The Berber party opens the high season of festivals in Morocco

"Imazighem, imazighem", such is the cry of the crowd, which is repeated every summer in unison in the central square of Al Amal, in Agadir (about 500 kilometers from Rabat).

It is the same song with which the artists animate each tuning break from the stage of the Timitar Festival.

This meeting of the peoples known as Berbers from southern Morocco has just celebrated its 17th edition after a two-year hiatus, when the uncertainties of borders are just beginning to fade.

It is Amazigh (Berber, a term that they consider pejorative) territory, in the Moroccan Souss region, where

could be translated as “free men”, in the Tachehilt language and proud plural.

In this region, bordered to the east by the Atlas Mountains and the arid landscape of large thorny bushes and goats, the Atlantic breeze makes the Sahara breathe and accompanies the cool afternoons and nights of the popular Timitar (which in the Amazigh language means “signs ”).

This year, the festival was able to resume its path in a compact version, limited to two days, and with mostly local musicians.

“Our intention has always been to have a third of musicians from the Souss region and another third of foreign guests;

the rest is made up of ensembles from the different regions of Morocco, and it will continue to do so in the future, because Timitar will once again be international”, advances Brahim El Mazned, artistic director of the festival that began in 2004. By the way, this tireless promoter of the folklore of his native region took advantage of the pandemic pause to continue his explorations and be able to publicize –in parallel to this latest edition of the festival– the book

(The art of the ruais, as the Amazigh troubadours are called) .

It is an extension of

, a set of ten CDs with a didactic booklet (in French, English and Arabic), published in 2020. Both publications are committed to the dissemination and preservation of the legacy of this pentatonic scale music from the western High Atlas, the Anti Atlas and the Souss region, on the Atlantic, of which there are centuries-old records, valuable but scarce, and that continue to be so alive in the local people.

Indeed, the inhabitants of the region feel as linked to their folklore as to the festival, something that was evident on July 15 and 16, in the total traffic jam in the city of Agadir, as a result of the amount of public moving around Al Amal and Alwahda squares.

The two stages that hosted 18 concerts were located there.

According to the organization, this time there were about 380,000 attendees (100,000 the first night and 280,000 the second), compared to about half a million that used to congregate in previous editions, the

, of four days and when the Amazigh musicians receive other music of the world

There were some 380,000 attendees, according to the organization, compared to the nearly half a million that used to congregate in previous editions.

In the square, at sunset, entire families plant their deckchairs on the grass on the sides to spend several hours listening to live music, while thousands of girls and boys gather to dance in the front rows, on the cement and glued to the stage.

On stage, with an impressive visual display, rise from traditional musicians (Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant, Ahwach Afoos Ghofos – Ait Baamran) to idols of the

, such as DJ Suraj, VJ Kalamour, VJ Atmost and the magnificent DJ Kawtar Sadik, born in Agadir and that triumphs in the nightclubs of Casablanca.

Also going through pop idols who come from the big cities of the center, such as the diva Zina Daoudia, Hatim Ammor or the incombustible rockers Hoba Hoba Spirit, who have already completed 20 years as a group.

Among the first, the traditional ones, are the so-called

and

(male and female leader of an Amazigh music formation), accompanied by orchestras in which the inevitable instruments are the lute, percussion and the

(from the violin family). , with a bowed string).

Behind the teachers of these formations of

are the choirs and dance groups of the brotherhoods, in their recognizable costumes full of beads and dagger sheaths in noble metals.

The members – even those who are not so young – dance with amazing agility, raising their shoulders rhythmically and quickly.

The female claim of the south

Raïssa Fátima Tabaamrant is one of the consecrated women of Amazigh music who returned to the stage this year to the delight of the fans.

She was born in the rural commune of Ifrane Atlas Saghir (Guelmim province), an area of ​​oasis towns where the voice of women is heard.

As she herself comments, in this territory where there were even Amazigh queens, women are a pillar.

She “she plays a central role in the education of the children and in all the decisions of the home;

she is also a central figure in the music that emerges from this culture, ”says the artist.

Raïssa Fatima Tabaamrant, singer, dancer, actress and activist for the Amazigh language known as the Voice of Aït Baâmrane. Studio Lorenzo Salemi

In this territory where there were even Amazigh queens, the woman is a pillar, since she plays a central role in the education of the children and in all the decisions of the home;

she is also a central figure in the music that emerges from this culture

Fatima Tabaamrant, Amazigh singer

Fatima Tabaamrant admits that "unfortunately, in the southern regions, women do not have the same access to education as men, who are precisely the ones who can hinder the development of their daughters, wives or sisters."

They usually prevent them from going out to live their lives and, for this reason, the singer insists on the importance of education for emancipation, and even so that young people are not afraid to stand up to "those current currents that degrade them" .

Tabaamrant alludes to customs that come from far away places in the East, such as covering the head with tight-fitting veils, instead of the light fabrics that women of the cultures of the Sahara desert usually wear, as adornment: “Here we had some traditional outfits which are also used in Niger, Sudan and Libya.

Smiling, with large earrings in the shape of the letter that symbolizes the Amazigh alphabet, and with calm wisdom, Tabaamrant maintains that, despite all the stigmas that his people once carried in their own country, and, although there are points in which the native culture suffers, does not feel that there is discrimination in the present.

“We are the original population of North Africa, where there has been movement of many peoples, including colonization, and, on some occasions, pre-existing cultures were not taken into account, but I would not define it as discrimination,” he clarifies.

In this positive evolution, the artist cites as important milestones the creation of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM), thanks to a royal decree of 2001, and the recognition of the

as a co-official Moroccan language, according to the 2011 Constitution.

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the members of Hoba Hoba Spirit arrived to enliven the stage with urban and cosmopolitan airs, along with the immense beaches left by low tides in Agadir.

Thus, in the crowded previous press conference, Réda Allali commented that it was "a pride to have been able to record our things in time, over two decades" and the fact that they, at least "the

”, have remained united.

The leader of the formation alluded to the three generations of Moroccans whom he has accompanied to speak and protest about the issues that are still current in their society.

Oubizz, for his part, said he felt gratified for having been able to experience the same process with his audience: "We have also had children."

Meanwhile, Adil Hanine, the drummer, joked that, despite the many changes in contemporary life (screens replacing live concerts and the greater disconnection between musicians brought about by digital media), when he goes on a motorcycle through the streets of Casablanca, he finds himself with the same gaps as 20 years ago: “There are neighborhoods where we celebrate the anniversaries of the wells in the pavement”.

In short, the port metropolis continues to grow, with the cement holes of any large North African city, while peripheral cities such as Agadir are increasingly painted, cleaned and landscaped.

It is not only sand, sea and tourism: there is also good music.

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