Saudi Company Under Fire for Cultural Appropriation of Moroccan-Amazigh Recipe

Rabat – Reeq Al-Nahl, a Saudi trading company specializing in selling wholesale and retail honey, is under fire for releasing a product line based on a Moroccan-Amazigh recipe and labeling the product Saudi.

The company launched an official advertisement on its Instagram in January labeling the product Saudi Amlu, and reinforcing the message that it is entirely Saudi by explaining that it was made using 100% Saudi-sourced ingredients without referring to the origins of the recipe.

Amlu is a spread of Moroccan cuisine that originates from the Souss region in central Morocco. It consists of honey, almonds, and argan oil, which is produced from the kernels of the argan tree, a plant indigenous to Morocco.

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A post shared by عسل ريق النحل (@reeqalnahal)

Since Reeq Al-Nahl posted the first advertisement on Instagram and Facebook in January, criticism of the product has been mounting as Moroccan social media users accuse the company of cultural appropriation and Morocco of not doing enough to protect its intangible heritage.

The post received a substantial amount of backlash from Moroccan social media users who denounced the attribution to Saudi Arabia of a recipe from Morocco’s traditional cuisine.

“These are the results of welcoming and exporting everything that is Moroccan,” one commentator wrote, adding that Saudi Arabia is an Arab country. “Where did they get the word Amlu, since it is an Amazigh word?” the commentator asked in indignation.

In addition to directly expressing their anger and frustration on the company’s official social media accounts, Moroccan internet users have reposted the advertisement on social media as part of an already existing hashtag calling for the preservation of Moroccan heritage against widespread cultural appropriation.

“Saudi Amlou ??” one Twitter user wrote, in a tweened expression of surprise and derision. “Since when did Amlou become part of the Saudi cuisine? Is it because the olive oil, honey and almonds are from Saudi Arabia? What is this strange connection? Since when have you been in Saudi Arabia using Amazigh words?”

@reeqalnahal
الأملو السعودي ؟؟
منذ متى أصبح أملو من المطبخ السعودي؟ هل لأن زيت الزيتون والعسل واللوز من السعودية؟ ما هذا الربط الغريب؟ منذ متى وأنتم في السعودية تستعملون كلمات أمازيغية؟
▪︎ أملو هو منتوج مغربي سوسي خالص ⵣ لا علاقة لكم به لا من قريب أو بعيد خليكم في طبخكم!! pic.twitter.com/cJx0uFiZKu

— ⵣ (@moorishtamghart) May 12, 2023

Another Moroccan Twitter user wrote: “How can it be Saudi Amlo Butter? Amlou is an Amazigh name for a purely Moroccan product. How can you allow yourself to steal a Moroccan product and attribute it to Saudi Arabia?”

كيف زبدة الاملو السعودي
الاملو اسم امازيغي لمنتوج مغربي خالص كيف تسمح لنفسك سرقة منتوج مغربي ونسبه للسعودية

— Layla (@LLag86) May 12, 2023

The Moroccaness of the Amlu

“Amlu is 100% a Moroccan product that originates in the Souss region,” Jamal Laaraj, Owner of Sweet Argan, an Argan production association based in Souss, told Morocco World News.

Responding to the Saudi company’s cultural appropriation of Amlu, Laaraj said that “any party that contests the origins of Amlu should make a visit to Agadir or Souira and see the high concentration of shops selling locally sourced Amlu.”

For the Moroccan Argan producer, Amlu is a strong part of the Moroccan heritage that cannot be stolen, given that its core component of Argan oil cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

“If you claim that you can make Amlu, how can you source Argan?” the producer said in indignation.

Not the first time

Morocco is no stranger to cultural appropriation. Over the year, stables of the Moroccan culture and history have frequently been used to represent neighboring and Arab countries, especially the intangible heritage.

In April 2022, Qatar and FIFA came under backlash for using cultural appropriation of Morocco’s heritage during the 2022 Qatar World Cup draw ceremony.

During the ceremony, the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) opted to decorate the stage in Qatar with a massive gate decorated with a Moroccan mosaic, triggering a wave of outrage among Moroccan social media users.

The FIFA stage boasted a golden yellow gate with mosaic identical to the one found in the royal palace in Fes.

Morocco’s cultural heritage has also been repeatedly referred to as Algerian in recent years.

Some Algerians have claimed Moroccan songs, foods, and clothes to be part of Algerian folk culture, with commentators and even senior officials suggesting on social media that the caftan and the tagine are Algerian and not Moroccan.

Some Algerian groups have taken the hostility a step further, with “Algerian hackers” launching campaigns in early 2022 on the open-source encyclopedia Wikipedia to change Morocco’s national heritage and spread false information about the country.

The digital sabotage allegedly resulted in 50,000 modifications to Morocco-related Wikipedia pages, with Moroccan history and heritage becoming prime targets for the attacks.