Amazigh Cultural Association in America

 
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S unecreḥ i tera Tiddukla tadelsant tamaziɣt deg Marikan ad tefk tallalt n $1000 i useggas i Radyu Numydia n Columbus Ohio. Radyu Numydia d radyu n tmaziɣt tamezwarut di Marikan. Tessenker-itt-id Sunya Laǧaǧ d imdukal-is. Tiddukla tesnemmir-iten aṭas ɣef usemlili agi d-semlalayen imaziɣen yellan d iɣriben yellan di yal tama di Marikan d umaḍal s lekmal-is. Tiddukla ACAA taɛreḍ imaziɣen yellan di Marikan a d-fken tameẓẓuɣt i Numydia ama akken a d-slen i isallen, ama d aẓawan (tizlatin) neɣ d tidewwiniyin... Ddut ɣer usmel n Numydia teslem i yedles nnwen!

English

As an active advocate of the Amazigh culture, Numydia Radio (Columbus, Ohio) has been offering a great platform for communication and public service by keeping all Imazighen connected throughout the world with their Amazigh cultural heritage by bringing them the latests news and songs, organizing interviews and promoting the Amazigh culture through Internet radio.  

The board of directors of ACAA is happy to present Numydia Radio with a yearly grant of $1000. This modest monetary contribution is a token of ACAA's appreciation for all the great services Sonia and her staff at Radionumydia have been providing to our community. 

ACAA is committed to helping RadioNumydia and other social/cultural initiatives geared towards the same goals of providing a public service to our people through the promotion of the Amazigh culture.
 
 
 
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ACAA has recently purchased and is going to distribute 1000 books to children in Algeria and Morocco. The books intended for Algeria have been already distributed, those intended for Morocco have not. The 1000 are 500 copies of each of:
- Amcic amcum (pictured above)
- Ttejra n baba inuva
Authored by Nadia Kacher-Menad of Algiers (Algeria), the stories contained in these books are based on old Amazigh tales. The books are written using the modern latin script and have color illustrations. The quality of the production is quite good and ACAA is very pleased to help Amazigh children learn Tamazight and encourage Amazigh authors like Nadia produce more for Tamazight.

The following is a list of the beneficiaries:

1- Institut de formation d'enseignants (Département d'enseignants de tamazight) de Ben aknoun Alger (50 copies).
2- Etablissement arts et culture (50 copies). This has many libraries for children.
3- HCA (50 copies) which has a library.
4- Maison de la culture de Boumerdes (50 copies) has a library.  
5- Maison de la culture de Tizi-Ouzou (50 copies)
6- Ecole primaire Bounnar (30 copies)
7- Ecole Zemerli Akli (30 copies)
8- Ecole Saadane (30 copies)
9- Primaire Moukli (30 copies)
10-CEM Redjouana (30 copies)
11- Association Culturelle Tarwa n Gaya (30 copies)
12- Association Culturelle Ithran Bouira (30 copies)
13- Association Sociale (30 copies) has a library.
14- Association Culturelle Numidya, Oran (50 copies)
15- Association Culturelle Imedyazen, Alger (30 copies)
16- Tamazight teachers in Kabylia (80 copies)
17- Maison de la Culture de Béjaia (80 copies)

200 copies will be distributed in Morocco via a couple of associations. More information to be posted later.

We are very grateful to Nadia Kacher-Menad for the great distribution work she did on behalf ACAA.
 
 

English version follows

Tafaska tis-snat n Usaru Amaziɣ n Los Angeles ad tili as n wis-10 seg Yennayer (amasiḥi) 2009. Tezga-d deg tmeɣra n imaziɣen irkelli: tameɣra n Yennayer. Tafaska agi issudes-itt-id Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity (www.tazzla.org) s tallalt n Tiddukla Tadelsant Tamaziɣt deg Marikan.

Di laɛnaya nnwen rezfet ɣer wesmel n tfaska www.laaff.org akken a d-tawin tilɣutin ilaqen. Nessaram aṭas n imaslaḍen nneɣ d imeɣriyen n wesmel-a ad izmiren ad ddun ɣer tfaska agi ad ɛemmṛen ṛṛeḥba dinna, ad –walin kra n wudmwen n yedles amaziɣ ur ẓrin ara yakan.

The second annual Los Angeles Film Festival will take place on January 10th 2009. It coincides with the celebration of the Amazigh New Year or the Yennayer celebration. This festival is organized by the Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity (www.tazzla.org) and co-sponsored by the Amazigh Cultural Association in America.

Please visit the festival's website www.laaff.org for more information. We encourage our members and readers to attend the festival to discover the many facets of Amazigh culture that are going to be shown to you on the big screen. It is a one of a kind opportunity in the US. We wish the festival a great success.

 
 

 The end of summer 2008 marked the end of the Kabyl Folktale Theater Project directed by Taous Claire Khazem and sponsored by ACAA.The Kabyl Folktale Theater Project was created to celebrate the rich oral tradition of Kabylia by combining theatrical performance with Kabyl folktales (timucuha). Young Kabyl women from the region of Bgayet created a theatre rooted in Kabyl folktales.

The project lasted approximately three months but Taous arrived in the Kabyl capital Tizi-Ouzou in mid-May 2008 to visit family and friends and plan her project. During her first week she already started asking her relatives for folktales. 

Challenges

Arrived in Bgayet, Taous met numerous challenges. One of these challenges is lodging. In Bgayet, rent is very high during the summer months. In fact it is as high as in any major American city. Through ACAA and friends, Taous managed to find a place where to stay. The other major challenge is finding the right candidates for this project. An ad was posted at the City Universitaire with the help of Beza Bencheikh. Taous planned to audition young candidates from highschool but it was not easy as by the time she got there all highschools were closed for the summer vacation. Finally Taous settled with seven candidates who previously worked with Bgayet Regional Theatre Director Omar Fetmouche on another show. The seven recruits will go through the full training and take part in the final performance. For Taous it was not an easy task but she was prepared.

Training and Folktale Selection

It’s the beginning of July and for about a week actresses and director hit the road and scoured the surrounding villages to collect as many folktales as possible. They talked to relatives and friends with knowledge of old Kabyl tales. Director Khazem and her students selected three folktales each telling about the life of a different woman. The tales were all about the courage, the life struggles and the role of women in Amazigh society. The young actresses would end up learning a life lesson while experiencing the joy of theater as well as through the stories themselves.

Ø  The first tale was about the seven sisters and the ogress. The youngest of the sisters would be the one to read through the ogress’s monstrous plans and save the day.

Ø  The second tale was about a girl who was buried alive by her family. She had eaten a snake egg that hatched in her belly. Saved by a stranger, she came back to haunt her mean step-mother and redeem her father.

Ø  A man swore to marry the girl whose hair he found at a fountain. The girl’s name was Drima and she unfortunately was his own sister. 

During the same month, the aspiring actresses explored different styles of play, improvisation and creating scenes and characters. Then came the time to write the dialogues, learn and rehearse them. To challenge the actresses, Director Khazem brought in an audience several times in order to prepare them for the final performance.

Performances  

The actors performed four times: twice at the Bgayet Theatre Regionale, once at the Maison de la Culture of Ait-Smail, and another time at the Maison de la Culture of Bgayet.

Conclusion

This project was the first of its kind for ACAA. ACAA is very grateful to Taous for putting it together and working very hard to see it through. ACAA is very grateful to many other people, members and non-members, who contributed financially or otherwise to this project. Special thanks to Bgayet regional theatre director Omar Fetmouche, Mohand Ameziane Bencheikh, Amor Nouri, MAK Sweden, Nora Cheddad, Nordine Saidi, the Adel Family, Lyazid Abdi, and Samira and Ghania Challali. Last but not least let’s us thank our seven participants who sacrificed their summer vacation and worked hard and performed beautifully.

Many lessons have been learned from this project both for Taous and for ACAA. According to Taous, more effort and time should be devoted to recruiting. Certainly, more housing does require a larger budget in cities like Bgayet where rent skyrockets during the summer months. Another area that may need additional attention in the future is a stipend for actors to increase motivation and help during recruiting. 

Overall the project was a success. The goals set for the project were achieved despite the many challenges. Taous and her actresses created a new style of theater in Kabylia that is rooted in the Amazigh tradition and values.

More Info (Coming soon... Please visit the projects section)

1)    Kabyl tales used in this project

2)    Photos

3)    Clip from the show

4) Taous Khazem's project blog

5)    Algerian newspaper clips about the project



 
 

Taous Khazem is headed to Kabylia (Algeria) where she will work on the ACAA sponsored project "Kabyl Folktale Theater." You can follow her progress on this project on her blog at:
http://thekabylefolktaleproject.blogspot.com/
Also visit our Projects page to learn more about this exciting project.