Where is Tamazight in Morocco’s 2024 Census?

Doha – Despite the recognition of Tamazight as an official language in Morocco’s 2011 constitution, the ongoing 2024 general population and housing census has reignited debates about the marginalization and exclusion of this indigenous language.

The Moroccan Association for Research and Cultural Exchange (AMREC) has recently issued a strongly worded statement criticizing the High Commission for Planning (HCP) and its head, Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, for their handling of the census operation.

In the statement, dated September 11, AMREC accuses the HCP of “systematic exclusion of Tamazight” in the census process, which began on September 1.

Tamazight was not considered as an official language during the preparation phase, the association has charged, alleging that Amazigh civil society, experts, and researchers were not involved in designing a questionnaire that aligns with Morocco’s linguistic and cultural reality under the current constitutional framework.

AMREC further claims that the HCP has deliberately marginalized Tamazight in its communication campaign, designed the census questionnaire in a way that contradicts the linguistic history and reality of respondents, and intentionally omitted a question about the language spoken by the respondent.

The association believes this is a premeditated attempt to manipulate the results, similar to the 2014 census.

The statement also criticizes the HCP’s interpretation of constitutional provisions on linguistic diversity, accusing it of conflating Arabic with Moroccan Darija (colloquial Arabic), which are two distinct languages.

AMREC insists that the data collected during the first third of the census period cannot contribute to the development of a public language and cultural policy that respects constitutional requirements, particularly those related to Tamazight as a language, culture, and identity belonging to all Moroccans.

‘Speak Your Language’

AMREC’s statement is not an isolated complaint. Several Amazigh organizations and activists have expressed concerns about the marginalization of Tamazight in the 2024 census even before the operation began.

In a statement in late August, the World Amazigh Assembly accused Lahlimi of ignoring and marginalizing Tamazight. The statement lamented that Tamazight was replaced by French in the press conference announcing the census launch and completely excluded from census documents and campaigns.

The assembly also alleged that Lahlimi had falsified the proportion of Tamazight speakers in the 2004 and 2014 censuses, suggesting that the current census will not differ from its predecessors in terms of providing “erroneous and inaccurate figures” about the percentage of Tamazight speakers in Morocco.

Many activists echoed these concerns on social media. They appeared to fear a repetition of the 2014 scenario, where Tamazight speakers were considered a minority in the country, not exceeding 27% of the population.

Activists argued that the census questionnaire was designed according to a purely ideological bias that was hostile to Amazigh people and aimed to assess the results of the “brutal Arabization” that the state and parties had engaged in for half a century, rather than being an objective census based on scientific standards.

The Moroccan Alternative Movement, an Amazigh group, called for a structural change in the census questionnaire and the way questions related to identity, culture, and spoken language were included.

They demanded the employment of Tamazight speakers in the census operation in all major cities across different regions of Morocco to inquire about citizens in the Amazigh language while adopting regional expressions.

In an effort to mobilize Amazigh people living in major cities, activists launched a social media campaign called “Sawl S Ils Nek” (Speak Your Language).

The campaign aimed to urge Amazigh residents to declare their true identity by answering census researchers’ questions in Tamazight, even if the researchers did not speak the language themselves.

The primary target of this campaign was Amazigh families living in big cities, especially the elderly who spoke Tamazight at home.

Some activists also raised concerns about the lack of Tamazight-speaking researchers in the census operation, interpreting it as a phobia of the language by the HCP. They called for rectifying this issue before the operation began.

International implications

The controversy has also drawn international attention. According to media reports, some Amazigh organizations are considering submitting a report to the United Nations about Lahlimi’s alleged disregard for UN recommendations regarding mother tongues and deviation from international standards for conducting field censuses.

This step was previously taken in 2015 following the 2014 census, and activists believe it is urgent to repeat it.

The report is expected to be filed after the preliminary and final results of the census are released, highlighting the alleged violations, particularly the “random and suspicious” distribution of the long questionnaire that includes information related to the mother tongue.

Activists claim this has led to many Amazigh people living in cities not encountering it, considering it an overt falsification of Moroccans’ reality.

Copies of the report are also planned to be deposited with the European Union Representation and the World Bank, to inform international organizations that the official census contains inaccurate data on the actual linguistic composition of Moroccan society.

Activists believe this step will help shed light on a process that has left everyone puzzled as to how these violations were allowed to occur.

Lahlimi responds to criticism

In response to these criticisms, Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, the High Commissioner for Planning, used the press conference on the eve of the census launch to address some of the “controversial” points.

He argued that the census is a “sovereign operation with a national dimension” and should not be subject to political bidding.

Tamazight and its main dialects (Tachelhit, Tarifit, etc.) are all included in the questionnaire used by the census takers, Lahlimi emphasized.

Households and individuals will be asked whether they “speak a special local dialect,” the HCP chief noted, stressing that the census relies on the original language because it is not an ethnic or tribal census like in India or America, as “everyone is Moroccan.”

The High Commissioner also explained that the census takers and researchers were chosen based on their understanding of the questionnaire’s content, concepts, and terminology, as well as their ability to communicate in Tamazight in regions where this national language is spoken.

As the 2024 general population and housing census in Morocco enters its third week, however, the controversy surrounding the inclusion and representation of Tamazight in the process continues to simmer.