Written by Hacene Baleh for berberosaharan.com
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Many of the Algerians can speak three languages French, Berber and Arabic but many others are only monolingual. The Algerian educational system is set to teach mainly in only official language in the country, Arabic, at school with some French and some of the native one called ‘Tamazight’, which is only national not official. The community learns French at school or by reading the local newspapers, but Amazigh people learn their mother tongue ‘Tamazight’ from their parents and families and from some very small number of associations that provide classes. By the way ‘Amazigh’ (‘Imazighen’ for plural) are the native people of the whole North Africa since at least 13000 years ago.
The Algerian community chooses to travel and settle mainly in Europe especially France, whose language is already spoken by the Algerians. Marseille is only 45minutes by plane to Marseille. On top of that, the two countries have a common history, which is the French occupation of Algeria for 132 years since 1830.
Only over the last two to three decades that the Algerians started travelling beyond their known territory to reach as far as Australia, New Zealand, China, Canada and USA. The growing number of the Algerian community in Australasia led the Algerian government to open an Embassy in Canberra Australia in 2005 that is expected to look after the needs of their community in the whole Australasian area.
For the last 5 years, the Embassy has not shown much interaction with its community, for not being as active as expected by its community. They hope that will change one day. berberosaharan.com has approached different people from the Algerian community and many statements were made such as: ‘It is a nice thing to have our embassy in Australia, that helps us get our passports and other documents faster’ said Mourad. ‘Well, I see no difference with and without them; they do nothing for us’ said Kamel. ‘Well, they get paid not for doing the right thing, but for doing what they were told to do, that is a pity for our country’ said Karima. ‘It is great to know that there is our own embassy around that will protect us in case of problem’, said Mohammed. ‘I would have loved to see them more interested in promoting the Algerian culture or at least encourage and help those who want to do it on their behalf and on behalf of the whole country. Let’s hope they will realise that one day and hopefully they can show us some determination’ said Hacene.
The Algerian community in Australia is occupying medium to high level positions such as train drivers, security officers, shop owners, engineers, department of housing officers, different level teachers, researchers, scientists, Algerian Handicraft shop in Sydney called Berbero Saharan Handicrafts, etc. There is also a North African Association called Amazigh Association of Australia whose members are mainly Algerians.
Concentrations of the Algerian community can be found in Lakemba, Sydney, Auburn and Parramatta, but other than that, the community is scattered across the state and the country. We count roughly around 1200 registered at the Embassy and maybe another 1500 not registered, which includes partners and children.
