We Are Imazighen

We Are Imazighen University Press of florida Florida A&M University, Tallahassee Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers Florida International University, Miami Florida State University, Tallahassee New College of Florida, Sarasota University of Central Florida, Orlando University of Florida, Gainesville University of North Florida, Jacksonville University of South Florida, Tampa University of West Florida, Pensacola We Are Imazighen The Development of Algerian Berber Identity in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture f azia aïtel University Press of Florida Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota The publication of this book was made possible in part by a grant from Claremont McKenna College. Copyright 2014 by Fazia Aïtel All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on recycled, acid-free paper This book may be available in an electronic edition. 19 18 17 16 15 14 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014937655 ISBN 978-0-8130-4939-7 The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida. University Press of Florida 15 Northwest 15th Street Gainesville, FL 32611-2079 http://www.upf.com To my late father, Arezki, and my mother, Chabha, both of whom will not read this, To Lounès, the shooting star, and Tassadit, tafat-iw, To my sisters and brothers, Thank you all for making this possible. Contents List of Figures ix List of Maps xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: The Local and the Global 1 1. The Emergence of Berber Consciousness, 1930–1949 20 2. The First Berber Francophone Writers: The Dialectics of Identity 58 3. Of Berbers and Beurs, France and Algeria: The Struggle for Identity and Rights, 1970–1990 108 4. Rebels in Print and Song: Tahar Djaout, Matoub Lounès, and the Algerian Berber Movement at the End of the Twentieth Century 159 5. Assia Djebar and the Mountain Language: The Return of the Repressed 202 Conclusion 241 Notes 247 Bibliography 277 Index 293 Figures Figures follow page 152 1. Algerian army tanks in Fort National for the purpose of suppressing the Kabyle rebellion in 1963 2. Kabyle armed uprising against the Algerian government in Azazga (Kabylia), 1963 3. Kabyle soldiers, loyal to Colonel Mohand Ou El Hadj against the Algerian government, guard the entrance to Tizi Ouzou (Kabylia), 1963 4. Concert in Vgayet stadium in the summer of 1993. Sadi, Matoub, Boudjma, Ferhat, and Benyounès 5. Matoub on crutches. Tizi Ouzou, 1989 6. Matoub surrounded by a crowd of supporters in Tizi Ouzou stadium, 1989 7. Portrait of Matoub on the wall of his home, Taourirt Moussa, 2012 8. Entrance of Matoub’s village in Taourirt Moussa, 2012 9. Ghiles wears a T-shirt asking for justice for Matoub, Azru N’Thur, 2012 Maps 1. Berber speakers in North Africa xiv 2. Algeria and main urban centers xv 3. Kabylia xvi Acknowledgments I first want to express my gratitude to Nabile Farès, who showed me that my interest in the Berber language and civilization could be more than a hobby—that it could at least be a fascinating subject for Marxist and psy- choanalytic analysis. Just as important, he persuaded me that my interest in Berber studies and my love for American literature were not mutually exclusive and could even be combined, and that idea became a reality when I enrolled in the comparative literature program at the City University of New York. I trace the origin of this book to that period in New York and the classes at the University of Paris VIII. Next, I am profoundly indebted to Vincent Crapanzano, whose support was most evident and important in Paris many years ago, when I was strug- gling to get a student visa to study in New York. His support never abated, and he offered intellectual support in classes and seminars at the Graduate Center, too. In a way, Vincent reinforced Nabile, for he encouraged me to explore further the Berber component of my work, as realized here. I would also like to thank the anonymous readers from the press for their close reading of the manuscript and for providing suggestions and constructive comments that, I believe, have greatly improved the book. Of course this book would not have been possible without the generous assistance, help, and support of many individuals from other different ven- ues and parts of my life. I want to thank Marie-Denise Shelton, who read drafts of several chapters and made fruitful comments and suggestions. Most of all, her encouragement and her belief in me helped me to go for- ward. I also want to thank Mehenna Mahfoufi for his help and support and for sharing his expertise in Berber music with me. A special thanks is also due to Hend Sadi, for sharing his experience as one of the leaders of the Ber- ber movement in Algeria. His insight and generosity were refreshing. I also want to thank two of my Montana colleagues and friends: Michel Valentin, for inspiring me to continue believing in resistance, reflection, and intellectual critique, and Christopher Anderson, for his invaluable friendship and his love of life. I also thank Michel Schaefflin for his longstanding friendship and our memorable discussions of politics, power, and class. Indeed, it was Michel who persuaded me that solidarity is still possible and showed me meaningful examples! I am also grateful to Cherif Khazem, who shared his passion for Kabyle poetry. Our ongoing discussions on the subtlety of the Kabyle language encouraged me to persevere in my project, and I want to thank him for providing an intellectual framework in Kabyle with which we can bring the language into the twenty-first century. I especially thank Andrew Long, who listened to me, read my work, and believed in me and in this project from the start. Andrew’s support was un- conditional, and I want to acknowledge the importance of these exchanges and his confidence in my project. Finally, I want to thank my family for their love and support, which was so necessary despite the great distance. Map 1. Berber speakers in North Africa. Le Monde diplomatique, December 1994. Philippe Rekacewicz. By permission of author, Paris. xiv · Acknowledgments Map 2. Algeria and main urban centers. The Battlefield Algeria 1988–2002. Studies in a Broken Polity. Hugh Roberts. London, Verso, 2003. By permission of Verso, London. Map 3. Kabylia. The Battlefield Algeria 1988– 2002. Studies in a Broken Polity. Hugh Roberts. London, Verso, 2003. By permission of Verso, London. Introduction The Local and the Global When I was a small child, after my family had immigrated to France from the Kabyle Mountains near Tizi Ouzou in Algeria, my father purchased a cassette player, because he had recently received a tape from Algeria. My mother, my siblings, and I gathered around him while he put the tape into the cassette player and then, with some collective trepidation, we listened intently to an old, rough voice, that of my grandmother speaking in Kabyle, one of the Berber languages of Algeria. I could not take my eyes off the machine; I stared at it, transfixed. How could this machine, which in my imagi- nation was associated with technological progress and France, encompass my grandmother, who lived in a different world, where the air, people, and houses had different smells, where the sun always shone, and where people looked like my grandmother, with weathered and craggy faces? And how could this language, which was so intimate, almost a secret family language, be available and exposed to the rest of the world in such a way? Worlds were colliding; for me, that moment was electrifying. It almost seemed subver- sive that technology (which I construed to be on the side of power) could be used to allow the voice of someone as powerless as my grandmother, who lived in a small, remote village in the mountains of Kabylia, to freely and directly speak to her family in France. A similar episode took place in junior high school in France. My school- mates and I were on strike and thus were sitting on a bench in the school courtyard, idle. A classmate asked me if I spoke any language other than French, and I proudly said, “Yes, Kabyle.” Then another one asked me to say a word in Kabyle, so I said “school” in Kabyle: lakuy, a deformation of the French l’école. My classmates laughed and laughed, and for several minutes I could not figure out why. Yes, of course, “lakuy” (la couille) in French slang means “a testicle,” but when I gave them the example, I could not transpose the Kabyle word 1 into the French context. Many similar experiences made me aware of the eruption of difference at particular and often unexpected moments, always when the intimate, the personal, or the local makes contact with the out- side, the world, or the global. Over the years I realized that I—like all Ka- byles, dominated people, and other colonized or formerly colonized people of the modern world—inhabit this space between the local and the global, and that while these contact zones are sometimes at variance, they are not incompatible. Instead, they offer a rich experience and the possibility of cultivating something new, a dialectical position in motion between the local and the global.

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