Since the fall of Gaddafi a year ago, the Amazigh have been attempting to re-establish their long-held place in Libyan culture.  Systematically repressed under Gaddafi, the Amazigh, or Berbers, have begun teaching their language again, raising their once forbidden flag and demanding to have their rights protected under the constitution. 

Obligatory apology

Since the fall of Gaddafi a year ago, the Amazigh have been attempting to re-establish their long-held place in Libyan culture.  Systematically repressed under Gaddafi, the Amazigh, or Berbers, have begun teaching their language again, raising their once forbidden flag and demanding to have their rights protected under the constitution. 

Obligatory apology

Fathi Abu Zakhar, president of the Amazigh National Congress, said Gaddafi created a painful legacy in the memory of Berbers, which he says must be admitted by the government, and cannot be meaningful unless the General National Congress (GNC) and the government apologize for the suffering caused to the indigenous population under Gaddafi’s regime.

Abu Zakhar has also criticized the new Libyan regime, represented by the National Transitional Council (NTC) and its Interim Constitutional Declaration (ICD). “The exclusion of Berber,” Abu Zakhar says, “is crystal clear, reflected in the failure to include it as an official language, alongside Arabic, in Article 1, which states that “The official language shall be Arabic, while ensuring the linguistic and cultural rights of Berbers, the Toubou, Tuaregs, and all components of Libyan society.”

Abu-Zakhar points out that the expression “ensuring the cultural rights” raises confusion among the indigenous populations who are mentioned under different names, despite their common plight.

He believes that the government at this stage has not translated the Berbers’ rights guaranteed by the ICD, insisting that there are parties opposed to introducing Berber programs in the national radio and TV as well as the lack of concrete plans for teaching Berber at the different educational levels, including university.

He also criticized Abdul Raheem Al–Keeb’s government, which was allied with the NTC, for its failure to assign any ministerial portfolio for any of the Berber-speaking cities spread along the Libyan coast, mountains and desert.

Official language dream

Activists are hopeful that the new constitution will assert the rights of Berbers to allow for the writing of Berber in the public and private sector, alongside Arabic, and that no slogans unaccompanied by a translation of the other language should be raised.

Ayad Ahmed Baqqoush, a linguist and specialist in Libyan anthropological studies, says: “Berbers resent when they discover that names of government departments in the capital are written only in Arabic, even though they are for all Libyans, whether Arabs, Berbers or Toubou. We still don’t understand the reasons for not writing them in Berber and Tebu as well.”

Baqqoush says that “the government has not been wise and mindful of Libyan interests.” He also expresses surprise about the government’s absence from the recently held meeting, in which local councils of Berber towns, Berber charities in Tripoli, and representatives of other local councils participated. The attendants passed a resolution providing for teaching Berber in the areas inhabited by Berbers, and the local councils of Berber cities would bear the cost of printing school textbooks and teaching Berber.

Baqqoush expresses apprehensions about what he describes as “some sort of deception”, referring to the fourth grade history course, which includes lessons about ancient Libyan scripts, without making reference to them. He also regrets the National Education Course which, like the ICD, separates Berbers from Tuaregs.

Baqqoush proposes that Berber must be an official language alongside Arabic in Berber areas only, as a first step towards becoming an official language all over Libya within 15 to 20 years, through governmental support.

“As a Libyan citizen, I am not in favor of excluding my Toubou third. Therefore, the main languages in the next constitution must be Arabic, Tebu, and Berber.”

The right to chooose

Activist and journalist Salah Ankab suggests that a genuine national duty awaits the Constitution Drafting Committee when embarking on constitutionalizing Berbers’ rights. The committee must not disregard any right for which many Berbers and Arabs have sacrificed their lives.

Ankab, a writer in Meyadin cultural newspaper, says: “The whole issue should be directed towards consolidating the concept of citizenship first, that is the right to choose. In other words, the main supra-constitutional rights of speech, expression, movement, earning and worship must be self-evident constitutional provisions.”

“It is high time this language is settled down in books to declare to the world that Libya is a great nation with an ancient history and language, which have defied extinction,  just like all Libyan citizens,” he added.