Peace is not only a subject of negotiations or dealings. It is an edifice of a particular nobility that calls on all actors to bring their stone, however small it may be. Rome was not built in a day. It is in this same sense that a Moroccan cultural delegation has been taking part, since yesterday, in the Ségou Festival, in Niger, within the framework of the Cultural Caravan for Peace, which aims to encourage reconciliation between populations.

The Moroccan delegation will include about twenty people including the traditional group Chamra, generation Taragalte, as well as the organisation team of the Taragalte Festival, indicates a press release made public by the Zayla Association of Mhamid El Ghizlane. Thus, after the success of the first two editions of the "Cultural Caravan for Peace" project, the network of the three partner festivals, namely (Taragalte Mhamid-Morocco Festival, Festival in the Desert, and Festival on the Niger in Mali) is ready to continue the adventure despite some difficulties encountered during its implementation inherent to any human activity.

"We are committed to perpetuating the traditional secular relations between Morocco, Niger, and Mali. Our caravan is there for peace, tolerance, friendship, and love between peoples and obviously against all wars harmful and damaging to the peaceful way of life of the inhabitants of the desert", indicates Abdelhalim Sbai, director of the Taragalte Festival.

To accompany the peace process that has just been triggered following the signing of the peace agreement between the different parties in Mali, the Cultural Caravan for Peace has the ambition to continue to contribute to the process through a vast awareness-raising campaign to favour and encourage reconciliation between populations, because there can be no lasting peace without the success of the reconciliation process.

The Festival on the Niger is a multidisciplinary music and art event, created in 2005, which gives itself the mission of contributing to the promotion of tourism and Malian culture, of offering its national and international public a quality artistic meeting, and of supporting the local economy through the creation of economic opportunities and the strengthening of the art sector.

It was born from an initiative of tourism and cultural enterprises of Ségou, in order to create a unique event, highlighting all the attractive potential of the city and the region in order to value the artistic and cultural expressions of Mali, to promote cultural diversity, and to support the local economy.

From the creation of the Festival on the Niger in 2005, to its transformation into the Festival on the Niger Foundation in 2009, with its various programmes (Festival on the Niger Event, local economy development, research and development, and Kôrè Cultural Centre), Ségou offers today concrete perspectives and opportunities to young artists and cultural entrepreneurs of Mali and Africa to perform, to disseminate their works, and to acquire skills.

The "Caravane culturelle network" continues thus to work with the other networks of the continent (Arterial Network, Kya, Doadoa, African Synergie, Circuit Manding, Timbuktu Renaissance, and African Music Festivals Network, etc.) which share the vision and philosophy of the caravan, but can also favour a synergy effect.

The press release adds that the "Caravane culturelle network" will come to support the efforts of the three festivals for the promotion and development of art and culture in Africa, awareness-raising for peace and social cohesion between the peoples of the Sahel and the Sahara, but also their participation in the sustainable socio-economic development of the populations of these regions. Which fits perfectly with the vision of the DOEN Foundation.

The activities of the caravan at the level of the three festivals, according to the same source, consist of the constitution of a caravan music group that will do creation residencies upstream of each festival over a duration of 7 days and whose works will also be presented during these events through concerts with other artists, the organisation of talk-debates during each festival on the themes of cultural diversity, social cohesion, peace, reconciliation, and tolerance, the reconstitution of family ties between inhabitants of the Sahara and the Sahel (facilitating family reunions), and support for local artisans and artists for the promotion of artisanal products.