Moroccan government outlines roadmap to institutionalize the Amazigh language
In its roadmap for institutionalizing the Amazigh language, the new government has outlined two fundamental measures. The first involves establishing a special fund endowed with two billion dirhams, designed to give practical effect to the official status of the Amazigh language and strengthen its presence across various domains. The second focuses on setting up a permanent ministerial commission under the Head of Government, tasked with overseeing the integration of Amazigh into education, administration, justice, the media, and public signage, while drafting an annual report containing indicators on coverage levels and progress achieved in this regard.
Regarding the special fund dedicated to the Amazigh language, this decision deserves praise, particularly the budgetary envelope allocated to it. However, this does not prevent us from raising numerous questions about the nature of this fund, its operational mechanisms, its areas of intervention, and the entity responsible for managing and committing its budget. To ensure this mechanism does not remain a mere measure without tangible impact, its entire budget must be dedicated exclusively to the Amazigh language. This is to avoid repeating the mistakes of the previous government, which established under the supervision of the Ministry of Digital Transition and Administration Reform a mechanism called the “Fund for the Modernization of Public Administration, Support for Digital Transition, and Use of the Amazigh Language”—endowed with one billion dirhams in 2025—without any real impact on the Amazigh language being observed on the ground… By insisting on the imperative of dedicating this fund exclusively to the Amazigh language, we recall in this context the electoral program of the Authenticity and Modernity Party, which leads the new executive branch. In its commitment number 16, entitled “Accelerating the Officialization of the Amazigh Language,” the party indeed mentioned “the creation of a special fund to support the use of the Amazigh language endowed with an envelope of two billion dirhams, while removing this competence from the Fund for the Modernization of Public Administration, Support for Digital Transition, and Use of the Amazigh Language.” Therefore, the decision to create this fund fulfills an electoral commitment appearing in the program of the party leading the government. Yet the real challenge lies in how to bring this measure to fruition, both operationally and practically. In this regard, several avenues and proposals can be put forward concerning the fields of intervention for this fund.
Let us first agree that the implementation of the official status of the Amazigh language in all aspects of public life concerns all ministerial departments. In other words, the financial appropriations necessary for this official status are already inscribed in the individual budget of each sector, whether in education, media, justice, or other areas. The creation of this fund therefore resembles a positive discrimination measure aimed at repairing the prejudice suffered by the Amazigh language, accelerating its officialization, and enabling it to fully perform its constitutional role. From this perspective, the fund must adhere to a transparent financing mechanism for various projects dedicated to the promotion, protection, and development of the Amazigh language.
• From this standpoint, the involvement of Amazigh actors appears essential, notably through associations working for Amazigh culture, via partnerships designed to implement targeted programs or within the framework of organizing festivals, colloquiums, and moussems related to Amazigh cultural heritage.
• The fund can also serve as a lever to encourage signage and displays on the storefronts of private spaces, such as cafés, restaurants, hotels, businesses, and shops, as well as for all advertising billboards and related promotional materials, while public signage falls under the purview of competent ministerial departments. In this capacity, the fund could finance young university graduates in Amazigh studies wishing to create small regional and local businesses specialized in crafting signs, storefronts, and everything related to Amazigh visual identity in Tifinagh script, in order to correct the anomalies observed here and there in the lettering…
• Regarding Amazigh production in the fields of literary creation, theater, cinema, and music, the fund can also be mobilized to finance and stimulate these creations, either entirely for projects not requiring substantial financial means, or partially for initiatives already benefiting from sectoral support from the Ministry of Culture, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center, or television, for instance, when these subsidies are insufficient to cover production costs…
• To guarantee the right of Moroccans to learn their Amazigh language, both in written and oral forms, the fund could also open up to non-formal education and literacy initiatives for individuals wishing to learn to read and write in Amazigh.
As for the second measure, which provides for the establishment under the Head of Government of a ministerial commission tasked with monitoring the effective integration of the Amazigh language into various fields of public life, it responds to a requirement formulated by the organic law itself. Article 34 of Organic Law 26.16 setting the stages for implementing the official status of the Amazigh language indeed stipulates:
An interministerial permanent commission shall be established under the Head of Government, tasked with monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the official status of the Amazigh language. The composition of this commission and its operating procedures shall be set by regulatory means.
This commission therefore constitutes neither an innovation nor an unprecedented government initiative, but rather a legal instrument for evaluation and monitoring. The term “creation” used in the government declaration consequently lacks accuracy: the government then led by Saad Dine El Otmani had already adopted the decree establishing this ministerial commission on September 3, 2020, and it met only once, on April 20, 2021, before sinking into oblivion throughout the previous governmental mandate presided over by Aziz Akhannouch. The expression most faithful to reality would therefore be to speak of “reactivating” rather than “creating” this body… For the commission to fulfill its mission, its working methods will need to be rethought by opening up to Amazigh actors and associating them with monitoring, evaluation, and proposals.
The promotion of the Amazigh language undeniably requires budgetary allocations as well as monitoring, support, and evaluation bodies. Yet these measures, while essential, remain dependent on more courageous initiatives and commitments, just as they demand heightened mobilization and advocacy from Amazigh actors. The Amazigh cause indeed pertains to a state priority before being a simple governmental or sectoral affair, since it permeates all facets of public life and cannot be confined to a single domain. It calls for genuine political will that allows it to fully occupy its constitutional status. To this end, the Amazigh language should be endowed with a governmental or independent institution tasked with supervising everything concerning the deployment and implementation of its official status across all sectors.
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