Amazigh identity, culture and language have been promoted by the state in recent years, a reversal of past policies. When Mohammed Gazouli was a child, he remembers being made fun of for speaking Tamazight, the Amazigh language, in school. “Now you can express your Amazigh identity without the slightest reservation or shame,” Gazouli said. “The civil status officer and the authority rejected them by saying that they were not Moroccan names.”Is Mohammed VI changing the monarchy’s image? The fact that his mother was of Amazigh origin from the Middle Atlas probably also played a part in the policy of rehabilitating Amazigh identity,” Lounes said.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 21, 2023 15:47 UTC