Voices from the High Atlas: Survivor narratives, linguistic inequality, and meaning-making after the 2023 Morocco earthquake

On 8 September 2023, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Morocco, causing significant devastation to remote communities in the High Atlas. Nearly 3000 people died, more than 6000 were injured, and destruction was widespread. Limited attention has been paid to how survivors narrate and linguistically construct their experiences of trauma and survival. This study examines how survivors articulate loss, resilience, and meaning through their own accounts. Using a qualitative approach, the study integrates thematic analysis, narrative inquiry, and phenomenological analysis. The data consist of 36 publicly available video testimonies that were transcribed and translated from Moroccan Arabic (Darija) and Tamazight into English. These testimonies were sourced from interviews conducted by various national and international news organizations. Four main themes emerged: emotional and material devastation; religious meaning-making; collective solidarity; and calls for government intervention. The findings also reveal linguistic inequality: many Amazigh survivors were expected to recount traumatic experiences in Moroccan Arabic rather than Tamazight, which placed on them the double burden of processing trauma while simultaneously translating their emotions.