By Nabil Es-Shaimi
By Nabil Es-Shaimi
Morocco World News
Casablanca, April 25, 2012
Recently, Morocco lost one of its iconic literary figures, Mr. Abdeljabbar Shimi. Sadly, state media spent two short minutes talking about his professional career and listing his major works. While every person will inevitably pass, Morocco’s problem is how to fill the void left by late intellectuals? This problem is magnified by the fact that our youngster are forgoing careers in academia and naively pursuing a life as football players and entertainers. It is quite rare to find youth who want to be writers, poets or innovators. But can we truly blame them? We live in a society that accords an almost divine status to sport players and singers.
We have recently learned of three Moroccans who won the Sharjah Prize for Arab Creativity in the fields of poetry, novels and children’s literature. With the exception of some electronic newsletters, there has been a total blackout by Moroccan media of these three national heroes.
Mohamed Arij won the third prize in the field of Poetry for his poem “Konto maa’i”, which translates to “I was with me”. Lahcen Bakour also won the third prize for his novel “Albarzakh” or Isthmus in English. As for Ghizlane Ayadi, she also won the third prize in the field of Children’s literature for the story “Masrour wa di’ab” or Masrour and the wolves.
Such talents should not go ignored and uncelebrated. Morocco has many talented youngsters who are able to compete on the international level and win prizes. The Moroccan government should encourage innovation and creativity and provide moral and financial support for the many youth who are ready and willing to contribute to the intellectual development in their country and the global level.
