In an interview with the Moroccan News Agency (MAP) in Washington, Professor Brahim El Guabli of the Department of Arabic Studies and Program on Jewish Studies at Williams College, Massachusetts, USA, discusses the impact, still difficult to quantify, of the unprecedented health crisis on education and on communities more than others, while highlighting the specificities of Morocco where cultural diversity has always been the basis and foundation for the preservation of unity and identity.

This native of Ouarzazate, holder of a B.A. from Bordeaux III University and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton, highlights the contribution of the school reform carried pout by Morocco to include the history and culture of the Jewish community to creating citizens aware of their plural heritage.

1- In your opinion, how can multilingualism contribute to inclusion in society, especially in these times of unprecedented health crisis that also affects education?

The pandemic has had a dire impact on education. We all have to learn how to do things differently, efficiently, and successfully. We have to reinvent our pedagogical tools, recalibrate our goals, and devise innovative ways to encourage our students to learn, without sacrificing the quality of education we offer. The celebration of multilingualism this year is just another important reminder that we have to take into account all the expressions of our students' and societies linguistic realities. The fact that many students can’t meet in person anymore might create the illusion that there is only one universal language in any given school. The reality, however, is different. In immigrant societies, like the United States, almost every student is multilingual. I use multilingualism here in the sense that people hail from different parts of the world, and even when they don’t speak their ancestors’ languages proficiently, their understanding of the world or identity is informed to a certain degree by the language of the parents or grandparents.

Inclusion during the pandemic can be very tough. Without getting into many details about the very meaning of inclusion and the questions it raises, I just want to say that what the pandemic has revealed is the digital gap between people from the same country and across the world. Some demographics are hit harder than others. Specific groups have less means than others, and the digital divide between those who have access to technologies and those who don’t has impacted different constituencies in different societies, and limited inclusion in different ways. We will not be able to know exactly how inclusion is impacted until a few years from now. Data does show the differential impact on different groups and geographies, but we need more time to know how all this has impacted inclusion and the ways educational institutions responded to it.

The pandemic has, in the meantime, opened up space for more exchanges globally. The transnational access offered by communication technologies and social media platforms has made it possible for educators and students to engage in conversations about where students or professors are participating from, which creates more space for discussions about places, languages, and cultures that may not even be part of the syllabi. Zoom calls and discussion groups have brought multiculturalism and multilingualism into our homes in very unprecedented ways. For example, my wife and I organized a series of cultural events called "Zoom Around the World" between March 2020 and May 2020. Several weeks of zooming through cultures and languages by inviting our friends in different parts of the world, from Singapore to Germany, our community has been exposed to different languages and cultures. This small idea evolved later to be a full-fledged program.

2- Languages have important and complex implications on identity. How could endangered languages, which are also vectors of collective memory and unique ways of thinking and expression, be preserved?

Languages are treasures. They are priceless, and the loss of any language is, as you say, a loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of years of memory, history, know-how, and knowledge about people and place. When a house is demolished, it is easy to rebuild, but when a language vanishes or becomes endangered what’s at stake is far deeper than any recuperable material loss. It’s the very lore of the people who spoke the language and their conception of time and space that are lost. Languages are not just communication vehicles; they are archives and sites of constant transformation. As an archive, languages hold precious information about history, people, and geographies. Moroccan historian Ali Azaykou has shown how Amazigh language can help us learn about topography and history. From language, we can learn about medicinal plants as well as political changes during a given period. Amazigh compendia in Souss are very rich in this regard. However, languages also evolve and incorporate new things into their systems to reflect the developments that are taking place in any given society in which they are spoken.

Having established the importance of language, I believe that preservation should be the mission of every country’s societal, educational, and cultural institutions. In society, people speaking a given—especially endangered or marginalized—language should feel the pride of having such a privilege to know such a language and use it. Every member of this society should feel the responsibility to pass down this language to their children and grandchildren. On the educational level, public school is the primary space where systematic socialization takes. A multilingual educational policy that requires the teaching and learning of indigenous languages is critical for their preservation. Different countries have different approaches, but the bottom-line is that preserving a language requires that the educational authorities make that language a requirement through high school or for a limited number of years. In fact, teaching indigenous languages is salutary for everyone. It will create a sense of shared citizenship and belonging to an imagined community that is built around a common ethos. Finally, cultural production in indigenous and endangered languages should be promoted proactively. For instance, from literature to film and music, cultural production in endangered languages should be funded and disseminated. Specialized resource people should be involved in these processes to achieve the best possible outcomes without folklorizing language speakers and their cultural heritage.

3 - How do you view the situation in Morocco known for its linguistic diversity enshrined in the constitution?

Morocco is a linguistically diverse country. Between Amazigh, Darija, Arabic, French, and Spanish, Moroccans speak or understand at least two languages. This linguistic diversity enriches Moroccans’ sense of identity and widens the horizons of what they can do. The fact that the 2011 Constitution recognizes this linguistic diversity is an important step toward a full embrace and integration of the country’s multilingualism. Incorporating this linguistic diversity into administration, the justice system, the economy, and the educational and cultural systems would be an even more impactful step. Additionally, Morocco has become a destination for thousands of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who have now contributed their languages to the linguistic paysage in Morocco, thus enriching the country’s linguistic cartography.

Also, Morocco has a unique opportunity to benefit from this linguistic richness and closeness to the global markets in Europe and America. A robust educational system that requires a high performance in Amazigh, Darija, French, and English/or Spanish would help Morocco train a generation of citizens who are rooted in Moroccan culture while having a strong connection to the world. Moreover, having an educational system that combines strong mastery of Moroccan and foreign languages with rigorous academic training will also create jobs and offer opportunities for many of the graduates of Moroccan schools to work and study abroad. I personally believe that Tamazight is the language of the future for many North Africans. It is literally an open space for translation, literary studies, anthropological work, and economic initiative. The day American universities decide to incorporate Amazigh studies in their departments, the potential market for this language and its culture is significant. In addition to these considerations, Morocco’s recognition of its Amazigh culture through the establishment of IRCAM in 2001 and the constiutinalization of Tamazight in 2011 have helped shifted the erstwhile negative attitudes. However, these initiatives should be incorporated into a long-term ecosystem that strives to build a modern society with a world-class economy.

I always wonder how many Moroccan students had a chance to read the works of Mokhtar al-Soussi, Abdelkébir Khatibi, Abdellah Hammoudi, and Abdelfattah Kilito. Training a new generation of Moroccans who are grounded in diverse Moroccan cultures would benefit from teaching the works of these pioneering scholars. The intellectual and cultural universe of Moroccan students will be enriched when they learn about the worlds al-Soussi inhabited, both as a 'alem and a speaker of Arabic and Amazigh languages. Khatibi’s work on bilingualism and bi-langue will push students to see the emotional and cultural complexity of the languages they straddle. By the way, Khatibi organized a now-classic conference on multilingualism in Rabat in 1981. Requiring the reading of works by Kilito, writes in both Arabic and French, will open vistas of thinking for younger generations to read the world in Arabic. Moroccan scholars and litterateurs have generated an impressive amount of works that can inform any linguistic educational reform that aims to train Morocco’s future citizens.

4- Morocco has just implemented a school reform that includes the history and culture of the Jewish community. What is your reading of the matter?

We cannot but salute any educational reform that aims to teach Moroccan students—and by extension society—to be proud of their linguistic, cultural as well as religious diversity. Berbers/Amazigh Jews existed in Morocco before the advent of Arabic language and Islamic religion, and a curricular reform that rehabilitates this history and reveals how Jews, both Berber and Arab, and Muslims, bother Berber and Arab, negotiated their shared existence in villages and urban centers until six decades ago deserves to be encouraged. Moroccan scholars, such as University of California Professor Aomar Boum, have an amazing work in showing the rootedness of Jewish culture in Morocco and beyond.

Moroccan cinema has produced excellent documentaries and feature films that unearthed various aspects of Jewish-Muslim relations in the country. These films should also be brought to the attention of the students. Teachers should be encouraged to incorporate them in their curricula, and students should be allowed to engage with them meaningfully. A sub-genre of Moroccan literature entirely dedicated to Moroccan Jews has grown in recent years. Novels by Mohamed Ezeddine Tazi, Driss Miliani, Hassan Ait Moh, and Brahim El Hariri, among others, have depicted Moroccan Jews as they live with Muslims in urban neighborhoods and rural spaces. Written both in Arabic and French, some of these novels could be required as part of the curriculum in high school. They will provide Moroccan students with the knowledge and analytical tools they need to understand their history and emerge from learning about Jewish Morocco being proud of their diverse past and appreciate the efforts that being made in the present to rehabilitate Morocco’s Jewish heritage. Students should learn about Jewish local languages, such as haketia and Judeo-Berber. Moroccan scholars, such as Simon Levy, Mohamed El Medlaoui and Haim Zafrani, have created important sources that can be used in this regard. Since we have been speaking about language, helping students reflect on phrases like ljama nudayn (synagogue) and lmdint nudayn (cemetery) and other topographic elements will be very impactful in revealing how Morocco’s Jewish history is inscribed in space and language. Space and topography are significant for learning about Moroccan Jews. Most recently, Rabat-based art historian Nadia Sabri has published a very creative book, Vues du Maroc juif, in which a group of scholars and artists revisit aspects of Moroccan Jewish past. This work will help students learn both history and new methodologies to think about memory and art. A curricular reform that takes into account the diversity of engagements with Morocco’s Jewish-Muslim heritage as well as reflects the geographic diversity of Jewish life in the different regions of Morocco is definitely important for the country and its citizens.