He later joined the forces of the FFS in the Kabyl rebellion against the Algerian Government, during which he was killed.

Statues of Lounes Matoub and Mouloud Mammeri have also been damaged in various locations. As of now, nobody knows who the perpetrators are and what motivates them to commit these barbaric acts.

Ihi anṣuf an uf yisyis-wen γer Wikipedia s teqbaylit New Publication E ng lis h/T ang lizit 1 848 000+ articles Ger man/T almanit 601 000+ articles French/Tafransist 515 000+ articles Polish/Tapolonit 394 000+ articles

C hi nes e/ T aci nw at t 383 000+ articles Italian/Tatelyant 313 000+ articles Dutch/Tahollandit 311 000+ articles S pani s h/ T as pe ny ult 245 000+ articles

With 277 articles (at the time when is article is prepared), the Kabyl version is just a baby compared to the English version with more than 1 848 000 articles (see the table above). “This is a modern tiwizi” as Vermondo Brugnatelli, an Italian Berber specialist put it. Tiwizi, we know what it is! So, we have no doubt that Tamazight, through one of her daughters, Taqbaylit, will thrive. Hurry to your keyboards!

A book “North African Mosaic: A Cultural Reappraisal of Ethnic and Religious Minorities”, edited by Dr. Nabil Boudraa and Joseph Krause has been published by Cambridge Scholars Press i n J u l y 2 0 0 7 . This book, a compilation of research and works by several scholars, offers a varied points of views on the different aspects of North Africa, a region that has started to attract the attention of the inter national community in the past couple of decades. Nabil Boudraa, a member of ACAA, is an assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Oregon State University, Oregon (U.S.A.). Joseph Krause is a Professor at Oregon State University, Oregon (U.S.A.).

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Volume 16

I ssue 1

Taddart deg Tmurt n Leqbayel, deg temnat n At Wasif

(continued from page 4) Imexda i d-yegran la teddun ttuγalen deg zenqan n taddart. Ass-iw annegaru, qqimeγ kan deg uxxam. Ata s i d-yusan ad iyi-zren. Yeγli-d ussemid d aqeshan. Kebleγ deg ber nus, la ttganiγ. Azekka-nni, nekk, baba, d umenhar, nettef abrid γer tmanaγt. Ğğiγ kra n tlawin s imettawen, nekk ugiγ asen-d-bruγ. Sersen-iyi deg nafag, uγalen. Urğiγ, rniγ, tagara ziγen timsefrigtin h ebsent, ulac anekcum γer Fransa; adfel yerra ahuffu γer-s d awezγi. Nnan-iyi issefk ad arğuγ alamma d azekka-nni. Qqimeγ theyreγ, ur zriγ d acu ara gaγ. Nudaγ γef tiliγri, maca idrimen n tmurt ulac γur-i, γilleγ ur asen-sriγ ara imi ara ad fγeɣ syinna. Tagara yiwen n ilemz i ineddeh-d γur-i, ziγen iferz-iyi-d d aqbayli. Mi isulseγ aγbel-iw yefka-yi-d tiliγri-s. Sewleγ, ufiγ baba d umenhar-nni wden almi Mirabu, zzin-d. Rniγ id deg taddart, azekka-nni zegreγ-d agrakal. Ass-nni ggumaγ at-ttuγ. Ul-iw yeččur d tumert. Ftiγ imi lliγ d aqbayli, ftiγ s wegdud-iw, s yedles-iw, s tutlayt-iw, s kra n wayen yellan d aqbayli. Seg ass-nni, gziγ agdud-iw meqqar, d win yiffen igduden. Am akken

is-yenna dda Lmulud n At Caεban ( Mouloud Feraoun ) : “Zemreγ ad mteγ azekka, bhara zriγ gmiγ-d deg γref ameqqran, ara yezgun d ameqqran.” Atas i yettwalin kan ayen n dir deg tmetti-neγ. Ass-nni yelli-d allen-iw, tura zriγ d wid kan ur nla tissas i yezzuγren tidmi am tagi deg allaγ-nsen. Widak d wid i yeqnen allen-nsen, ugin ad walin ayen yelhan deg-neγ, γillen ufraren gara-neγ, d wid yessawalen i Rebbi dadda am akken nnan imezwura. Kfiγ amaris-iw s wass i d yeččur-n ul-iw, ass i yesnejlan tidmi n uwezγi deg allaγ-iw. Abrid-neγ yenğer, cemma, cemma, xas γezzif, aγ-yessawwed γer yiswi-neγ, ɣer tirga -neγ, γer tafat, γer tlilli…. Tajmilt i kra n win yefkan azal i yedles-neγ, i kra yellan d ameγnas γef izerfan-neγ, tajmilt i wid, am ilemzi-nni deg nafag, yesnarnayen tayri d temselta gara-neγ. Afus deg fus, tikli γer deffir ulac! Ass n 5 deg magu 2005