Amazigh Activism and the Moroccan State

Abstract

W hen primary school students in the major Berberspeaking regions of Morocco returned to class in September 2004, for the first time ever they were required to study Berber (Tamazight) language.The mandatory language classes in the Rif, the Middle Atlas, the High Atlas and the Sous Valley represent the first significant policy change implemented by the Royal Institute of the Amazigh [Berber] Culture, a government body established by King Mohammed VI on October 17, o00I, following through on a promise made in July of that year on the second anniversary of his ascension to the Moroccan throne.This royal edict, or dahir, represents a dramatic reversal of legal discrimination against Imazighen (Berbers) and an explicit attempt to reclaim Berberness as "a principal element of national culture, as a cultural heritage present across all

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