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Rabat – Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, and Tunisia submitted a joint candidacy file on Friday for the recognition of Couscous in UNESCO’s heritage list.
The four countries’ UNESCO representatives previously signed an agreement for the submission of the file.
The joint candidacy is the result of combined efforts from the four states’ experts who are said to have put together a strong dossier.
Read also: Morocco Nominates Gnawa Music for UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage List
In a statement to Maghreb Arab Press (MAP), Morocco’s Permanent Representative at UNESCO, Zohour Alaoui, stressed the importance of the candidacy as a symbolic move of mutual understanding.
Alaoui said that the joint Maghreb underscores “the knowledge and the know-how of the practices related to the production and the consumption of couscous.” The move, she asserted, comes “to devote the tremendous wealth the Berber culture transmitted, not only to the Maghreb countries but also in Africa, the Mediterranean, and today in the world as a whole. ”
The Moroccan official also stressed that “this is the first time that four Maghreb countries have dissented from their efforts to submit a joint file.”
She also paid tribute to the Maghrebian women who ensure the continuity of the tradition by passing it on from generation to generation
