Deaf Moroccan

Locations

Identity

Deaf Moroccans are the country's signing community: people born deaf or deafened in early childhood who use Moroccan Sign Language (MSL, xms) and take part in Deaf life in schools, associations and clubs. They come from every Moroccan people, Arab, Amazigh and Sahrawi, and share a language their hearing families rarely know. Deaf schooling began in Casablanca in 1957; the present sign language took shape after 1987, when signs brought by American Peace Corps volunteers to a school for the deaf in Tetouan mixed with local signs and with the French Sign Language used in earlier schools. Signing still varies by city, and near the Algerian border, in Oujda, it leans towards Algerian Sign Language. Morocco has worked since 2016 on standardising MSL, with a United Nations Development Programme grant of 7 million dirhams. Moroccans who lost their hearing later in life and still use spoken Arabic or Amazigh belong to their own peoples.

Culture & traditions

Deaf Moroccans grow up in hearing families and share their food, dress, feasts and family customs, but find their own community at schools for the deaf, many of them run by parents' associations, and in Deaf clubs and associations in the large cities. Associations teach MSL to families and publish signing videos online; one, Communication for Deaf, began in 2007 in M'rirt, a small Middle Atlas town. The national dictionary of the 1980s was little used, and most interpreters learned to sign in Deaf schools and hold only association diplomas.

Religious practices

Deaf Moroccans belong to Muslim families and keep the visible practices of Islam, the prayer movements and the Ramadan fast, but Friday sermons, Quran schools and religious television are not signed, so many understand little of the teaching behind them. No signed Quran or sermon programme was found in Morocco. Folk practices of their families (saints' shrines, protection from the evil eye) reach them as they reach other Moroccans.

Gospel access

No Scripture exists in Moroccan Sign Language; JP records a translation as started. No Jesus Film or audio-visual Bible stories in MSL were found, and no Christian ministry among Deaf Moroccans is known. Written Arabic or French Bibles serve few Deaf readers, since most Deaf adults read poorly.

At a glance

Language: Moroccan Sign Language
Language family: Sign Language
Affinity bloc: Deaf
People cluster: Deaf
Primary religion: Islam - Sunni
Bible status: Translation started
Jesus Film: No
Audio recordings: No
Gospel recordings: Not Available
Radio broadcasts: Not Available
Religious school: Maliki

Religious breakdown

Religion	%	Denomination	Notes
Islam	~99%	Sunni (Maliki)	The faith of their families; few Deaf Moroccans receive religious teaching, since sermons and Quran classes are in spoken Arabic or Amazigh
Christianity	<0.1%	unknown	No Deaf fellowship known; JP gives 0.09% Christian adherents

Presence by country

MoroccoNativeVerified presence

Population: 65,000
Location: Throughout Morocco proper, most in the large cities around schools for the deaf and associations (Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, Fès, Tangier and Tetouan, Agadir)

Morocco's Deaf community, about 65,000 people, shares Moroccan Sign Language, which took shape after 1987 at a school for the deaf in Tetouan, where signs brought by American volunteers mixed with local signs. Deaf Moroccans come from Arab, Amazigh and Sahrawi families alike, and meet in schools for the deaf run largely by associations, in clubs and in small groups such as a Middle Atlas association that posts signing lessons online. Their sign language still varies from city to city and has no dictionary in common use, fewer than 50 professional interpreters serve the whole country, and most Deaf adults cannot read. Sermons, Quran classes and most television are not signed, so the faith of their families reaches them mostly through what they see.