Tapregt Tamazight Berber
|
Amar Almasude |
In Tamazight, tapregt refers to an outside source that arouses creativity
and insight. This force often takes the form of a natural occurrence such as
lightning, a voice, or the appearance of an ancestor or a madman seeking help.
This individual is also a prophet, who may have power to bless or curse
individuals and the community. The word may
be related to either the Arabic and Hebrew words for lightning. |
| Tapregt is also the name for a clay vessel used to cool water, and therefore is
a refresher and a life giver, as is inspiration a link between pottery and
inspiration makes special sense in this culture. Both are sacred. They come from
earth to assist or restore life.
Pottery is used to heal emotional troubles. A pot is broken on the patient’s
head to frighten evil spirits. The attacking pot may represent a good
spirit, a vessel, for inspiration.
|
|
Tapregt
water container. |
The physical experience of inspiration is also strongly associated with wind,
and therefore with the influence of unseen wind-like forces, usually refers to
as spirits. The wind blowing the porous clay of the tapregt usually sitting in a
window evaporates a small amount of its cooling water inside, both making it
palatable and keeping it from spoiling. |
The
wind or spirit of inspiration usually springs from or flows from a real,
physical source, for which tapregt might be a mundane metaphor. This can be
anything from a magnificent landscape to a historical hero. An especially
dramatic example of this is the powerful case of Dihya, a great woman Amazigh
warrior.
Dihya al-Kahina was born in the Aures Mountains in the seventh century. When
Arabs led armies into North Africa, the Amazigh tribes fiercely resisted,
causing decades of war. Dihya emerged as a war-leader. Her followers (even her
enemies) credited her with both prophecy and magic. She managed to unite the
tribes of North Africa ruling them and leading them in successful battles for
five years before her final defeat through the vilest form of treachery.
Dihya’s heroism has been a profound source of inspiration for Amazigh Artists
and Imazighen. She has been, and is a symbol of fight against oppression in
North Africa. Imazighen have fought for their identity for centuries. In the
modern era, this struggle to recover their identity has become an integral part
of their being.
|
Fatima 1998
By JoAnna Almasude |
Growing up in a pre-modern society moving towards modernity, I confess that I
was a victim of the massive invasion of industrialization and its ideologies.
Through many means, especially schooling, I was taught to embrace the identity
of an Arab and a Moslem. I learned to rely on creativity to survive both the
harsh environment, and the tyranny of an oppressive state that imposed absurd
rules. As a grown up, it was natural to me to become a human rights activist.
However, until I had the opportunity to see and reflect on the arts of Imazighen,
I was blind to the enormous beauty and the richness of my culture. Ironically,
appreciation of my culture came from the works of my wife, a western artist who
identified the cultural wealth of Imazighen on sight, who found true inspiration
in a heritage that was almost stolen from me. |
Interview Questions
===================================================
Edwin: Did you have a tapregt vessel?
Amar:
Yes! Until refrigerators became
popular, vessels were everywhere. My parents had at two or three and we used
them extensively during summer. I think, my mother still has one. Except for
cities, vessels should be still very popular in the country side.
Yes, I did associate the vessel with "inspiration". In fact, anyone would
associate the vessel with "inspiration". When it gets hot in such dry
environment, anyone would bow to a "tapregt". For this reason, after drinking
from a vessel, you may hear people speaking words relative to divinity such as "arrahmeth"
= mercy, "elhamdu lillah!!!!!" = greatful to god, etc.
I have been thinking of the other image, it is by a French painter and it
would be good to have something from a Tamazight artist. How about something
with the calligraphy mentioned before? We'll have to see what works. However,
that is more along the lines from the story of someone that is possessed by
spirits. There are so many interesting aspects and stories of inspiration in the
Berber language.... it hard to use them all... I read that Berber has an
interesting original writing style.. do you know much about this?
Good point! The reason for using the French painter's work is due simply to the
quality of the painting. I don't think, there are many paintings of Kahina done
by Imazighen. I have no idea, but I will do some research!
I still think the calligraphy (mentioned before) and the name of an Amazigh
artist would be a good idea. However, I am concerned about the copyrights. If
you can get permission to use the artist's calligraphy, we should take
advantage.
As for the writing style of Imazighen, I have no idea. Ancient Imazighen used an
alphabet called "Tifinagh" and this has been updated in the modern era. However,
the majority of Imazighen (especially scholars) today opt for latin alphabet. I
have dealt with issues of writing Tamazight for couple decades, but I have never
read anything regarding an "original writing style". I would definitely
appreciate if you can share that with me.
How much difference is there in the different Berber languages? Especially in
the word for inspiration? Maybe we could use 'Tamazight Berber' in just the
heading, just to orientate the reader that Tamazight is part of the Berber
family of languages. I see Berber is the overall classification used at http://www.ethnologue.com/. what
do you think?
It seems to me your question is relative to the concept of language versus
dialect. I agree, there is such a problem. From my perspective it is a political
issue more than a linguistic one. I have a friend (a linguist), whose research
included this very question. I attended one of his conferences where he argued
that there is only about 20 % difference between different dialects (Riffian,
Kabyle, Touareq, etc).
As for a synonym for inspiration, I don't know any other words in any other
dialect. The term "tapregt" itself was suggested to me by friends from Morocco
and Algeria. Personally, I have never used it. Nevertheless, I heard and used
several expressions to mean "inspiration".