After a recent trip to Imilchil, it has come to my attention that while writing the narration for the documentary 475 I made a significant error which I would now like to apologize for and address in an attempt to undo some of the damage that has been done to the community in question: the Ait Hdidou tribe. The part of the narration I am referring to reads as follows:
"As the Amazigh legend goes, a girl and a boy from rival tribes fell in love. Infuriated, their tribes prevented them from marrying each other. Not bearing to be apart, they escaped to the top of a mountain and weeped until their tears formed the Lake of Imilchil. The couple died from their melancholy.
The tribes of Ait Brahim and Ait Yeäza were saddened. As a result, a festival was organized so girls and boys from all the tribes can come and freely marry each other. That is how the Imilchil Festival of Marriage was born.
Today, the festival has become a market, where girls as young as twelve line up and get chosen by unknown men."
In this prejudiced voice over I failed to understand the Ait Hdidou's marital traditions, as well as the political and historic background of the festival from their own perspective (the Ait Brahim and Ait Yeäza are clans of the Ait Hdidou tribe). Instead I adopted an Orientalist and accusatory narrative which only highlighted my ignorance of the Ait Hdidou and their annual festival.
Instead of explaining my misunderstanding of the festival, I thought it best apologize to the people of Imilchil and to leave it to an Ait Hdidou woman to dismantle the Orientalist misconception of her people's traditions in this video I shot in Imilchil.
Instead of explaining my misunderstanding of the festival, I thought it best apologize to the people of Imilchil and to leave it to an Ait Hdidou woman to dismantle the Orientalist misconception of her people's traditions in this video I shot in Imilchil.
