Think Forward.

Moroccan Policy in Africa: An Engaged and Unifying Dynamic 9892

Aziz Daouda, 7 mon.
Under the reign of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Morocco pursues a proactive and inclusive African policy aimed at strengthening its economic, political, social, and cultural ties with the continent. This strategy favors pragmatic bilateralism, promoting African economic integration, south-south cooperation, and strategic partnerships. Agreements have been signed with over 40 African countries. Morocco’s return to the African Union in 2017 marked a major turning point in this strategy and became a true accelerator. The Kingdom is also interested in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a growth driver. Among key projects in this perspective is the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, stretching 5,600 km. It will connect West Africa to North Africa and transport around 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. It will improve energy access for no less than 400 million people across 13 countries. This project fits within Morocco's energy transition strategy. Estimated at more than 25 billion dollars, it heralds major benefits for energy security and regional development through complementarity. Morocco is also strongly committed to education and skills training, offering nearly 15,000 scholarships annually to students from 49 countries. About 20,000 African students are welcomed each year in fields such as engineering, medicine, finance, and social sciences, thanks to the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (AMCI). This ambitious program aims to train a new generation of leaders and strengthens scientific and cultural exchanges. The Moroccan economy is well established in Africa, with over 1,000 companies active in banking, real estate, telecommunications, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors. Attijariwafa Bank, BMCE Bank of Africa, and Groupe Banque Populaire operate in more than 26 countries, generating hundreds of millions of dirhams in Sub-Saharan Africa. These institutions, with 45 subsidiaries and 4 branches, realize about 23% of their turnover on the continent, facilitating project financing and regional financial integration. Wafa Assurance and the Saham Group also strengthen this presence in numerous countries. The Moroccan health system, known for its modern infrastructure and skilled personnel, attracts thousands of Africans annually for various treatments, reinforcing human ties. Morocco also develops projects in sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, vocational training, and infrastructure, supported by the Mohammed VI Foundation for Sustainable Development. More than 60% of Moroccan foreign direct investment (FDI) targets Africa. Morocco’s trade with Africa remains modest compared to its total foreign trade: around 7 to 8%. However, this margin for growth is very large and promising. Trade volumes have significantly increased. In 2023, total trade volume between Morocco and African countries reached 52.7 billion dirhams, representing a 45% rise compared to 36 billion dirhams in 2013, with an average annual growth of about 10%. Maroc Telecom, active in 10 countries, serves approximately 54 million customers, contributing to digital integration. Groups such as Ynna Holding, Alliances, and Addoha lead major projects in several countries, notably housing and hospital construction. In agriculture, OCP Africa operates in 18 countries, training over 1.5 million farmers and providing fertilizers tailored to local soils and farming types. Its Agribooster program facilitates access to inputs, financing, and markets, boosting productivity and food security. OCP also invests in fertilizer blending and storage units across several countries and collaborates on innovative projects with USAID and the World Bank, including green ammonia production. SOMAGEC, a major Moroccan port operator, carries out projects in Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Benin, and Djibouti, employing thousands. Africa Motors, a subsidiary of Auto Hall, develops automotive production and distribution in partnership with Dongfeng for several African markets. Sport is also a cooperation lever: the Royal Moroccan Football Federation has signed more than 43 partnerships with African federations. Through its companies and projects, Morocco consolidates its key role in African development, based on solidarity, economic integration, and shared prosperity, eliciting both jealousy and recognition. Moroccan cooperation in Africa is a strategic pillar built on sharing expertise, economic development, and strengthening cultural ties. Thanks to its geographic and historic positioning, Morocco plays a major role in regional integration, supporting infrastructure, training, and innovation projects. This cooperation is characterized by a lasting commitment to promote peace, security, and sustainable development across Africa. The proposed opening-up of the Sahel countries through the future port of Dakhla will undoubtedly accelerate this integration for the benefit of hundreds of millions of Africans. The idea to build ports like Dakhla relies heavily on Morocco’s strategic geography. This is evident on the map: Morocco has a coastline of over 3,500 km, facing Europe, West Africa, and the Americas. Dakhla, in particular, lies halfway between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, making it a natural maritime waypoint. Morocco’s Atlantic coast is on the route linking the Mediterranean (via Gibraltar) to West Africa and the Americas, capturing a portion of global logistic flows. Morocco is less than 15 km from Europe at Gibraltar and simultaneously connected to West Africa. The port of Dakhla fits this logic: serving as a logistical and industrial hub between the two continents. The Dakhla area offers favorable natural conditions: deep waters and low swell, allowing the construction of a port capable of accommodating large ships, a rarity on the West African coast. With the Continental Free Trade Area, a port like Dakhla will allow Morocco to be an entry point for commercial flows to West Africa and beyond to Mali, Niger, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and more. Morocco has understood this, as have its African partners. The future will be bright, hand in hand.
Aziz Daouda Aziz Daouda

Aziz Daouda

Directeur Technique et du Développement de la Confédération Africaine d'Athlétisme. Passionné du Maroc, passionné d'Afrique. Concerné par ce qui se passe, formulant mon point de vue quand j'en ai un. Humaniste, j'essaye de l'être, humain je veux l'être. Mon histoire est intimement liée à l'athlétisme marocain et mondial. J'ai eu le privilège de participer à la gloire de mon pays .


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THE ENCHIRIDION - I 5198

Bluwr X Commons: Epictetus, 2 y.
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1.1 min read.
There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs. Now the things within our power are by nature free, unrestricted, unhindered; but those beyond our power are weak, dependent, restricted, alien. Remember, then, that if you attribute freedom to things by nature dependent and take what belongs to others for your own, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will find fault both with gods and men. But if you take for your own only that which is your own and view what belongs to others just as it really is, then no one will ever compel you, no one will restrict you; you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your will; no one will hurt you, you will not have an enemy, nor will you suffer any harm. Aiming, therefore, at such great things, remember that you must not allow yourself any inclination, however slight, toward the attainment of the others; but that you must entirely quit some of them, and for the present postpone the rest. But if you would have these, and possess power and wealth likewise, you may miss the latter in seeking the former; and you will certainly fail of that by which alone happiness and freedom are procured. Seek at once, therefore, to be able to say to every unpleasing semblance, “You are but a semblance and by no means the real thing.” And then examine it by those rules which you have; and first and chiefly by this: whether it concerns the things which are within our own power or those which are not; and if it concerns anything beyond our power, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER - PREFACE 5393

Bluwr X Commons: Mark Twain, 2 y.
- Short Stories -
0.6 min read.
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture. The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story—that is to say, thirty or forty years ago. Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in. THE AUTHOR. HARTFORD, 1876.

THE MEDITATIONS - Book I.[1/3] 5535

Bluwr X Commons: Marcus Aurelius, 2 y.
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3.7 min read.
1. I learned from my grandfather, Verus, to use good manners, and to put restraint on anger. 2. In the famous memory of my father I had a pattern of modesty and manliness. 3. Of my mother I learned to be pious and generous; to keep myself not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and to live with a simplicity which is far from customary among the rich. 4. I owe it to my great-grandfather that I did not attend public lectures and discussions, but had good and able teachers at home; and I owe him also the knowledge that for things of this nature a man should count no expense too great. 5. My tutor taught me not to favour either green or blue at the chariot races, nor, in the contests of gladiators, to be a supporter either of light or heavy armed. He taught me also to endure labour; not to need many things; to serve myself without troubling others; not to intermeddle in the affairs of others, and not easily to listen to slanders against them. 6. Of Diognetus I had the lesson not to busy myself about vain things; not to credit the great professions of such as pretend to work wonders, or of sorcerers about their charms, and their expelling of Demons and the like; not to keep quails (for fighting or divination), nor to run after such things; to suffer freedom of speech in others, and to apply myself heartily to philosophy. Him also I must thank for my hearing first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus; that I wrote dialogues in my youth, and took a liking to the philosopher’s pallet and skins, and to the other things which, by the Grecian discipline, belong to that profession. 7. To Rusticus I owe my first apprehensions that my nature needed reform and cure; and that I did not fall into the ambition of the common Sophists, either by composing speculative writings or by declaiming harangues of exhortation in public; further, that I never strove to be admired by ostentation of great patience in an ascetic life, or by display of activity and application; that I gave over the study of rhetoric, poetry, and the graces of language; and that I did not pace my house in my senatorial robes, or practise any similar affectation. I observed also the simplicity of style in his letters, particularly in that which he wrote to my mother from Sinuessa. I learned from him to be easily appeased, and to be readily reconciled with those who had displeased me or given cause of offence, so soon as they inclined to make their peace; to read with care; not to rest satisfied with a slight and superficial knowledge; nor quickly to assent to great talkers. I have him to thank that I met with the discourses of Epictetus, which he furnished me from his own library. 8. From Apollonius I learned true liberty, and tenacity of purpose; to regard nothing else, even in the smallest degree, but reason always; and always to remain unaltered in the agonies of pain, in the losses of children, or in long diseases. He afforded me a living example of how the same man can, upon occasion, be most yielding and most inflexible. He was patient in exposition; and, as might well be seen, esteemed his fine skill and ability in teaching others the principles of philosophy as the least of his endowments. It was from him that I learned how to receive from friends what are thought favours without seeming humbled by the giver or insensible to the gift. 9. Sextus was my pattern of a benign temper, and his family the model of a household governed by true paternal affection, and a steadfast purpose of living according to nature. Here I could learn to be grave without affectation, to observe sagaciously the several dispositions and inclinations of my friends, to tolerate the ignorant and those who follow current opinions without examination. His conversation showed how a man may accommodate himself to all men and to all companies; for though companionship with him was sweeter and more pleasing than any sort of flattery, yet he was at the same time highly respected and reverenced. No man was ever more happy than he in comprehending, finding out, and arranging in exact order the great maxims necessary for the conduct of life. His example taught me to suppress even the least appearance of anger or any other passion; but still, with all this perfect tranquillity, to possess the tenderest and most affectionate heart; to be apt to approve others yet without noise; to have much learning and little ostentation. 10. I learned from Alexander the Grammarian to avoid censuring others, to refrain from flouting them for a barbarism, solecism, or any false pronunciation. Rather was I dexterously to pronounce the words rightly in my answer, confining approval or objection to the matter itself, and avoiding discussion of the expression, or to use some other form of courteous suggestion. 11. Fronto made me sensible how much of envy, deceit and hypocrisy surrounds princes; and that generally those whom we account nobly born have somehow less natural affection. 12. I learned from Alexander the Platonist not often nor without great necessity to say, or write to any man in a letter, that I am not at leisure; nor thus, under pretext of urgent affairs, to make a practice of excusing myself from the duties which, according to our various ties, we owe to those with whom we live. 13. Of Catulus I learned not to condemn any friend’s expostulation even though it were unjust, but to try to recall him to his former disposition; to stint no praise in speaking of my masters, as is recounted of Domitius and Athenodorus; and to love my children with true affection. 14. Of Severus, my brother, I learned to love my kinsmen, to love truth, to love justice. Through him I came to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, and Brutus. He gave me my first conception of a Commonwealth founded upon equitable laws and administered with equality of right; and of a Monarchy whose chief concern is the freedom of its subjects. Of him I learned likewise a constant and harmonious devotion to Philosophy; to be ready to do good, to be generous with all my heart. He taught me to be of good hope and trustful of the affection of my friends. I observed in him candour in declaring what he condemned in the conduct of others; and so frank and open was his behaviour, that his friends might easily see without the trouble of conjecture what he liked or disliked.