Signing of the Marrakech Common Convention / African Capitals of Culture
At the Africities 8 Summit held in Marrakech in November 2018, the Moroccan city was designated as the first African Capital of Culture.
As part of the follow-up to the Summit, the Marrakech Commune and the Organizing Committee of the African Capitals of Culture met on February 22, 2019 in Marrakech to formalize their reciprocal commitments.
Attended by Mrs. Awatef Berdaï, Vice-President Delegate for International Relations and Decentralized Cooperation, Mr. Moulay Hassan Mounaddi, Vice-President Delegate for Culture, Mr. Mohammed Larbi Belcaïd President of the Communal Council of Marrakech, Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Honorary President of the Organization Committee of African Capitals of Culture and Mr. Khalid Tamer, Director General of the Committee, signed the framework convention which will enable Marrakech to celebrate African Capitals of Culture in 2020.
The objectives of the African Capitals of Culture project includes:
– the structuring, capacity building and networking of cultural and creative actors of the African continent.
– the development of public and private ecosystems that will make them culturally independent, economically autonomous and sustainable;
– the affirmation and influence of the cultural identity of the continent and the cultural reappropriation of Africans by and for themselves.
More than any other city, Marrakech qualifies as the main link for the network of African Capitals of Culture. Located at the historical crossroads of Arab, European and Negro-African civilizations, Marrakech, the pearl of the kingdom, particularly committed to multiculturalism, has been able to respond to the challenges that globalization poses to cultural authenticity.
In 2020, accompanied and supported by the Organizing Committee of African Capitals of Culture, Marrakech will put the density and quality of its infrastructure at the service of a strong and generous ambition: to launch the dynamic, strengthening identity and values of the continent, starting with African realities, by becoming the first of the African Capitals of Culture.
