The Amazigh Voice, December 1995 - March 1996
A Travesty of the Amazigh Question

BY DJAMILA OUARSENIS


In the January/February, 1995 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East affairs (WRMEA) appeared an article entitled ``Berberism: An Historical Travesty in Algeria's Time of Travail'' by Aicha Lemsine, an Algerian writer and reporter. This article was brought to ACAA leadership's attention by several members and sympathizers who immediately contacted Mr. Richard Curtiss, the executive editor of the journal, to protest against the publication of negative propaganda about the Amazigh people, their history, and legitimate demands. In particular, they drew his attention to the author's total lack of objectivity, deliberate distortion of historical facts, and the false accusations and demeaning statements directed at the Amazigh people. They later responded with personal letters and articles to dispute and refute Lemsine's false claims. ACAA's Board was unable to respond in writing, since the journal requires that any published material be signed by individuals, not groups or associations.

Without attempting to provide a counter-analysis to Lemsine's article --readers are referred to the articles by Mr. Aym and Mr. At Yagun published in this issue-- one can discern a clear underlying mindset, characteristic of FLN thinking, with strong anti-Amazigh connotations, purposely coupled with a mix of inaccuracies in historical, cultural, and political events. In fact, in her ``expert'' analysis, spiced with ``engineered'' historical and political arguments, Lemsine tried to give legitimacy to the government's negative position and repressive policies (old of 33 years) towards the Amazigh issue.

With the political overture the government was forced into (in 1988), after nearly three decades of dictatorship -- a dictatorship that led to chaos and loss of credibility in the government and its system--, and more importantly the prospect of a significant democratic opposition, predominantly Amazigh, the government, through its propaganda machine, turns once again to its same old tactics, this time not to attempt to annihilate the Amazigh revendication and blatantly discredit its proponents, as it has done in the past, but to camouflage its lies, mistakes, and failures and justify its actions. Unable to put a stop to the Amazigh movement, which has reached a point of no return on the Algerian scene and abroad, and unwilling to grant official status to the Amazigh dimension, the government takes a shot at gaining legitimacy, vis-a-vis the Amazigh issue, in the eyes of both the national and international public opinion.

The arguments presented and defended by Lemsine can be classified in three categories. Expectedly enough, these categories correspond exactly to the tactics [listed below] used by the government for over three decades to deal with the Amazigh issue.

1. Reduce the Amazigh dimension to unsignificant proportions

This is accomplished via two methods: the distortion of history and the use of religion to arabize and mask the Amazigh dimension. Following this path, Lemsine depicts historically Imazighen as a weak and defeated people who were humiliated and enslaved by their colonizers. She adds that because a large number of the population was massacred by their successive invaders, the Amazigh people were reduced to a small community with a few tribes that sought refuge in the mountains and desert. Lemsine's religious masks and arguments take on a variety of forms:

2. Label the proponents of the Amazigh dimension anti-Arab and anti-Islamic

Lemsine attacks Amazigh activists and the democratic parties which include Tamazight in their platforms (namely RCD and FFS) and falsely labels them ``anti-Arab fanatics who are pointing Algeria in the direction of national suicide.''

3. The use of the usual cliche' of foreign manipulation

In several paragraphs of her article, Lemsine tried to establish a history of the divide-and-rule type of manipulation of the Amazigh population by the French colonizer. She then uses it as a basis to accuse Amazigh activists and the democratic parties of unfounded separatism fanned by foreign powers. She goes one step farther and compares them to a terrorist group: the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).

In this issue we are publishing Mr. At Yagun and Mr. Aym's responses to Lemsine's article. These responses were submitted to Mr. Richard Curtiss in March, 1995. However, to this day neither response has been published. When Mr. Aym first inquired about the status of his response, Mr. Curtiss indicated that the Amazigh cultural issue was not important enough for the response to deserve publication in his journal. However, Mr. Aym has recently learned that Mr. Curtiss has changed his mind. He said that it is still pending and that there were going to be opportunities for its publication in future issues. Let us hope that Mr. Curtiss will keep his word and let Imazighen present their case to the WRMEA readership.