Learning as Development

Morocco is a country with a long and distinctive history. Indigenous Berbers, ¹ Roman and Arab invasions, and colonial conquests by France and Spain all figure in its broad cultural composition. In Beni Hamdane, a small village in the foothills of the Middle Atlas Mountains, lives Naima, an 18-year-old woman who is engaged to be married. As the oldest child, she has worked hard to take care of her four siblings and a chronically ill father, who is unable to help financially. Her main chore, besides caretaking, is to bring firewood from the surrounding hillsides to her home on the edge of town. Her native language is Amazigh. Due to the many activities needed to support her family, Naima has never attended the town’s modern public school. She did go to the local kuttab (Islamic school) for two years and learned how to recite Quranic verses, and to read and write rudimentary Arabic. She also learned to speak dialectic Moroccan Arabic from daily interactions with neighbors.