When the intellectual is defeated in front of the dancer
When art and dance are more communicative with the masses and inspire emotions and expression than thought and culture and carry the values of freedom and coexistence, the difference appears in their impact on society. This is what I realized while attending the Thuisa Festival in Tangier, where I listened to a lecture by the Syrian poet Adonis and the Egyptian thinker Youssef Zaidan, which was titled “In the Need for an Alternative Cultural Project.” However, I was surprised that they repeat the discourse of exclusionary Arab nationalism, which history has transcended and the regimes that supported and nurtured it fell, which led to the outbreak of wars, crises and ethnic cleansing operations in North Africa and the Middle East and the growth of the discourse of extremism and exclusion and pushing the countries of the region into the furnace of backwardness and reaction.
The title of the festival was clear and carried a deep message indicating the failure of the consuming cultural project that forced us to adopt it for decades and towards the search for a cultural alternative to it. In the need for alternative cultural projects, “it would have been more appropriate.
While listening to these people and their transgressive rhetoric, which they repeat every time they attend the Mediterranean Berber Thuisa Festival in Tangier, I wondered how you would describe these guests, who were invited by an Amazigh association and festival, to come and deliver racist speech against Moroccans and exclude them in their own country. How can we clarify this apparent contradiction?
I remembered at that moment, the performing artist, Myriam Fares, a decade ago, as she attended the Nador Mediterranean Festival and raised the Amazigh flag, then when she returned to her country, she held dialogues and meetings in which she spoke about the Amazighs, their identity and language with pride and pride, and she became an ambassador of the Amazigh identity in Lebanon and through it in the entire region . She even released an Amazigh song; And here I began my comparison between these nationalist thinkers, who, despite their presence several times in the hospitality of the Amazigh Society, did not make the slightest attempt to adapt their discourse to the privacy of Moroccans and to respect their identity here on the stage. So what when they return to their countries? Will they speak positively about Moroccans? And they define and refer to their culture? Despite their generous reception and accommodation in luxurious hotels, they never returned the favor, because they do not have the morals or sophistication of Myriam Fares, and because their nationalistic ideas made the show artist superior to them, and we reaped with art what we did not reap with thought.
In the future, the festival should direct its guests to the need to respect the Amazigh identity, and that their interventions during the festival should enhance this identity. The festival's message must be clear that it aims to promote and highlight the Amazigh language, and not to turn it into a platform for nationalists who attack the Amazigh language with rhetoric that has become rejected even in its own home.
This can be achieved by establishing clear criteria for selecting festival guests and speakers. They must be committed to the values of multiculturalism and respect for the Amazigh identity. This can include prior guidance and awareness of the guests about sensitive and cultural issues related to the Amazigh language, its history and traditions, and Moroccan privacy. There is no objection to receiving nationalist thinkers, but to correct their misconceptions about Moroccan society and Moroccan and North African culture, and to see this reflected in their writings and dialogues when they return to their countries, that We gain ambassadors to introduce us to their countries.
In addition, discussion sessions and targeted discussions can be organized on Amazigh identity and its role in society, where guests are encouraged to participate in these discussions in a constructive and objective manner. These sessions can contribute to educating the guests and attendees about Amazigh culture as a common heritage for all Moroccans and to enhance understanding and understanding between different cultures.
The festival should be a platform for promoting Moroccan identity, reflecting and contributing to the Amazigh heritage. Through its artistic and cultural events that highlight Amazigh art, music and literature. Amazigh artists and writers who work to preserve and develop heritage must be highlighted, and given the opportunity to participate and express their identity.
In short, the festival must adopt a clear vision that aims to advance the Amazigh identity, and work to make the guests committed to respect and learn about the culture and history of the Amazighs. The festival should be a space for dialogue and fruitful cultural exchange between different cultures, and reflect the values of tolerance and pluralism that society embraces.
In the end, there seems to be a clear contradiction between the orientations of these nationalist intellectuals and the Moroccan official discourse. Even artists embrace cultural pluralism and mutual respect. As for these nationalist thinkers, they are still stuck in an old and limited vision that excludes reality and is coordinated behind the discourses of Arab nationalism that failed to achieve rapprochement and understanding in the Middle East and North Africa. In the south of the Kingdom and its adoption as well as its financing.
It is necessary for these thinkers to open their horizons and ideas to embrace diversity and different cultures, and to learn from the experiences of artists who work to expand horizons and build bridges of communication between diverse cultures.
Rachid Bouhaddouz
Source : websites