Malika Mezzane | |
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| Born | May 15, 1960 |
| Years active | 2004–2023 |
Malika Mezzane is a Moroccan poet, a writer, and a Berber rights activist.
Malika Mezzane | |
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| | |
| Born | May 15, 1960 |
| Years active | 2004–2023 |
Malika Mezzane is a Moroccan poet, a writer, and a Berber rights activist.
Mezzane studied in Fez where she earned a BA degree in philosophy from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University.[ citation needed ] She is a former Philosophy teacher.[ citation needed ] She has published 17 works in 22 publications, in 2 languages. [1] In 1992 she travelled to Switzerland, where she resided for nine years until 2001, during which time she devoted herself to writing on a regular basis, committed to defending human rights in general and those of Maghrebi immigrants in particular. [2] She is considered by many[ by whom? ] the Berber ambassador to the Kurdish People, especially after she met the president of Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, in July 2018. [3] She is also a supporter of the state of Israel and has been outspoken on their right to be in "their homeland". [4] [5]
Mezzane has written several collections of poems in Arabic:
In 2019, she wrote her first novel "ما أصعب ألا أراك", in which she supports the unification of the Kurds under a single state. [6] [7]
Berberism is a Berber political-cultural movement of ethnic nationalism, started mainly in Kabylia (Algeria) and in Morocco later spreading to the rest of the Berber communities in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The Berberist movement in Algeria and Morocco is in opposition to cultural Arabization, the pan-Arabist political ideology and Islamism.
The culture of Morocco is a blend of Arab, Amazighs, Andalusian cultures, with African, Hebraic and Mediterranean influences. It represents and is shaped by a convergence of influences throughout history. This sphere may include, among others, the fields of personal or collective behaviors, language, customs, knowledge, beliefs, arts, legislation, gastronomy, music, poetry, architecture, etc. While Morocco started to be stably predominantly Sunni Muslim starting from 9th–10th century AD, in the Almoravids empire period, a very significant Andalusian culture was imported and contributed to the shaping of Moroccan culture. Another major influx of Andalusian culture was brought by Andalusians with them following their expulsion from Al-andalus to North Africa after the Reconquista. In antiquity, starting from the second century A.D and up to the seventh, a rural Donatist Christianity was present, along an urban still-in-the-making Roman Catholicism. All of the cultural super strata tend to rely on a multi-millennial aboriginal Berber substratum still strongly present and dating back to prehistoric times.
Edmond Amran El Maleh was a Moroccan Jewish writer of Berber extraction.
Moroccan literature is the literature produced by people who lived in or were culturally connected to Morocco and the historical states that have existed partially or entirely within the geographical area that is now Morocco. Apart from the various forms of oral literature, the written literature of Morocco encompasses various genres, including poetry, prose, theater, and nonfiction like religious literature. Moroccan literature was and is mainly written in Arabic, however it was also written at a lesser extent in Berber languages, Hebrew, French, and Spanish. Through translations into English and other languages, Moroccan literature originally written in Arabic or one of the other native languages has become accessible to readers worldwide.
The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture is an academic institute of the Moroccan government in charge with the promotion of the Berber languages and culture, and of the development of Standard Moroccan Amazigh and its instruction in Morocco's public schools.
Mohamed Chafik, born 17 September 1926, is a leading figure in the Amazigh cultural movement. An original author of the Amazigh Manifesto, he was later appointed as the first Rector of the Royal Institute of the Amazigh Culture. He has worked extensively on incorporating Amazigh culture into Moroccan identity and is a leading intellectual of the Moroccan intelligentsia.
The Years of Lead was a period of the rule of King Hassan II of Morocco, from roughly the 1960s through the 1980s, marked by state violence and repression against political dissidents and democracy activists.
There are a number of languages in Morocco. De jure, the two official languages are Standard Arabic and Standard Moroccan Berber. Moroccan Arabic is by far the primary spoken vernacular and lingua franca, whereas Berber languages serve as vernaculars for significant portions of the country. The languages of prestige in Morocco are Arabic in its Classical and Modern Standard Forms and sometimes French, the latter of which serves as a second language for approximately 33% of Moroccans. According to a 2000–2002 survey done by Moha Ennaji, author of Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco, "there is a general agreement that Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, and Berber are the national languages." Ennaji also concluded "This survey confirms the idea that multilingualism in Morocco is a vivid sociolinguistic phenomenon, which is favored by many people."
Malika Zarra is a Moroccan singer, composer, and music producer, based in New York City. She is known for singing in Moroccan Arabic, Berber, French, and English. Her music has been on the JazzWeek Top 20 radio chart in world music.
Fatima Sadiqi is a senior professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, in Fez, Morocco.
Kacem El Ghazzali, is a Moroccan-Swiss secularist essayist and activist and is one of the few publicly atheist Moroccans. Kacem speaks English, as well as German, French, Arabic and Berber. Mostly known for his publicly voiced atheism, his writings stress the importance of freedom of thought which, in his view is lacking in countries dominated by Islam. His articles have been published in/by the Richard Dawkins Foundation, Huffington Post, Le Monde, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Basler Zeitung and others.
Standard Moroccan Amazigh, also known as Standard Moroccan Tamazight, is a standardized language developed by the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) in Morocco by combining features of Tashelhit, Central Atlas Tamazight, and Tarifit, the three major Amazigh languages in Morocco. It has been an official language of Morocco since 2011.
Berber Americans, American Berbers or Amazigh Americans, are Americans of Berber descent. Although a part of the population of the Maghreb is of Berber descent, only 1,327 people declared Berber ancestry in the 2000 US Census. People of Berber origin in United States have created several associations with goal of maintaining and strengthening their language and culture, such as the Amazigh Cultural Association in America (ACAA), The United Amazigh Algerian (UAAA), The Amazigh American Association of Washington, DC., and the Boston Amazigh Community.
Yennayer is the first month of the Amazigh Year, and has been used since antiquity by the Imazighen in North Africa. The first day of Yennayer corresponds to the first day of January in the Julian Calendar, which is shifted thirteen days compared to the Gregorian calendar, thus falling on 14 January every year. The Amazigh calendar was created in 1980 by Ammar Negadi, a Paris-based Algerian scholar. He chose 943 BC, the year in which the Amazigh Shoshenq I ascended to the throne of Egypt, as the first year of the Amazigh calendar.
Ahmed Assid is a Moroccan Berber activist, a professor of philosophy, a poet, and a political activist, well known for being an active secularist.
Rkia Damsiria is a Moroccan Berber singer and poet. She writes and performs in Tashelhit, her native Berber tongue.
Sharif Malikah, an Egyptian poet, writer, and physician, was born in 1958. He lives in the United States. He published four poetry collections in colloquial Egyptian, three short stories collections, and seven novels.
Khadija Yaken, is a Moroccan writer. Her works of prose and poetry in both the Arabic and Amazigh language, occupy official site affairs Amazigh literature in the Morocco Writers Union.
Malika Moustadraf was a Moroccan Arabic-language writer. She is best known for her pioneering short stories and women's rights activism, which set her squarely in Morocco's feminist vanguard. Before her early death at age 37, she published a novel, Jirah al-ruh wa-l-jasad, and the story collection Trente-Six.
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