The Berber or Amazigh diaspora: music, literature, cinema and new media
As with other diasporic communities, to speak of the Berber diaspora in France is, at first glance, to speak of shops, restaurants and bistros, often recognizable on the streets by their Berber symbols and names. The beautiful documentary by Arezki Metref and Marie-Joëlle Rupp, Une journée au soleil (2017), shows that Berber cafés played a cultural and artistic function that, beyond the flavors of the palate, enriched those of the spirit. In fact, for émigrés, they provided a place of refuge, a political meeting place, and also entertainment, offering a stage for singers and musicians during evening entertainment.
But which Berber diaspora are we talking about? The Berber diaspora, now often referred to as "Amazigh" (from the Amazigh word for "free man"), is mainly based in Europe (France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany) and to a lesser extent in the USA and Canada[1]. The diaspora numbers around 2 million, to which can be added the few descendants of Kabyle Berber deportees exiled in New Caledonia during the colonial period, and the small community of Jewish Berbers in Israel. In France, the Berber diaspora is one of the most consistent and long-standing, having been formed from the end of the 19th century onwards, first from Kabylie in Algeria, then from the Imazighen (Berbers) of Morocco. It is also numerous in the Netherlands and Spain, where Berber-speaking migrants have been settling since the 1980s, notably from the Rif in northern Morocco[2]. Considering the expansion of both places of origin and host countries, and the highly differentiated activities undertaken by Berber migrants, we can see that the Berber diaspora is a fragmented whole in relation to the economic, social, political and historical experiences of its members. Cultural production in the diaspora is then rooted in the vernacular language of the singers and writers, in that the authors use and promote the linguistic variation specific to their region of origin (e.g., Kabylie in Algeria, Rif and Souss in Morocco, Nefoussa in Libya, etc.) and their audiences are generally speakers/readers of the same vernacular language. In this sense, we could speak of a "Berber diaspora". An exception, however, is song, particularly Kabyle, which has had success with audiences beyond its linguistic confines, leading us to use the singular "diaspora" as well.
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The song
One of the most popular genres produced during the emigrations is indeed Amazigh neo-song (also called "modern" to differentiate it from the oral chants and songs of the 1940s) integrating musical and literary styles originating from orality with inspirations and instruments from all over the world. In France, singers from the Kabyle diaspora, such as Slimane Azem, Idir, Lounis Aït Menguellet, Lounès Matoub, Ferhat Mehenni, Karima, Malika Domrane and the group Djurdjura innovated by abandoning orchestration, diffused under the influence of Andalusian and Egyptian music in the first half of the 20th century, adopting instead the sound of acoustic and electric guitars, drums and synthesizers. In terms of themes, while social criticism and the pain of exile are always present, particularly in the output of the first generation of immigrants represented by Slimane Azem, many of the songs can be described as "protest songs". For Kabyle musicians, singing in Kabyle contributes to the preservation of the Berber language and resistance to the Arabization imposed on the Maghreb. Singing in Amazigh in a diaspora situation has also led some to perform on the world's multilingual music scenes, as is the case for the group Dub Inc., which currently sings in French and English and one of whose members uses Kabyle: for example, in the song "Maché bécif" (Mači bessif, "It's not by force") about extremism and tolerance. Appreciated by Imazighen all over the world, the new Amazigh song is a privileged place for Berber identity negotiations and political expression in the continuity and interaction between the diaspora and communities in the countries of origin.
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Literature
Another example of the remarkable interaction between communities in countries of origin and the Amazigh diaspora is novels written in Amazigh. It's no coincidence that much of the work on standardizing Berber writing has also taken place in the diaspora, as the language was censored and marginalized in Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia until the new millennium. Work on contemporary Berber writing has been carried out in France by numerous cultural associations and university research, most notably in Paris by the Centre d'Études et de Recherches Amazighes (Ceram), which was later integrated into the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), and the Centre de recherche berbère (CRB), which today is one of the pillars of Inalco's Langues et cultures du Nord de l'Afrique et Diasporas (Lacnad) research unit. For example, of the first seven novels published in Kabyle in the post-colonial period, at least three were published in France, such as Il tedyant ger tayed... (From History to History, 1994) by Amar Ouhamza, Ddeqs Nnegh (Il suffit, 1994) by Djafar Chibani, and Tafrara (Aurore, 1995) by Salem Zenia. This trend is even more striking with Rif, the Amazigh language spoken in the Rif region of northern Morocco: the first Rif novels were all published in the Netherlands. Emigration, travel and memory are central themes in these productions, as in the case of Reẓ ṭṭabu ad d teffegh tfukt (Briser le tabou et laisser apparaître le soleil, 1997) by Moroccan writer Mohamed Chacha (1955-2016), a refugee in the Netherlands in the 1970s. Several Rifa writers, active in Morocco and the Netherlands, have produced novels and short stories as well as plays and films, such as Mohamed Bouzaggou, Omar Boumazzough and Ahmed Ziani.
As a result of colonial and post-colonial school policies, it's not surprising that a number of Amazigh authors, both in the diaspora and in the Maghreb, have written in languages other than their vernacular. The production of novels and short stories in French by authors from the Berber diaspora includes "historic" names such as Taos Amrouche, Mouloud Mammeri and Nabile Farès, and is still abundant today. Added to the vast output in French are new writings in Dutch and Catalan by authors of Amazigh origin who have won several literary prizes, such as the novels in Dutch by Abdelkader Benali (Noces à la mer, 1996) and Saïd El Haji (Les jours de shaytan), 2001), and those in Catalan by Laila Karrouch (De Nador à Vic, 2004), Najat El Hachmi (Je suis aussi catalane, 2004) and Saïd El Kadaoui Moussaoui (Lettres à mon fils. Un catalan pure souche, ou presque, 2011). These novels refer to Berber languages, contexts, imaginaries and characters, but also include cross-cultural references. There's the "pride" of speaking one's own vernacular, and also the claim to be carriers of Amazigh culture, even though this is minoritized in the countries of origin. But more than an "ethnic" Amazigh/Berber discourse, these works tell the story of a quest for identity that resists the cultural homogeneity promoted by national and international intellectual and political powers.
The cinema
We should also mention cinema and new media in Amazigh from the diaspora, which are booming thanks to professionalization opportunities and technical support. Let's mention the two fine international award-winning productions, Adios Carmen (2013) by Mohamed Amin Benamraoui and La Maison jaune (2007) by Amor Hakkar, and the short film Le Tuteur de Madame la Ministre by Djamila Amzal awarded at the Festival international du film amazigh en Algérie (2008). What's more, the Internet offers a formidable platform for communication, which has been well exploited by Berber diasporas. Virtual" communication helps to generate and transmit cultural memory, artistic innovation and the construction of Amazigh identities at local and global levels, strengthening interactions between the diaspora and the countries of origin.
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In conclusion, today's websites and social networks form a rallying point of reference for Amazigh cultural and political discourse, and disseminate the musical, literary and cinematographic output developed by, among others, Berber artists and writers in diasporic situations.
Daniela Merolla
Professor of Berber literature and art, Inalco
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For more information: a small selective bibliography
Books
Chaker Salem. Berbers today. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1989.
Daoudi Bouziane and Hadj Miliani. Beurs' Mélodies: cent ans de chansons immigrées du blues berbère au rap beur, Paris: Seguer, 2003.
Dirèche-Slimani Karima. Histoire de l'émigration kabyle en France au XXe siècle. Réalités culturelles et politiques et réappropriations identitaires, L'Harmattan, Paris, 1997.
Maddy-Weitzman Bruce. The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States, Austin: University of Texas, 2011.
Merolla Daniela. De l'art de la narration tamazight (berbère). 200 ans d'études: état des lieux et perspectives. Paris/Louvain: Peeters, 2006.
Merolla Daniela, Naït Zerad Kamal and Ameziane Amar (dir.). Les cinémas berbères. De la méconnaissance aux festivals nationaux. Paris: Karthala, 2019.
Articles
Chaker Salem. "What future for the Berber language in France?", Hommes & Migrations, 1994, n° 1179, pp. 40-45.
Khellil Mohand. "Kabyles en France, un aperçu historique", Hommes & Migrations, 1994, n° 1179, pp. 12-18
Lacoste-Dujardin Camille. "Un effet du "postcolonial": le renouveau de la culture kabyle. De la mise à profit de contradictions coloniales", Hérodote, January 2006, n° 120, pp. 96-117.
Merolla Daniela. "Poetics of migration and literary renewal in the Netherlands", in Thomas Beaufils and Patrick Duval (eds.), Les identités néerlandaises. De l'intégration à la désintégration?, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France, 2006, pp. 297-305.
Merolla Daniela. "Cultural heritage, artistic innovation, and activism on Amazigh Berber websites", Journal of African Cultural Studies, 2020, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 42-59.
Salhi Mohand Akli and Nabila Sadi. "Le Roman Maghrebin en Berbère", Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 2016, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 27-36.
Documentaries
Hachkar Kamal. Tinghir-Jerusalem, les Echos du Mellah, 2011.
Metref Arezki and Marie-Joëlle Rupp. Une journée au soleil, 2017.
[1] "Diaspora" originally implied that groups were forced to leave their place of origin for political, economic or ecological reasons. Today, the term "diaspora" has come to include dispersed communities, whether or not the migration was forced.
[2] In Africa, it is estimated that communities using the Amazigh language in its many local variations currently number around 20 million, from Morocco to the Siwa oasis in Egypt, via Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, as well as as as far north as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
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