At a desk in the building, Ahmed Gwirah, president of the Taoujout Association for the Preservation of the Amazigh Villages, discussed the history of the Amazigh community’s marginalization and underdevelopment with Al-Monitor. Only a few miles away, in Matmata, the municipal center of the Amazigh villages, the infrastructure is in better condition, boasting a health center, paved roads and well-built schools. “Even students who come from the Amazigh villages to school in Matmata — you can sense they feel less than others. They stick with each other, and when they’re speaking with each other in the Amazigh language and you ask them what they’re speaking, they say, ‘It’s nothing,’” she said. Neglect has left the Amazigh villages doubly marginalized, causing emigration from their ancestral towns and villages in search of employment, Bechir said, referring to the now-empty Amazigh villages of Chenini and Douiret and those near Tataouine.

Source: The North Africa Journal July 08, 2020 05:15 UTC