Amazigh Festival Opens in Fez

The 13th edition of the International Festival of Amazigh Culture opened last night at the Hotel Merinides. A capacity crowd were welcomed by Festival Director, Moha Ennaji

Before the inaugural address, the Festival paid homage to three notable Moroccans; Mohammed Kabbaj, ex-president of Esprit de Fes and the Fes-Sais Association, Emeritus Professor Ahmed El Khamliche and the Belgian-Moroccan writer Issa Ait Belize.

The inaugural address was delivered by the French writer Hubert Haddad, who spoke about "Le tissage des langues" - "the weaving of languages".

The Festival has an intriguing display of Amazigh art

The large audience was truly international and multicultural, with participants and visitors from around the world. The Festival had anticipated this and thoughtfully provided instant translations via headphones.

In the audience, The View From Fez spoke with Lebanese writer and journalist,  General Nizar Abdelkader (pictured left), who said this was his third visit to Morocco and his second as a participant in the Festival.

Abdelkader specialises in writing on international politics and is the author of many books on the subject. "I have always been fascinated by politics', he said, "at the moment I am watching close the developments in Iran. They dream of rebuilding the Persian Empire."

Nizar Abdelkader will be speaking at a forum on Multiculturalism, Multilingualism and Extremism at 18.05 today. On the same panel will be Belkacem Boumedini and Nebia Dadoua Hadria, both from Algeria. Also on the panel is one of the organisers of the Festival, Fatima Sidiqi.

Academic and Festival orgaiser, Fatima Sadiqi

The Festival continues until Sunday at the Merinides Hotel, with evening concerts at Bab Makina. Tonight (Saturday) the concert will feature the group Ahidous Tahla, Hassan Berkani and Ibtissam Tiskat.

See the full programme here

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