When he was a child, Axel was annoyed by his name especially when his friends nicknamed him Al kassool" the “lazy” (the name Axel in Arabic is close to the word lazy). This link was not coincidental because it was known that this was his father’s only argument to convince the civil registry department to register his son in that name as he claimed that the name was indeed an Arab name and its origins is the word “lazy” because it was prohibited to register any non-Arab names. This problem completely disappeared when Axel grew up and his father told him that he named him after a brave Amazigh leader and its meaning in Amazigh language meant “Tiger”. However, he never dared disclose the information.

Axel began to get to know his Amazigh identity in secret and quietly started to look for ways to learn his language secretly. In 2007, he said that he carefully ad begun learning the Amazigh language online. He then added:” in 2012, I was among those who registered for the first training session intended for future Amazigh language teachers, which was taught by specialist teachers from Morocco and was organized by Libo association targeting 40 trainees from the city of Zuwarah and Nafusa Mountains. The training session was concluded by a ceremony the trainees hosted in the honor of their instructors”.

The Amazigh language is considered as one of the oldest languages and it is written in Latin alphabet (Tifinagh) which is the indigenous language of the North African people centuries before the Islamic Conquest in the 7th Century AD.

These individual initiatives to teach the Amazigh language after the demise of the Gaddafi regime were crowned by a spontaneous decision as described by Anwar Pascal, head of the Center for Amazigh Research and Studies. He said:” A decision was made in September 2012 by the local councils of Zuwarah, Nalut, kabaw, Gado, Al Kalaa, Rahibat, and Yafran, which are Amazigh-speaking regions all located in the western part of Libya. The decision stipulates that the Amazigh language must be taught in all the schools of these regions. This decision was inevitable because we grew tired of waiting for the government to take a serious stand regarding this issue. This process began by bringing specialists from Morocco once again to teach a group of trainees. The local councils took care of all the expenses without the support of the government, that only issued a decision that authorizes the language to be taught.”

Axel still remembers the arrival of the first batch of Amazigh language textbooks to his city and says:” It was literally a like a wedding! The dream has come true. It was a day that witnessed mixed feelings of joy and tears; it was the first time when the Amazigh of Libya are allowed to learn their mother tongue in a scientific and methodological way. At first, schools and curricula were only available for the first three levels of primary education. We had volunteered at the beginning to teach the language before the councils granted us salaries in the following year with the total absence of the Ministry of Education.”

Ms. Taaziz Al-Hasairi, one of the teachers, says:“As an Amazigh language teacher, I really enjoy this profession. For me, it is a dream that comes true and this represents the ability to claim a long-lost liberty. What makes me even happier is the responsiveness of the children and their love for this subject in addition to their impressive ability to assimilate it. They even take pride in learning it and this is clear on their faces.”

Our interviewee adds:” The curricula we are teaching are broken down according to the level of studies in a gradual way. We begin by teaching the alphabet orally and in writing through simple words, then we teach them numbers and colors through songs. The curriculum develops as the child’s mind matures in the second phase and the child begins to formulate simple sentences and some expressions. The curriculum is varied and covers many subjects such as nature, family, school, and patriotism thus yielding an instructional and educational curriculum.”

Anwar Pascal says:” The establishment of the Center for Amazigh Research and Studies in 2013 as a civic institution dedicated to research in terms of the Amazigh language and culture in scientific ways, allowed it to contribute in organizing the teaching of the Amazigh language, which reached the sixth level of primary education this year. The center also contributed by supervising the teaching of the Amazigh language and helped develop it. In addition, the center also trained instructors and certified them after they had taken tests. Approximately 75 teachers graduated from the center. They were employed across the schools of the city since each level of studies had three courses per week. Furthermore, the center is in a constant communication with the Amazigh language department in the education office in order to organize the teaching process.”

Teaching the Amazigh language in schools and practising it in a scientific way is the least of the Libyan Amazighs aspirations, who demand that the Amazigh language be included alongside Arabic in their next constitution. Mahmoud Shamam, a journalist, does not find this demand practical and says:” I support the teaching of the Amazigh language as a basic language in schools and in regions where the Amazigh are intensively present. I also advocate it being taught as a second or optional language in other regions since allowing it to be taught and spoken is a right and the government should fund it. However, I do not believe that leveling it with Arabic and using it in official communication would be practical now because if it is going to be enshrined in the constitution, then it shall enter immediately in force. That is why I think that it should be recognized as a national language and not as an official one. Personally, I have no problem with that even though my children studied in English and I went through a lot of efforts to teach them some Arabic.”

Al-Zawiya University established an Amazigh language department in the Faculty of Literature of Zuwarah in accordance with decision No 74 issued by the Ministry of Higher Education. Dr. Khaled Al-Awzi, Dean of this University, has a totally different opinion in this field and says:” Since I am one of the people who advocate the Amazigh as a Libyan identity, then we should support it and not fight it like what many people are doing. I am very supportive that Amazigh language should be an official language enshrined in the constitution and at the same level as Arabic even through small steps for the moment. I am convinced that the Amazigh language will have a bright future because it has the necessary qualities, especially when we see the emergence of such specialized departments. Moreover, it would not be surprising to see our Amazigh fellow citizens writing their poetry and literature soon with the Tifitangh alphabet on our official documents. After all, this is their natural right, which they have been deprived of for decades.”

The Amazigh language department of the Faculty of Literature was the culmination of what Axel and his school friends had initiated. The inauguration of this department which occurred for the first time in the Libyan history was a victory for the Amazigh and deserves to be celebrated the way it was by the Faculty of Literature of Zuwarah as stated by Dr. Nefaa Al-Malti the Dean of the faculty. He then added:”Being Amazigh and being convinced of the need to defend our language against all the threats and the exclusion that it had suffered for a long time, and with the help of many individuals from our community, it was our duty to help save it through practical and concrete solutions. Thus, we had the idea of establishing this department just like any other language department. The establishment of this department was well studied and relied on an elaborate mechanism to support it by contracting five specialized members of the teaching board of the Moroccan universities since they have the required expertise and knowledge in this field. These recruitments are going to define the necessary scientific measures by setting the inputs and the curricula to be taught to the first group this year. We are tired of the deficiencies inflicted upon us in our own mother tongue."

These deficiencies were perceived through the complaints of the parents stating that they were unable to help their children learn the language at home. This prompted Nuri Al-Awar to register in the educational session intended to teach the Amazigh language to parents. He said:” First, I registered to learn my language, of which I was deprived, and second to be able to help my children at home seeing that it is a basic subject that will have an impact on their educational level. With this kind of free sessions provided in different times, we won’t have an excuse to ignore our language anymore.”

Axel was one of the teachers in this session that targeted one thousand parents, he says:” We are doing all of this spontaneously while we wait to obtain a legal and official recognition of our rights.”