Morocco’s IRCAM Chief Urges Official Recognition of Amazigh New Year as National Holiday

Recognize the Amazigh New Year and declare it a public holiday in Morocco. This is the wish of the IRCAM rector. In an interview with the daily Al Bayane, he insists that it is time for a law recognizing the Amazigh calendar to be passed after law 16-26 officially implementing the Amazigh language or law 04-16 creating the National Council of Moroccan Languages and Cultures. According to him, this would be legitimate, insofar as it is not only in line with the political line adopted by the kingdom over the past two decades, but also in accordance with the recognition of cultural pluralism established by the 2011 Constitution.

Mr. Boukous welcomed the adoption of several laws that have consecrated Amazighity in recent years. To go further, he is counting on a probable imminent dissolution of IRCAM, and even that of the Academy of the Arabic Language, with the establishment of the National Council of Moroccan Languages and Cultures. If this were to take shape, the staff of the institutions that will no longer exist will be put at the service of the National Council of Moroccan Languages and Cultures.

The official is also pleased with the implementation of Amazigh education in the Moroccan education system, the training of a thousand teachers by 2022, the production of digital resources, etc.