International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES)[1] from Ljubljana, Slovenia, regularly analyses developments in the Middle East, Balkans and around the world. Faiza Koubi isaPhD candidate in international relations at the University Mohamed V, Agdal Rabat, Morocco. In her text entitled “The Moroccan cultural action in Sub-Saharan Africa for a peaceful space” she is analysing how Morocco is seeking to establish its regional repositioning through cultural diplomacy.
PhD candidate in international relations
University Mohamed V Agdal Rabat, Morocco
The study of Morocco's cultural diplomacy in sub-Saharan Africa can only be understood through the definition of the scope of the notion of cultural diplomacy. This notion, which is so broad, combines two connotations: diplomatic and cultural, one strictly internal and the other external. This paper proposes to explore the cultural diplomacy of Morocco in the sub-Saharan space. Morocco relies, in its strategy of influence, in its sub-Saharan African environment on several instruments, culture in this case. The enhancement of culture in Moroccan diplomacy is materialized by a set of actions undertaken within a strong traditional cultural framework including several actors. The cultural diplomacy of Morocco is a practice that revolves around many aspects: the scientific, educational, spiritual, religious, and artistic and creative. These dimensions are very much exploited by Morocco in sub-Saharan Africa.
The cultural diplomacy that Morocco conducts in Sub-Saharan Africa operates intensely in the field of education and training. Morocco is seeking to establish its regional repositioning through cultural cooperation in the education, and academic research, and capacity development fields. The other great aspect of Moroccan cultural diplomacy is the spiritual domain. Spiritual diplomacy is a form of diplomacy that covers a specific field that is religion, tolerance, and intercultural dialogue. In the case of Morocco, religious diplomacy is part of cultural diplomacy because tolerant Islamic practice is well integrated into Moroccan culture, which defines itself as diverse and multi-ethnic. If the cultural diplomacy conducted by some western powers such as France have abandoned the religious aspect in their external action, Morocco, however, makes the moderate and tolerant Islam an essential asset to exercise its Soft Power.
The relationship between Morocco and its African space has long been a priority in the political directions of Moroccan decision-makers. To understand the African ambition of Moroccan diplomacy, the scope of Moroccan African relations is very intense in the sub-Saharan and West African space compared to other African spaces. Indeed, Morocco at the time and for lack of means could not expand beyond the sub-Saharan space. This explains the existence of a privileged relationship between this part of Africa and Morocco of yesteryear, where culture and especially religion played a predominant role. Other considerations of an economic nature existed such as the exploitation of gold mines and the importance of caravan trails in trans-Saharan trade road makes Africans into allies of the Moroccans.
Moroccan African relations have been marked for centuries by cooperation ties and rapprochement, but there have been difficult moments that staked their relationship and created the need for Morocco to redefine its foreign policy vis-à-vis the continent. It has been mentioned above that the African policy has been rooted in the Moroccan diplomacy since the Morocco's existence as a state entity. This African policy was asserted in the aftermath of independence. The Morocco convinced of its African destiny, chaired the Casablanca group in August 1960.
The tumultuous relations with some African states have been offset by a strong presence in others. Consequently, to establish its position on the region, outside the continental organization, Morocco has led a diplomatic activism on the political, economic, and cultural level. On the political level, since the freezing of relations with the OAU, Morocco has always been involved in events in Africa. Thus, it intervenes in the mediation to resolve conflicts, for example in In the Malian crisis or in the Libyan conflict since 2015[2]. We can notice Morocco's mediation in the Mano River conflict between three West African countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In this crisis Morocco played the role of mediator by calling the parties to admit a draft solution at a reconciliation summit held in Rabat on February 27, 2002. On the economic level, Morocco has become since 2008, the second largest investor on the continent after South Africa, with such a strong presence in West Africa where it has 64% of foreign direct investment in the area. However, in recent decades, there has been a Moroccan diplomatic zeal towards African countries. A behaviour that stems from the need to find a sustainable institutional presence within the African community. Indeed, the decision to reintegrate the pan-African organization and to reaffirm its position on the African scene is only the continuum of Morocco’s regional commitment and perfectly consistent with the scope of its action vis-à-vis Africa. The strategy deployed by Morocco to establish its positioning within its regional group, is materialized by a multidimensional diplomacy with economic, political, social, and cultural aspects. This last dimension will be declined in the following, explaining the instruments of Moroccan cultural diplomacy in Africa, while focusing on the sub-Saharan space.
As part of international relations, cultural diplomacy was not considered in the history studies until after the Second World War. The case is valid for Morocco as it is for other countries that have marked history through their foreign cultural activity, in this case France. One of the first to have thought about the cultural factor in the foreign relations of a State was the historian Pierre Renouvin in 1948, when he devoted the “Cultural History of International Relations”. Cultural diplomacy is a recent subject of study and an incredibly old one in practice; it encompasses a set of actions undertaken by states to promote their model beyond borders.
“Cultural diplomacy,” often equated with “external cultural action”. In fact, cultural diplomacy is the set of operations decided and implemented within the framework of a given foreign policy. It is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that conducts cultural diplomacy, through its intermediaries or agents, within the framework of a diplomatic network, outside of any local or private initiative. However, “External cultural action” refers to “all operations or cultural or educational works orchestrated by the State, under the aegis of various partners, to serve its foreign policy”[3]; the latter is often conducted by a multitude of public or private actors.
At a time of geopolitical upheavals on the international scene, the power of states no longer rests solely on the objective determinants of military, economic or strategic force, if not on the force of seduction and persuasion, to influence the behaviour of states, where culture and ideas remain the main asset[4]. The cultural action carried out by the Kingdom of Morocco beyond its southern borders responds to an imperative that of defending the national interest. When we talk about cultural diplomacy in sub-Saharan Africa, it is important to specify the value of this space in the Morocco’s strategic depth. By maintaining an active cultural diplomacy in this sub-regional space, the country ensures his influence’svisibility. The Moroccan foreign policy activism in the African space it is not a new attitude, but rather the recasting of an ancestral tradition. Contrary to some perceptions, Morocco does not seek to renew its ties with nearby African countries, this link has never been denied, but it must be said that we are witnessing a strengthening of this relationship. The Kingdom has decided to increase his presence in the austral African and eastern African countries like Ethiopia, Angola, South Africa and Nigeria: relations have warmed up realizing that the continent's development cannot take place without bringing together countries with strong potential.
The Africanist impetus of Moroccan direct investment on the African continent, particularly in the products and services sector. The share of these investments has reached 51% of its total external investments, where the banking sector accounts for 53% of the value of these FDIs, followed by the telecommunications sector with 34%. Considered as the second African investor country on the continent, after South Africa, Morocco regain a space geopolitically considered as the continuity of its territory, by strengthening its historical commitments and its traditional ties in sub-Saharan space. West African countries monopolize most of Moroccan FDI to Africa.
The African ambition was built through the Moroccan foreign policy discourse, delivered by the Moroccan sovereign. The geo-economy has occupied a prominent place, given the national socio-economic expectations and the constraints of economic globalization. Morocco wants to be a promoter of south-south cooperation, able to meet the challenges of its region, to establish its position as a development actor and peacemaker. The royal message addressed to the first conference of ambassadors in August 2013, has been perceived as an overhaul of Moroccan diplomacy, giving it a new impetus.
The message tends to energize Moroccan diplomacy, reforming diplomatic action has devoted a part to African diplomacy, which remains one of the priorities of the Moroccan diplomatic arsenal and stresses the need to promote cultural diplomacy as well as economic diplomacy.
The African determinant of the Morocco’s foreign policy has increase by a strengthen south-south cooperation. This cooperation reflects a solidarity action in the economic, educational, technical, security and social sectors. According to the officials, the country has signed in recent decades about 500 political, economic, and technical agreements with African countries. Relations between Morocco and Africa are constantly proliferating, extending to other actors such as parliamentarians and NGOs. We will limit ourselves to revealing the different aspects that Morocco maintains in the framework of cultural diplomacy, we will exclude the economic cooperation, for methodological reasons, and we will highlight how cultural diplomacy is conceived in logic of fight and prevention against security threats on the continent and more particularly in sub-Saharan Africa[5].
In reference to the policy conducted in the higher education sector, which gives universities the plenitude to play a role in “the enhancement of Moroccan cultural heritage and the dissemination of its ancestral values”[6]. This paper will discuss how Morocco maintains a strong link with the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, through promoting the scientific and the educational cooperation with the countries of its southern region, and understand the role of the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation in supporting a policy of openness towards sub-Saharan Africa, with the prospect of increasing African student mobility and providing the necessary assistance to foreign students, of which Africans represent the dominant share.
Among the many actors involved in the sphere of cultural policy, we should mention the role of universities which have made cooperation with Africa a priority. The numbers of students coming from this space demonstrate the dynamics of this cooperation. Moroccan cultural diplomacy moves through the university institution.: universities and higher education establishments, which host each year a significant number of foreign students. The country's influence is measured by the projection capacity of its academic institutions, the productivity of its immaterial human capital and its knowledge[7]. In this African ambition was created the Institute of African Studies, an institution of higher education[8], specializing in research on Africa. This institution confirms the African vocation of Morocco, Hassan II saw it as a scientific bridge between Morocco and Africa, and a vector of influence of the Moroccan university. On the other hand, it is only in the 2000s that the institute will experience a boom in activity and position itself among Moroccan university research institutes. This period coincides with the new African policy of King Mohammed VI.
The rehabilitation of the role of universities in collaborative scientific research has been a priority of Morocco's African policy, which now needs to be accompanied by the involvement of universities and executive training institutions. This cooperation is particularly appreciated in terms of building partnership networks, the proliferation of exchange of expertise, and the production of thematic studies on Moroccan African relations, with the aim of fostering better mutual understanding between Morocco and Africa. It is in this spirit that the opening of the Moroccan university to the regional and international environment has become an intrinsic mission to the tasks assigned to Moroccan institutions of higher education. Since the 2000s, there has been an increase in student mobility from African countries thanks to cooperation agreements in scientific research. Currently, Morocco hosts more than 15,000 students from 42 African countries, enrolled in different types of Moroccan higher education institutions, including 7,000 of sub-Saharan origin, enrolled in public institutions[9]. The influx of foreign students is of the order of 4000 new students each year where Africans represent 63% of all entrants with the assumption of 95% as scholarship holders of the Moroccan government.
Morocco also reserves each year about 350 places for African students in the university campuses, apart from the 850 places devoted to Africans in the international campus of the capital Rabat[10]. At the level of technical cooperation, Morocco wishing to export its experience to the close neighbourhood is involved in the training of more than 1,000 African executives in the sectors of agriculture, health, sea fishing and handicrafts[11]. According to the Moroccan Ministry of Higher Education, the country is the 8th of the top ten international destinations for African students. Morocco is one of the top five host countries for nationals from 17 French-speaking African countries. Among African students enrolled in Morocco, 20% are at the master’s level and 37% are in higher institutions with regulated access such as the faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy, Dentistry, Science and Technology, Engineering Sciences, Commerce and Management, Technology and Translation[12].
The densification of Morocco-Africa relations relies heavily on this scientific collaboration, which provides strategic support to Morocco's influence in the region. A presence that Morocco also ensures through its membership in several African science and technology organizations such as the African Regional Centre for Technology (ARCT), the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology (CRASTE), the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). It should be noted that Morocco remains little present on the African scientific scene compared to countries such as Nigeria and South Africa. Morocco remains linked to partners, especially European[13], which explains Morocco's outlying position within the African scientific space. According to a researcher in scientometry, who studies Morocco's scientific collaboration in Africa, the country is more integrated scientifically in Africa and its strongest cooperation remains with North Africa by 31% of his international scientific collaboration, followed by Nigeria, which does not exceed 6% of the total volume of scientific collaboration[14].
Private higher education institutions have also developed their internationalization strategy for Africa. Thus, the International University of Rabat maintains a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Higher Education whose objective is to promote academic exchanges with the possibility of granting scholarships to African students. This partnership provides for offshore training activities such as training seminars, or the establishment of online training platforms as part of training partnerships. This internationalized institution has a voluntarily innovative strategy with a clear opening on African studies and African future.
In the same spirit of Moroccan African cooperation, Morocco began to welcome trainees from African countries for professional internships, with the possibility of sponsorship, which until then had been intended only for students. As part of the promotion of cultural diplomacy, Morocco is committed to training and skills development of African human capital. In this logic of capacity development and enhancement of African skills and expertise, the African Academy of Energy (ACAFE) was created to upgrade African operators in the field of refining. It is a multicultural training centre[15]. To support its action as an African partner, committed to cultural and educational cooperation, Morocco has created an agency in charge of international cooperation, to better organize this sectoral cooperation.
Aware of the presence of secular, traditional, socio-cultural, spiritual, and economic ties with many African countries, Morocco gives development issues a central place in its foreign policy and works to provide the right conditions for the consolidation of this relationship. The main step taken in this direction was the creation in 1986 of the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (MAIC), whose mission is to implement cooperation programs in favor of partner countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa. The MAIC is considered a executive tool of Morocco's foreign policy, particularly in terms of south-south cooperation with African partners. The broadening of the fields of cooperation between Morocco and sub-Saharan partners has led to a substantial increase in the number of beneficiaries of international cooperation programs in number and type. The cooperation programs now cover various fields like education, training, capacity building, improvement, and exchange of expertise[16].
The MAIC is responsible for developing and strengthening relations of cultural, scientific, technical, and human cooperation. It is through this institution that Moroccan cultural diplomacy ensures its attractiveness, thanks to the support of foreign students, particularly sub-Saharan Africans, and the coordination of training and internships, seminars, and long studies[17]. The use of cultural leverage as an instrument of foreign policy is an indispensable means to defend its image and establish a kind of “Morocco Label”[18].
The significant number of African students, including sub-Saharan Africans, that the MAIC has managed since its inception is 50 000. MAIC has recently launched the project of a network of former African laureates from Morocco, “Le Réseau des Anciens Étudiants du Maroc (RAEM) or The Alumni Network of Morocco”, which will be housed on the diplomatic site. This network will ensure a Moroccan foothold on the African continent. The role played by Morocco, from the independence, in the training of the African elite, remains significant. African executives who have studied in Morocco are very numerous, whether they are senior civil servants such as graduates of engineering schools, administrative executives ’laureates of the ENA in Rabat. We can add the share of African nationals who come to study at the Diplomatic Academy of the Kingdom, which makes the hosting of African diplomats’students a priority action to strengthen relations with African partners. As confirmed by the diplomat who heads the Moroccan Agency for international cooperation.
The Moroccan public policy of cooperation for development, led by the MAIC, tends to share in sub-Saharan countries in Africa the Moroccan good practices capitalized in several sector. This proactive cooperation for development promotes Morocco's repositioning in this sub-region, this cooperation strictly academic and educational have a large human dimension, which reveals the symbolism of Moroccan solidarity in this regional space. Morocco, through these diplomatic actions that are part of a perspective of cultural and scientific cooperation, whose objective is to contribute to the development of its sub-Saharan neighbours and cooperate mutually to meet the challenges of sustainable development in Africa.
This sub-region of sub-Saharan Africa shares with Morocco the belonging to the Francophonie. Morocco, in its strategy of opening to sub-Saharan Africa, has always preferred those countries thanks to Francophone factor, which is also an element of Moroccan culture. The flow of sub-Saharan African students to Morocco is also supported by the Moroccan higher education system, which remains heavily influenced by the European university model. The French language is a determinant of these expatriate’s choice. The link of the francophone world is to be considered when one thinks of the strong rapprochement between the countries of this zone. For Morocco, conscious of its highly multicultural identity and diversity, has managed to maintain through the Francophonie strong relations with France and at the same time the francophone African states. By acting for the cooperation with these countries, it is also the future of the Francophonie’s impact that is at stake. However, some attribute the rapprochement between Morocco and sub-Saharan countries to the Francophonie factor alone. It is indisputably true that the link of the Francophonie has strengthened pre-existing ties, but it is not the creator of them.
The spiritual aspect is also decisive in the strategy of cultural diplomacy. Morocco's image among African populations is shaped by the influence of secular spiritual relations that characterize Moroccan diplomacy. The religious identity of the Moroccan State brings a cultural diplomatic dimension, reinforced by the spiritual authority of the monarch who represents the commander of the faithful, thus claiming his prestige in maintaining relations with the Muslim populations of sub-Saharan Africa. This parameter of religion is instrumentalized by Morocco in two purposes: one is to establish a culture of Islam “Moroccan style”, moderate against a rigorist Islam, which leads to radicalization, this purpose is expected by the opening of Morocco to interreligious dialogue and the call for tolerance, the second goal is to contribute through training and Islamic instruction, monitored by the Mohamed VI Foundation of the training of preachers to convey a pacifist message of Islam and better supervise those involved in the religious field, to respond to the obscurantist message of radicals.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Moroccan soft power is based on the religious leadership of the Commander of the Faithful. Since the 2000s, the country has organized several forums for exchange and debate on interfaith dialogue, where religious contributors from many countries participate to promote tolerance as a response to the rising violence of extremism. As such, there was the organization of the meeting of religious leaders from around the world, which took place in the spiritual capital of Fez. Religious cooperation is seen by Morocco as a bulwark against sectarian and communal aberrations, which threaten the pacifist message of religion. Since the accession of King Mohamed VI to the throne, it has paid particular attention to interculturality, integrating the religious dimension. Interreligion is intrinsically linked to the experience of Moroccans for centuries, by the peaceful cohabitation between the three monotheistic religions, Jews, Muslims, and foreign Christians.
Several events symbolize this voluntarism of interfaith dialogue in Morocco and make it possible to understand the extent that Moroccan decision-makers give to the idea of tolerance, such as the perpetuated tradition of the “Hassanian Conferences” and the organization of the Festival of Sacred Music of Fez, the welcoming of participants from African Sufi brotherhoods, or the creation of the first institute of African theology.
Regarding the Hassanian Lectures, translated from the Arabic “Addourous Hassania”, it is the circles of religious conferences during Ramadan, the “sacred month of Muslims”. Two characteristics of the diplomatic aspect of this event: the frequency of African speakers and foreign speakers from all Muslim doctrines and rites, Sunnis, and Shiites, and even followers of the Muslim Brotherhood without forgetting the Sufists who are followers of the “Zaouia” brotherhoods[19]. Actually, no one feared the threat of the Islamist drift. The diversity of participants, foreigner theologists scholars and the guests were are of different faiths[20]. Mohamed VI has consecrated the aspect of cultural and spiritual diplomacy with recognizing the status of women in the religious field, today, the councils of the ulema[21] include women theologians witch revolutionizing the tradition of Muslim countries. This influence has been reinforced, thanks to the popularization of scientific knowledge, through the translation of the contents of these conferences into the three foreign languages, French, English and Spanish[22].
The second aspect of Moroccan religious diplomacy also has an artistic dimension. It is the organization of the festival of Sacred Music which is coordinated by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. It is an international cultural event, which has been organized for more than twenty years. Qualified, according to the UNESCO, as a space promoting the dialogue between civilizations, this artistic and spiritual event was ranked as the major international cultural event level in 2001, remains a must in the twenty-first century. The festival aims to shed light on the immaterial heritage of humanity by referring to humanist values such as freedom, tolerance, and openness[23].
Since 2001, this festival has hosted a forum for interreligious dialogue on the themes of spirituality as a factor in bringing civilizations closer together, it is a place of exchange between philosophers and intellectuals on themes of tolerance and of exhibit artistic creations, related to the theme of spirituality, where each artist reveals through his works his free thought on the sacred. Through these artistic and spiritual events, the country sends a way of rejecting the “clash of civilizations” theory, which is constantly being challenged in the Kingdom's official discourse.
In the same vein, the commandery of faithfuls of the sovereign has a moral obligation to protect the spiritual space and the consolidation of the values of tolerance and moderation and the rejection of all forms of blind extremism and politicization of religion. In this official message, we find the new Moroccan policy of the rehabilitation of the roles of zaouïas in the protection of Islam and the call for tolerance beyond Moroccan borders. This approach is part of a national strategy for spiritual security, which focuses on revitalizing the role of Sufism to counter extremist and faithing radicalization tendencies. It is a collective mobilization, which calls to instrumentalize its power of Sufi dissemination against the propagation of hatred, which is spreading in Africa. This mobilization effort is supported by Morocco through the royal institution on the tradition of the Alaouite dynasty.
Other events organized by Morocco, with an international dimension, are part of the outreach strategy, through the tolerance and interreligious dialogue like the international congress on religious minorities in the land of Islam, which took place on January 25, 2016 or the third Francophonie conference about the Interreligious dialogue, Organized in Fes, September 2018.
This spiritual securization make Morocco an example of openness and interreligious and intercultural dialogue is illustrated by a program to rehabilitate all synagogues, cathedrals and churches. The restoration of these spaces allows to transform them into cultural centers and dialogue between religions. These examples illustrate how internal political acts can have an impact through the message carried by cultural diplomacy, as the creation of an ecumenical institute, unique in the region, to deliver a degree in Christian theology, both Catholic and Protestant, which is recognized by the Strasbourg University and the Institute of Theological Studies in Paris. This institute “Almowafaqa” or “the correspondence in Arabic”, has been requested by the two Catholic and Evangelical Churches of Morocco to open an institution that offers interreligious education for the Christian community in a Morocco recognizing the rights of religious minorities. The students are primarily Europeans and mostly sub-Saharans. This institute is a place of sharing between not only Christians, but also serves as a space for debate and exchange through the organization of periodic seminars and colloquia on religion in which Muslim and Jews lecturers participate.The creation of this Institute of Christian Theological Studies with an international vocation in Rabat, given that the users are all foreigners, preceded by three years the creation of a similar institute dedicated to the training of Muslim clerics, can be appreciated as a message of the tolerance policy addressed by the Moroccan decision-maker and a signal of openness to other cultures mainly sub-Saharan. It is in this sense that it was decided to train sub-Saharan clerics who are also Muslims, and to create a scientific forum for African Muslim “theologists” Ulemas.
The underlying objective of conducting cultural diplomacy, in the case of Moroccan foreign policy, beyond defending the national interest, is to assert the country's position. This cultural diplomacy is structured around several dimensions: scientific and educational, and religious.
Morocco has been part of a dynamic of regional projection, targeting primarily sub-Saharan Africa, by exploiting among others a huge cultural potential, to achieve a regional influence. However, apart from cooperation in education and training with sub-Saharan countries, Moroccan soft power makes extensive use of the religious factor to disseminate the Moroccan religious model under the label of a moderate Islam, open to all civilizations and respectful of all faiths. Religious diplomacy is a highly standardized field, where the actors are in perfect synergy and coherence, whether they are representatives of the executive and diplomatic apparatus, supported by non-state actors with a religious vocation such as religious authorities or transnational religious communities[24].
About the author:
Faiza Koubi is a PhD candidate in international relations at the University Mohamed V Agdal Rabat-Morocco.
Ljubljana/Rabat, 20 March 2021
Footnotes:
[1] IFIMES – International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has Special Consultative status at ECOSOC/UN, New York, since 2018.
[2] The Libyan factions within the framework of negotiations to find a way out of the institutional crisis and conclude the agreement of Skhirat (coastal city around Rabat) on the Government of National Accord.
[3] DUBOSCLAR, Alain, « Les Principes de l’action culturelle de la France aux Etats-Unis au XXème siècle : Essai de définition », in Entre rayonnement et réciprocité, contributions à l’histoire de la diplomatie culturelle, Publication de la Sorbonne, 2002. p 25
[4] Lane 2011, cité par Rapport évolutif, La diplomatie culturelle : levier stratégique au cœur des luttes d’influence? p 2, 2012, http://www.leppm.enap.ca/leppm/docs/Rapports_culture/Rapport_%C3%A9volutif_Culture_11_final2.pdf
[5] Activity Report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco, 2010, p 5
[6] Article 1 of Law 01-00 on the organization of Moroccan higher education, promulgated by Dahir No. 1-00-199 of May 19, 2000.
[7] AOUAD LAHRECH, Oumama, « Quel rôle pour la Diplomatie Académique ? » in Revue Prospectives Universitaires, N° 1, 2008, Publication of Université Mohammed V-Agdal, Rabat, pp 235-240
[8] Affiliated with the University Mohamed V of Rabat Its first director was the historian Ahmed Taoufik, who was appointed Minister of Islamic Affairs by King Mohammed VI. This scholar specialized in the impact of Moroccan moderate Islam in Africa.
[9] The number of sub-Saharan students provided by AMCI is 8,000, compared to the number of 7,000 provided by the Ministry of Higher Education. The difference is explained by the presence of sub-Saharan students who are enrolled in vocational training institutions such as, the Higher Institute of Tourism which is under the Ministry of Tourism, or the National Institute of Social Action which is under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Solidarity that are not under the supervision of the MES.
[10] Internationalisation de l’enseignement supérieur au Maroc, document from the Directorate of Cooperation and Partnership at the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Executive Training of Morocco, October 2016.
[11] El AISSI, « Le Maroc forme des cadres africains », Article published in the Moroccan daily L’Economiste, Edition n°:4811 du 12/07/2016
[12] Idem
[13] According to the CNRS site, Morocco is the 19th destination for missions of personnel from CNRS-affiliated units, and the first African destination with 696 missions of scientific collaboration in 2012, ahead of Tunisia.
[14] BOUABID, Hamid, « Maroc/Afrique: L’économie d’abord, la science ensuite », La Tribune N° 4337, of August 12, 2014, availaible in the link : http://www.leconomiste.com/article/957712-marocafrique-l-economie-d-abord-la-science-ensuitepar-hamid-bouabid
[15] Concerning the aspect of capacity building, which is a lever of cultural diplomacy in Africa, Morocco has built in Abidjan a vocational training complex by the Mohamed VI Foundation for Development with technical assistance from the Moroccan Office for Vocational Training and Promotion of Work (OFPTT).
[16] The MAIC carries out its action with the assistance of other ministerial departments with and the coordination of several public institutions such as Universities, the Office for the Promotion of Employment, ...
[17] In 2011, during the crisis with Mauritania, Moroccan authorities denied university enrollment to 800 students from Mauritania, and MAIC withdrew its offer of scholarships to Mauritanians, whose quota was 80/year.
[18] ABOURABI, Yousra, « Les relations internationales du Maroc à la recherche d’une identité stratégique », in Baudouin Dupret (dir) et al, Le Maroc au présent, D'une époque à l'autre, une société en mutation, Casablanca, Centre Jacques Berque, 2015. p 36.Available online: http://books.openedition.org/cjb/990
[19] Among the guest speakers were the former Minister of Islamic Affairs in Egypt Achaaroui, one of the great Hanbalist theologians, and Imam Moussa Assader, the Lebanese Shiite founder of the Shiite movement in southern Lebanon.
[20] OLD KABLA, Driss, « Les coulisses des Conférences hassanienne », Daily newspaper Al Michaal, available on the website : www.arayalmostanir.com/node/1017
[21] High religious constitutional authorities responsible for the regulation of the religious field.
[22] OTHMANI, Sadek, « Les conférences hassaniennes : une soupape de sécurité pour notre pays », Article in Arabic published in the electronic newspaper : Hespress : http://www.hespress.com/opinions/263478.html
[23] ZOUITENE, Abderrafia, President of the Spirit of Fez Foundation and the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, in the presentation of the session of the Festival of Sacred Music in 2017. Available on the website http://fesfestival.com/2017/le-mot-du-president/
[24] ABOURABI, Yousra, « Diplomatie religieuse : quelle place? Quel but? Quelle paix?,“ Article available online on the website of the International Center for Peace and Human Rights (ICPADH) http://www.cipadh.org
