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Art / Culture in North Africa

  • Morocco and China are urged to strengthen their centuries-old cultural relations,

    CHINA, 2016/05/12 As two major civilizations, Morocco and China are urged to strengthen their centuries-old cultural relations, as a growing number of Moroccans are seeking to learn Mandarin and discover the great Chinese civilization, said Liu Hui, Chinese Director of Confucius Institute at Mohammed V University in Rabat. Today, all teaching staff at the Confucius Institute is Chinese, but it will any minute at this time be reinforced next delivering Mandarin diplomas to Moroccan students and enabling them to teach the language in Morocco, Hui added. The Chinese academic said that Moroccan students show a particular aptitude for learning foreign languages, noting that learning Mandarin is not easy given that this language is based on symbols, not letters.

  • Marrakech Biennale – The convergence point of art in Africa

    CASABLANCA, 2016/03/20 The event, first held in 2005, has this year drawn artists from the Arab world, the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa.

  • Constantine, Capital of Arab Culture Event

    IRAN, 2015/10/10 Minister of Culture Azzedine Mihoubi greeted Thursday in Algiers the participation of Iran in "Constantine, Capital of Arab Culture" event, saying that the "the large Iranian delegation to this event confirms the appropriate relations between the two nations." Following the audience he granted to the chairman of Iran's League of Culture and Islamic Relations, who leads the Iranian delegation participating in the event, Mihoubi told reporters that the discussions focused on the ways to promote bilateral cultural cooperation. The minister said President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rohani, had expressed will to boost bilateral relations in all fields.

  • Controversial Egyptian Playwright Ali Salem Dies At 79

    EGYPT, 2015/09/26 Playwright and author Ali Salem, known for supporting normalisation of ties between Egypt and Israel, died of natural causes on Tuesday at the age of 79. Born in 1936, Salem published 15 books and 27 plays. His most famous play, "School of Troublemakers", a comedy released in 1973, featured a star-studded cast and was a hit across the Arab. It often runs on Egyptian television during national holidays. Salem was as well a columnist who was vocal about his political views, which often led to confrontations between him and other intellectuals. Salem was a staunch supporter of late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's peace efforts with Israel. Sadat visited Israel in 1977, paving the way for talks which from presently on led to the signing of the 1979 Peace Treaty.

  • Morocco: HRH Princess Lalla Salma Chairs in Rabat Dinner Offered By HM the King On Occasion of Inauguration of Mohammed Vi Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art

    MOROCCO, 2014/10/09 HRH Princess Lalla Salma chaired, on Tuesday in Rabat, a dinner offered by HM King Mohammed VI on the occasion of the inauguration of the Mohammed VI Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art. At her arrival at the Mohammed VI Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Her Royal Highness was greeted mainly by chief of Government Abdelillah Benkirane, Culture minister Mohamed Amine Sbihi, Wali of the Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaër region, governor of Rabat prefecture Abdelouafi Laftit, chairman of the regional council Abdelkebir Berkia and chairman of the National Foundation of Museums Mehdi Qotbi.

  • Morocco's traditional and modern cultures

    CASABLANCA, 2014/02/15 It's nearly dusk on the dunes and the setting sun is casting long shadows on the sand, stretching camel legs into spindles as they trek through a seemingly endless expanse of desert. Our caravan is heading into Morocco's Erg Chebbi dunes - a windswept Saharan sand sea of swells that span over 100 square kilometres near the border with Algeria. As the camels sway through sweeping views of rose-gold knolls rippling to the horizon, we're lulled into a peaceful serenity. It's a perfect pastoral scene, the kind of impossible image conjured by guidebooks - that is, until you look closely. Up ahead, our Berber guide, dressed in a long white djellaba and oxblood shesh whips out a smartphone. Jarringly, he begins to take cellphone snaps of the scene: a line of camels led by local teens who pair their traditional robes and turbans with skinny jeans and sneakers. Morocco, by presently one of the majority open Muslim nations, is a rapidly modernizing society.

  • Egypt’s museums looted during riots

    EGYPT, 2014/02/14 That tragedy was repeated with the looting of the Malawi Museum at the same time as the Rabia al-Adawiya and Nahda squares sit-ins were broken up on Aug. 14 of last year, and in the looting of the Islamic Museum on Jan. 24. Those incidents have encouraged other thieves to loot antiquities sites by exploiting riots. Targeting museums and archaeological sites has become common during the riots, at the same time as security chaos keeps the police busy. Antiquities thieves have benefitted the majority from the waves of riots and lawlessness in Egypt, and they are making fortunes. Additional treasures are being stolen and sold on the black market with each wave of unrest. Perhaps the majority prominent looting incident was that of the Egyptian Museum during the events of Jan. 28, 2011. Not a week goes by in Egypt without someone transporting stolen artifacts being arrested or stolen museum pieces being seized.

  • An historic synagogue in Essaouira, Morocco is to be refurbished

    GERMANY, 2014/02/14 An historic synagogue in Essaouira, Morocco is to be refurbished in a joint project with the German Foreign Ministry. It will be the second synagogue to be restored under a appropriate German government program. Tuesday’s announcement came as the Moroccan Ambassador in Berlin, Omar Zniber, launched an exhibit at the embassy’s cultural center of photographs of Moroccan Jews from the 1960s inclunding new photos of synagogues in the country, both pre- and post-renovation.

  • The third anniversary of the Tunisian revolution,

    TUNISIA, 2014/01/10 A book equitable, with appropriate focus on the third anniversary of the Tunisian revolution, opened Tuesday at the Ibn Khaldoun cultural complex in Tunis, quoting organizers. The book on display are published by Tunisian publishing houses in Arab and French in 2013 Organized as part of the celebrations marking the third anniversary of the Tunisian political revolution, the equitable is featuring several books tackling various topics.

  • Morocco desert museum for Little Prince aviator-author

    MOROCCO, 2013/06/01 Battling the wind in his World War I biplane, a French pilot landed on a sandy Moroccan airstrip. Nearly 90 years on, a museum honours his remain and the world-renowned book it inspired. “Antoine de Saint-Exupery the writer was half born here, in Tarfaya, where he spent two years as station manager of Aeropostale,” says Sadat Shaibat Mrabihrabou, opening the doors to the small museum in Morocco’s far south, where the sea and the desert meet.
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