Imazighen from Morocco – Masirische Kultur: “Look at your own story”

Samira Belyouaou, what is your podcast series about?

I was born in Heidelberg – my family, who today lives mostly in Germany and Belgium, originally comes from Morocco. However, our identity is not Arabic, but we are imazighen, i.e. the population that has lived in North Africa for thousands of years. The podcast is a lot about self-empowerment and about looking at your own story.

What is behind the name of the podcast, “Amazigh_xberberin”?

For a long time we were referred to as “Berber” – the “X” in front of “Berber” is supposed to express an “ex” because I have said goodbye to this term because it is a derogatory external designation. The name comes from “Barbar”, that is, people who have equated-which was equated with a “non-civilized”. Gradually, however, the concept of imazighen is now prevailing, which means “free people”. The singular is Amazigh – the “GH” is pronounced like an “R”. In German one can also speak of Masiren. I gradually turned this Masiric identity through the podcast.

So did you have to actively address this identity?

Yes. During my master’s thesis in translation, I dealt with Spanish influences on medical specialists in Tarifit – this is my Masiric mother tongue. I then dealt with the Masirian history and noticed how much my self -awareness was influenced by foreign perception.

What does that mean specifically?

My Masiric identity did not really interest me in the past, I more likely to record what was attributed to us: that we were uneducated and uncivilized people. I also had to explain to who we are at all for a long time. So I just said: we are Arab. Then the discussion ended quickly. If I was not allowed to belong to Europe in the perception of many people, then at least I could belong there.

Don’t you feel associated here?

In Germany I am mostly the Muslim first – or that with a migration background. There is a lot of discrimination against it, especially since racism is getting bigger in this country. That busy me a lot. At the same time, I can still remember that it was not necessarily good to say in the North African community: I am a Moroccan, but my first language is not Arabic.

To what extent are the imazighen in North Africa discriminated against?

The situation is complicated. On the one hand, there is definitely discrimination. Our Masiric languages ​​were not recognized in Morocco for a long time. The result is that today they are spoken by much fewer people in the population – before Morocco’s independence, there were significantly more speaking. On the other hand, I also find it difficult to say in North Africa, all are Arabs or everyone is imazighen. Of course there are people who read each other either way, but people have just mixed over the centuries. And partly the separation was reinforced from the outside: during the French crew of Algeria, the Kabylen, a Masiric people, were “Nordic” and thus worth more than the Arabs. This logic followed the principle of “parts and prevailing”, with which the colonialists wanted to secure their power. Colonialism also separates the masires or formerly colonialized by arbitrary national borders to this day.

North Africa has experienced a long history of colonization since ancient times. What did that do with the people of the Imazighen?

The imazighen knew how to defend themselves, but of course it does something with people when there are always new colonial powers about them. Masiric culture was massively pushed back. The imazighen, who are now still speaking their languages, mostly live in more remote places, for example in the mountains or in the desert. I would like more research to see which transgenerational trauma triggered all of this.

Has the situation of the Imazighen improved in North Africa today?

Because I don’t live there, I can’t say it exactly. But at least the three Masiric languages ​​in Morocco have been officially recognized since 2011. And since 2010 there has been a public TV and radio station in Masirische. In addition, an attempt is made to make public signage multilingual and to integrate the Masiric languages ​​in local schools. All of this is of course progress. But the trip has to go much further.

What is the situation of the masirs in Europe?

The movement for Masiric language and culture has been in Europe at least since Morocco’s independence in 1956. When the so -called guest workers came to Germany, they founded clubs to network. But this goal is easier to achieve today thanks to social media. Now I can network with activists from Spain, I have access to content from researchers around the world. And precisely because there is increasingly Masiric art, it has somehow become cool to have a Masiric identity. The rapper Namika is such a prominent figure that Masirische elements incorporates into her texts-as well as the comedian Benaissa Lamroubal with his ethno comedy. At the end of 2023 there was even a program with the mouse about the Imazighen. But I don’t have this visibility in Heidelberg, for example.

Again and again it is reported on the strong position of women in Masiric societies And about the female succession.

If you approach the phenomenon on the linguistic level, you discover that “woman” is called “Tamghart” in almost all Masiric languages ​​- the “big” is the same word that is also in the “boss” or in “head”. I have another interesting information from a research institute in Granada. At the time of al-Andalus-between 711 and 1492-it was the case that the children were automatically Masiric when the mother was. And to this day, the women have a strong position at the Tuareg, there is a matrilinear succession and it is still partly married to the woman’s family. But of course there have been many foreign influences on Masiric culture over the centuries – and most of these other cultures were patriarchal.

Her podcast is also about collective responsibility in Masiric societies. What does that mean?

In the villages in southern Morocco, people are partly encapsulated by state structures that you are dependent on each other. If someone has problems, it is usually caught by everyone. This is called Twisa: When the harvest is due, everyone helps who does not belong to the field. Another story revolves around the self -organized fire brigade: in hot summer, people leave their village and move to a kind of summer village in the mountains where it is colder. One person then guards the actual village, and if it burns there, they run into the summer village and raises the alarm: it is not said which house burns. All families then have to send someone to delete – it could be their house.