Chafik, Mohamed

(1926- )

   Professor Mohamed Chafik is one of the most prominent trailblazers of the Moroccan Berber cultural movement. He was born on 17 September 1926 at Aït Sadden, in the province of Sefrou, Wilaya of Fès. He graduated from the Collège d'Azrou, a Franco-Berber school established in 1927. Later, he received a university diploma in history. In 1959, he became a regional primary education inspector, then general inspector of primary schools in 1963. In 1967, he became head inspector for history and geography before being appointed, in 1970, undersecretary of state for secondary, technical and higher education, and vocational training, a post that he held until 1971. He also worked as secretary of state to the prime minister and in the same year was appointed head of mission to the Royal Cabinet and director of the Royal College. He is a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco and is an accomplished Arabist. On 14 January 2002, he was appointed by King Mohammed VI rector of the Institut Royal pour la Culture Amazigh (IRCAM).

   One of the defining elements in Chafik's intellectual experience was his early recognition that the Moroccan landscape is a set of multiple societies that are in turn composed of diverse histories and communities. His effort to celebrate difference and diversity in Moroccan society, bent on a strict interpretation of pan-Arabist and Islamist ideologies and one that refuted the place and history of Berbers, is thus remarkable. In the 1960s, he wrote a series of articles on the meaning and significance of Amazigh/Berber culture and its contribution to the national struggle for independence ("From Our Unknown Heritage: A Taxonomy of Amazigh Songs and Dances," Afaq, no. 5 [1967], and "From our Unknown Heritage, Poem of National Enthusiasm," Afaq, no. 6 [1967]). Among his works of interest are Underdeveloped Thoughts (1972), What the Muezzin Says (1974), An Outline of Thirty-Three Centuries of Berber History (1989), Forty-Four Berber Lessons (1991), Arab-Berber Dictionary in Three Volumes (1993, 1996, 2000), Al-llughatu al-amazighiyya: Binyatuha al-llisaniyah (1999), and Le dialecte marocain: Espace de confluence entre l'arabe et l'amazighe and Pour un Maghreb d'abord Maghrebin (2000). He also cofounded the cultural Berber magazine Tifawt and played a prominent role in the writing and composition of the Amazigh Manifesto, a document that was designed to channel Berber grievances and demands outlined in the 1991 Agadir Charter.