In a classroom in the Libyan port city of Zuwara, a student hesitates before being spurred on by a teacher to write a few letters in Berber on the blackboard… In a scene unimaginable twelve years ago, in the era of the late Libyan leader. Muammar Gaddafi, the Berbers were oppressed And their language is banned. “Children love this subject because they find their identity and culture written down in books,” says teacher Asirem al-Shawashi, who wore a long black dress with a light gray veil, in Zuwara, 120 km west of the Libyan capital Cities.
Chahuachi, who teaches the Amazigh language, adds with a smile as other fifth-grade elementary school students walk in front of the blackboard.
In Zuwar, close to the Tunisian border, the Amazigh flag flies in several places and members of this minority speak their language, as happened in many other regions of Libya after the assassination of Gaddafi after a massive popular uprising against him.
During the four decades of his reign, the Berbers spoke their language at home or on the street, but secretly and always away from the ears of the police, government agencies or the media.
For Gaddafi, Libya was exclusively Arab, but almost 10 percent of Libyans are Berbers, considered indigenous, as in several countries of North Africa, and the Berbers were present in the region long before the Greco-Roman campaigns. Arabs in the seventh century.
In a country divided into two camps vying for power, the United Nations-recognised government is seeking to meet the needs of the Amazigh community by providing textbooks in the original language, but not yet making it an official language.
After completing his classes, Chahuachi heads to the small studio of Casas FM, the first local Amazigh-language radio station broadcasting from Zuwara since 2012, and recently a national Amazigh-speaking station was launched from the capital Tripoli.
