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Join on Telegram Rabat – Morocco’s Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication Mehdi Bensaid inaugurated on January 13 an exhibition in commemoration of the 2972nd celebration of Id Yennayer or the Amazigh New Year.
Id Yennayer, January 12, marks the first day of the Agrarian calendar, which makes it New Year’s Day for Amazigh communities across North Africa.
The exhibition, held between January 13 to 20 at Rabat’s Mohamed El Fassi Art Gallery, highlights the intangible cultural heritage of Amazigh culture. The exhibition displays the ancient culture’s diversity, and richness, with a focus on Amazigh traditional clothing and jewelry, traditional cuisine, and Amazigh music.
Despite the current circumstances of the COVID-19 that do not allow large public gatherings, Bensaid stressed that such a celebration was indeed important to outline the government’s efforts in promoting Amazigh culture.
“The ministry’s culture department is working endlessly to further introduce the Amazigh language to Moroccan citizens,” he said. The minister further recalled that the “maroc.ma” website was created to allow the easy access of Amazigh-speaking citizens to information regarding royal and government activities.
At the ceremony, the rector of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) Ahmed Boukouss stressed that the Amazigh year is a symbol of the deeply-rooted culture of Morocco and North Africa.
Read Also: Moroccans to Celebrate Amazigh New Year Today
Boukouss underlined that adopting the Amazigh language as an official language in Morocco alongside Arabic testifies to the country’s significant efforts to further include the language in several areas, mainly in the media landscape.
He also noted that upcoming initiatives aim to integrate the Amazigh language and the culture into the action plans of Moroccan ministries, emphasizing, “Such initiatives are important as they will boost the process of implementing the official character of Amazigh.”
Boukous further spoke on the importance of including the language in the Moroccan educational system. In this sense, he welcomed the initiative of the Ministry of Education to recruit teachers for Amazigh studies.
During yesterday’s government council meeting, Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch announced that a budget of MAD 200 million ($21.74 million) will be allocated to officialize the Amazigh language.
The exhibition provides an opportunity to display several artistic and literary Amazigh works.
The Moroccan government announced last year that 2022 will mark the first official celebration of the Amazigh New Year, however, it has yet to be declared as a national holiday.
