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CW: food
So, ever since the announcement of couscous being added to the Intangible Heritage list of world inventions and practices, Iāve wanted to do a thread on the significance of couscous in the Maghreb, and why this was so important to many people in the region. 1/?
So, ever since the announcement of couscous being added to the Intangible Heritage list of world inventions and practices, Iāve wanted to do a thread on the significance of couscous in the Maghreb, and why this was so important to many people in the region. 1/?
First, couscous is a dish of steamed crushed semolina grains popular in all of the Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania)āthe lands of the Amazigh or āBerbers.ā 2/?
Its origins are plagued in mist. Some have placed its āinventionā between the 11th and 13th century, with the first written accounts having been found in Al-Andalus (aka Muslim Spain). 3/?
One of the first written references was found in an anonymous 13th century cookbook āKitÄb al-į¹abÄ«kh fÄ« al-Maghrib waāl-Ändalusā (Book of Cooking in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus). 4/?
However, others have taken a different stance. A couscoussier is a traditional double-chambered food steamer used in Berber (particularly, the Libyan, the Tunisian, the Algerian and the Moroccan) cuisine to cook the couscous. 5/?
It is made of two interlocking pots. The bottom one holds water or soup used to produce steam. The second has a lid, and perforated floor, so that it holds the couscous in place while allowing the steam to enter and seep through the grains. 6/?
The oldest known traces of couscoussiers are found in graves from the 3rd cent BC, the time of the Amazigh king Massinissa of Numidia (in present-day Algeria). Which is why many food historians believe couscoushas its origins quite a while before its spread in Al-Andalus. 7/?
What we do know for certain is that it has its origins in indigenous North African aka Amazigh heritage. And in the face of mass post-colonial arabisation of the Maghreb, itās provided a link to our quickly disappearing Indigenous heritage that is difficult to break. 8/?
As Iāve said before, most, if not all, native Maghrebis who had tribes on this land for centuries are indigenous to the region, no matter whether they, themselves, identify as Arabs or Amazigh. 9/?
But why was protecting couscous as an intangible heritage so important for the Maghreb? Why does it anger me that France is claiming it? Let me explain. 10/?
Not only does it link us to our Indigneous heritage, but ever since colonialism, itās become a symbol of our resistance to mass acculturation. During the colonial era, the Maghreb lost so much to the āCivilising Missionā of Empire. 11/?
This is why France claiming it as a part of their heritage simply because diaspora Maghrebis, who were often colonial refugees, introduced it by cultural exchange angers me. You do not get to force acculturation on a people and then claim part of that culture for yourself. 12/?
The issue of I*rael claiming couscous is another matter entirely. I understand that itās part of Maghrebi Sephardic + Mizrahi Jewsā heritages, but branding it as a āIsraeliā is the main problem people see, bc it only serves to sever rather than bring people together. 13/?
Iām not going to expand on I*raelās appropriation of cuisines and the discrimination many NA Jews face in that community, because I think itās obvious. But I urge you not to use āIsraeli couscousā anywhere near North Africans, no matter how different the grain seems. 14/?
But what about other lands in the Mediterranean, namely southern Italy and Spain?
Both gained the knowledge of couscous preparation through natural culture exchange via Arab + North African conquest. I donāt think it deserves much discussion. Excited to try theirs!
15/?
Both gained the knowledge of couscous preparation through natural culture exchange via Arab + North African conquest. I donāt think it deserves much discussion. Excited to try theirs!
15/?
In addition to this, I think Maghrebis have taken this piece of heritage so seriously because of the erasure we face from the world. We are constantly ignored, brushed off, or forgotten in all matters of mainstream representations, whether in the West or the āArab World.ā 16/?
Our history is either whitewashed or played with to fit political agendas that undermine our presence and contribution to the world. It is all so tiring. 17/17
