Berbers & Others: Shifting Parameters of Ethnicity in the Maghrib
AMI & Harvard University, Cambridge, April 27-29, 2006
Sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, and The Moroccan Studies Program at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies; supported by The American Moroccan Institute (AMI).
The Moroccan Studies Program, chaired by Dr. Susan Gilson Miller (in conjunction with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, with the generous support of The American Moroccan Institute) sponsored a two-day conference from April 28-April 29 which examined recent developments in Berber political, social, and cultural movements throughout North Africa and Europe. Dr. Miller co-organized the conference with anthropology Professor Katherine E. Hoffman of Northwestern University. Participation was interdisciplinary and included several North African scholars. The avid participation of audience members, many of them Berber, revealed the keen interest many in the Harvard community regarding these issues.
Session 1: History and its Representations
Mohammed El-Mansour, an historian at Mohammad V University in Rabat, presented a compelling exercise in biography that examined how Berber identity intersected with realpolitik in the life of the storied Berber ambassador, Abu al-Qasim al-Zayani. Weaving his tale between Fes, Rabat and Istanbul, El-Mansour describes how the royal entourage known as the makhzen incorporated al-Zayani under a novel application of the age-old kinship system of ‘asabiyya. While in Morocco itself, al-Zayani never seems to have been fully accepted into Fessi society, his allegiance to the makhzen allowed him to present himself as a proponent of Arabo-Muslim culture while serving in the Ottoman Empire. Historian James McDougall, an historian at Princeton University, focused on the appearance of the concepts of heresy and salvation in historical texts to examine how Berber identity has been manipulated by several Maghrebi and French authors. His presentation encouraged the conference to confront the predication of so many earlier studies that the categories of Berber and Arab are fixed and unchanging. Mohammed El-Mansour and Katherine Hoffman challenged these categories in their respective papers. Political scientist Lahouari Addi of l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques, University of Lyon, delivered comments on the importance and limitations of Gellner’s work on Berbers, and some of the ways that this early anthropological work has shaped subsequent scholarship.
Session 2: Language and the State
Katherine E. Hoffman’s paper challenged the audience to examine critically the implications of the recent Berber policies adopted by the Moroccan monarchy. What are the implications for women and the illiterate, who have played key roles in the dissemination of Berber oral culture, when Berber is taught as a written language with its own alphabet? According to Hoffman, this change shifts the balance of power away from rural women and towards urban men. She also critiqued Berber nationalists for adopting the same sort of fixed Arab-Berber divide that the Protectorate authorities introduced in the early 20th century, and for ignoring the vast segment of the population living in bilingual (Arab-Berber) rural regions in favor of an imaginary, pure Berber society. Arabist Rachid Aadnani of Wellesley College presented a paper on the difficulties inherent in translating Arabic works into Amazigh in Morocco. Aadnani describes the hostility directed at several Berber authors (mainly from the Sous region of Morocco) for translating Mohammed Choukri’s works and even the Qur’an into Amazigh. As Aadnani points out, the translations of Arabic literary works under the auspices of the Royal Institute for Berber Culture are routinely criticized in the Arabic press, even when their authors are themselves of Berber origin and support the translation. Fatima Agnaou, a pedagogy specialist at the Royal Institute for Berber Culture in Morocco, delivered a talk on the recent efforts to legitimize the teaching of Amazigh throughout the country. The formation of the Royal Institute in 2001 by King Mohammed VI was the first step in this process. Agnaou emphasized that many of the monarchy’s Berber initiatives have not gone uncontested by other Moroccan groups. The codification of a written language system and the exact pedagogy of Amazigh courses remain contentious issues.
Session 3. Land, Work, and Justice
Anthropologist Paul Silverstein of Reed College presented a paper dealing with the internal disputes within one Berberophone community over land rights in southern Morocco. Focusing upon the town of Goulmima near the Sahara, Silverstein demonstrates that land ownership disputes in this region partially reflect the racial divide between some Berber activists and a group of black Berber-speaking sharecroppers, known as the Iqbliyin. While the activists berate the Iqbliyin for their perceived political quietism, the Iqbliyin are similarly suspicious of the activists’ motives for what they consider sabotage of legitimate business ventures. Silverstein’s paper suggests that a fuller understanding of internal Berber politics needs to take into account factors such as race and class. Anthropologist David Crawford’s discussion focused upon young Berber girls whose families sent them away from their villages in order to work. This phenomenon was long considered to have been directly related to the decline of communal solidarity in rural Berber communities. Crawford, who teaches at Fairfield University, draws the opposite conclusion, however, after having conducted extensive interviews with some of these young women and their families. Thus, the work that these "petites bonnes," as the girls are called, perform outside of their villages actually reflects their dedication and attachment to their families, not a collapse of the rural Berber family. Jane Goodman, an anthropologist at Indiana University, presented a paper on the affirmation of Berber identity in the most dangerous of places: an Algerian courtroom in the 1980s. Working from transcripts of the court trial of several Berber activists who had formed a committee for human rights in 1985, Goodman emphasized the importance of the courtroom as a “stage” in which the defendants brought forth their Berber identity as a challenge to the authorities, in much the same way as Susan Slyomovics has demonstrated for the Moroccan Truth Commission. The Algerian activists also managed to garner a significant amount of international support for their cause before their arrest which focused attention upon their case.
Session 4. Amazigh Arts
Boston University art historian Cynthia Becker challenged French assumptions of Berber culture inherent in certain works written about Berber arts. Through her work, we see that even cultural critics adopt the same vocabulary of the Protectorate to divide works of art into those of "rural" or "urban" provenance. "Arab" style is also seen as the antithesis to its "Berber" counterpart in many of these works. Becker describes the emphasis of French descriptions of Berber art on their unchanging, timeless qualities of the craftsmanship believed distinct to each tribe. What is revealing about her research is how persistent such ideas remain in French scholarship on Berber art up until the present day, even as they are leavened with post-modern theoretical frameworks. Lisa Bernasek, a graduate student in art history at Harvard University, presented a paper comparing the different presentation techniques of Berber material culture employed by the new Musée du Quai Branly in Paris and a Berber arts shop also found in the French capital. Bernasek pointed out how the museum’s methodology relies heavily on outdated colonial notions of an eternal Berber heritage. This focus reduces the opportunity for substantive description of the objects on display or significant attempts to demonstrate their provenance and thus reduces their value as cultural artifacts. In contrast to the museum, the Berber arts shop emphasizes the historicity of its artifacts and while the more recent pieces may be for sale, many of the older ones are not. Thus the shop’s displays lead the visitor to embrace a multi-faceted, changing Berber cultural heritage; the very opposite from the static image presented by the Musée du Quai Branly’s exhibitions. Mina ElMghari-Baida, an architectural historian and member of the Moroccan National Commission for UNESCO, presented work on Berber architecture, specifically the castle-like ksours and kasbahs of southern Morocco. She raised the issue of state intervention in the preservation of these historic landmarks, many of which date back hundreds of years. These edifices remain today not as the defense fortifications they had been designed as, but as tourist attractions. El-Mghari-Baida reminded the conference that such economic concerns must be balanced with the need to preserve and protect key architectural features of the ksours and kasbahs. The efforts of both state and local actors to preserve the ksour at Ait Ben Haddou designated as a United Nations World Heritage site in 1970s, represents a successful model for future action. Philip Schuyler, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Washington, gave a lively talk about the interplay between the role of Berber and Arabic insults within the context of a group of Marrakesh performers. Schuyler’s deep attachment to Jama’a el-Fna (the major attraction of the city) was abundantly clear from his detailed renderings of the performers within the market space and his exhaustive recordings of the actual insult contest. These recordings reveal how audience members, their towns, and even their patron saints are playfully vilified by the performers.
Session 5. Resistance, Renewal and Diasporas
Jocelyne Cesari of the Divinity School and Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, delivered remarks on the Berber dispora in the West and on some of the extra-ethnic bases of affiliation and solidarity that she notes among them, particularly in France. Mokhtar Ghambou, a scholar of comparative literature at Yale University, argued that the Tuareg Berbers have become engrained in an exoticized imaginary in Western minds. Until the stereotype of the romantic yet fierce nomad is confronted, other renderings of this desert population are not possible.
The final roundable discussion of the conference was chaired by Susan Gilson Miller and Katherine E. Hoffman, the organizers of the event. Both encouraged the conference participants to work together and prepare their papers for publication in an edited volume summarizing the conference’s findings. Professor Hoffman orchestrated a discussion on the important emerging themes in Berber studies, and participants noted strengths and gaps in conference discussions. As Dr. Miller emphasized, the goal of such a volume would be to update the work of Ernest Gellner and Charles Micaud whose book, Arabs and Berbers, was published over thirty years ago. Given the scarcity of accessible materials in English and the growing visibility of Berbers in North Africa and Europe, it is evident that many English-speakers will no doubt be anticipating such a volume eagerly.
Participants and divers discussants at the Center for Government and International Studies: (from left to right: front) Jocelyne Cesari, Lahouari Addi, Katherine E. Hoffman, Paul Silverstein; (middle) David Crawford, Rachid Aadnani, Mina ElMghari-Baida, Cynthia Becker, Jane Goodman, Lisa Bernasek; (back) Mokhtar Ghambou, Fatima Agnaou, Philip Schuyler, Mohamed Elmansour, James McDougall, Wilfred Rollman, Susan Slymovics, Susan G. Miller.