Monday, May 17, 2010

My Berber project summary

By Nassim Ouazghari




My name is Nassim and my presentation is about berber houses. First there is a keynote presentation with pictures and oral comments. Right after, there is a home-made video of a Berber house. Afterwards there is a presentation about the way berber houses are built and organized with some plans, then there is a small youtube video of the inside of a Berber house.




Different houses, different beauties

Berber houses are very different from one another as they are built in different regions


Inside Berber houses

As the houses differ, their insides too. For example, some have a terrace, some don’t.


Berber doors and windows, the finest carving

The door’s houses and windows are very important, the carving shows the house’s inhabitants’ wealth, the sign of their region and sometimes the deep origins of the family.


Berber dining rooms

The old dining rooms are always carpets or thin mats on the floor and cushions endorsed to the walls. But living rooms differ from house to house, some have decorations and carpets on the walls, some don’t.


Berber modern dining rooms

Some Berber houses adopted a modern style for their dining rooms: there are high mats and a table in the middle instead of everything on the floor.


Berber kitchens

In the kitchens, we find tea cups, bronze teapots, bronze plates, ovens made of rammed earth and cooking tools made of wood, iron or bronze. They also have pottery like tajines and pots.


Houses’ patios

The patios play an important role in the house, they are a place where the family or the inhabitants of the house meet and have a snack or eat dinner in sunny days.


Berber tents, another type of beauty

Another type of Berber houses are tents. They are made and used by the tuaregs in the desert or shepherds in the mountains. These type of tents are weaved by women. The tissues vary from three colors: black, gray or brown. Most of the tents are black because of the goats’ wool that is black and waterproof. The size of the tent indicates the family’s wealth.


Inside Berber tents

Some Berber tents have a big outdoor place, some are all covered. This differs depending on the family’s wishes.





How Berber houses are built:


Berber houses are built with rammed earth walls, wooden doors and windows and rosewood roofs. The rammed earth is made up of sand, straw and water, and it’s mixed with the men’s feet. This makes a strong kind of home-made cement. The rammed earth is then transformed into bricks, and those bricks are alined to make walls, and they are joined with the rest of liquid rammed earth.




Why should we keep Berber houses?


The Berber houses are still living monuments of history that humans should preserve like the pyramids of Ghizah or the Pisa tower, because they give an addition to humanity with their beauty and their antiquity. They also are THE habitat of a culture, of a civilization that we must keep, that we must care about, cause, if nobody cared about our community and our habitat, it would have disappeared little by little, until the ruins and the rests of us wouldn’t exist anymore. That would happen to the Berbers and their houses if nobody cared about them, and the whole Berber culture would die because of no place to live in.






Monday, November 30, 2009

The BERBER Culture

The most characterizing sign that proves that the Berber culture is still existing and important is the typical Berber dance, “Ahwach”. That dance exists from the time that the first Berbers came to Morocco, long time ago, from somewhere and somehow.

Ahwach is not only a dance, it also consists on singing and instruments, like drums and a special flute that they use. Furthermore, it is a way for people to stay together and to socialize, unlike us, because people prefer to stay at home and to watch TV, or go into the Internet, or “socialize” by talking on the phone.

In my WWW trip, I experienced that dance with native Berber men and women. We were all dancing and clapping hands so loudly that everybody on the village would hear it. There were some shy girls (Mika and Jimin), whatever we had a great time, and also our Berber friends liked it.

I THINK Ahwach is the one of the best ways to show that the Berber Culture continue to exist, and hopefully, will exist to the end of the world.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

MY LIFE IN MOROCCO

Nassim is my name, and I lived in Morocco for all my life. This is a very nice country even if if it's still in development, and actually, I think Morocco in developing very well. I’ve spend all my life in Morocco. I began my life in the actual apartment of my aunt before we move to our actual apartment where I passed all my life to now. So if you want to now me,you are welcomed!




Thursday, October 8, 2009

Welcome in my blog on Berbers in Morocco

Thanks for coming in my blog.
This blog will talk about the most famous people in Morocco, the most incredible people in Morocco: the... BERBERS!!!
I lived with them for five days in the High Atlas Mountains, and I learned a lot about their culture, their activities and all their festivities, I also realized how our lives a lot easier than their lives and I experienced or the first time the with the Berbers in the mountains.
So let us learn about these fantastic people!