I was surprised and shocked to read Aicha Lemsine’s article ``Berberism: An Historical Travesty in Algeria’s Time of Travail." In fact, this title applies to her article in the sense that she has made a travesty of the history of Imazighen (Berbers), with her pro-Arabist and Islamist ideology.

Knowingly, Lemsine kept referring to the natives of North Africa as Berbers, despite its pejorative connotation. The correct name to use should have been Imazighen, plural of Amazigh, meaning free Men. But it was not mentioned even once in this article, an article that claims to cover a long part of Amazigh history, beginning with Massinissa’s (an Amazigh ``agellid’’ or king) reign in 300 B.C.

I would like to point out some chronological errors. Massinissa died in 148 B.C., i.e. second century B.C. So, he could not have allied himself with Rome in the first century B.C. as Lemsine stated. Also, Saint Augustine who was born in 354 could not have predicted a ``time of catastrophe’’ that started in 340.

Lemsine wrote: ``under the French, the use of the Arabic language became the symbol of backwardness while the status of the non-Arab Berbers was elevated.’’ If this were true, how would Lemsine explain then the following:

Under the French colonization (1832-1962), more precisely on February 1st, 1833, Arabo-French schools opened in Algiers, Annaba, and Mostaganem. On September 1st, 1834, an Arabo-French college was decreed by the French authorities [1]. But no Amazigh school has ever been created under the French occupation. Furthermore, in 1947, Friday was decreed as an ``Arab day’’ at the Algiers Opera.

Kabylia, an Amazigh region, paid a high price in human casualties for Algeria’s independence. Villages were destroyed, forests were burned down, napalm was used, and people were exiled and deported to New Caledonia and Madagascar.

Furthermore, Lemsine failed to mention the ``politique du royaume Arabe’’ of Napoleon III (1860-1870) [2]who wanted to become the Emperor of a grand Arab empire that would include the Arab nations and kingdoms under French domination. The 1865 arabization of Amazigh family names in Kabylia was part of this Napoleon ``dream.’’

Regarding Ben Badis’s statement ``Algeria is our nation, Arabic is our language, Islam is our religion,’’ Lemsine claims that it was a rallying cry for both Arabs and Imazighen during the war for independence (1954-1962). But this is only what Algerian schools have been teaching after independence. It is a complete distortion of history, and Lemsine is well aware of that. Otherwise, how would she explain the total lack of reference to language and religion in the Soummam platform and all patriotic songs, including the national anthem written during the war(1). The truth is that the only rallying cry was the ``independence of Algeria.’’ Personally, I do not identify with Ben Badis’s statement nor do I identify with the Algerian constitution. I am Amazigh and my mother tongue is Tamazight, the Amazigh language. For this simple reason, I cannot be an Arab and Arabic cannot be my language.

In paragraph 12, Lemsine states that ``it was not a war between Arabs and Berbers’’ during the conquest of North Africa by the Arabs. In an other, she talks about battles between Arabs and Imazighen, under the leadership of Koseyla and Dehya (Kahena). Again, this is a distortion of history and a contradiction with what Ibn Khaldun, a great North African historian, wrote about that period [3]. For example, he mentioned 12 different Arab military conquests. He also wrote that the Arabs pursued the Imazighen until their camels could not climb mountains. In fact, history shows that the Arabs came with swords, not the Quran, in their hands!

Let me summarize the main points of her article: ``The Arab Muslim conquerors sweep across North Africa in the seventh century was a strategic operation by the young Muslim empire to dislodge the remnants of Byzantine military power from the Mediterranean shores,’’ ``Berbers adopted the use of Arabic within a century,’’ ``osmosis between Arabs and Berbers, creating a new and specifically North African blend of cultures,’’ ``the Arabophone Berbers of North Africa,’’ ``No disruption of identity: Arabo-Muslim Algerian identity,’’ ``I am a free Arabic Shawi Berber,’’ ``It is an insult to deny our Arab heritage… ’’ These lines are clearly a perpetuation of the constant denial of the Amazigh dimension in North Africa! Even now, on the verge of the 21st century, the Amazigh people are still denied the right to their culture and language (refer to the Algerian constitution).

Mentioning that ``Algeria is the first country in independent North Africa to broadcast radio and television programs in Berber’’ cannot justify the present cultural oppression of the Amazigh people. In fact, the Algerian governments cannot take any credit for that since the Amazigh radio existed before Algeria’s independence. After independence, the broadcasting power was decreased so much that even from Kabylia, 100 km East of Algiers, the reception was not possible. Furthermore, the radio station was turned into a propaganda tool by the government and any reference to the Amazigh culture and history was banned. In the case of TV broadcasting, except for scanted variety musical shows (in Kabyle only), no other program in Tamazight has ever been allowed. It wasn’t until December 1991, during an electoral context, that a news flash (of 10min without images) in Tamazight was allowed to be aired once a day.

The denying of Tamazight in Algeria is, in fact, not new. It started in the early 1920’s with the appearance of the first pro-independence movements. Contrary to Lemsine’s claim, the denying of Tamazight is not a ``lack of imagination’’ on the part of the government, but a continuous attempt to eradicate Tamazight. In the sequel I list three events that substantially negate Lemsine’s claim. In 1963, the former president Ben Bella said during a speech in Tunisia: ``We are Arabs, we are Arabs, we are Arabs.’’ In April 1980, a conference on Amazigh (Kabyle) poetry by Mouloud Mammeri, a great Amazigh writer, poet, and anthropologist, was forbidden by the authorities. This provoked many demonstrations by the population which was severely reprimanded by the security forces [4]. These kinds of repressive acts were not reported by Lemsine. As she purposely failed to report an important on-going Amazigh event: the boycott of schools and universities since October, 1995 by thousands of Kabyle pupils and students who are demanding the official recognition of their language and its teaching in schools. The government’s refusal to grant this legitimate basic human right is definitely not a matter of a lack of imagination on its part, as Lemsine pretends in her article. No justification, other than the harboring of an Arabo-Islamic hegemony, detrimental to the Amazigh heritage, could be more valid!

Despite the inexistence of a separatist movement in Algeria, Lemsine finished her article by mentioning ``Berber separatist elements.’’ In addition, she did not come up with any definition of Berberists. Without any substantial evidence of anti-Arab fanaticism, her qualification of the Amazigh movement is a false accusation. Indeed, these types of accusations have been used over and over by the government and its media to intimidate and discredit any Amazigh who rejects and challenges the government’s ideology and system.

In Algeria, the linguistic problem is between the people (mainly Amazighophone) who want Tamazight to become a national language and those — these could be Arab or Amazigh— who are against it. It is worthwhile to remind Lemsine that the ``harkis’’ (traitors during the war of independence) were also Algerians, and this did not stop them from acting against Algerian interests.

To conclude, all the democrats and modernists should make the recognition of Tamazight and its inclusion in school curricula and public life part of their agenda along with the promotion of freedom, love, tolerance, and respect among Algerians. It saddens me to see a writer and reporter such as Lemsine use her talent and position for government propaganda to stir up more turmoil.

Note: The first two verses of the national anthem, written in Arabic, read
Min djibalina talaa sawtu el ahrar
Yunadina lil istiqlal

From our mountains came the voice of the free Men
Calling for independence

This shows that it was the peasants of the mountains who called for independence and not the muslim clerics from Constantine.

BY YAZID D. AT YAGUN
Footnotes

[1] 1. Yvonne Turin, Affrontements culturels dans l’Algerie coloniale, ecoles, medecine, religion, 1830-1880, Paris, Francois Maspero, 1971.

[2] 2. Maurice Wahl, L’Algerie, Paris, Felix-Alcan, 1908.

[3] 3. Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berberes et des dynasties musulmanes de l’Afrique septentrionale, Volumes 1-4, P. Geuthner, Paris, 1925-56.

[4] 4. Rachid Chaker, “Journal des Evenements de Kabylie”, Les Temps Modernes, No. 432-433, 1982.