While reactions of the religious conservatives were entirely d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, the modernists\u2019 positions are pretty shocking. The latter\u2019s tirades against the festival prove that their discourse on modernity and democracy is not abreast of the societal change that is happening\u00a0in a demographically young country like Morocco, where children and young adults number more than 30% of the population<\/a>. Moreover, these modernists have clearly not been updated on the strides made globally in the recognition of Indigenous people\u2019s cultural and linguistic rights<\/a>. Instead of recognizing a celebration that is deeply anchored in Morocco\u2019s Amazigh indigeneity, modernity for these modernists seems to be equated with the eradication of tradition. In its deeper significance, the outright rejection of B\u012bylmawn is a sign of the ongoing cultural and sociological alienation that has reigned over some Moroccan elites since the French Protectorate in 1912.<\/p>\n B\u012bylmawn is the fruit of the millennial interaction between the Indigenous Imazighen and their land. Throughout the world, Indigenous people have myths and rituals that bind them to their ancestral lands, and B\u012bylmawn is not an exception. Anyone who seeks to ban such a carnivalesque observance either speaks from a position of ignorance or even worse from a position of un-Moroccanness. Ignorance can be remedied through learning but un-Moroccanness is a far deeper scourge because it emanates from an inferiority complex that only a long-term process of self-critique and reaffirmation of the foundational significance of Amazighity to all Moroccans\u2019 identity can help overcome.<\/p>\n The current mobilization against B\u012bylmawn requires a critical reflection on the broader Amazighophobic and anti-art context in which it is unfolding. The negationist responses to the refigured aesthetics of a centuries-old masquerade is in reality a negative harbinger for innovation and creativity in the country. Change is the only constant in the way societies observe their traditions,\u00a0 but the responses to B\u012bylmawn seem to emerge from an unrealistic yearning to immutable social practices.<\/p>\n B\u012bylmawn is an example of cultural translation and borrowing<\/a> that encompass costumes, themes, and gender fluidity, which, taken together, are strengths rather than disadvantages. B\u012bylmawn\u2019s participants\u2019 ability to enroot their indigenous practice in its local soil while also opening it up to global circulation of symbols, like references in the movie Avatar <\/em>or the television series The Game of Thrones<\/em>, has disoriented the proponents of an authenticity that is cut off from the reality of the interconnected world the Amazigh youth live in.<\/p>\n Although not monolithic, anti- B\u012bylmawn responses to the festival reveal the polarization that exists among urban Moroccan elites. Ahmed Benchemsi, a former journalist, resorted to social media to express his appreciation of the \u201cpagan\u201d tradition. However, not everyone has reacted positively. Unlike Benchemsi, a Moroccan lawyer argued on Twitter (X) that B\u012bylmawn is \u201cthe version of a moribund neocolonial separatism in action under the cover of culture.\u201d Perhaps not knowing that B\u012bylmawn\u2019s celebration likely predates Islam in Morocco, this lawyer expressed a sort of surprise about the \u201cemergence of unknown pagan rites in the south of Morocco on the occasion of the Islamic celebration of the Eid of sacrifice in the name of the ethnocultural promotion that has been enforced for the last thirty years.\u201d These thoughts would not have warranted a response if the author had not attempted to intentionally link the renewed interest in B\u012bylmawn to the achievements of the\u00a0Moroccan Amazigh Cultural Movement (MACM).<\/p>\n Many Moroccans in Rabat, Casablanca, and Tangier talk about this not-yet-Arabized portion of Morocco in exoticizing terms that situate it outside their intellectual and social geography. In their minds, the Chleuh (Imazighen) live outside time \u2014 they are like curiosities from an old treasure chest.<\/span><\/p>\n In fact, B\u012bylmawn has been celebrated in Morocco before the advent of the MACM, and even before the independence of Morocco itself. The proof is that Westermarck<\/a> conducted his observations about b\u016bjl\u016bd (B\u012bylmawn in Arabic) in 1900, twelve years before the advent of the French protectorate. Beyond the amalgamation, the vocabulary this modernist lawyer used in this tweet borrows, whether intentionally or not, from the lexicon of the French extreme right in its charge against immigration and accusations of racism and Islamophobia leveled at its followers. Without any critical reflection, the French right-wing\u2019s lexical arsenal against what they call Islamo-gauchisme<\/em> is simply transposed onto Morocco to accuse fun-loving Amazigh youth of ethnocultural separatism. Finally, the insinuation that B\u012bylmawn is \u201can unknown rite\u201d reflects the sad reality of most urbanite Moroccans, who know next to nothing about Morocco south of the Atlas Mountains.<\/p>\n The earthquake that hit the High Atlas in September 2023 revealed the divide between two parallel Moroccos: Morocco north of the Atlas and Morocco south of the Atlas. These two Moroccos appear on the same map and are unified by the country\u2019s name, but they are only adjacent to each other, almost neighbors locked in a dynamic in which Morocco north of the Atlas has nothing but disdain for its southern counterpart. The more cared-for Morocco north of the Atlas, which French colonizers called the Maroc utile<\/em> (useful Morocco) has always looked down on the Morocco of the Chleuh, the Imazighen, who, since the independence of the country in 1956, have been subjected to an Arabizing civilizing mission in lieu of the French mission civilisatrice<\/em>. Hence, many Moroccans in Rabat, Casablanca, and Tangier talk about this not-yet-Arabized portion of Morocco in exoticizing terms that situate it outside their intellectual and social geography. In their minds, the Chleuh (Imazighen) live outside time \u2014 they are like curiosities from an old treasure chest.<\/p>\n This classist dimension is particularly apparent in the recurrence of words, such as primitive and pagan, in different social media commentaries about\u00a0B\u012bylmawn. In reality, B\u012bylmawn is mostly spearheaded by poor and disenfranchised Amazigh youth. It is the celebration of marginal Moroccans who occupy the periphery of the periphery yearlong, which makes the dismissal of their creative reinvention of this festival another disempowering elitist move. One cannot but wonder whether the dismissive elitism of some members of the Moroccan intelligentsia would still be maintained if B\u012bylmawn were suddenly choreographed by French or American artists \u00e0 la Halloween. If B\u012bylmawn were to be called Moroccan Halloween or some other foreign-sounding name, the \u201cmodernist\u201d critics of its primitivism would be the first to incorporate it into their exclusive practices without heeding its satanic or pagan rituals. For instance, Gnawa music, which has many pagan elements, has been resuscitated from oblivion, and the Amazigh identity of Ta\u1e63\u1e63urt (Essaouira) has been entirely assimilated to this musical genre. The difference between B\u012bylmawn and Gnawa is that the latter was made trendy by Hassan Hakmoun<\/a> and high caliber stars, like Randy Weston<\/a>, Richard Horowitz<\/a> and others, while the former has remained the product of local artists.<\/p>\n The religious institution is the other heavyweight that intervened in this debate. Like all the countries that fell prey to petrodollar Wahhabism and its literalist Islam, Morocco has, in the last thirty years, seen a major transformation of religious practices as a result of Wahhabism\u2019s influence. Growing up in a small village in the south of Morocco, I was lucky, like my generation, to be socialized into the organic Moroccan Islam, which reconciled pre-Islamic beliefs with Islamic learning and rituals. Our education in school didn\u2019t prevent us from returning to the mosque to memorize the Quran during the breaks. Secular and religious education went hand in hand with participation in ancestral traditions of saint worship, lm\u0101ruf <\/em>(couscous offering for a saint), and rituals of anz\u0101r<\/em>, whereby women and children walked for a couple miles to the village dam to invite the rain right before the end of summer. Even the imam participated in some of these rituals, embodying a healthy relationship between the mosque and society\u2019s beliefs.<\/p>\n In the 1990s, however, the winds of change blew over these traditions, which gradually vanished as a result of Wahhabism\u2019s rejection of what they considered shirk <\/em>(association of other creatures with God). The recent opinion<\/a> of the president of the Council of Moroccan \u2018Ulama in Skhirat and T\u00e9mara against B\u012bylmawn is the culmination of this Wahhabization. According to this jurist, who proudly claims his Amazighity, some aspects of B\u012bylmawn are haram and un-Islamic. Morocco is a very moderate country where jurists cannot give fatwa willy-nilly. This choice strengthened the country\u2019s spiritual security and placed the authority of religious regulation in the hands of the state. It is dangerous when individual religious scholars edict fatwas to regulate social behaviors outside the purview of the law, like what happened when a YouTube<\/a> celebrity attacked Amazigh music icons Fatima Tabaamrant and Ahmed Outaleb. The last thing Moroccans need is the emergence of a hisba<\/em> system \u2014 like the one that terrorized Egyptian intellectuals for many years \u2014 to infringe upon their fundamental freedoms.<\/p>\n Amazigh activists have not remained silent vis-\u00e0-vis these attacks. Lawyer Ahmed Arhmouch wondered if this official jurist\u2019s statements conveyed the position of the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs. Most important, however, is Arhmouch\u2019s rejection of the \u201ccheapening of aesthetic and artistic manifestations of Amazigh ancient civilization in order to cleanse the Amazigh landscape of the manifestations of its cultural richness.<\/a>\u201d Scholar Mohamed Benidir asked whether there are \u201cany religious rituals that are not embedded in pagan roots\u201d to further complicate the question of paganism. Civil society activist Mohammed Jaouhari went even further by distinguishing between \u201cdivine Islam,\u201d which condones B\u012bylmawn, and \u201cpolitical Islam,\u201d which rejects it<\/a>. Jaouhari also emphasized the masquerade\u2019s theatrical aspect, which allows the participants to \u201ccommunicate their messages to their families, institutions, and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazigh activist Dr. Abdellah Sabri also refuted B\u012bylmawn\u2019s opponents\u2019 argument against the festival. He lamented ignorance of the basics of \u201ccultural production\u201d by those who contest the reinvention of B\u012bylmawn, underscoring along the way the similarities between this discourse and the dismissal of music, art, and theater as futile activities. His was a warning against the risks that will emanate from subduing artistic creativity to religion. Indeed, the reactions to B\u012bylmawn\u2019s innovative aesthetics indicate the threat this imported religiosity could pose to the earthly happiness of the already-impoverished Moroccans of the periphery who find both joy and solace in these festivities.<\/p>\n The author of the magisterial study of the celebration of \u00a0B\u012bylmawn in postcolonial Morocco, Abdellah Hammoudi<\/a>, called B\u012bylmawn \u201cstreet theater\u201d based on his observation of public performances. Hammoudi commented that “the events in the street gave rise to the hypothesis of a preparation time and action \u2018offstage.\u2019 Above all, in reality the scenes are sketched out, begun over and over again, aborted, then replayed in an atmosphere of freedom and relative disorder that<\/a> “Hammoudi\u2019s observations contain several insights that\u00a0 tell us three important things about B\u012bylmawn. First, the dialectic between constant and changing aspects of the performance. Second, the performances are both curated and scripted before being staged in public. Third, freedom is B\u012bylmawn\u2019s condition of possibility, and all religious and social inhibitions are bracketed for the duration of the performance.<\/p>\n Part of the controversy has been focused on B\u012bylmawn\u2019s adaptation to its contemporary performer and audiences needs. However, Hammoudi\u2019s insights contain an indication that change \u00a0is the celebration’s lifeblood and its future sustainability. Older generations did not innovate as much because they lacked both material and educational resources. Therefore, \u00a0the hides were not elaborate, and soot was used to color B\u012bylmawn’s face. The new generations of Imazighen live in a different world, in which both resources are abundant and global connections are easily made. Their choreography and aesthetics for B\u012bylmawn\u2019s new iterations are a testament to the celebration\u2019s adaptability and its openness to innovation. For instance, Rachid Bihrmach, one of the B\u012bylmawn stars, shared the meaning of his mask, which features Agurzil or the Amazigh God of war, on Facebook, revealing the significance of its transnational story.<\/p>\n![\"Celebrant](\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Moroccos-Biylmawn-Festival-2.jpg\")
\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"Celebrant](\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Moroccos-Biylmawn-Festival-3.jpg\")
![\"Celebrant](\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Moroccos-Biylmawn-Festival-5.jpg\")