“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” The famous quote by American author Robert Heinlein, shows how history provides a crucial perspective for understanding and solving current and future problems.
In Morocco, many content creators appear to be aware of the importance of studying history. Amongst them, three Moroccan Instagram pages share lesser-known historical facts from Morocco’s complex and rich history, in an attempt to broaden their followers’ horizons.
‘Murakuc’, ‘Moroccans’ history’, and ‘Moroccan history x’ are three Moroccan historical Instagram accounts sharing interesting stories to promote Moroccan culture and highlight the nation’s history of coexistence.
These content creators publish daily photos, videos, and facts from the 1700s to the 2000s, which is an especially rich period in Moroccan history.
Moroccans’ history’: shedding lights on a long and glorious history
Mohcine, 23 years old, is currently studying a master’s degree in “Diplomacy in The History of International Relationships of Morocco” at the faculty of humanities Ben M’sik – Casablanca, and decided to create the page in 2017.
With 13.000 followers on Facebook and over 5.800 people on Instagram, Mohcine shares facts about Morocco’s history using scientific and academic methodologies.
Due to his early interests in culture, Mohcine has always been passionate about participating in history classes, hoping he would benefit the historical research soon.
“The creation of my page was the result of a sense of responsibility. I had noticed that munch information published by some pages was nothing but immoral historical inaccuracies, spread by some Facebook pages belonging to extreme ideologies related to Pan-Arabism, Pan-Africanism, and Pan-Amazigh ideology as well,” Moroccans’ history creator said in a statement to Hespress English.
To share accurate historical information, Mohcine uses several documents from national archives; including Al-khizanah Al-Hassaniyah, the Archive of Morocco, and the Royal Documents Directorate.
Mohcine emphasized that his page is an initiative to educate the non-experts in Morocco’s history by publishing vulgarized posts and videos while respecting the harsh academic requirements for historical research and through diligent use of bibliographies.
“It’s the love I have for the principle of objectivity in scientific research that motivates me, and I’m the only one in charge of searching, writing articles, making posts, and creating videos for the page,” he added.
The content creator is planning to continue his academic studies on the History of Moroccan relations with Western Europe. “My goal is to specialize in Moroccan – Iberian relations during the “Modern Era”, and it will be the subject of my Doctoral research next year,” he concluded.
‘Murakuc’: spreading coexistence and peace values
Posting photographs dating from the 1900s to the 2000s, Murakuc is a non-profit project whose goal is to shed light on the history and culture of Morocco, including Moroccan-Jewish culture.
Adil Faouzi, a 19 years old student, created ‘Murakuc’ Instagram page in 2021 to promote the Moroccan culture and highlight the nation’s history of coexistence.
“The purpose of my page, above all, is to familiarize Moroccans with the history and culture of their country, some of which they may be ignorant of, or they may have a wrong idea about some of them,” said Adil Faouzi, in an interview with Hespress English.
Due to his Jewish origins, Adil wants to spread peace and coexistence values between different religions and races, through his daily Instagram posts.
“My account seeks to change stereotypes and shows the strong and fraternal relations that brought together Muslims and Jews during various historical stages of Morocco,” he explained.
Adil Faouzi enjoys the research process as it enables him to discover interesting facts every time, whether it is about dress, music, or customs.
“Everyone’s a winner at this point, I’m, through my research and readings, and the recipient through conclusions he ends with,” he said.
A nation that is ignorant of its history, not proud of its origin and identity is a nation that cannot progress or prosper, according to him.
“My page is an opportunity for every thirsty one to explore the hidden and unknown side of Morocco that is sometimes distorted by some outsiders,” he pointed out.
Adil plans to create different partnerships with organizations and associations with the same orientation and vision, to cooperate with the aim of preserving the heritage of Morocco and so to make his Instagram account a reliable archive.
‘Moroccan History x’: raising awareness about Morocco’s complex history
Naoufal Chaara, 38, is a Moroccan content creator on YouTube, Facebook, and Spotify, based in Belgium.
He produces a weekly program on the history of Morocco called: ‘Moroccan History x”, which is the name of his Instagram page as well.
“I got inspired from my father’s huge library (…) Most of the books we used to have were historical ones, and as a child who was born in the 80s, I didn’t have many things to do on holidays… so I used to read his books and narrate their events to my friends,” Naoufal said in a statement to Hespress English.
Naoufal believes his page helps to raise awareness about many historical facts regarding Morocco’s heritage, which is not “an easy task”, according to him.
“As long as many Moroccans spend their day striving to achieve the basics, it is still difficult to convince them to get interested in ‘luxuries’ such as culture and literature,” he explained.
As for his research process, Naoufal stated that the research method varies according to the episode as well as the period in which the hero of the episode lived, or in which the events took place.
In order to provide his followers with accurate information, Naoufal uses scientific resources available to researchers in Moroccan institutions such as the Archive of Morocco and the National Library in Rabat, the Royal Treasury, as well French National Library, the French and American Ministry of Foreign Affairs archives as well as e-libraries.
In the future, Naoufal plans to write a book about a period in Morocco’s history, as well as producing historical Moroccan documentaries.
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