Berber culture in Morocco

                                       

The Berbers of Morocco

Since 2011, the new Moroccan constitution formalizes the Amazigh language and since 2001 under the leadership of Mohamed VI, a royal institute of Amazigh culture has emerged.

The Berbers of Morocco are gradually recognizing their specificities both in language and culture. Mythical people whose origins go back to protohistory, nearly 9000 years separate them from the probable first Berber. What characterizes this astonishing people is its almost mystical attachment to the land, its tenuous relationship to the sacred, its intrinsic need for freedom, and its hospitality as a way of life.

Their need for independence without a real structured link, a form of democracy before the hour, allowing any latitude has resulted in this proud people building no territorial empire. The power has always remained at the tribal level even if the belligerency was a state of fact, too individualistic to build a too collective universe so binding. But openness and tolerance make permeability happen.
Berbers today are the fruit of interpenetration, the East, Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean feel and identify, fully integrated into this culture belonging fully to the Muslim world yet unique.

Confraternities and zaouias also remain very present, marabouts and ancestral rites punctuate daily life. The very writing on which the Tifinagh alphabet is based almost disappeared, the culture being transmitted rather orally. The language is still alive, it adapts gradually to the modern world and is spoken throughout the country, transmitted in its symbolism mainly by women.
It is worth noting the strange concordance that can be found between the geometric signs of Tifinagh, Sanskrit, and Celtic ideograms. These Celts are in their approach to life very close to Berbers. The same need for individuality, freedom, the same form of structural democracy, and no desire to build an empire.

In Marrakech, a man, Pierre Bergé, passionate about this mysterious culture, created on the site of the gardens of Majorelle, a museum which tries seriously to enlighten the enigma of this people and to make it discover the greatest number. Not only are objects exhibited, true cartography of Berber history, but each year the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation brings together scientists who bring their knowledge and analysis.

The information is collated and disseminated both for the Berber population who often ignores its own history but for visitors curious about this myth.

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lifestyle    Moroccan-traditions    Moroccan-traditional-clothing