By Taziz Hasairi.
Tripoli, 1 May 2014:
The latest edition of a Tamazight textbook, 15 years in the making, marks another step forward . . .[restrict]in the preservation of the Amazigh language and culture.
Madghis Oumadi, author of the book and founder of Tawalt, the first Tamazight website, told the Libya Herald he was eagerly anticipating the arrival of a first batch of textbooks that he had published from the printing house and could not wait to hold them in his hands.
The 42-year-old Oumadi is a champion of Tamazight. He wrote the first edition of his textbook in just 20 days after collecting material and linguistic structures from across the Maghreb. His online dictionary has become an essential tool for Tamazight learners and the few printed editions of his dictionary are highly prized in Amazigh areas. He has also written a textbook instructing in the teaching of the language in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
The new textbook has been approved by a regional education board in Oumadi’s current home in Canada. It is designed to be studied by primary school students in the Libyan fourth grade and to be taught be teachers who have received three years of Tamazight instruction.
The teaching of Tamazight was banned under the former regime but since the revolution and supported by the Ministry of Education the language is undergoing a renaissance.
