Ali Amazigh

(Nador, 1960) debuted in 2009 with the bilingual book of poetry Opkomst/Anqar (Ascent/Anqar). The poetry of Ali Amazigh, who was born in Morocco as Ali Oulad Saddiq, has been written in Tifinagh, Berber writing. At school this language (Tamazight) was banned, however, which he saw as an obstacle for his development. “We felt taken for a ride that outside the teacher spoke the language and in class spoke Arabic”, he said in an interview with Amazightv. However, he is positive about present developments. “Now fortunately we are free to talk Tamazight ” In the early 1970s he listened to engaged Amazigh music and decided to start writing. In 1974 he moved to the Netherlands, but he was still intrigued by his mother tongue. Forty poems of his, in praise of the culture of his ancestors, have been translated into Dutch by the linguist Khalid Mourigh.