Will concession to Berbers be enough?

Algeria's government has long faced unrest by Berbers

Analysis
Stephanie Irvine BBC North Africa correspondent

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's announcement that Tamazight - which is spoken by Berbers - would be recognised as a national language was not unexpected.

He had said in the past that he thought it should be so, but that it would have to be put to a referendum first.

The Berber issue has continued to be a thorn in the side of the Algerian state, as their cultural demands have been intertwined with opposition to authoritarian rule

On Tuesday, he said the change to the Constitution would now go ahead without a referendum.

But Tamazight is only being elevated to a national language, rather than an official one which had been sought by Berbers - including the citizens' movement which grew out of last year's riots in the eastern Kabylie region.

Threat to national unity

Mr Bouteflika said the state would "take charge of promoting and developing Tamazight in the fields of education, culture and communications" in view of its new status.

If it had been enshrined as an official language, rules regarding its use in state business would have had to be changed and enforced.

The Berbers are the original inhabitants of North Africa, and most Algerians are a mixture of Berber and Arab.

The president's announcement on the status of Tamazight is a political move to address the crisis caused by a year of rioting and unrest in Kabylie

But mountainous areas of the country, like Kabylie and Aures, have remained more distinctly Berber, and people still speak one of several Tamazight tongues.

Their language and culture was engulfed by the tide of pan-Arabism which grew up in opposition to colonial rule in the region.

Arabic was regarded as a unifying force, foiling attempts by the French to divide and rule. Indeed, the rallying cry of the Algerian war of independence was 'Algeria is our nation, Arabic is our language, Islam is our religion'.

Berbers were actively involved in the struggle for independence, and hoped for greater cultural recognition after 1962. But the Berber issue came to be regarded by the new Algerian state as a threat to national unity.

Pressure for change

In 1998, a law which mandated the exclusive use of Arabic in all domains of public life was passed under former President Liamine Zeroual, who was himself a Berber-speaker.

Berbers saw this as an attempt to appease the increasingly powerful Islamic fundamentalists, at their expense.

The president's move came after Berber leaders threatened an election boycott

The Berber issue has continued to be a thorn in the side of the Algerian state, as their cultural demands have been intertwined with opposition to authoritarian rule.

In the 1980s young people in Kabylie led a movement for official recognition of the Berber language and culture, which drew a repressive reaction from the regime which has lasted for many years.

This latest announcement by the president on the status of Tamazight is a political move, designed to address the crisis in the country caused by a year of rioting and unrest in the Kabylie region.

Radicals unhappy

But the signs are that it will not succeed. The demands put forward by the Kabylie citizens' movement at El Kseur last year were as much about democracy and state accountability as about culture.

The radical wing of the movement wants the complete withdrawal of the paramilitary gendarmes from the area, following the brutal oppression of rioting last year.

President Bouteflika has acknowledged that some gendarmes overstepped the mark, and has said those individuals have been punished. He undertook to look at the redeployment of forces in the area, but has said their complete withdrawal is out of the question.

Some members of the Kabylie citizens' movement have pronounced themselves happy with the concessions offered by the president, including the change in the status of Tamazight.

But for the more radical wing of the movement - which is the stronger in Kabylie - the offer does not go far enough, and they have said they will continue with their campaign of civil disobedience.