The meeting, in which historians, men of letters, intellectuals, painters, veterans, and civil society actors took part, was an opportunity for the participants to highlight the role of visual arts in the preservation of the national collective memory. After welcoming this initiative, qualified as original, Mustapha El Ktiri, High Commissioner for Veterans and Former Members of the Liberation Army, stressed that safeguarding the national memory constituted a historical responsibility and a patriotic duty. He further defined the national memory as the set of oral, written, but also visual heritage retracing the epic of the heroes of the national movement in the noble mission of mobilising the Moroccan people for the recovery of independence and liberation from the yoke of the protectorate.

"Aware of the importance of safeguarding the national memory, the High Commission has made enormous efforts for the safeguarding of this collective memory. This is through the encouragement of research on the history of the Resistance in Morocco, the publication of studies, the organisation of conferences and colloquia in several regions of Morocco, as well as the conclusion of agreements with foreign countries for the restitution of historical archives," indicated Mustapha El Ktiri. By way of conclusion, he assured the full willingness of his department to make historical documents available to researchers and artists to deepen their research and enrich their inspiration.

Mustapha Mchiche Al Alami, President of the Sidi Mchiche El Alami Foundation, first highlighted the different stages that accompanied the creation of the paintings exhibited on this occasion. He indicated, in this regard, that to illustrate a battle or a historical event, it was necessary to carry out trips, conduct research, and delve into history books in order to offer material to painters for the creation of their works.

A long-term work, he added, which was crowned with success. He paid tribute in this regard to the visual artists who created frescoes that will go down to posterity. The President of the Foundation did not fail to launch an appeal to the presidents of communes, to the heads of public and private administrations to encourage painters to create paintings commemorating glorious events of our history.

This scientific colloquium also offered the opportunity for the audience to discover with wonder the beautiful work accomplished by the painters Ahmed Ben Yessef, Milly Corica, Leonardo Caposioena of Italian nationality, and Mehdi Ichar.

Paintings that illustrated the Rif War, the Battle of Tétouan, and the epic of Tarik Ibn Ziyad at the head of 7,000 Berber warriors who defeated the troops of the Visigoth King Roderic. Note that the Sidi Mchiche Al Alami Foundation had already carried out an artistic exhibition last April relating historical facts of the capital of the Gharb during the first half of the twentieth century.

Path of Mustapha Mchiche Alami

Dr Mustapha Mchiche Alami was born in 1932 in Kénitra. He holds a doctorate in economic sciences from Georgetown University in Washington in 1963 and is an agricultural engineer from the Higher School of Engineers and Technicians of Agriculture in Paris. The President of the Sidi Mchiche El Alami Foundation has also been a member of several national and international associations, notably the Association of Moroccan Economists, the Junior Chamber International, and the French Association of Scientists and Engineers. At the local and regional levels, he was elected a member of the council of the urban commune of the city of Kénitra in 1992, of the council of the Gharb-Chrarda-Bni Hssen region in 2003, and a parliamentarian from 2002 to 2007. In addition to his multiple actions in the field of patronage,

Dr Mustapha Mchiche Alami has published several works and studies in the field of economics and regionalisation.

He has always defended regionalisation as a model of sustainable development. He notably published, on this subject, in 1996, a work titled "Region+democracy = development".