09/08/2026
Azul azul
International Day of the Worldโs Indigenous Peoples โ 9 August
Every year on 9 August, the world commemorates the International Day of the Worldโs Indigenous Peoples. It is an occasion to pause and reflect on the deep-rooted history of the Amazigh people, one of the peoples whose history stretches far back into antiquity, and one of those who have continued to resist attempts at erasure and disappearance for centuries.
It is also an occasion to reaffirm our commitment to the Amazigh peopleโs right to dignity, as well as to their right to the wealth and resources that have been squandered in the name of policies serving the interests of oligarchies that control political decision-making in the countries where Imazighen live across their ancestral lands.
Tamazight derives its legitimacy of existence from the land, the people, and the space that encompasses language, memory, and history. Its existence is the outcome of the living interactions of the cycles of life within the land; it is not a laboratory construct, nor an artificial creation manufactured for particular purposes and agendas.
On the International Day of the Worldโs Indigenous Peoples, and despite everything that can be said about the conceptual and legal frameworks surrounding this occasionโparticularly certain texts that approach Indigenous peoples through the lens of ethnic minorities, as is sometimes the case in interpretations of instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rightsโit remains an important opportunity to renew the call for an end to the injustice inflicted upon Amazigh memory, history, people, and territory.
It is also an opportunity to call for an end to the processes of linguistic erasure targeting Tamazight, and to affirm that collective reconciliation with oneself cannot be reduced to symbolically recognizing Tamazight or confining it to folklore. It requires elevating it to a position where it becomes a source of legislation, a foundational pillar and guiding reference of the state, and ensuring that it assumes a leading place within state institutions, across all their forms, levels, and structures.
Tamazight is part of human civilization and part of the broader process of human development. Its living dynamism continues through the enduring triad of people, land, and language. Tamazight has never been merely an expression of heritage or a decorative element for museums. It is alive, vibrant, and present in everyday life and social interaction. It therefore needs to be elevated and empowered, rather than confined to a corner of a museum.
Despite all the obstacles, the Amazigh people remain a people of deep historical roots whose history has enriched humanity and contributed a distinct North African dimension to human civilization. They remain elevated by the enduring humanistic values that Amazigh societies have contributed to the shared heritage of humanity.
Tamazight remains part of the human exchange and cultural cross-fertilization that has enabled humanity to survive through interaction with other peoples and cultures, learning from one another, complementing each other, evolving, and ultimately ensuring our collective continuity.
To take pride in our Amazigh identity is to affirm our existenceโyesterday and todayโin a way that safeguards our passage into the future. Those who perceive this pride as chauvinism or ideological indoctrination fail to understand that what binds us to Tamazight is a bond of motherhood. And the mother stands above every ideological division and every psychological impulse through which opponents of Amazigh identity may attempt to interpret us.
We wish our Amazigh mother healing from the diseases of discriminatory policies and projects of erasure. We wish her a safe passage toward a better tomorrowโa future in which she becomes a guarantee of a democratic political social contract founded on equal citizenship, equality, dignity, and justice, and one that guarantees her children the right to a dignified life, freedom, and existence.
