African Languages and Societies Commons^™

The Berbers: Constructed Identities By Foreigners On African Soil, Zineb Askaoui

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the textual evidence pertaining to the identity of the local North African population of Morocco. In examining the literature about North Africans and the inscriptions in North Africa, I wish to determine who their authors were. Since North Africa has been invaded and colonized multiple times throughout history, the available literature written by both the foreigners who colonized it and the locals yielded interesting and sometimes contrasting results.

The names that address the local North Africans are pertinent expressions of identity or of forceful submission. This study examines four different terms that have been used to describe …

Jane Hiddleston. Writing After Postcolonialism: Francophone North African Literature In Transition. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017., Beatrice Guenther

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Jane Hiddleston. Writing After Postcolonialism: Francophone North African Literature in Transition. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. vii + 291 pp.

Crossing Paths: Musical And Ritual Interactivity Between The Ḥamadsha And Gnawa In Sidi Ali, Morocco, Christopher J. Witulski

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The processions occurring in Moroccan pilgrimages--such as those in Sidi Ali, a small town situated in the mountains outside of Meknes and Fez--are important sites that instigate an aesthetic negotiation within nearby possession ceremonies. The many musical groups that punctuate the cacophonous atmosphere during the annual pilgrimage are affiliated with a many of the country’s diverse mystical brotherhoods, including the gnawa, ḥamadsha, and ʿīsāwa. Through a detailed ethnographic description of processions and rituals from two of these groups, this article outlines ways in which musical tastes flow between the different events, informing the aesthetics of both outdoor …

The Hagadah Of Pesah In Amazigh Tradition, J. G. A. Saviranta

Akseli Saviranta

This document examines the text of the Hagadah of the Jewish festivity of Pesah as celebrated by the North African Amazighs of Tinghir in Morocco. Its beginning presents an overview of the history and the cultures of the Amazigh, Jewish, and Judeo-Amazigh communities in North Africa. The celebration of Pesah, as a milestone in Jewish creed and history, is studied within the North African context and with particular attention to the local Hagadah translations. Among these translations, the Judeo-Amazigh text of Tinghir represents one of the few if not the only known text in existence in a Judeo-Amazigh language. A …

Transnational Education Systems In Morocco: How Language Of Instruction Shapes Identity, Sarah Robertson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The North African country of Morocco boasts a rich history of linguistic diversity, which was further compounded with the introduction of the French language under the protectorate in 1912. Through a complicated mix of Fus’ha (Modern Standard Arabic), Darija (Moroccan Dialectical Arabic), French (historically the language of the protectorate), and most recently, the introduction of English, the system of education with respect to linguistic instruction is left in a bind. The divide between the public schools, private schools, traditional Arabic schools, and well-­‐ established French schools only grows, as the Moroccan Education system hurts for change. If language shapes education, …

A Transnational Postmodernism : North Africa As A Locus For Postmodern Fiction, Steven Weber

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Examining a 25-year period of literature about post-WWII North Africa by Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Kateb Yacine, and Pierre Guyotat, A Transnational Postmodernism describes the creation of a particular kind of postmodern literature that has been shaped by the concerns of its colonial/postcolonial context. Such a shaping introduces postmodernity as a problem. This problem—astutely identified by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire—is that, at the moment of decolonization, as we move from modern to postmodern regimes of power and control, the typical elements of postmodernity (hybridity, et al) are no longer as necessarily liberatory as they once were against …

“In Light Of Real Alternatives”: Negotiations Of Fertility And Motherhood In Morocco And Oman, Victoria E. Mohr

Student Publications

Many states in the Arab world have undertaken wide-ranging family planning polices in the last two decades in an effort to curb high fertility rates. Oman and Morocco are two such countries, and their policies have had significantly different results. Morocco experienced a swift drop in fertility rates, whereas Oman’s fertility has declined much more slowly over several decades. Many point to the more conservative religious and cultural context of Oman for their high fertility rates, however economics and the state of biomedical health care often present a more compelling argument for the distinct differences between Omani and Moroccan family …

Tunisian Words Of Amazigh Origin, Jihëd G. Mejrissi

Jihëd Mejrissi

This document presents a list, incomplete and inconclusive, of Tunisian words of Amazigh origin, as well as other elements related to the Amazigh substrata in Tunisian. Should any other words, errors, or other be found, please feel free to contact the author, and to check the most recent version.

Islam "Saint-Ified": A Description Of Islamic Saint-Worship Practiced By Middle Atlas Berbers, Alaina Cates

Honors Theses

Man has ever invaded, pushing aside previous owners to claim possession. Thus history tells us: of nations conquered, peoples displaced, and foreigners that become inhabitants, who will in tum be conquered, displaced, and replaced. In this telling of history, however, a position exists for those whose story knows no previous inhabitants. These people are called indigenous. The shore of North Africa is a vast land that has known countless invasions and times of foreign rule. It has also known the continuation of a single people group, indigenous to its soil for as long as history can recall. These people are …