North African Misconceptions
Moving to London at the age of 14, after almost a decade spent in Morocco had brought to my attention the singular perspective through which I had been perceiving society. Up until that point, I had never contemplated how others might perceive what life in Morocco is like. Moving to the UK exposed me to vast lifestyle interpretations, but this also included certain Western misconceptions. It should noted that what I am reporting exhibits the viewpoint of myself, family and friends. I cannot speak on behalf of all Moroccans, people all live subjective experiences that may differ from my own.
Section one – Neglection of the Amazigh
This section will cover issues regarding not only the exploitation of Moroccan Amazigh culture but how it's quickly perishing away. It will also cover critiques on anthropologists in relation to the perpetuation of same problems they themselves are trying to erase. The history and language of this indigenous culture is not taught at school, it's only ever taught within the household and with each generation, as people move away into urban cities, the culture is very rapidly disappearing. This is noticeably alarming considering the Amazigh make up 60% of the Moroccan population. The only occurrence of information dissemination surrounding the culture is based on its exploitation to enhance the authority of the already Arab dominated country, yet any other instance, it seems to be largely overlooked and left to fade. For example, once a year in Imilchil, a festival known as Moussem des Fiançailles takes place where young Amazigh people have the chance to be introduced to different suitors who may be potential husbands/wives. Originally this was a traditional rural event drawing together all the Amazigh from neighbouring cities. However it has since been transformed into both a touristic event as well as a celebration of sovereignty, making it one of the only occasions government officials make themselves known in such rural areas. Because of this, Western journalists and photographers have become a staple in the festival each year, leaving less room for the locals to take part. This has transformed the festival from a traditional event to a touristic one instead, where the Amazigh themselves are being left out of their own celebrations to make room for Westerners and the elites.
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Notably, the increased presence of media capitalising on the eccentric culture has materialised and objectified the women in ways they aren't used to or comfortable with. The use of technology is more limited for many of the neighbouring villages and the constant appearance of cameras photographing their every step is too personal and exposing. As Alan Keohane states, it’s almost as though on the same level of pornography, leaving the women to feel over-exposed to the world without having much say in it and being made vulnerable for their looks (Journeyman Pictures, 1997). With the way things are going, Amazigh traditions are on a decline and are getting replaced not only by an Arab dominated culture but also French and Spanish identities. This is not an issue within itself but education surrounding Amazigh culture should be prioritised to maintain its existence alongside the other existing heritages in Morocco and North Africa.
Anthropological hypocrisy
Having said that, this does not mean anthropologists neglect studying Morocco, in fact it's the opposite. There has been countless studies done in Morocco since it is considered a mainstream location, or a 'prestige zone' (Inhorn 2014: 64). However, many of these Western studies are based on the exploration of the uncommon customs and traditions and rarely on social and political issues. The research done on the Amazigh is used to portray a foreign fantasy, or as Edward Said describes it, as 'Orientalism', the "social construction based on a fantasized perception of the Orient influenced by a perceived superiority of the West over its former colonies and other ‘exotic’ cultures as well as an inaccurate cultural perspective transmitted through clichés [..] This cultural dogma then led to the creation of an orientalist discourse perpetuating the prejudices Westerners have of Orientals” (Donzé-Magnier, 2017: 2,3). For example, I recently watched a documentary, as mentioned above, called The Persecution of Moroccan Berbers (Journeyman Pictures, 1997), on first impressions, it was very informative, it highlighted the issues that the Amazigh face. Yet, the presenter talks about how the festival is bombarded by Western photographers despite the fact that he is one of those photographers. By being there, he is a part of the problem, how can he be aware of and comment on the issues while actively take part in it. This is an example of one of contractions that exist within anthropology, a field that aims to explore and help aid social and cultural issues while simultaneously exploiting it.
Positionality
This is why I would want to give the Amazigh a voice, to express their problems. As a Moroccan anthropologists this topic affects me more personally, I wish to both explore and search for solutions. As any type of researcher, its important to spread awareness of what is being considered, to not contradict the very points we are making. This leads to me to the value and significance of decolonising anthropology, Talal Asad states, “we need to see anthropology as a holistic discipline nurtured within bourgeois society, having as its object of study a variety of non-European societies which have come under its economic, political and intellectual domination” (Asad, 1973: 103). This made me doubt my own positionality within this context, a first I felt a burden of responsibility on my behalf. I'm left questioning the deep rooted ethics and morality of this field. What are western anthropologists really doing to help? Are they simply choosing this subject because it’s ‘exotic’? Do you have to be directly involved to really care? From my cultural perspective I felt a lack of justified identity, I felt my culture was being forgotten. “Everywhere Africans were subordinated to varying degrees to the authority of European administrators. And although according to functionalist doctrine ‘Every anthropologist writes of the people he works among as he finds them’, the typical description of local African structures totally ignores the political fact of European coercive power and the African chief's ultimate dependence on it” (Ibid.,108). It is necessary for anthropology to have a shift from presenting cultural information back to the West and explaining global phenomena to actively helping preserve a culture and protecting it. Nonetheless, this standpoint takes on the negative idea of anthropologists vs the ‘other’, which in most cases wrongfully demonises the anthropologist as a coloniser. This gives the impression that any Western anthropologist has the goal of maintaining a colonial ideology of the world when in reality most are trying to work against it. Yet Viveiros de Castro identified that “even when the anthropologist and the native share the same culture, the relationship of meaning between their respective discourses serves to differentiate them: the anthropologist’s and the native’s relationship with their respective cultures are not exactly the same“ (Viveiros de Castro, 2013: 474). Thinking it through, this argument felt too deterministic and one-sided, I can't simply speak on the behalf of every Western researcher and claim they do not care for those whom they study, this is plainly untrue. Instead, I was left confused on where I should stand between being an anthropologist and being a part of Orient or whether I should even be separating the two identities. “Anthropology is itself an interesting locus of ‘we’ and ‘them’. Who is being referred to in discussing the ‘we’ of anthropology? Who is doing the anthropologizing, and who is being acted upon? [...] How often do you encounter an Indigenous scholar on a conference panel about Indigenous issues? How often do anthropologists acknowledge Indigenous peoples as active intellectuals and thinkers rather than informants passing down static ‘Indigenous knowledge’ or ‘traditional knowledge’?” (Todd, 2015). Fundamentally, I shouldn't have to separate my identity as a Western anthropologist and my cultural background, the intersectionality of my identity can improve on my research as it could help provide unique viewpoints.
Morocco’s Own Demise
Apart from orientalist impacts on the Amazigh culture, the Moroccan government itself is hindering the preservation of it. As mentioned above, officials only make themselves known in such rural Amazigh locations and events when there's Western presence, using the culture for touristic purposes. I must highlight that there has been a few improvements in the protection of Amazigh traditions, for insantce, in 2016 Tamazight (standardised Amazigh language) was declared an official language in Morocco. And a personal observation, they have started to include Tamazight news alongside the usual darija (Moroccan Arabic dialect) and French news. This still doesn't take away from the fact that it took up to very recently to declare Tamazight an official language even though 35-40% of the population speak various varieties of Tamazight (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, 2015). Efforts to keep the culture preserved are few and far between, “In the summer of 1994 King Hassan II of Morocco promised instruction in Berber in public schools, although it remained unclear whether Berber would be the language of instruction or an instructed language” (Hoffman & Crawford, 1999: 118). This quote made me reflect on how I had never personally heard of anyone being taught Tamazight at school and in the previously mentioned documentary, it stated that most people learn the language through family. Based on the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (2015), only 12% of schools teach Tamazight. When talking to friends and relatives, I asked why they think the government doesn't provide much recognition to the Amazigh, and the general agreement was that the government does not want to give them any authority or power to prevent them from gaining 'too much confidence'. In other words, they think the government doesn't want to risk political authority and ownership between the Amazigh and Arab Moroccans who are presently in power.
Section two - The Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
This section will take on a less personal perspective for the most part and I will instead discuss Morocco's regional significance, exploring possible issues surrounding the classification of the Middle East and North Africa. Specifically, the complication of incorrect representations that derive from Western labels.
Colonial and Orientalist Implications
I contend that combining North Africa with the Middle East under one category may cause some difficulty regarding true cultural depictions while further highlighting colonial and orientalist views. For example, the anthropologist Dale Eikelman identified Asian and European Turkey, Western Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Sudan, the Levant and North Africa (including Mauritania), as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eastern Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as part of what he called Great Middle East, stating that the what ties the regions together is due to fact that “Islam remains a basic (although not exclusive) element of identity for most people of the region” (Eikelman quoted by Bowman, 2012). The amount of valid extensive research he has done on these regions is not something I am dismissing however, I argue labelling them all as one takes away from the individual cultural identity of these areas. This provokes a dilemma considering the effects of colonialism, its noteworthy that Christian countries aren't labelled as one based solely on Christianity. A country such as Russia isn't labelled under the same category as a country like Finland although Christianity is the most widely professed religion in both countries. Instead they are studied more specifically for cultural differences, it seems unusual that a country like Morocco would be so closely related to a country like Kuwait or Pakistan when the only similarity is religion. On other hand labels such as the ‘West’ or the ‘Occident’ are based on colonial power rather than religion. This feeds into the stereotypes of orientalism, the label of MENA, created by the West, conveys the colonial notion of simplifying the ’other’ into one category, placing a certain ideology on the Orient while diminishing the more specific complexities of the regions. Fundamentally, linking regions together based on a religion is entirely ineffective. Religions can be practised very differently based on a country. Personally, I’ve noticed myself that although moving from a Muslim country, I found that Muslims in London took their religion more seriously than what I had experienced in Morocco. This may be due to a mixed culture of people; however, I’ve realised that many first-generation Moroccans I’ve met choose to be more distanced from religion to appear more ‘modern’ or ‘European’ to seem less traditional. For example, Courtney Hughes found that middle class Moroccan women leaned towards a ‘liberal’ perspective on contraceptives to associate themselves with more European ways of thinking like France compared to ‘conservative’ countries like Saudi Arabia (Hafez and Slyomovics, 2013). This highlights the role a region plays on a culture, since Morocco has been colonised by Spain and France, they have been more influential to views on religion than a country like Saudi Arabia which is only surrounded by Muslim countries.
It's important to realise that not all North Africans are Arab, it takes away from their identity when classified as something that isn't entirely representative. Although an Arab identity exists in Morocco to an extent, there is also an African identity, something that ignored when categorised under MENA. By only representing the Arabic side of North Africa, we are essentially ignoring millions of the Amazigh across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, giving light solely to parts of North Africa that are similar to the Middle East. It takes away from their own cultural individuality, sweeping it under the rug as a culture of less significance. I would like to make clear that I do not want this section to come across as a desire for dissociation with Middle Eastern culture. There are of course many different cultures within the Middle East that have their own uniqueness and I do not wish to discredit that. However, regions are regions an important component in the makeup of a culture, countries in North Africa are essentially more similar to each other compared to countries in the Arabian Peninsula and I find it inefficient for them to grouped as one regardless. Interestingly, Burke proposes a "‘bottom up’ approach through close engagement with the minutiae of the everyday life of common people” rather than using “‘broad generalisations about Islam or the Ottoman state, or from stereotypes about the Arab mind or Islam” (Burke, 1993 cited by Bowman, 2012).
Misrepresentation
Aside from colonial implications, the more direct issue with this classification is misrepresentation of important topics. I lightly covered the term ‘prestige zone’ in the previous section. Certain countries in MENA are more commonly studied compared to others, they are more ethnographically mainstream, known as what Inhorn labels prestige zones. These countries include Egypt, Morocco, Iran and Turkey. This means that while there may be an abundance of research on MENA, it isn't equally distributed creating a lack of accurate regional representations and subsidising the distinctions between them. Furthermore, by focusing on what Lila Abu-Lughod calls ‘zones of theory’, which includes topics like gender, tribalism and Islam, it then places similar assumptions on other countries regarding these subjects that may be completely invalid (Inhorn, 2014: 64,69). These zones of theory made up about half of the whole anthropological data of the Middle East and North Africa. Views on gender in a prestige zone like Morocco will place the same assumptions on another country within MENA that may have entirely different values. And due to zones of theory, even countries within these prestige zones don’t have the potential adequate or influential studies done on them as only key parts are being presented repeatedly, further conveying the problematic implications of the MENA classification.
First generation vs Second generation perspective
Having said all of that, I can also understand why Western perspectives view the Middle East and North Africa as more similar than they truly are. One of the observations I’ve made is the difference of opinions regarding community between first generation Moroccans and British Moroccans/ second generation Moroccans. While in Morocco, I was barely introduced to Arabic culture, it wasn't until I moved to London that I was immersed in it. This had highlighted a drastic difference in viewpoints between Moroccans born and raised in London and myself. London's multicultural environment has created communities of shared backgrounds, and since Morocco isn't as diverse, this type of cultural grouping isn't common. Hence, from a British Moroccan’s perspective, many are raised in and around Arabic culture which is then perceived as being similar to Moroccan culture. By having not lived in Morocco, their cultural immersion is limited making their idea of the culture slightly different. Creating what I perceive as a diverse neo-cultural perspective deriving from growing up in multicultural society. Consequently, I believe that the classification of the Middle East and North Africa can be used simply to represent the perspective of Western multicultural ways of living. There are many similarities between these regions due to the level of connectedness that comes from living with one another in an ethnically diverse society which happens to coincide with Western society.
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To conclude, I want to make it clear that I wish not to segregate North Africa and the Middle East for any negative reason. I am simply pointing out that there is countless distinct and unique differences that are dismissed through this categorisation. In addition, this article covers my point of view, and due to the vastness of mixed culture in Morocco, some Moroccans may have a closer relationship to the Arab world while others may be completely disconnected or are more submerged in French, Spanish or Amazigh culture. This distinction is necessary to point out when discussing North Africa as part of the Middle East.
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Bibliography
· Asad, T., 1973. Two European images of non-European rule. Anthropology and the colonial encounter, pp.103-108.
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· Bowman, G., 2012. Refiguring the Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa. The Sage Handbook of Social Anthropology, pp.678-710.
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· Donzé--Magnier, M., 2017. Edward Saïd: Orientalism, pp.1-7. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313360730_Edward_Said_Orientalism
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· Hoffman, K. E. & Crawford, D., 1999. Essentially Amazigh: Urban Berbers and the Global Village. in K Lacey (ed.), The Arab-Islamic World: Multidisciplinary Approaches. Peter Lang, New York, pp. 117-133.
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· Inhorn, M., 2014. Roads Less Travelled in Middle East Anthropology—And New Paths in Gender Ethnography. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 10(3), pp.62-86.
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· Journeyman Pictures, 1997. The Persecution of Moroccan Berbers. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymfAxe_XcH8&t=470s
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· Simpson, A., 2014. Mohawk Interruptus. Duke University Press, p.7. Available at:
https://apps-crossref-org.gold.idm.oclc.org/coaccess/coaccess.html?doi=10.1215%2F9780822376781
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· Todd, Z., 2015. The We and Them of Anthropology | Savage Minds. Savageminds.org. Available at: https://savageminds.org/2015/05/16/the-we-and- them-of-anthropology/
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· Unpo.org. 2015. UNPO: Amazigh: Gap Between Law And Practice In The Use Of Berber Language. [online] Available at: https://unpo.org/article/18689
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