HIBAPRESS
The activities of the Bashikh festival for the Amazigh year in its 12th edition began yesterday, Monday, in the city of Tangier. This event is organized by the Amazigh Sanhaja Rif Association, with the support of the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, within the framework of celebrating the Amazigh New Year 2976.
This cultural and heritage event is organized over two days, under the slogan "From Sanhaja Rif to the Sahara, One Morocco with Multiple Tributaries," in order to consolidate national cultural diversity and celebrate the recognition of the Amazigh New Year as an official national holiday. The House of Press in Tangier hosted the opening of the festival's activities with heritage artistic performances, including the Hait art of the Sanhaja Srayer region, the Ahwach art, in addition to the Bashikh show known by multiple names in Amazigh culture, including Bilmaoun, Boujloud, Imachar, Baba Haj and Bouheidoura. The audience stopped at a collective plastic art exhibition in which the artists Huda Al-Khamlishi, Hicham Al-Moutghi, Zakaria Bounqab, Mohamed Al-Khatmaoui, Ihssinou Ikhadouthen and Hicham Al-Mansour participated, as the exhibition reflected the diversity of artistic approaches related to Amazigh identity and culture. The public also learned about a part of Amazigh culture through an exhibition of books and publications that addressed issues of identity and Amazigh-speaking fields, especially in the north of the Kingdom, in addition to organizing a ceremony to honor a number of figures belonging to the fields of journalism, education and civil society. As this edition coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Green March, a symposium was organized on Security Council Resolution No. 2797 on the Moroccan Sahara issue, with the participation of university professors, political officials, media professionals, and civil society actors. In this context, Cherif Adardak, the festival director, confirmed that this year's edition has an exceptional character, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Glorious Green March, as well as the issuance of UN Resolution No. 2797, which enshrines the initiative of self-government under Moroccan sovereignty as the only solution to the artificial dispute over the Moroccan Sahara. He explained, in a statement to the Moroccan News Agency, that the organizing association and its partners decided to combine the celebration of the Amazigh New Year and the celebration of these two historical stations, because of their strong national connotations. It is noteworthy that the festival program, whose previous editions hosted cities including Targuist, Tangier and Tetouan, includes the presentation and reading of the book "Mountain Resources in Morocco: Issues of Management and Development Challenges, Models from the Rif Mountains" by Abdel Salam Bouhallal, and the book "Models of the Meanings of Some Amazigh Toponymic Names in the Sanhaja Srayer Rif Region of Morocco" by Abdullah Ikla, in addition to organizing an exhibition of traditional Amazigh products. The organizing association seeks, through this festival, to document the Bashikh tradition and other cultural traditions in the Sanhaja Srayer region that were threatened with extinction, as this tradition was held over a week coinciding with the Amazigh New Year or the agricultural year known locally as Al-Hakouz.
