Mask Culture : in the Amazighe Community: Reality and Future perspectives
By Rachid MOUTCHOU
I. Introduction
Intangible cultural heritage is an integral part of the popular memory of worldwide communities. It is a spiritual legacy that requires quality and meaningful attention and protection to avoid dooming to death over time. Due to the absence of a structured transmission, communities would be threatened to lose their specificities and cultural identities. This threat requires a serious reflections and joint efforts of all the different actors (individuals/institutions and private/public sectors). This paper discusses the fight for survival of the two main Mask events which are deeply rooted in the Amazighe culture and civilization; Bilmwan and Imaaachar, and outlines a number of ideas of how to preserve and safeguard this world cultural heritage.
II. Mask as a cultural heritage in the Amazighe Culture
Talking about the mask as a World heritage refers us to the zooming into the two main mask events, Bilmwan and Imaaachar, in the Amazighe culture. These events represent the Amazighe lifestyles, and aim at eradicating undesirable and deeply-rooted negative phenomena in the Amazighe communities. These events embody certain cultural practices that seek revealing the dark sides demonstrated in the daily life in an ironic way, and imply an implicit refusal of certain practices of social exclusion and marginalization on the one side, and demonstrate an explicit strive for liberty on the other side. . In addition to that, the Mask culture in the Amazighe communities questions the religious authoritative hierarchy and social disorder, and above all, it creates an opportunity for meaningful interactions that favor social harmony and tolerance between civilizations. It also stems its importance in the Amazighe culture not only from its cultural symptoms but also from its socioeconomic added value as well as its artistic expression.
III. Cultural dominance as a form of globalization
It is obvious that the threat of globalization on the cultural diversity of the world is undeniable. Given that it is a global issue, the impact of globalization and cultural dominance is becoming more aggressive towards the world indigenous cultures or at least some aspects of them; and mask culture is no exception. Therefore, the negative implications of this undesired situation puts these given cultures out of intact with their cultural assets including traditions, customs, conventions and practices through an unexpected assimilation into others’ cultures. With its diverse forms, mask-based intangible cultural heritage has been brought under serious intimidations which endanger its continuity, and pushes it therefore to the edge of extinction.
A good example of this challenge and threat is the difficulties being faced while attempting to modernize and innovate the work approaches, with an eye to involve the young generations and encourage their meaningful contributions using their skills and to make an optimum use of their mobility and ability to connect and explore the different parts of the world cultures; while trying to maintain the originality of a given culture.
As an instance, the young generations have been dominated by the Hollywood masks, appearing in “scary movies”, in the local markets as well as in the recent creations and performances of youth. Therefore, openness and innovation related mask-culture have to be vigilant regarding distorting the local cultures and heritage, and to prioritize the indigenous culture.
IV. Efforts being made to preserve the mask-based cultural heritage
Thanks to their awareness of the significance of their cultural legacy, the Amazighe activists allowed for the above-mentioned events to survive and most importantly to be taken as important cultural events on a yearly basis. Throughout the previous decades, Bilmwan and Imaaachar succeeded to create their cultural identity and to gain good reputation both nationally and internationally. In addition to creating an atmosphere for social inclusion, joy and entertainment; for practitioners and audiences, the carnivals allow for youth the opportunity to unleash their talents and creativity, and to encourage the decision makers to get involved in preserving such heritage as part of their cultural agenda and as part of sustainable development plans, especial as meaningful events attracting tourists and visitors who are seeking to whet their appétit as far as culture is concerned.
A significant evolution of the carnivals has been witnessed, which required from the organizers and all the different actors to come up with innovative ideas to entertain and, most importantly, to maintain the involvement of the growing numbers of audiences who strive for entertainment and who strongly believe in diversity and the values of tolerance and coexistence. This evolution includes the fact that the carnivals have become either an annual event to either celebrate the end of series of events throughout the whole year or to launch different short term programs, especially in marginalized areas and school, with an eye that the laypeople endorse the cultural diversity as an important part of their daily life.
V. Suggested measures to safeguard the Mask culture
Given that the deeply-rooted rituals of mask culture in the Amazighe culture, and given that the value of these rituals extends the cultural and historical aspects to the educational and socioeconomic values, all the different actors are invited to reflect and work together to preserve and develop such inheritance. This includes but not limited to:
1. Allocate important funds to encourage all the different forms of creativity to utmost preserve all festivity patterns of intangible heritage based on mask.
2. Support academic research related to preserving cultural heritage: from publishing scientific articles, providing reliable history references, organizing conferences, to offering scholarships for fresh researchers in college and universities.
3. Encourage civil society organizations to raise peoples’ awareness and enhance the perception of heritage as a valued part of the daily routine, bearing in mind that each individual is the upholder of traditions, heritage, and rituals.
4. Make an optimum use of the new information and communication technologies to promote cultural diversity.
5. Reinforce exchange of experiences, best practices and success stories all over the world related to preserving cultural heritage
6. Include cultural diversity programs in textbooks, extracurricular activities and different media forms as alternative transmission mechanism and channels.
7. Promote documenting and archiving the cultural patrimony and guarantee its transmission to the upcoming generations as part of a collective memory. 8. Organize advocacy campaign to back up cultural diversity and preserving the cultural heritage with inclusive cultural public policies as well as sustainable development strategies.
Endnote
All in all, this paper attempted to tackle the predominant significance of the different forms of intangible inheritance related to mask, and the necessity of the importance that they have to attract to be preserved as both national and world heritage and patrimony. This paper also listed a number of measures and channels through which this heritage could be preserve from family, school, to media institution as well as the different aspects of the daily routine, in a way that the cultural heritage could contribute to the sustainable development of the nations and to maintain the world as a platform for diversity, tolerance and coexistence.
References
- “ L’imaginaire dans le patrimoine culturel immaterial du Maroc” Actes du colloque de la 2ème édition de l’université d’hiver
- “ La victime et des masques, essaie sur le sacrifice et le mascaraed au Maghreb” de Abdellah Hammoudi, edition du seuil, 1998
- “ Carnaval Imaachar de Tiznit” de Jamaa Benidir , edition IRCAM 2007
- “ Tiznit : une cite à la croisée des cultures” Actes du colloque de la 1ère édition de l’université d’hiver
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