It is our great pleasure to announce the ACAA sponsorship to the 3rd annual celebration of the Los Angeles Amazigh Film Festival that will take place on October 30th at the Barnsdall Theatre and Art Gallery in LA (see enclosed press release for more details).

The Los Angeles Amazigh Film Festival (LAAF) celebrates its 3rd year under the leadership of its founder Helene Hagan, a long time proud ACAA member, a fierce advocate of the Amazigh culture and the President and founder of Tazzla Institute for Cultural Diversity, a non-profit, 501c(3) California charitable and educational organization that was founded in 1993. Some of its activities can be viewed on its web site at www.tazzla.org. In 2007, Tazzla Institute initiated a new project in keeping with its commitment to educate American audiences about the Amazigh (Berber) culture.

 The Festival, sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, city of Los Angeles, the Amazigh Cultural Association in America (ACAA), and the Hagan Law Firm of Palo Alto and Los Angeles is rich in content and some of the major events that will take place are summarized below:

1.      Two documentaries:

• “Lost Art of the Sahara”  Boilerplate Productions and Bradshaw Foundation, a Swiss ethnographic film (2006) directed by Kathi von Koerber and produced by Kiakheya productions.
• “Footsteps to Africa: a Nomadic Journey” in Tamashek (Tuareg language)with the collaboration of the Tuareg people of northern Mali.

2.      An all evening Art Exhibit with two special artists:

• Philanthropist of Ojai Leslie Clark who heads the Nomad Foundation, a charitable organization which helps Tuareg and Waudabe people of northern Niger.
• The silversmith Moussa Albaka of Agadez, Niger will bring his exquisite jewelry designs and Helene E. Hagan’s 2006 book “Tuareg Jewelry: Traditional Patterns and Symbols.” 

3.      A guitar solo play by Alhassane Fongounou, member of the Tidawt band of Niger.

4.      Asshak: Tales of the Sahara” a film (110 minutes) by U. Koche, Catpics Productions, in Tamashek with English sub-titles. The film was made possible by the collaboration of Tuaregs of Northern Niger.

5.      A Concert of traditional Amazigh music of the High Atlas of Morocco by two talented musicians, AZA performers Fattah Abbou and Mohamed Aoualou, North African band from Santa Cruz.

The main speakers will be Helene Hagan (President of Tazzla Institute and Organizer of the Festival) introducing the event, and Aomar Benslimane (President of ACAA) speaking on ACAA contribution to the Amazigh culture over the years and its strong support to the Amazigh film festival and its intent to strengthen its commitment with Tazzla Institute for the purpose of educating the American audience on the Amazigh culture and finally Rachid Bouksim, Director of the Issi N’Ourgh Film Festival of Agadir, Morocco who will speak about the Amazigh Cinematography of Morocco

An ACAA booth will be available that will display some of the major publications that ACAA published or helped publish over the years (books, magazines, CDs, card games etc…).

Let’s show our support to the festival by gathering there over that week end. It will be a nice week end to support the festival, visit the west coast and re-connect our fellow imazighen of the west coast.

This is a unique and rich program of film, food and music celebrating the AMAZIGH culture of North Africa and the Sahara.

Mark your calendars, and do not miss this event on Saturday, October 30th, 2010. Tickets ($15.00– Adults and $10.00 children under 12) will be available for early purchase on http://www.laaff.org where you will find more information on the LOS ANGELES AMAZIGH FILM FESTIVAL 2010.      Information will also be available on www.tamazgha.org.

Those from the East coast who can make the trip, please get in touch with Aomar at abensnyc@aol.com or call him at 201 388 1586 so we can get organized to make arrangements for discount airfare and lodging accommodations.

Click on the file below to download the festival flier.

The Achab Editions have just released this very interesting new publication titled "The Jewelers of At-Yanni" and authored by Myriam Donsimoni, Mohamed Kemmar and Cecile Perret-Carnot. The book discusses local development through local know-how and products with the example of Jewelry production in At-Yanni. At-Yanni have a long tradiciton of Kabyl jewelry.

Summary:
"The Jewelers of At-Yanni" Directed by Cecile Perret-karnot and co-written with Myriam Donsimoni, and Mohamed Kemmar

The country begins its reopening, the security returns step by step and the tourists will soon be back in Algeria. The valuation of cultural, natural heritages and craft is then necessary. Associations and most recently public authorities have understood this necessity (tax exemptions, implementation of the Nucleus approach). Kabylia is rich in its culture and in its know-how really anchored in the territory (Jewelry, pottery, weaving). The questions raised in this research are essentially: how to value this heritage? How to structure the actors of the territory? How to put the craftsman, his know-how and its creativity in the heart of a process of systematic development? The territory which I chose, point of departure of this research, is the Ath-Yenni’s because of it’s history, it is rich in its landscapes and its ancestral jewellers know-how which made it the fame and the fortune. In addition, the object jewel in itself is very interesting because of its strong symbolic contents (motives, colors), it is a valuable reserve and it is passed on of generation in generation between the women.

To realize this study, we mobilized at once the traditional theoretical tools of the territorial development and the social capital, because the social factors (social ties, informal exchanges, Nucleus, etc.) influence the territorial development. We also met craftsmen or actors of the territory. Certain craftsmen jewelers even had the kindness to answer a questionnaire, what is not necessarily natural in societies with strong tradition; that they are thanked for it. On 14 craftsmen who answered the questionnaire, 6 still have their company localized in the Commune of Beni-Yenni (Ath Lahcen, Tigzirt or Agouni Ahmed) and 11 declare to have a family origin in this Commune (for the greater part Ath-Lahcen). If we are conscious that the size of craftsmen's sample on which we worked is reduced, nevertheless their answers bring us precious indications on the problems they meet: supply in raw materials, flow of the goods … But to make a report is not sufficient. We also questioned them about the possible solutions to help them. Our conclusions take into account all their ideas, notices… and we hope not to have betrayed them. Certain number of propositions of action concludes this study: certification of the traditional jewels, structuration of a strong professional organization… The " road of the jewel " or the " road of the know-how " we sketch a ready plan (departure from Tizi-Ouzou) must be naturally considered as possible tracks which can be discussed by the actors of the territory and be refined. The role of the academic is only to analyze a situation in a most objective possible way. What is certain it is that Kabylia has considerable valorisable assets, of which the extraordinary hospitality of the inhabitants.

Cécile Perret-Karnot: Abstract – Country planning is a fundamental question not only to reduce the territorial economic disparities but also to anchor poles of art professions, " a concentration of companies of art professions, which maintain relations between them and with the territory " (Kozianski, on 2008) and which participate not only in the local development but also just like a territory. The questions which raise in this article could be formulated in the following way: territories or countries not benefiting from a good tourist image can lean on a specificity to build their attractiveness. Are the ancestral craft know-how a specific resource? How to evaluate it to built an attractiveness on this know-how ? Can the touristic image be based on this specificity to build attractiveness. Our applied studie leans on the algerian Wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou and more particularly on the case of the Ath-Yenni jewelers (Beni-Yenni, Algeria).

The following petition (in French) calls on Air Algerie to introduce Tamazight in its customer service. Air Algerie caters to many Imazighen who live in Canada and who regularly use their direct flight Montreal-Algiers. Air Algerie makes use of Arabic and French manly on its flights and ignores the fact that it carries many Imazighen who would like to be spoken to in their language. It also blantantly ignores that Tamazight is ow a national language of Algeria. This petition has been started by Amazigh residents in Canada.

Click this link to access the petition and sign it

Introduction de la langue tamazight dans les services à la clientèle d'Air Algérie

À Monsieur le Président Directeur Général d'Air Algérie,

Je suis citoyen algérien résident au Canada. Ma famille et moi sommes très contents de l’ouverture de la ligne Alger – Montréal ; Ce qui nous a rapprochés de notre pays et nous évite de transiter par d’autres aéroports (par exemple, Casablanca ou Paris). Depuis l’ouverture de cette ligne, nous voyageons régulièrement avec « Air Algérie » et nous sommes globalement très satisfaits des services offerts.

Cependant, je voudrais soulever une question qui relève à la fois du respect de la clientèle d’Air Algérie et du respect d’une langue qui a un statut de langue nationale : je veux naturellement parler de l’absence totale de tamazight sur les vols d’Air Algérie.
Ma mère, qui réside avec moi, âgée de 74 ans, parle uniquement le kabyle/tamazight.

Elle voyage régulièrement entre l’Algérie et le Canada. À chacun de ses voyages, et elle voyage souvent seule, je suis dans l’obligation de demander aux passagers, qui parlent notre langue, de l’assister durant le voyage. Je pense, qu’elle a le droit, en tant que citoyenne algérienne et cliente payant son billet d’avion, de se faire servir dans sa langue.

J’ai vécu dans plusieurs pays qui ont deux langues nationales où ce genre de problème ne se pose pas. En Finlande, la compagnie «Finnair» fournit ses services en finnois et en suédois (les finlandais qui parlent suédois forment 6% de la population). Au Canada, la compagnie «Air Canada» fournit ses services en anglais et français (langue maternelle de 22% de la population canadienne). De plus, l’un de vos concurrents « Aigle Azur » offre la possibilité de servir les passagers voyageant vers l’Algérie en tamazight ; alors pourquoi pas « Air Algérie » ?

Avec mes remerciements, je vous pris, Monsieur, d’agréer en mes salutations distinguées.

Tarik Bouaziz.
Ottawa, Canada

Email : tbouaziz@yahoo.com

Copié à :
• Ambassadeur d'Algérie au Canada (Mr. Smail Benamara)
• Représentant Général d'Air Algérie au Canada (Mr. Abdelaziz Laouar)
Pétition en ligne :

Click this link to access the petition and sign it