Berber culture, from the inside

Amazigh, not "Berber"

The word most visitors know is Berber. It comes from the same Greek and Latin root as "barbarian" — a name applied from outside. The word we use for ourselves is Amazigh (plural Imazighen), which means roughly "free people". Both words are in common use and nobody here will be offended by "Berber", but it is worth knowing which is which.

The Imazighen are the indigenous people of North Africa — Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania — and have been here for thousands of years, long before the Arab conquest of the 7th century.

The language

Our language is Tamazight, written in a script called Tifinagh, whose angular characters you will see on road signs and public buildings across Morocco. It became an official language of Morocco alongside Arabic in 2011, and is now taught in schools — a significant change within our lifetime.

There are three main varieties in Morocco: Tarifit in the north, Tamazight in the Middle Atlas, and Tashelhit in the south. Here in the southeast you will hear a mix.

Carpets, and reading them

Amazigh carpets are woven by women, and the patterns are not decoration for its own sake — many are a form of writing. Diamonds and lozenges commonly relate to femininity and protection; zigzags to water, which in a desert is the most valuable thing there is; the repeated eye motif against the evil eye. Different regions have entirely different vocabularies of symbol, and a weaver from the Middle Atlas would read a Saharan carpet only partially.

If you are buying one, ask what the symbols mean. A seller who can answer is usually selling something real.

Nomadic life, honestly

Some families in this region still live nomadically, moving with camels, sheep and goats according to grazing and water. Fewer than there were. Drought, the expansion of settled agriculture and the simple fact that children now go to school have all reduced it.

We say that plainly because a lot of desert tourism sells "meet the nomads" as though it is a timeless tableau. It is not. It is a real and difficult way of life under real pressure, and the families who still practise it are not a exhibit. If you visit one — and we can arrange it — go as a guest, take a gift of tea or sugar rather than money to children, and ask before photographing anyone.

Hospitality and the tea

Hospitality is not a marketing line here; it is close to an obligation. A guest is fed. In the desert, where turning someone away historically could kill them, this is not sentimentality — it is a survival ethic that hardened into a value.

Mint tea is the ritual that expresses it. Green tea, a great deal of fresh mint, a great deal of sugar, poured from height to aerate it and build the foam. Three glasses are traditional, and there is a saying about them: the first is gentle as life, the second strong as love, the third bitter as death. Refusing all three is a bit like refusing a handshake — if you cannot drink it, take a sip and be warm about it.

Music

Amazigh music in this region is built on drums and call-and-response. What you will hear at our camp is the real thing, played by people from here, not a performance rehearsed for tourists.

Distinct from it, and worth seeking out, is Gnawa music in the village of Khamlia, 7 km south. The Gnawa are descendants of people brought north across the Sahara through the slave trade, and their music — the three-stringed guembri, the iron qraqeb — is a spiritual tradition with its own history. See things to do.

Visiting respectfully

• Ask before photographing people. Always. Especially women and children.
• Dress moderately in the village — shoulders and knees. At the hotel and pool, normal swimwear is completely fine.
• Right hand for eating and giving.
• Do not give money to children. It keeps them out of school. Give to a family or a school directly if you want to help.
• Accept the tea.