Rabat – The Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, celebrated today, March 19, International Francophonie Day.
This theme of the celebration this year was youth, employment, and gender equality. The Group of Francophone Embassies hosted the event in collaboration with the Francophone University Agency.
The event saw the attendance of the Ambassador of France in Rabat, Helene Le Gal, the Ambassador of Senegal in Rabat, Ibrahim Al Khalil Seck, as well as the Director of the Francophone University Agency, Danielle Pailler.
This year’s activities included the organization of round table discussions, film screenings, book presentations, and inclusive photography and craft exhibits. According to the press statement, the activities ran in support of several national and international educational and cultural institutions.
Moroccan craftsmen offered a handcrafted present to the secretary-general of the organization, Louise Mushikiwabo, “as a pledge of the exemplary collaboration between Morocco and the [organization].”
Approximately 33% of Morocco’s population, over 12 million people, are proficient in French. According to the 2004 national census, nearly 70% of the country’s literate population can read and write in the language.
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Earlier in the month, Youssef Amrani, the acting Moroccan ambassador to South Africa, celebrated Morocco’s culture, cuisine, and diversity in an online interview published in advance of International Francophonie Day.
In a video posted to the embassy’s YouTube channel, Amrani answered questions about Morocco that Alliance Francaise de Pretoria posed, a French-language school and culture center in South Africa’s executive capital city.
For one, he highlighted the cultural importance of Moroccan cuisine, calling it “one of the tastiest and finest around the world.”
“It is rich, it is perfumed, it is simply unique,” boasted Amrani. “Each Moroccan dish is a journey of the senses which dives you deeper into the Berber, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, and Saharawi variants.”
Multiculturalism was another major point of Amrani’s interview, in which he described a “unique diversity of which only Moroccans have the secret.”
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