Algeria

- Linguistic specialists believe that the issue of Arabization in Algeria constituted, over the 6 decades of independence, a battle with linguistic, cultural, ideological and political dimensions linked to the centers of decision and influence, against the background of the elite division left by French colonialism.

And if Algeria, after 59 years of regaining its national sovereignty, was able to Arabize public education in all its phases, the humanities in universities, and many ministerial sectors, then France is still - in the estimation of observers - influential in the central and local administrations, and the departments of economy, finance and diplomacy.

In addition, many aspects of the general environment in major urban cities, such as advertising banners and commercial and tourist service spaces, reflect - in the opinion of the Arabization movement - the penetration of French in Algeria.

Even private schools and kindergartens impose French in their curricula in a way that violates the laws, according to warnings from the Ministry of Education on several occasions.

Recently, the instructions of government departments to their employees - regarding the obligation to respect the law with regard to the use of the official language - brought the issue of Arabization back to the forefront of debate in Algeria, especially as it was one of the main slogans of the February 22, 2019 movement.

On the International Day of the Arabic Language, which falls on December 18, Al Jazeera Net tried to stand with the path of Arabization in Algeria, monitoring, evaluating and foreseeing.

Public education in all its phases is one of the most important fields that Algeria has been able to Arabize (Al-Jazeera)

language correction

It is known that between 1962 and 1963 the Algerian state continued its dealings in the French language through all the administrative and economic bodies, because President Ahmed Ben Bella himself and most of the state’s executives from graduates of the French school do not master Arabic.

For the first time, the 1963 constitution stipulated that Arabic was the official language of the country, before the issuance of the first practical measures of a presidential order on April 26, 1968, which included the obligatory knowledge of the Arabic language for civil servants.

This prompted the French to enroll in educational courses and literacy lessons in Arabic to maintain their positions. However, the law did not carry a compulsory formula in the administration’s dealings in Arabic, as Bashir Frick asserts in his book “The Francophone Domination of the Algerian Administration.”

President Houari Boumediene took another step in 1970, by issuing a new order requiring the Arabization of civil status documents, and the transfer of all family records from French to Arabic, followed by the Arabization of official seals.

And in September 1971, Boumediene oversaw the installation of the National Committee in charge of the Arabization process in all sectors of public life, so that Algeria would host the second Arab conference after the Rabat conference, according to what Abdelkader Fadil records in his book “The Battle of Identity in Algeria.”

Teaching technical, engineering and medical disciplines in Algeria is still in French (Al Jazeera)

The issuance of the order of the basic school on April 16, 1976, which is dedicated to the Arab-Islamic affiliation to it, is one of the most prominent achievements of the "Bomadinian" stage in favor of Arabization, according to the same source.

Meanwhile, the French trend persisted in the resistance, especially in administration, education and universities, which led to student strikes and protests, which extended to secondary schools in the fall of 1979, during which victims fell in bloody confrontations, according to documented testimonies.

Then the National Liberation Front - the only party leading the state - intervened in May 1980 to decide to generalize the use of the Arabic language and to oblige the ministers, who are its members, to implement the decision and present presentations on the progress of the process, as evidenced by the party's deliberations archive.

But the emergence of the "Algerian Academy of the Arabic Language" was delayed until January 7, 1984, and four years later a law was issued obligating the Arabization of the documentation profession.

new era

With the adoption of the Constitution of February 23, 1989, Algeria entered a new era of Arabization in the context of political openness, as many laws were issued mandating dealing with the Arabic language.

Accordingly, parties, associations, ministries, local administrations, representatives, courts, and media institutions are obliged to deal with citizens in the Arabic language.

Then the Algerian parliament adopted the most famous law in this field, which is the legislation to generalize the use of the Arabic language issued on January 6, 1991, before apostasy occurred by stopping the electoral process on January 11, 1992 and the rise of the “French current” to power, through The "High Council of State", as well as the "Advisory Council", according to the writer Frick.

One of the most urgent decisions that he signed was freezing the law on the generalization of Arabization until it was re-released, under President Liamine Zeroual, on December 21, 1996, and the revival of the Supreme Council of the Arabic Language.

The aforementioned law set the deadline for the circular on July 5, 1998, while extending the deadline for teaching in all institutes and higher education institutions to a maximum date of the same in 2000.

However, Abdelaziz Bouteflika - with his accession to the presidency in the spring of 1998 - obscured the law and practically ignored it by addressing the citizens in French, and speaking to the writer Frick as well, which encouraged "the fanatics of Westernization to turn the page on Arabization temporarily", until the outbreak of the February 2019 movement.

Bashir Frick: Arabization in Algeria remains an issue of civil and intellectual conflict (Al-Jazeera)

Arabization enemies

In defining the opponents of Arabization, the former governor, Bashir Frick, asserts - by virtue of his long experience in the Algerian administration - that "the first, historical and unchallenged enemy is the old colonialism, which deliberately struck, marginalized and excluded Arabic from public life in the administration, school, laboratory and culture to confine it to mosques and cemeteries."

And he explained - in a statement to Al Jazeera Net - that the implementers of the French administration after independence are the most dangerous to Arabism and identity, and these divide them into two categories: senior theorists and victors of Francophone thought, graduates of colonial schools and universities, and children of influential former agents in the sovereign and strategic institutions of the state.

He also mentioned the remnants of agents, employees, teachers, professors, judges, and the frameworks of the economic sector and services inherited from the colonial system.

He also referred to the backbone of the Algerian administration and its bodies in the vital public sectors, and they are senior and middle frames of higher technical and scientific education graduates.

The spokesman said that coexistence on the ground, especially in the cultural, media and economic fields, proves the organic alliance of the Francophones with the remnants of the communists in Algeria.

He added to these "new missionaries" of Western Amazigh advocates associated with the schools and laboratories of French theorizing hateful of Arabic and Islam, with the exception of the national Amazigh trend.

He considered that the so-called "officers of France", who rose to prominence during the reign of Chadli Bendjedid, and then seized power after his departure, played a strong role in the fight against Arabization.

The speaker concluded his diagnosis by saying that the enemies of Arabization in Algeria constitute a strong octopus network and allied and supportive organized lobbies, but the supporters of Arabization are in a state of weakness and dispersal.

Advertising banners are one of the most prominent manifestations of French influence in the general environment in Algeria (Al-Jazeera)

Arabization prospects

On the future of Arabic in Algeria, Professor of Linguistics at the Academic University of Algiers, Mohamed Qamari, stressed that there are requirements that fall on the shoulders of the state and others that are reinforced by the elites.

He called on the authorities to prevent and combat linguistic pollution at all levels of administration and public life, respecting and consolidating the concept of the homeland and its identity, strengthening its independence, and considering the cultural and emotional brain drain of the nation as an entry that threatens national security.

In a statement to Al Jazeera Net, he stressed the encouragement of all creativity in the national language in various fields, and that "universities work to update their scientific contents in various disciplines in the Arabic language, by encouraging the movement of refereed translation, because distorted texts do more harm than good."

He also placed the responsibility on the media to raise public taste in the use of language, and to confront the wave of linguistic pollution for the purpose of getting closer to the public.

As for Bashir Frick, he believes that the problem of Arabization in Algeria remains an issue of civilized and intellectual conflict, "it cannot be addressed by laws or texts, unless victory is achieved by reformulating the national civilizational project in the first place, by giving the word to the people and lifting guardianship over it."