Speaking at this panel organized as part of an international conference (March 1-3) entitled “Orality, a privileged register of interlocution or a screen for Africa”, Pr. Najima Thay Thay Rhozali, president of the Conte’Act Association for Education and Cultures, returned to the importance of the role of grandmothers and storytellers, who hold the keys to a very rich oral heritage, in the transmission of tales.
Pr Rhozali began by paying a vibrant tribute to his grandmother as well as to the illustrious Moroccan storyteller Yassine Regragui (103 years old), present at this event, for having given him the taste and the desire to pursue studies and a career focused on the protection of Moroccan oral heritage.
Eager to preserve these oral traditions in their authenticity, Pr Rhozali has led numerous initiatives, anchored in training and innovation through storytelling, by involving civil society in efforts to preserve oral heritage and in its transmission.
During her speech, she highlighted the various projects she had the opportunity to work on, namely the educational program “Sabk Al Hikaya”, aimed at training students to become storytellers by putting the grandmother back at the center of the transmission process, as well as a project to highlight the role of folk storytellers “Hlaikiya”, in addition to the “Maroc des contes” festival, intended to promote the profession of storyteller, to resuscitate deserted public places and to support traditional storytellers to take charge of themselves and defend their rights.
For his part, Abdelhai Sadiq, university professor, explained the origins of Ghiwanian singing, personified by the Moroccan musical group “Nas Al Ghiwan”, which began by presenting oral pieces, in an effort to dramatize the “Halka”, punctuated by musical passages, which allowed “Nas Al Ghiwan” to form their group and become known in Morocco and abroad.
According to Mr. Sadiq, the Afro-Moroccan nature of Ghiwanian singing draws its essence from the “Majdoubia”, from the repertoire of Sidi Abderrahman El Majdoub, a popular Moroccan Sufi poet, while the Afro-Ghiwanism of this song is marked by three musical patterns, namely the rhythm and synchronization of the Malhoun, the aesthetic tendency relating to brotherhood music and the “gnawas”, testifying to a rooting in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the “Aita”, this “song of denunciation which is articulated around the peasantry”.
Furthermore, the professor raised the need for translation to participate in the universalism of this song, calling however for the recommendation of an “orali-translational” posture (editor’s note: neologism of which he is the inventor) in this process, by translating on the basis of the text and listening to the songs, a procedure that he himself adopted in the translation of Ghiwanian songs into French.
Initiated as part of the activities of the Chair of African Literature and Arts, this three-day conference aims to explore African intellectual wealth by focusing on oral literature and bringing together around ten speakers, including Moroccan researchers and artists and others from Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mauritania, Madagascar, Gabon and Cameroon.
2024-08-24 06:59:23