ⴰⵣⴷⴰⵢ - Azday
Azday (meaning “to collect or gather”) is a project to document the culinary heritage of the Amazigh kitchen, by selecting traditional dishes and providing context, mythology and traditions behind the gathering and assembling of ingredients. Some dishes have been linked to rituals that are thousands of years old, while the methods can still be gathered from first-hand sources of the Amazigh elders. Their origins can be long forgotten, therefore Azday will also do a cross desk research to gather as much information as possible.
The book of culinary heritage is beyond a recipe book, it will tell the stories of each dish and how in many of them, the collective preparation had special traditions such as the making of the couscous. The interviews with the sources will touch upon the stories, tools and occasions where certain dishes were made for. We aim with such a book to document the traditions and rituals of Imazighen while providing insights to forgotten practices and information.
In the Amazigh culture, food used to be prepared and eaten collectively. People celebrated, mourned and conducted rituals in the presence of food. Even though the Imazighen of Libya have lived through identity erasure and currently civil war. Much of reconciliation and gatherings happen still around food. The Amazigh culinary book will touch upon that indirectly.
The Azday projectis funded by the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The project is conducted in partnership with the At Wellol Movement.
The British Council’s £30m Cultural Protection Fund, in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is set up to protect cultural heritage at risk due to conflict in the Middle East and North Africa.
