Assahafa.com
The TV5 Monde program “Destination Francophonie,” whose new episode is dedicated to Morocco, was screened in advance, on Wednesday at the Moroccan Embassy in Paris, in the presence of an audience of diplomatic, cultural, and media personalities.
From Tangier to the Moroccan Sahara, passing through Meknes, Benguerir or Laayoune, this exceptional 52-minute episode of “Destination Francophonie,” presented by Ivan Kabacoff, unfolds as a fascinating journey through the Kingdom, meeting those who keep the French language alive through local initiatives, committed personalities, and emblematic places.
“The Destination Francophonie program has existed on TV5 Monde for over ten years. The goal is to offer our viewers a journey each month to discover the Francophone world and to showcase a country through its inhabitants who speak French,” Kabacoff told MAP, shortly before the documentary’s screening.
Morocco, he said, is a great Francophone country, adding that, even if French is not the official language there, it remains a language of creation, transmission, and expression.
The program’s presenter pointed out that the journey proposed in this episode will not go to Marrakech or Casablanca, but will lead to slightly different places, starting with Tangier and Tetouan, located in a rather Spanish-speaking area of the country, before descending towards the dynamic city of Meknes, exploring the cultural effervescence and the blend of traditions and innovations in these cities.
The next stop will lead him to Guercif, in the Oriental region, to highlight the “Bibliotobiss” project, a container transformed into an itinerant cultural center, before reaching Benguerir, the “city of knowledge,” equipped with a university and school ecosystem, particularly in French, with the École Majorelle and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), he maintained.
Finally, the journey will end in the Moroccan Sahara, in Laayoune and Tarfaya, between emerging cultural projects and literary memory with the Saint-Exupéry museum, Kabacoff added.
Speaking on this occasion, Morocco’s ambassador to France, Samira Sitail, hailed the friendship between France and Morocco through this realization, emphasizing that it makes it possible to highlight “a heritage that is common to us, that of Francophonie.”
This program dedicated to Morocco, she said, shows the Kingdom “in all its geography, in all its diversity,” noting that “Francophonie is deployed in our country with strength and vitality.”
Sitail also stressed the “multilingual” character of the Kingdom, recalling that “in Morocco, one language does not replace another.” “We are a country where several languages are practiced daily. This practice of languages does not consist of chasing one away for the benefit of another, but of making them coexist,” she added.
“The very great strength of French in our country is that it coexists with other languages. This multilingualism is part of our identity,” Sitail concluded.
For her part, the CEO of TV5 Monde, Kim Younes, said that Morocco is “among the countries where TV5 Monde’s audience is strongest, particularly on digital platforms and among the youth.”
She added that the channel maintains “a long-standing relationship with Morocco” which it wishes to “continue in the future,” recalling that the “Destination Francophonie” program constitutes “a very important program for us,” so much so that it is broadcast during prime time.
TV5 Monde will dedicate a special evening to Morocco on Thursday, September 25, with the 52-minute program “Destination Francophonie” which offers the viewer an immersion into the plurality of Moroccan Francophonie from the North to the South of the Kingdom, highlighting the cultural, educational, and artistic dynamism of the country through people who share the French language.
The evening will then continue with the documentary “Morocco, the Road of Music,” directed by Donat Lefebvre and Jérémie Saint-Jean, which offers a sensory odyssey through Moroccan musical traditions: Amazigh, Sahrawi, Gnawa, and Arab-Andalusian.
Source: map
