Arabisation as a democratic choice

By Hosni Abdel-Rehim

Since the cancellation of the 1991 elections, which the Islamists seemed poised to win, and the outbreak of a civil war that has claimed tens of thousands of Algerian lives, Harbi has stood firm in rejecting the inevitability of a choice between a military dictatorship on the one hand, and a religious dictatorship on the other. In his writings, he seeks to focus attention on the roots of the historical crisis of Algerian identity.

Against the backdrop of recent legislation aimed at Arabising public administration and education, which provoked a flurry of criticism from Berbers, the media and French cultural circles, Al-Ahram Weekly met with Harbi at his small apartment in a Paris district inhabited mostly by Algerians.

Would you attribute the current cultural crisis in Algeria to post-independence policies?

I believe that the elements of the present crisis emerged over the last century, consolidated by the French colonial rule in Algeria and the establishment of a domestic elite that worked closely with the colonial administration. Until that time, Arabic had been the language of academics in Algeria, both at katatib (traditional schools), and religious schools. In rural and mountainous regions, Arabic had prevailed in some areas while various Tamazight dialects were spoken in others.

Yet Tamazight was not one universal language spoken by all Kabyles. Each tribe had its own dialect or even its own language often mixed with Arabic. But the common language for all Algerians was Arabic due to its status as the language of Islamic religious observance.

However, during the 1930s, the French administration enacted a law which deemed Arabic a foreign language. The measure generated angry reactions, most prominently by the "Jamaat Al-Ulama" (The Group of Scholars) under the leadership of Ben Badis who deserves credit for being the first to define Algerian identity as Arab-Islamic. The Jamaat Al-Ulama has succeeded in instilling this concept of identity in an entire generation, specifically the generation which took charge of leading the country in the wake of the war of independence.

It is amazing that the Kabyle spokesmen at the time called for an Algerian nation with Berber and Arabic as official languages. Naturally, French was excluded from any language proposals. It should be noted that during the elections which took place before independence, advocates of Francophonism were consistently marginalised, particularly in the 1948 elections. After these elections, the situation was aggravated when administrative, technical and military cadres were drawn from Francophone schools.

At the highest echelons of power, a number of leaders were excluded because they descended from Kabyle stock. One such leader is Ayat Ahmed (the head of one of Algeria's main Berber parties). Since then, political and cultural speculation on the Berber question has become a major issue.

Can the problem be reduced to the politicisation of a historical issue, or is there more to it?

During the 1930s, the Kabyle region was the poorest in Algeria. As we all know, colonialist policies have always sought to infiltrate new territories with the help of missionaries. In Algeria, Catholic missions opened schools to provide education in French. The missionary schools converted many students to Catholicism, which created a cultural elite with strong links with the colonisers.

French was a means of social mobility. The colonisers and their language propagated misconceptions about the descent of the Kabyles, claiming that they were of Celtic origin, and that their roots were in the Iberian Peninsula. It should be noted that the Kabyles reacted most violently to the question of conversion to Christianity. Kabyles had engaged in the fiercest battles for independence.

Meanwhile, the 1960s and '70s witnessed the creation of a Berber cultural movement by Kabyle emigrants in France. Being among the poorest sectors of the population, the Berbers had emigrated en masse, as is the case with the poor in any country. After independence, the French government encouraged the establishment of Berber cultural societies, and actually created departments of the Berber language in most universities.

During the most recent crisis, a number of political parties have used the Berber question to bring pressure to bear on the government. The French government is also using the Berber movement to pressure the Algerian government to be less hostile to the French vis-à-vis US interests.

Do you read the latest move for Arabisation as a possible compromise by the government with the Islamists?

Contrary to the case of the national or secular parties, the Islamist parties are deeply rooted in Arab and Berber circles. A large number of Islamist party leaders, such as Abbasi Madani and Belhaj, have Kabyle roots.

But obviously, all the movements involved in the current conflict in Algeria are mainly seeking to draw their legitimacy from the war of independence. Consequently, the government's recent Arabisation measures are a blow to the party which leans towards France and which is opposed by Islamists. It is a gesture to the Islamist camp and an attempt to regain some of the legitimacy lost as a result of the 1991 coup.

It is also an attempt to accommodate the fait accompli that young Algerians are Arabised, the Arabic press is widely circulated in Algerian markets, and Algerians favour Egyptian to US or French television series and programmes because they seem to address social problems similar to their own.

In Algeria, the choice is not between Arabic and Berber but between Arabic and French. In view of the overwhelmingly Arab character of Algeria, we have reason to criticise the bureaucratic implementation of a law that ignores the cultural rights of Kabyle society. However, what raises real concern is the recent prominence of Kabyle voices demanding "Kabyle borders" or "Kabyle areas".

This trend will find few supporters among the Kabyles themselves, particularly as those spearheading such campaigns have their headquarters in Paris.

Do you believe that Arabisation could win in a free popular referendum?

It would certainly win overwhelming support from all sectors critical of the government's methods and from a broad section of the Berber population.

Arabic sealed its victory in Algeria the day we won our independence. However, the legacy left by colonialism is very complicated, and the problems can only be solved within a society and a state that is truly democratic.