Author(s): Rabah Tabti / Language(s): French
Issue: 50/2022
Forty years after the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples proclamation, and 54 years after its independence, Algeria officialized tamazight, the mother tongue of nearly 10 million of Berbers. But, despite its constitutionalization since 2016, tamazight remains a marginalized, minoritized language, not to say totally ignored. It isthe poor relative of the government. Until nowadays, tamazight has difficulty in finding itself. Ignored by the Administration and Justice, it barely plays the walk-on in education and teaching. However, two years after its constitutionalization (national and official language), it is still in its stammering in the daily life of the natives who speak it (i.e., amazighofones or berberophones). It is only taught for 3,95% of the 9 million registered pupils. Not yet generalized in all of the country, its status remained much more facultative than compulsory. It is still considered just as a language to teach than as a language of instruction and education. Thus, the officialization of tamazight and its concreteapplication on the legal, educational, political, economic fields raise a lot of stakes. Many mentalities are to be reviewed and huge complexes must be overcome. It is not enough to proclaim tamazight “official” to give it back its nobility. As far as Algeria is concerned in the linguistic and democratic fields, alas, much remains to be done in order to build an Algeria of hope, the Algeria of tomorrow.
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