American promotes Darija

[LalaMimi]

Elena Prentice sits relaxed in a wooden rocking chair in her stark white painting studio, staring pensively out to her stunning view of the Bay of Tangier. Surrounded by books in at least three different languages, she cites with clarity the official illiteracy rate in Morocco: “Seventy percent.” Yet with a direct look in her eye adds, “I seriously question these numbers.”





Thanks to the Medersas and religious education, Prentice explains, most Moroccans learn the Arabic alphabet, alifba, to read the Koran. But there is a vast difference between the dialect they speak, darija, and the Modern Standard Arabic used in all forms of Arab literature.


“What if Moroccans could read in the same language they speak?” Prentice asked herself three years ago. Today she is founder of the only newspaper and publishing house operating strictly in darija.


Five thousand copies of the weekly Khbar Bladna (News of our land) are distributed free to every corner of the country from Zagora to Tangier, Fès to Casablanca, finding a place in clinics, newsstands, hotels and restaurants, and on the streets of most cities and towns. The paper is also used in literacy programs under the auspices of Union des Femmes Marocaines (Moroccan Women’s Union), as material in Arabic language schools in Fès and Tangier and has even been the subject of a doctorate dissertation in Arabic dialectology at Georgetown University.


“There are many Moroccans who don’t realise they know how to read,” said Prentice, adding that she has had the experience on many occasions of showing the paper to people who ostensibly are illiterate but were able to understand Khbar Bladna.


“Darija is considered a dialect rather than a language unto itself and this is one main stumbling block to literacy,” she explains. A comparable example is found in 15th century Europe, when Italian, Portuguese and Spanish were considered dialects of Latin, so only the educated elite was able to read.


Prentice isn’t an obvious person to head such a project. An American, born in Boston to a wealthy lineage of diplomats and aristocrats, the attractive, tall and dynamic blond who raised three children and is now a grandmother has tenuous roots to Morocco. Her grandfather was consult general to Tangier in the ‘30s where her mother was raised. Prentice spent her childhood summers growing up in Tangier. Having lived between New York and Paris most her life, she returned to Tangier in 1989 to served as director of the Tangier-American legation museum and in 2001 settled there permanently. What mainly pulled her back to the North African coast? “It is a beautiful place for painting,” said the artist echoing Eugene Delacroix or Henri Matisse, “the light is incredible.”


Aside from her passion for art, Prentice has thrown all her energy into the struggle against illiteracy in the country she now calls home. She founded a non-profit organisation in the United States called “Friends for World Literacy,” that has allowed people to give tax-free donations which has entirely funded the project.


She estimates Khbar Bladna is read by at least 20,000 people every week. The editor in chief of the newspaper, Jalila Sebbane, says that every Friday Moroccans around the country await anxiously the next edition.


So, what’s keeping Moroccans so interested? “We stay entirely away from politics and religion,” said Prentice. Instead, she prints traditional and contemporary Moroccan stories, jokes and proverbs, songs and poetry, theatre plays, sports, local and international news from the MAP agencies, recipes, a practical page with useful phone numbers and, of course, a weekly crossword puzzle. The diversity of the content has allowed her to employ writers from around the country.


“My main objective is to get people to enjoy reading. This is the right of every person- to inform oneself in a way that is even more fulfilling than television and radio,” said Prentice.


Evermore ambitious, Prentice recently opened a publishing house in the garden shed in her back yard where she has compiled numerous soft-cover pocket books in darija.


Most important of these projects was the translation of HM King Muhammad VI’s speech last January on Mudawana, the new family law reforms, into darija. The speech was distributed around the country. She also collaborated with the anti-aids association ALCS and distributed 10,000 copies of educational material in darija.


With the help of her Moroccan assistants, the songs and lyrical poetry of the Moroccan oral tradition Melhoune have for the first time been put into book form. This “Moroccan cultural soul music hits on every conceivable subject from wine, the beauty of woman to God. And every Moroccan knows and has a very deep emotional attachment to this cultural patrimony,” said Prentice who has also employed Moroccan artists to illustrate the books.


In the near future she plans to publish books that will teach the alphabet to children and adults, the language of instruction being darija, and instruction manuals for factory workers.


“People have stopped me on the street to say ‘Thank you Elena, I didn’t know that I could read’ and I’m very touched by people’s reactions,” she said.

[Sista]

Singing the praises of others in our homeland

There are numerous groups in Morocco actively promoting the agenda for improved literacy across the country. Those participating range from those currently within the education system to those who have left and those in old age wishing to learn. The point is that many Moroccan teachers are undertaking these tasks, in terms of teaching arabic, darija, french and even english, yet they receive no recognition. Attentions is deviated to foreign involvment.

I found that piece very pretentious, the Americans painted as saviours to a people apparently otherwise destetute!

Further more why only focus on educating people in Darija? The answer - Control. By teaching them Darija they are confining them to information circuit they can manipulate. They will only learn and read that which statifies the authors interest. Assuming the paper is funded by american money i can only imagine what interesting articles there will be.

I would love to read a copy of Khubr Bladna, i can already imagine the headlines!

[-thetruth]

I quite like that idea. it's good. who says we must learn Arabic anyway?

we should indeed thank this american woman , she is doing a great job ..I also recall a popular news paper published in the seventies and entirely in Darija it was called "Khbar Essouk" , but it was banned by Hassan II because of its "too much" popularity.......people should read the language they talk every day , this is the only way to fight illiteracy.

[LalaMimi]

I agree with you NAK and truth - I'm felt happy to read about the American woman who loves Moroccans/Morocco/darija enough to dedicate a free newspaper to entertain Mugherba in their common language... I don't think there can be anything wrong with that...

[-thetruth]

Originally posted by NAK-
we should indeed thank this american woman , she is doing a great job ..I also recall a popular news paper published in the seventies and entirely in Darija it was called "Khbar Essouk" , but it was banned by Hassan II because of its "too much" popularity.......people should read the language they talk every day , this is the only way to fight illiteracy.

Absolutly right

[Sista]

Originally posted by NAK-
we should indeed thank this american woman , she is doing a great job ..I also recall a popular news paper published in the seventies and entirely in Darija it was called "Khbar Essouk" , but it was banned by Hassan II because of its "too much" popularity.......people should read the language they talk every day , this is the only way to fight illiteracy.

Why confine them? What ever happened to broadening peoples perspectives and oppourtunity. It is a simple fact that by tackling illiteracy on this level will acheive very little in terms of future prospects for those involved.