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Saturday, 12. January 2008, 00:15:50
The Berber
Tuesday, 8. January 2008, 00:52:08
Berber Music Today
There, you'll also find a discography including all the releases in the Berber Rising program, and other new entries. Here is some additional information on Berber music gathered in the process of researching this program.
Raiss , on the other hand, is performed by smaller groups of professional musicians who blend dance, comedy, and sung poetry. They perform in cities like Marrakech and Casablanca, and they deliver news from village and awaken nostalgia for mountain life among those who have left it behind. There is more room in raiss lyrics for ideas about individual achievements and events outside of village life. Raiss songs tend to honor orthodox Islam, but with notable dashes of syncretist belief. In these songs, things like sacrifices and evil eyes are justified in terms of Islam. Raiss instruments typically include the rebab, a one-stringed fiddle, not same as the Andalusian rebab, the lotar, a lute similar to the Gnawa guimbri, hand drums, and a bell.
On the Berber pop music front, two Algerian acts seem to be particularly popular with the worldwide Amazigh community. Takfarinas is a powerful singer--not quite on the level of a Khaled or Mami, but definitely impressive--and his international release Yal is well produced pop music, comparable with the better rai music recorded in Europe. Takfarinas's double-necked lute (mandole) is a striking feature of his act, and he uses it to inject a beautiful roots element on tracks like "Irwihene" and "Lounes," presumably a song about Matoub Lounes, the martyred singer who was both the greatest muse of the Amazigh movement and also its most soulful vocalist. Elsewhere, Takfarinas' pop experimentations yield mixed results. "Tanoumi" is cool and melodic, if very light. "Tayri" kicks out angst-laced reggae pop. "Ayessiyi" is a hook-laden pop ditty with a bizarre electric guitar break, and "Lawliyya" is a kind of pop waltz. There are some excesses, like the anthem "Aytezyen," which plays like bad Elton John schmaltz, and the painfully bouncy "Douga." This album was released in the U.S. in 2000, but it's probably some two years older than that. He's definitely an artist with promise, and we can look forward to more mature and successful work from him in the future.
Tayfa, the other big-selling Algerian Berber pop act is less satisfying. Neither the singing nor the compositions are particularly impressive, although the CD Awal is beautifully packaged. Again, high-production Berber pop is a relatively young and undeveloped genre, and one well worth watching as it grows in breadth and depth.
Two more experimental Algerian Berber singers offer distinctly more interesting albums. Iness Mezel has been mixing traditional Kabyle music with jazz and pop since 1995, around the time she went into exile in Europe. She won two Kora Music Awards (Best North African Singer, Best Female African Singer) in 1998, and her followup album Wedfel (A Silence) justifies the honor. She sings beautifully, and her arrangements and compositions are very interesting and full of diverse influences, including Berber tradition, flamenco, and harmonized jazz vocals.
Akli Dehlas, a.k.a. Akli D. was born to a musical family in Kabylia. Since leaving Algeria, he has lived in France and California, and Anefas Trankil, recorded in Paris, is his first complete album. The album has fascinating variety, from the pretty, banjo-driven "Taqb-Aylit (Kabylia)" to the rich polyrhythms of "A Tayri (Love)." One strong pop song, "Azul (Greetings to you)" has an interesting Afro-Celtic folk aspect to it, perhaps reflecting Akli's work with Celtic musicians in the United States. The words say, "Hey, mountains of Africa. Send us back the echo of a free people, the ones known as Tuareg." "Akka I D-Us (Look there)" is a beautiful, lightly funky song emphasizing the fast 12/8 rhythm common in much traditional Berber music. The notes (in French and English) and artwork are good. In the tradition of Matoub Lounes, Akli D. focuses poignantly on the plight of his people struggling for rights and recognition in Algeria.
A Conversation with Moh Alileche
Moh Alileche is a talented singer, composer and player of the mondol, a relatively modern Berber lute, not unlike the oud. He now lives in San Francisco, and has released an album of his songs called Tragedy: A Tribute to Matoub Lounes. The album uses an intriguing collection of string instruments and percussion and creates its own entrancing world of melodies and rhythms. Very much in the tradition of his hero, Lounes, Alileche creates hypnotic moods and textures and sings soulfully about the plight of the Amazigh in Kabylia.
What follows is an account of my conversation with Alileche in preparation for writing the Berber Rising program.
Moh Alileche was born in 1959, in a village of 3000 people in Kabylia. Kabylia is a large state consisting of some 2-3000 villages, each with between 200 and 8,000 people. The capital of the state is Tizi Ouzou. Alileche's father was executed during Algeria's independence war, and he went on to be educated in Arabic and French. Still, from a young age, he wrote songs in his own language, Tamazight. At the age of 9, he built his own one-stringed instrument to accompany himself. Later, he moved on to Spanish guitar, a gift from his cousin in 1971, and ultimately, in 1975, the mondol. Alileche's instrument has five pairs of strings, all made from wound silk. Like many Kabyle musicians, he added two quarter tones to the instrument to allow him to play traditional tonalities.
"The main reason is that I knew something is going to happen in Algeria," he said, "with the political situation. The government had decided to create political parties. Until 1989, there was just one party, the FLN. In 1988, there were political uprisings all over Algeria. Once parties started to form, I just knew something bad was going to happen." He was right. This period led to the elections of 1991 when, fearing that a fundamentalist Islamic party might win, the government annulled the election and introduced authoritarian rule with disastrous and violent consequences.
I asked Aliliche to tell the story of Matoub Lounes.
"Matoub dedicated himself to Amazigh," he said, "especially in Kabylia. He sang about the language. He told the truth, like who killed certain great people. Little by little, his reputation grew. In 1980 when we had the very first big uprising in Kabylia, April 20, 1980, he was in France and he came back and he wrote a song telling what happened in April, which we call the Berber Spring. That song took him even higher. And after that, every time he recorded, he gave information, he educated people in each and every song."
The Berber Spring uprising began when students in two Kabyle towns occupied university buildings. The military arrived at 4:00 in the morning on April 20 and ejected the students, triggering a much larger public action. Ever since that time, the date April 20 has been celebrated by Algerian Berbers as an anniversary of this seminal event in the struggle for Amazigh rights.
Matoub Lounes became a highly visible figure in this struggle. In many ways, his music continued the work of an Amazigh poet and musician ten years his senior, Aït Menguellet, who is still alive and very successful. But as Ailiche points out, there was a big difference between the two. "Aït Menguellet," he told me, "if you listen to his lyrics, they are more indirect. For example, he can criticize the government, but if you tell him, 'you are criticizing the government.' He will say, 'no I am singing a love song.' People who listen to him, older people, understand him. But still it's hard for younger people to understand what Aït Menguellet is saying. But Matoub Lounes it's the opposite. He went straight. He criticized a president. He mentioned the president of Algeria right in the beginning of his career. He goes black and white. He was very, very clear in his songs, and he is the only singer--not only Algeria, but in all of North Africa--who criticized the government and criticized clearly. He would never get afraid."
In October, 1988, Matoub was ambushed and shot 5 times by gendarmes, the government. His life was saved after he was transferred to Paris. Then in September 1994, he was kidnapped for 15 days by the GIA, an Islamist terrorist group in Algeria. Alileche says, "The whole Kabylia region demonstrated. More than 250,000 people marched in Tizi Ouzou, demanding his release. So he was released in 1994, and four years later, June 25th 1998, after he finished his last album in France, he went back home. Two weeks later, he was ambushed on the way to his home. Actually, we live in the same region, so I know exactly the road up in the mountains, and they got him."
Nobody knows for certain who killed Matoub Lounes, but Alileche went back to Kabylia in 2000, and he says that virtually everyone there believes that the government did it. He says, "Nobody believes it was the Islamic extremists. He criticized both the Algerian government and the Islamists. That's for sure. But still, to carry out such a killing, in the mountains--I'm not talking about getting someone in the city. This is during the day at 1:00 PM and in Kabyilia, and up in the mountains. It's very hard to do such a thing."
In April 2002, a year after another bloody wave of uprisings in Kabylia, the Algerian Parliament approved a constitutional amendment to make Tamazight, the language of the Berber minority, a national language. I asked Alileche whether this was a significant victory. "No," he said, "it's not at all significant. It's close to zero actually. Tamazight as a national language. It has been a national language since the beginning of the language. We were expecting him [President Boutelfika] to say 'official language,' but he did not use that word. They would have to give the same significance for Arabic and the Berber language. For example, if they want to teach Tamazight in schools, they will have to provide professors, school, budget and all that. But what they say now, 'you want to teach the Tamazight, go teach.' But they don't provide professors, or schools or money. So they are just playing with words and bluffing, and it's next to nothing."
"The Algerian government is doing everything to make this culture disappear from Algeria. For example, they say that the Kabylia was at one time 100% Berber speaking people, and then since Tizi Ouzou, the capital city of Kabylia, is becoming a big city and then buildings, businesses, firms, all kinds of things, they start building houses, apartments, and selling land so you can buy it and build a house or business. So people who live in Kabylia are asking to get a part of that. They don't get it. Or they get a little bit. 10 or 15%, and then they are giving the rest to other people from other regions of Algeria, who speak no Berber. So they are bringing those people to Kabylia, and their plan is within the next century, 50 years or 80 years or maybe less, the whole region will be Arabized."
Khaled, 2002. (c) B. Eyre
"You really believe that they want to destroy Amazigh culture?" I asked him.
He replied, "I will always believe that."
Later in this interview, when we did ask directly about the status of Amazigh in today's Algeria, Khaled offered a view somewhat different from that of Moh Alileche. "There are many Berbers among us," he said, "Imazighen in Algeria who are super great, very nice. This is true. But the problem with us is that the Amazigh among us have been deprived; they have been forbidden to use their language, Tamazight. I can't tell you why, because this has been true for a long time, since independence. In Morocco, there is Berber television. There is everything. They call that 'chleuh.' In Tunisia, no problem. They are in Mauritania, everywhere in Africa. They are travelers. They were the first inhabitants of North Africa. We are Arabophone. We have Berberophones, and Arabophones. The problem is this: when you crush someone, they say whatever they like. They become fanatics."
Musician and Berber activist killed 1998.
Many Berbers became the mainstay of the Arab armies, indispensable for their riding and fighting skills. Berbers were at the centre of the Almoravid movement, which began with the piety of one man, the scholar and holy man, Abdallah Ibn Yasin. The Berbers maintained their historical role of being independently minded and tenacious fighters right into the twentieth century. From their retreat in the High Atlas, they resisted the French and Spanish attempts at colonisation successfully, until 1933.
APULEIUS OF MADAUROS by KERROUCHE Lyes
Tuesday, 27. November 2007, 00:32:49
APULEIUS OF MADAUROS
Amazigh Philosopher and World Advocate
(c. 124 - c. 180 AD)
Lucius Apuleius is known as the author of several prose masterpieces written in Latin. Apuleius of Madaurus wrote in the language of the Roman conquerors of North Africa. However, Apuleius was not a Roman. He was a native of North Africa and proud of it. Little has been made of his "Berber" origins, and the fact that he was not Roman by birth. Apuleius was strictly a citizen of Rome due to the fact that his ancestral land was then a Roman colony, and Roman citizenship had been granted to the inhabitants of the colony of Madauros.
Apuleius is best remembered for his brilliant novel, the Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass. He is the author of Florida and of three philosophical treatises, entitled De Plato , De Socrates , and De Mundi . In addition, a great deal of recent scholarship has paid close attention to another of his works, Apologia ( Defense ,) a unique document in the Latin classics. It is a piece of linguistic virtuosity, thought to have been orally delivered by Apuleius in his own defense in front of pro-consul Claudius Maximus and a court of Roman magistrates convened in Sabratha, a North African city not far from Tripoli. He stood accused of sorcery, an offense punishable by death under Roman law enacted in the first century.
He was indeed a "Barbarian," as he presented himself in this extraordinary speech he gave during the trial held in 158 AD. He delivered a piece of oratory so remarkable that it was circulated in print after the trial and, fortunately for posterity, was preserved in its entirety. What subsequent scholarship has failed to emphasize, however, is that Lucius Apuleius was the first Amazigh philosopher and novelist of world fame, indeed the first African to publish outside Africa. (1) He was a "Barbarian" who demonstrated with amazing virtuosity and wit that he could speak and write Latin as well as any educated Roman, and more in tune with Greek philosophy, Platonic ideals, and ancient Egyptian wisdom than the majority of his contemporaries. While Apologia has been hailed as a linguistic tour de force, magic in and of itself, it is more than superb rhetoric: it conveys an essential message reaching all Imazighen of yesterday, today, and to-morrow.
Our first Amazigh man of letters possessed a profound knowledge of ancient Egyptian ritual lore and practices. He became an initiate of the mystery cults of Neith/Tanit (Greek Isis,) and of Auser/Azzar (Greek Osiris) and was anointed ‘sacerdos" or Priest of Isis and Osiris. In addition, he relates in the final chapter (chapter 48) of his famous novel The Golden Ass, apparently written long after the trial of Sabratha, that he received a third and most unusual calling. This calling was bestowed upon him in a dream when the Great Egyptian God Auser/Azzar/Osiris appeared in his full glory to call Apuleius to a worldly function which is manifestly to be most extraordinary. The mission was that of "Advocate in Court."
Apuleius believed himself to be very fortunate to receive such a calling. This ministry was so rare indeed that only one other had ever been similarly called to it. What was to be made of this divinely bestowed office? Was it a premonition, a final word referring to his legacy, or a prophecy?
Beyond the sacerdotal functions that he already exercised, Apuleius was chosen by the Gods to fulfill a certain role in the material arena of the world. The time was nearing the close of the second century AD. Lucius is retired to an ancient palace constructed in the time of Silla (around mid-century BC), dating back some two hundred fifty years. Apuleius himself faded from the public record around 180 AD, only to be discovered in the Middle Ages and re-discovered in modern times by European scholars.
At the onset of a new millennium, North Africans who are like him the descendants and cultural heirs of Numidians and Gaetulians are in deep struggle, as a people, in the face of powerful colonizers who deny them their language and cultural identity. The message delivered by Lucius Apuleius standing on trial and asserting his origins as a Barbarian, when it is not politically correct to do so, is powerful indeed. An illustrious ancestor who raises his voice in the most eloquent manner to remind us not only of his sentiment of pride in his origins but also of transcendent forces at work empowers us. He has become a true "Advocate in Court" for a whole people. I suggest that it is incumbent upon all Imazighen to re-instate him in his true place, as the first Amazigh poet, philosopher, sage, and North African literary figure to have come to world attention through his erudition, wit, and psychological and spiritual understanding of human nature.
For the most part, the ending message of Apuleius has been ignored by successive scholars. I wonder if the few laconic remarks that conclude The Golden Ass predict that his destiny was not to be weighed in terms of years but in terms of centuries, and that he had a role to play in the mundane arena of world affairs, according to a timetable of the ancient gods, and not a human timetable. Nearly two thousand years after Apuleius appeared in front of a Roman pro-consul to defend himself, playing his own "Advocate in Court," as a self- declared and proud "Barbarian," a native son of Numidia and Gaetulia, the extraordinary life of this Numidian emerges anew from scholarly archives where his real identity was ignored (however, cf. Note 2) to shine as a call to consciousness and a bright beacon.
As a scholar erudite in both Roman and Greek literatures, and a remarkable novelist and philosopher, he has of course already acquired a sort of immortality. However, the extraordinary message that he left is particularly and most meaningful to a whole group of North African people, Imazighen of today, and the future, as he takes his legitimate place in international consciousness among notable scholars and men of letters of North Africa. He is to be identified and duly honored as the forerunner of a long line of creative Amazigh sons and daughters of Numidia and Gaetulia, long denied their linguistic rights in North Africa. As such, he at last would emerge as "Advocate in Court" for all Imazighen whose culture has been labeled "oral," who have been denied a written legacy and too often been represented as Barbarians without literature. He is the very proof of the contrary. In 158 AD, this proud and immensely witty Amazigh brother made mincemeat of his accusers who were pointing to his Barbarian origins, in an exercise of linguistic virtuosity and Graeco-Roman erudition unrivaled in the literary annals of the Roman world.
In my estimate, Apuleius is not only the remarkable scholar, great novelist, and spiritual figure of weight that is already recognized, but indeed an Amazigh prophet of some sort. I believe that the last vision in which Osiris appeared to him in full form and called him to his destiny as "Advocate in Court" was indeed anointing him with a special worldly task, and that his words, encapsulated in the Apologia he so masterfully delivered, were prophetic. His fame has endured through nearly two thousand years of scholarly tribute and has been particularly significant for those increasingly interested in ancient mysteries and mysticism. He must be also be re-claimed by the Numidian and Gaetulian descendants of North Africa as their first literary figure in the world court of international human rights, the world court of international consciousness. Somehow, he set the stage for this stance in his own words: "I am a Numidian and a Gaetulian, and I am proud of it. I don't see why I should be ashamed of this."
Apuleius was born around 124 AD in Madauros, a Roman colony in the south of Numidia, which was situated in an area now located near modern Mdaourouch in Algeria, and he died some time after 180 AD in or around Carthage. He referred to this colony as a "most splendid one, " ("splendissima colonia sumus," Apologia, chapter 24.) In his marvelously witty Apology, he actually spends some time describing his exact background, and his pride in it. He was, he said, both Numidian and Gaetulian. Noting the fact that he is in the eyes of his accusers a "Barbarian," he boasts of his ability to speak Latin and Greek with eloquence and practically mocks them for criticizing at the same time his Barbarian origins and his Greek oratory skills ("eloquentiam Graecam, patriam barbaram.")
It is evident from the text that Apuleius stood deliberately in front of his accusers as a native of North Africa and asserted his Barbarian heritage proudly. Though Sabratha was not yet a colony at the time of his trial, he points out the fact that his father had already served as an official of the Roman colony of Madaurus, and that his family had a certain status in that area. None the less, he is quite clear in not identifying himself as Roman. He had by then traveled the world, mastered Greek and Latin, and even taught Rhetoric in Rome before returning to his homeland in North Africa. He was familiar with Homer, Plato, and Virgil. Yet, it is his very native heritage that he stresses, while demonstrating the width and breadth of his erudition in a masterly oration, which mocks those who denigrate his origins.
At the time of the trial, the record shows that he had already undergone initiation in ancient rites and become a priest of the Great goddess of Africa and Egypt, Neith, known as Isis to the Greeks. Her ancient worship was known in archaic pre-pharaonic times in the western Delta of the Nile, and was later maintained in the numerous temples erected in her honor throughout North Africa. Apuleius was extremely interested in archaic occult knowledge from Egypt, and became an initiate of the Auser/Azziri (Greek Osiris) cult. He was also an expert herbalist, and it is believed that he wrote an entire treatise on the herbal cure of diseases, which was still in use in the Middle Ages. (2)
Perhaps it is because he was a priest of an archaic North African cult with knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs that he was perceived by the Roman authorities as a dangerous: "magician." He was responding to accusations and serious charges of having obtained through magic means an older wealthy widow's consent to marry him. He apparently successfully defended himself, and it appears that charges were dismissed following the trial.
Here is a partial quote of the passage about his origins from chapters 24 and 25 of the speech addressed to the Roman pro-consul Claudius Maximus, Semelianus, and a panel of magistrates in Sabratha:
"About my homeland, it is situated on the border of Numidia and Gaetulia. I am part Numidian and part Gaetulian. I don't see why I should be ashamed of this...
And I don't say this out of shame for my country. For even though we were once in a city belonging to the King Scyfax, when he was overthrown, we were given as a gift of the Roman people to the King Massinissa, and now, with the recent arrival of resettled veteran soldiers, we have become a most magnificent colony...
Why did I offer this information? So that from now on, Semelianus, you may be less offended by me, and so that you may extend your good-will and forgiveness, if by some negligence, I did not select your Attic Zarat as my birthplace."
The self-presentation is a seasoned mixture of indigenous pride, and unquestionable allegiance to Roman rule to the point of boast about the colony of Madaurus. It was surely dictated by the circumstances since he was on trial under serious charges possibly leading to punishment by death. His sharp wit seems also to have diluted the punches he dealt one after another.
The rich humor displayed throughout the famous speech and the depth of his initiate knowledge are particularly manifest in the work that immortalized him, The Golden Ass . More than any other part of his life works, this monumental novel has created scholarly interest and commentaries. It includes the famous tale of Psyche and Amor, as an intercalated text. This brilliant, witty, erudite, and irreverent novel is a tale of ludicrous adventures, in which the author is also the main character. It is a precursor to a literary genre in which Rabelais, Voltaire, Swift, the Picaresque novel of Tom Jones and many other followers excelled. The Golden Ass has been translated into numerous languages, used by later imitators, and has also been the inspiration and source of numerous literary works over the centuries including The Decameron, Don Quixote, and Gil Blas.
The central story of Lucius turned into an ass in search of human consciousness, and return to human form ends with a hymn to the feminine powers of the world. It is a journey which transcends time and place and offers extraordinary material for ages to come, with a modernity which has never faded. Modern day psychologists have poured over the very story of Psyche and Cupid for guidelines to journeys of transformation. They have valued the transformative powers necessary to achieve manhood alongside the mystical path offered by ancient Egyptian rites of initiation with which Lucius Apuleius was intimately familiar. His famous hymn to the Great Feminine Goddess (chapter 47) beginning with the invocation: "O blessed queen of Heaven" is still unequaled in its haunting beauty and majesty. The Supreme Goddess replies:
"Behold, Lucius, I have arrived. Thy weeping and prayers have moved me to succour thee. I am she that is the natural mother of all things, the Mistress and Governess of all the Elements, the initial Progenitrix of all things, the Chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven, the First of the Gods celestial, the light of the Goddesses. At my will, the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of hell are disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in various manners, in various customs and in many names, for the Phrygians call me the Mother of the Gods... Behold I am come to take pity of thy misfortune and tribulation, behold I am present to favor and aid thee, leave off thy weeping and lamentation, put away thy sorrow, for behold the healthful day which is ordained by my providence."
In the last two chapters (47 and 48) the picaresque and bawdy turns into a contrasting seriousness of tone. The catharsis is over. It has been said of Apuleius that he used his great sense of humor as a form of therapy for the soul, and that laughter and consciousness are the twin motors of the path to understanding. The great allegory is perhaps the one our people, the descendants of Numidians and Gaetulians, have traversed over the centuries, a great gale of laughter punctuating a recurring search for identity through various avatars of foreign occupation, eager to find our human countenance and full identity. This prophet of a kind shows the path. Look within, he tells us, and look at the great feminine powers of the earth, the African nature, the ancient Egyptian wisdom which is also ours, and you will become the Senators of your own ancient land and palace, this magnificent land that North Africa is. He has become for us The Senator. It is interesting to note that Apuleius uses the image of the mirror over and over. He also uses the word "viator" (nine times, it is said, and probably more) in the Golden Ass, a word that literally signified "a journeyer or traveler" but has been translated by scholars as "a free human being". His message, transcending the ages, is that he saw himself not only as a "sacerdos" (priest), but a "viator" (Amazigh, free human being.) and this message should not be lost on us. Our Senator Lucius Apuleius, nearly two thousand years ago, already embedded in the message he left for posterity the image of a free human being, "viator", or Amazigh.
In the last and forty-eighth chapter of The Golden Ass, Lucius relates how he moved from the initiation to the Mystery of the Goddess to the initiation in the archaic mystery cult of Anzar/Osiris and entered the priesthood. As a Priest of these occult mysteries, he has gained the sacred wisdom imparted by both masculine and feminine initiations, and we learn from him that the two Mysteries "unite and concord" but follow a "difference of order and ceremony." Having achieved the most profound knowledge of mystical experiences, Lucius is finally called to his extraordinary mission:
"The great God Osiris appeared to me in the night, not disguised in any other form, but in his own essence, commanding me that I should be an Advocate in the Court, and not fear the slander and envy of ill persons, which bear me grudge by reason of my doctrine, which I had begotten by much labor. Moreover, he would not that I should be any longer of the number of his Priests, but he allotted me to be one of the Decurions and Senators and he appointed me a place within the Ancient Palace which was erected in the time of Silla, where I executed my office in great joy with a shaven crown."
Is the end to the adventures of Lucius a prosaic one? No: Decurions were a specific type of Senators in the world of Roman politics. This was the name of Senators for Roman colonies, generally of native stock. It is the third movement of the great symphony of his life, where mysticism makes a leap into leadership and politics. The Palace in which he was to execute his office as a Senator was built in the time of Silla, that is around 50-60 BC, and must have represented a different era, an earlier time at which the ancient Carthage had not yet been destroyed and rebuilt by the Romans. (3)
I cannot help but feel that the specific choice of this ancient palace built in the age of Silla as a place awaiting the destiny appointed to him by the gods is most interesting. A time element is clearly inserted here, as a link from the pre-Roman past to the post-Roman future. Since Apuleius saw himself truly as a "Platonic philosopher" in the Greek tradition, and his doctrine was one radically different from that of the Romans in power, he was a man of the world who had achieved a transcendent vision based on archaic powers. It is not hard to imagine that he was selected by divine interference to discharge a special office of broad import. We know that Apuleius himself spent the latter part of his life in Carthage. He left no visible trace after 180 AD, but he left us his message of transcendence. In the palace of Ancient Wisdom, he tells us in his parting prophetic words, he will have "executed (his) office in great joy with a shaven crown."
Apuleius formally conjured up Lady Philosophy to stand by his side as co-defendant in the trial that he underwent. He gave us the mirror to look at ourselves, and the great bawdy laughter to become conscious of our identity, as well as the brave words that said clearly in the face of the ruling invaders: "It is true I am not a Roman, and you call me a Barbarian. Yes, I am a Barbarian, and say I have no shame in my origins. Moreover, I can use your own language so well, so proficiently, and with such virtuosity as to make you look ridiculous in your charges of barbarism. The tools of consciousness are my own, delivered in words from your language that I throw back at you with such ease and dexterity, and the mirror image that I am placing before you is that of the other you despise through ignorance In this defense of my identity, I am aided by all the powers of the earth, ancient wisdom, our African heritage, all the powers of transformation and true knowledge. We are the heirs to ancient Egyptian wisdom, to the Isis/Osiris mysteries of ancestral truth, to the transcendental consciousness that will outlive and outwit the centuries, and this message, I know, by the grace bestowed upon me by my dreams, will live on and become my long lived legacy as a North African philosopher and not a Roman, even though I use your language to send the message off."
It is an honor and privilege indeed to offer this late salute to the memory of such a great man as Apuleius, Amazigh prophet and "viator," for his enduring magic, his superb gift of wit and irony, and his legacy of ancient wisdom.
Helene E. Hagan
Anthropologist
Author of "The Shining Ones: an Etymological Essay on the Amazigh Roots of Egyptian Civilization." Xlibris, a branch of Random House, Revised Hardcover Edition, 2001.
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Notes:
1. Terentius, dramatist of an earlier era (c. 185-159 BC), was a native of North Africa. It is not clear, however, what his ancestry was, whether Roman, Punic or Libyco-Phoenician. Another North African writer, Tertullian, (c.160-225 AD) was born of native parentage. He became an outstanding lawyer. Converted to Christianity, he devoted his life and education to the defense of his Christian faith. As for Augustine, see below, note 2.
2. In the fifth century AD, Augustine, another native of North Africa was still concerned with the type of pagan beliefs espoused by the followers of Apuleius. There is evidence that towards the end of the third century AD there developed a legend around Apuleius and his reputation for magic and supernatural powers, which pagan advocates opposed to the miracles of Christ. (Lactantius, Divin, Inst., V.3.7) The reputation of Apuleius continued to develop in the fourth century AD into the fifth, and St. Augustine felt it necessary to mention his opposition to it. (De Civ. De. VIII, 19-22-23 and Ep. 138-18.) It is noted herein that a treatise on herbal cures attributed to Apuleius was still in use in the Middle Ages.
3. Between 60 and 46 BC, during the reign of Juba I, the North African Kingdom of Numidia is not under the rule of Romans. Juba was defeated at Thapsus in 46 BC by Caesar. The Romans officially annexed Numidia at that date and renamed it "Africa Nova." Bocchus II willed the Kingdom of Mauretania to Octavian in 33 BC. However, Mauretania was not similarly annexed by the Romans until 40 AD. It is also to be noted that the name of Mauri was applied to all non-romanized natives of North Africa still ruled by their own chiefs, until the third century AD. (Carthage, Rome and the Berbers, J.A. Ilevbare, Ibadan University Press, 1980.)
Short Bibliography:
Andreas, Johannes - Collected Works of Apuleius (1469)
Apuleius - Metamorphoses
Apuleius - Apologia
Apuleius - Florida
Apuleius - Philosophical Treatises - "On Plato and his Teachings." "On the God of Socrates" and "On the World." (Often mistakenly attributed to Aristotle.)
C.S. Lewis - Till we have Faces, A Myth Retold. (1956) (Amor and Psyche)
Schlam, Carl C. - Metamorphoses of Apuleius: On making an Ass of Oneself. Chapel Hill, University of Carolina Press, 1992.
Von Franz, Marie-Louise -Psychological Interpretation of The Golden Ass of Apuleius – Out of print. C.J. Jung Institute, Zurich.
Von Franz, Marie-Louise - The Golden Ass of Apuleius, The liberation of the Feminine in Man, Jungian Studies, 1992.
Winkler, John J. - Auctor and Actor: a narratological reading of Apuleius' Golden Ass. Berkeley University Press 1985.
For adventures of Lucius that inspired noted authors and reappeared in subsequent literature, cf. The Decameron (Bocaccio,) Don Quixote de la Mancha (Cervantes,) and Gil Blas (Le Sage.)
hello
Sunday, 21. October 2007, 19:31:37
Relying on the these data, we can think that the racial diversity happened
during centuries of the icy period, During their migration all over the world,
some human groups, influenced by climatic conditions, nutrition and activities
modes , by the angle of solar rays, were differencied in a black and a white race
in the ancestral hemisphere and north Africa.
Mr Eugene Guernier, in his book said that the African used only archaic forms
of expression, but Schematic ones until when he used some vocative signes in
south Africa, Later Egyptians used ideographical signs such as the
hieroglyphs and the berber also invented a set of vocatives called "Ti-finar".
Amazigh language
It's undeniable that the oldest documents of language expression found in
North Africa, Either ideographic as "hieroglyphs" or consonants as the
"TIFINAGH" express berber words. Mr Said Hanouz in his book "Knowledge
and syntax of berber language" (Library Klincksieck, paris 1968) reported many
examples of words writen in hierogliphs which express berber (amazigh) word
of nowadays :
this word means "drink" : it is spelled "swi" of the amazigh verb "swa" of the
same significance.
This wrod means "lady" : it is spelled "Ta metut" , amazigh word which refers
to "lady".
NB: extracted from elementary grammar of middle Egypt, by Dr A.Du Buck (la
grammaire elementaire de Moyenne Egypte : in frensh)
Likewise, the Ti-finagh express berber words. mr Henri Lhote, in his book
Touareg of hoggar, speaking about the Ti-finar inscription, says : "the oldest
ones comprise signs which are no longer used and remain incomprehensible
for the Touareg.
They begin ordinarily with three or four points in mline, followed by circle,
which is followed by three parallel hyphens drawn longitudinally :
They are located in the "Tassili", in Hoggar , Adrar of Iforas.
He goes further :" inscriptions of the middle era contain initial signs which are
a hyphens followed by three points in triangle :
And the meaning of which it still understood by the Touaregs. they mean :
"nek" or "wanek" that mean "me".
He adds : the most recent inscriptions are materialised by the begining :
improved form of :
And which has the same significance, followed by proper noun :
"tenet" =said, I say and expressing a wish or idea, It seems undoubtedly that
the Ti-finagh are means of expression of the berber language and may be the
first human signs, expressing in writen man's idea. These sign are so
elementary and archaic that they can't emanate from any other form of writing.
They are represented with geometric signs :
which recall no other known alphabet.
The oldest hieroglyphs seem to date back to four thousand (4000) years before
the christian era, while chinese graphics didn't appear until three thousand
(3000) years before Jesus christ, and the pictographical writings of America
(Mayas and Aztecs) just in the Eighth century before J.C.
The Tifinagh appeared, associated to hieroglyphs, in inscriptions of the oldest
monuments and Egyptian statutes. The most telling in this respect, is a group
of statutes in shist, discovered in Gizeh, in Cairo museum now, presenting the
Mycerinus (fourth dynasty) between the goddess Hathor and the
personification of the 17 th mome of upper Egypt (photo Oropeza) appeared in
"Ancient Egypt history" by Jasques Pirenne.
The engraved text on the inferior part of the statute is constitued of
hierogliphical signs and characters, like Tifinagh.
hence, we can think that those first geometric signs which are the Tifinagh,
served as prototypes in the ulterior formation of the coming alphabets
(Egeens, Akkadians, Summarians, phoenician and Greek).
Tifinagh alphabet:D
History of Amazigh script
The "Berber" script has a very interesting story behind it.
Ancient Berber is thought to have sprung off the Punic
script roughly around the 6th century BC. It was used
throughout North Africa until the 3rd century AD.
Strangely though, the inscriptions remain unread, as
linguists cannot link the written language to any of the
dozen modern Berber languages spoken in North Africa.
However, it is widely accepted by scholars that it was a
Berber language given the continuity of the population.
Ancient Berber disappeared after the 3rd century AD, first
supplanted by the Roman alphabet, and then later by the
Arabic alphabet brought by Islam. But by some strange
miracle, it is preserved, and still used today mainly by
women in Tuareg society. The modern form is called
Tifinagh, which scholars believe to mean "Phoenician/Punic
letters". Tifinagh is not used widely for literature or
history, but instead for recreation (like for composing
letters).
The following is a chart of both Ancient Berber and
Tifinagh. The leftmost two are the Horizontal and Vertical
forms of Ancient Berber. The right two columns contain the
normal letter in Tifinagh, and the same letter in ligature
with t.
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