everyone then I will talk to you
today of one of a great adventure
an adventure first an adventure
first literary then
cinematographic and finally social
so the story started in 2003 1
May 16, 2003 fourteen young people came out
of a slum sidi moumen and have done
a carnage
in Casablanca kamikazes 14 young
aged between 18 and 25 and then
So we woke up one day
and it exploded at home
was not used to it we thought we
was immune to terrorism and
Well no we woke up one morning and
and here at home too it can
explode
with us too that can be
thought that terrorism was far
it was in chechnya palestine
we were far away because the Moroccan
is not someone is not someone
of violent Morocco is nice to us
do not have the culture of violence
in the water freezes the Moroccans really
I see him as someone nice
stops in the raab still in the
street to ask for a way there are ten
people who are here for for
indicate the path
obviously he gives you ten answers
different but but good morocco
is not so I wanted to understand a
little what happened to us and I was told
that the young people all came from sidi
moumen I said to myself I’m going to do the
move to sidi moumen and see a
little what this slum looked like
because slums
there are some everywhere in this country
in around cities and its agents
see everywhere and there I did the
moving to those ten words but
it was not easy after
attacks of de sidi moumen it was not
not easy to get into
those ten moments because there was
a lot of police a lot of
journalists and people the people of
slum was were wary
but I had a journalist friend who
was from sidi moumen and this
boyfriend made me come inside
some barracks inside I
wanted to see a little bit about what looks and
7.7 this incredible cesspool where lived in
the time
three hundred thousand inhabitants this is a
city is a slum
it’s a city where there are sewers
disemboweled the delays of the sheet
wavy of it looked like anything except
in Morocco
by the way in Morocco we did not know
I personally was born at the end
bottom of the medina of marrakech
I have never seen such a thing and
besides, there is a wall when one
pass between casa and flap we do not see
this Sunday the toutou paris pretty tits
that is, the yen is not attacked
by not set by set this horror and
so I told myself the first picture
I had when entering Sidi Moumen
it was kids playing at
football on a south dump holds
this they will become the heroes of my
new novel so I write I have
started by writing a novel that
is called the stars of sidi moumen
one swims writing this novel is obviously
I started writing it
I started writing it in 2004 and
in 2006 I stopped writing the
text because I was not doing it I
did not go out gt gt game in the process of
to understand too much that when one is in
dirt when you do not have a horizon
well we want to explode we have
want to 2
we do not want to live anymore we want to
to break the shack
and that I could not write it to myself
I could not justify
unjustifiable
I could not apologize for
terrorism so I stopped the
writing the text in 2006 and then I
took a vacation I wrote a little
book on marrakech called the
griot of marrakech
it was legends about the city and
it’s an order from a publisher
Spanish and and after a year and a half
obviously the text pursue and he
I had to finish it and
I found a solution to finish this
text I found a solution for
finish these texts that is to say I made
love those kids to readers because
it’s very often when we talk about
kamikazes we see them very often
like the kind of monster in all the
American cinema in cinemas
in the litterature
we are always presented with the kamikaze
as a monstrous type and month the
the people I met sidi
moumen the families of suicide bombers
I was ordinary children and so
I did not see them as monsters
obviously they made an axis
monstrous you do not see them when
same years I did not see them as
monsters I saw him as like
victims
the real monsters in this
case it’s obviously the state that
let three hundred thousand people live
in the cresse an area of no right to
a zone
terrifying by letting people live
in the grime obviously there is not that
the state is this religious Mafia who
settled in this cloaca
in this in these slums and who have
does a job to condition the
kids so this religious matter
which has nothing to do with religion
it’s 1 1
organized political organizations
rich with money coming from here
or there some friends
so this religious matter
these are they are monsters the
casa bourgeois too who pays the
1500 people dirhams a good or at
guardian he participates a little in this
deal so that’s everybody’s
responsible but so gamal to his scales
at the they are not they are not
monstrous
these are the victims that should be
defend and protect when I wrote
the book the book has had some
success we’re already 15 and translation
there is a Moroccan director who
is called ayouch nabil who decided
to adapt the novel to the cinema on
agreed
dudu did we agree on
on the fact that these kids there
are victims
we did business with him there he
does a great movie called the
god’s horses and during filming
during the filming I had time in
time to slums see a little
how is it going and I wanted to see
a little bit how it went and he
had hired children from sidi
moumen had hired children from
slum as an actor there was one
about ten kids and during
while during the break at the moment
of the lunch break I saw these
kids fill their plates like the
buffet wines he was afraid it would be
finish the buys
the filming lasted a month a month and
half and so they fill up and their
plate and and eat there I have
watched with nabil I said do not look
he tells me where he was doing that
made it six months that I took them a
apartment game to train them and its
around
Training to become an actor for
to play in the match it’s been six months
that they are there they are clean they
eat well they have fattened lie
now that they actually follow me
said but what do you want me to do
do it 10 + 4 14
what do you want people press I
am not a social worker said
here we have to do something
for these kids and there one evening when the
movie is out and that is the movie has
worked very well we went to
cannes we went to the united states on
was present all over the world
sometimes when he could not go
I went there instead of
has become we have done we know indeed
the marriage they have a wedding of a
marriage of convenience
and one evening one night we said hey he
we must have made a lot of money
with this case I have won sold
many books you are you
a lot of people have seen your movie there
should we make it anyway and
we decided we were going to open a
cultural center in the slum at
sidi moumen
we decided we were going to open a
cultural center and we did not have a
round
if we had made money but he
needed a lot of money for a center
cultural and I solicited all the
friends as I’m a painter I have a lot
friends of artists
so I solicited a hundred
of artists in the world of friends of
friends of friends and I gathered
a hundred works and we made a
auction in casablanca and on
picked up a good bunch of money and
then we went to see the mayor of sidi
moumen
it says here they have local Christmas
ah we will make you a cultural center I
think we’re going to see him a little
fed up there it was not the center
cultural is too good to be the
cultural center we have the mayor we
trusted gave us a local
of 2000 m covered and in this room
we made a theater theater
a music hall a dance hall
a media library had fifteen thousand
books and and that’s the adventured part
we hired a director a
assistant of the speakers the artists
from the country all the friends come to give
courses we made partnerships
with the cultural centers
foreigners french spanish german
and so we give ourselves classes of
languages in in this space in the
tale obviously called the stars
of sidi moumen like how the book is
there today we have about 500
enrolled kids and 500 others
lets in even if they are not
registered because they do not have to
even the 100 dirhams for for
register
so we pretty much turn around
of 1000 people in sidi moumen and
these are people who can who
can relatively
[Applause]
and then of course once the
center was launched now it is
autonomous it no longer depends on us
since we have to find funding
for so he continues to live but
without us and there we arona
partnerships we have come to the senses
Sidi Moumen gets to live without us
what happened one day ago there is a
guy who came and who left a rich
hour in the center
he had a good head the guys and
then he told us here I am you
finance two centers like this one
choose and I give you two 2 years
of autonomy and after you get by
for the and so he gave us
there are people like that your exists
that is to say there is the human is still
humanity in this world there are people
like that coming one day I ‘m going
not name him because he does not want
that I name but it’s a fair guy
terrific here ten months ago I you
offers two senses so we opened a
center in fez and a center in tangier
tanger mini makada it started ago
a few days or 20 days a month ago
pretty much and this is where it is
left
we are opening a center
in Marrakech an attack in ouarzazate
and one in essaouira has not done yet
so here are several centers that
are being born but now
I canton come to ask to open
a center in a city I ask for
funding to the city I ask for
financing ie ie
fighting terrorism is not going to
bomb people at home and make
millions of refugees in europe who
come begging that rejects
mobile is not how we go
fight terrorism is to go the
wii or louise born the ruhr where
where he will be born where he will grow
where it will push ie
go to places like sidi
moumen and tell the kids here we go
you learn the culture of life you
will love life because others
there sluts go next door eh ben
they show you a culture of death
and we fight them
fight we are at war because
that no we work in the same
sector
when there was nabil film ayouch
match love
they did a sitting in front of the center
to say it takes cayouche so because
that he to the various scolds and your daughters
so here we are in a
fighting species and and we are we
are in the process of succeeding
something that is fantastic
since the day when there was a
bearded sitting in front of the center of
sidi moumen
it’s women with their children
who forced the passage and it was
our first victory
young people chased Islamists
said here I am my child I want him
go to take the music I want
that they were going to learn languages
that is to say we can arrange this
country this is this is our little
revenge
this our little revenge against
the inhuman with aesthetic means
I thank you for listening to me
thank you very much
[Applause]
”
Be First to Comment