In the latest sign of respect for the Indigenous people of Morocco, the king has declared the Amazigh New Year (also known as the Berber New Year) to be a national holiday. The Berber New Year will henceforth be recognized as a paid national holiday, according to a proclamation released by the royal court on Wednesday. New Year’s Day for the Amazigh people is January 13. Historians believe that the ascension of Libyan King Sheshonq to the throne of Egypt is commemorated by the beginning of the year in the Amazigh calendar, which is based on the seasons and agriculture.
Moroccans who speak Arabic also mark this day as the start of the agricultural calendar year. Most of North Africa is home to Berbers, but concentrations of the population can be found in western Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Southern Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are also home to Berber-speaking tribes and ethnic groupings. The Berber language family is collectively referred to as Tamazight. Morocco has the largest Berber (Amazigh) population in North Africa, but for centuries the country has prioritized Arabic and French above the Berber language and culture, sparking a now-powerful Amazigh identity movement. Protests in 2011 resulted to constitutional reform and the monarch of Morocco ceding some of his authority to an elected government, both of which were Amazigh movement demands. Eight years after it was provisionally accepted in a new constitution, Moroccan legislators in 2019 reaffirmed the Berber language’s official status, prompting the decision to commemorate Berber New Year.
Morocco was the first Amazigh country to acknowledge its indigenous language, although advocates there have long complained about its inadequate use in government and education. The government has pledged to recruit hundreds of official Amazigh clerks to be used in public services, and has boosted the funding for supporting the language by 50 percent this year, to 300 million dirhams ($30 million). A public television station in Morocco has been airing programming that celebrates Berber heritage since 2010.
