Intangible Heritage Academy
Since its establishment, the International Academy, Morocco of Tales, for Intangible Heritage Academy, has sought to advance our intangible culture by all means and benefit from it in the fields of education, culture, entertainment, restoring the reputation of popular memory, and preserving the intangible cultural heritage through collection, documentation, and publication.
It also contributes to the development of cultural and artistic programs in cooperation with institutions, sectors, and associations of common interest locally and nationally. It also seeks to build bridges of communication between memory custodians from the previous generation and the rising generations.
From this perspective, the Academy’s interest has focused on contributing to the national cultural field, by organizing the international festival «Morocco of Tales» with the aim of encouraging attention to the Moroccan oral heritage in particular and the global heritage in general.
To achieve these goals, the Academy ensures openness to various cultures locally, regionally and globally without neglecting the Academy’s primary goal, which is to restore respect to the Moroccan oral heritage. Hence, the Morocco «Stories International Festival» is a space to celebrate oral heritage and balanced speech par excellence, in which narrators, researchers, artists and heritage groups from inside and outside the country participate.
Raising awareness of the necessity of preserving our identity and cultural tributaries by restoring respect to oral cultural heritage remains one of the core concerns of the International Academy Morocco of Stories for Intangible Cultural Heritage, and it is enough for us to be proud that «Morocco of Stories» has paved the way for many associations that have become concerned with intangible heritage and are overseeing festivals that celebrate all its manifestations.
The International Festival «Morocco of Stories» has enjoyed the honorary presidency of Her Royal Highness the Princess Lalla Maryem since its launch, and has also received the high patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI since His Majesty ascended the throne of his blessed ancestors. Thanks to her perseverance, she was accredited by the Academy as a member of the Advisory Board on Intangible Cultures of UNESCO.
An academy accredited as an expert in Intangible Heritage by UNESCO, the International Academy «Morocco of Tales» for Intangible Cultural Heritage has sought since its founding—as a university research group for oral heritage at Ibn Zohr University of Agadir in 1992—after which it was transformed into «a meeting association for education and cultures» starting in 2000, to finally become an academy in 2022.
Its mission is to promote intangible culture, value Moroccan intangible capital by all means, and benefit from oral heritage in the fields of education, culture, and entertainment; to restore popular memory; and to preserve this heritage. In addition, it contributes to the development of cultural and artistic programs in cooperation with institutions, sectors, and associations of common interest locally, nationally, and internationally.
The Academy also seeks to build bridges of communication between memory custodians from the previous generation and the rising generations.
The International Academy «Morocco of Tales» for Intangible Heritage has taken it upon itself to search for ways to fortify the art of storytelling and its pioneers, and to think about its future as part of Moroccan identity and popular memory. It also works to protect the contents that are transmitted by narrators orally or only through narrative forms—most of which have not yet been documented or published in books that would guarantee their continuity and protect them from extinction.
The Academy’s ultimate goal is to engage in presenting a true image of a Morocco that is a link between the culture of yesterday, today, and tomorrow—and is open to others through:
- Relying on the element of national culture with different tributaries and international ones.
- Opening up to the socio-cultural environment, consolidating identity, and fostering the spirit of citizenship.
- Working to introduce cultural heritage and promote it beyond borders as a Moroccan product.
- Children’s contribution to creating their own culture that reflects their concerns and ambitions.
- Rapprochement between generations and benefiting from the experience of ancestors.
- Intangible heritage and sustainable development meetings.
- Collecting, documenting, and disseminating oral heritage.
- Establishing museums dedicated to intangible heritage.
Morocco Tales Festival
The Morocco International Festival of Stories is organized every year in partnership with the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication and several other sectors. It is considered a bridge of heritage extending from Morocco to the world, a beacon that establishes the foundations of identity, a meeting place for great narrators, and the International Complex for Stories. Within ten days, narrators, those interested in and working on world heritage and its protectors will head to Rabat to discuss and renew ideas and theories related to this human wealth throughout the festival days. In the public squares of the Capital of Lights, Rabat, and over the course of 20 sessions, several narrators succeeded one another and thousands of stories were told.
Caravan of Moroccan Stories of Unity and Peace
March 2021 – Under the slogan “Maghreb Tales Without Borders”. Organized in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports – Youth and Sports Sector, March 2021, as part of initiatives aimed at highlighting, valuing, and promoting Morocco’s intangible heritage. This caravan is considered a traveling festival, as it stopped at a number of stations in the southern regions of the Kingdom. Thus, the Guerguerat border crossing hosted various segments of the art of “the episode”, in full respect of the preventive and precautionary measures related to the (Covid-19) pandemic, where the floor was given to dozens of participants, including storytellers and narrators, who entertained those present in this space of national significance, with their unique and interesting stories stemming from Ancient Moroccan heritage.
June 2023 – The caravan landed in two ancient Moroccan cities, Fez and Meknes, where narrators presented their stories to the audience of the two cities in each of the Janan Al-Sabil Gardens in Fez—the symbolic and cultural load of the Janan Al-Sabil Gardens, about the importance of the city of Fez as an insurmountable station—and the AGORA Gardens in Meknes.
Round Table on the Sidelines of the Morocco Stories Festival
In partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, Mohammed V University Rabat and the Higher Institute of Scientific Research Rabat, round tables address the theme of each session from a research and scientific perspective. At the conclusion of these scientific sessions, recommendations are presented by professors and research professors from different countries.
Educational Activity «Casting the Story»
In partnership with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Primary Education, the Academy organized several activities in educational institutions within the framework of the «Sabk Al-Hekaya» program, which is a program completed by Dr. Najima Taytay, and is considered a high-level scientific, cultural and artistic event, targeting adults and children, specialists and those interested, and integrating scientific, cultural and artistic interests into its activities. Its aim is to give the student the ability to express himself based on the story. It has also received recognition from UNIMED, as it ranked first among the programmes offered at the Mediterranean level in 1998 in Rome, which enabled the programme to be implemented in a group of schools in Mediterranean countries. One of the goals of this educational program «Sabk Hekaya» is to introduce «Al Hekaya» into the school educational space, starting from the primary, middle and high school levels, and even university levels. A large number of students have benefited from it, some of whom have become narrators who participate in all the festival’s sessions.
Baba Ashour’s Caravan
The Baba Ashour Festival is a cultural awareness caravan organized by the association with the aim of restoring respect to authentic customs and traditions, which focus on the values of solidarity, tolerance, love, peace, and family gatherings in a distinct festive atmosphere. Since its launch, it has visited several Moroccan cities and villages, and today it is in its 17th session. In order to keep pace with modernity and modern technology, it now has a digital version.
Immaterial Cultural Encounters and Sustainable Development
- First meeting 2005: «Between Generations» under the slogan «Every child has a grandmother and every grandmother has a grandson» in partnership with the Ministry of Solidarity, Social Integration and Family. An activity that benefits elderly female residents and orphaned children affiliated with the Moroccan League for Child Protection, social centers or homes with the aim of achieving communication between generations.
- Second meeting 2006: Exhibition of Aqiqah customs and traditions in the eastern region. In partnership with the state of the eastern region and the prefecture of Oujda Angad, and with the support of Morocco Post, the association organized, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Prophet’s birthday, an exhibition of popular customs and traditions associated with Aqiqah for various regions of the eastern region. During this period, the supplies for the Aqiqah ceremony and a National Savings Fund notebook for each newborn were distributed to families who had a new baby on the tenth of Rabi’ al-Awwal of that year.
- Third meeting 2007: Imraqan Festival. In partnership with the Nador Prefecture and with the support of the Eastern Regions Development Agency, the association organized the Imraqan Festival of Mediterranean Intangible Cultures in Nador: on July 25–26–27, 2007. Examples of the components of intangible cultural heritage were displayed, in which a group of capable artists and artistic groups from Mediterranean countries participated.
- Fourth meeting August 2011: «The forest in the popular imagination» in partnership with the High Commission for Water and Forests on August 19–20 and 21, 2011 in the Harhoura-Temara forest. The meeting was attended by a group of narrators, poets and skilled artists, who presented distinguished performances on the subject of the forest in the intangible cultural heritage.
Workshops and Training Courses
- Training course for children’s land supervisors Terre des Hommes 1995–2001
- Training courses for mothers of centers 2001–1998 SOS Village
- Courses to train narrators, writers, and storytellers in many Moroccan and international cities and villages: France (Lyon, Marseille, Toulan 1994), Italy (2006), Oxford, Cairo, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain
- Courses for training narrators, writers, and activists in France: Lyon, Marseille, Toulan (1994)
- Courses to train teachers and professors in schools and high schools in many Moroccan and international cities
- Framing of children from Beslan, Russia, victims of terrorism, during July 16 to 24, 2006
- Framing female inmates in nursing homes: Marseille, Lyon, Agadir, Ain Atiq
- Story casting workshops in a group of schools and high schools in Morocco and the Mediterranean countries
- Training workshops for civil society inside and outside Morocco
- A structural workshop «the art of storytelling» whose goal is to form the two components.