Morocconess (Tamaghribit) an endeavor to understand local certainties

This endeavor aims to understand the narrative underlying the notion of Morocconess, and to delve into the feasibility of grasping local certainties. Establishing “Morocconess” as a Moroccan narrative in which local certainties intersect has become incumbent upon a variety of choices/factors, including those that are strategic, cultural, institutional, political, constitutional, humanitarian and civilized.

Such establishment enables complete control of the mechanisms and the possibilities of coexistence.

It also allows strengthening the elements of social bonding and building a societal contract based on achieving a form of qualitative development and combining soft and hard powers, not to mention giving the Kingdom of Morocco a distinguished position at the regional and global levels.

In this respect, the regression of global values and the restoration of privacy principles, including the narrative underlying Morocconess, foretell the emergence of non-globalized zones through the rediscovery of self-sufficiency values, deepening representations related to local certainties, restoring confidence in local solidarity models, involving the features of territorial and national identity, and consolidating positive citizenship.

For this reason, taking part in public affairs and reinforcing the citizenship values of the Moroccan people seems to be closely related to the issue of human rights of women, children, people with special needs, as well as those rights related the youth having access to education, job market, and health care. This participation is also related to the adoption of a developmental model that recognizes both the individual and society as a whole through a strategy that merges horizontal national models and regional vertical ones.

Since the efficacy of the development model stems from the introspection of a sense of Morocconess as a right, a duty, and an existence from within a territorial logic of a society of knowledge, a society of trust, a society of social justice, and the strength of involvement and presence of territorial intellectuals and actors, the narrative underlying Morocconess is also an endeavor to propose values that may provide answers to some problematic issues such as spatial frustration, unemployment among youth, spatial disparities, economic deprivation, digital citizenship, and the rehabilitation of the public school.

Therefore, the question of the narrative of Morocconess in connection to the development model is a question about the relationship between improving the citizens’ standards of living and the values regulating social relations. It is also a question of dealing with citizens’ intentions, understanding their representations about citizenship, and generating possible formulas to strengthen the feeling of trust between these citizens and the state.

Morocconess crosses, intersects, accompanies, adheres, correlates, and connects vertically and horizontally with all aspects of Moroccans’ lives, whether inside or outside the national territory of the country (the case of the Moroccan diasporas all over of the world), especially with their perceptions, positions, representations, attitudes, and ideas regarding a number of issues such as:

the features of the Moroccan personality, the notion of the ‘nation state’ of Morocco, diversity and pluralism, the soft powers, the official and cultural environment, the complexities of the public debate, the social dynamism, street protest, the problem of unemployment, social violence, territorial disparities, advanced regionalization, identity manifestations , food rituals, school languages, children programs, the Coronavirus pandemic, quarantine, virtual efficacy, fake news, the digital revolution, the virtual bonding, digital values, the liquid elites, the notion of Neo-Morocconess, values warming , identity defeatism, the question of the social layout, the development model, cultural mediation, the relationship between the political and the cultural, the territorial university, the question of identity challenges, the territorial intellectual, the relationship between hard development and soft development, youth leadership, coexistence, territorial identity, and the Label of Morocco.

Everyone finds a place in such Morocconess narrative, given that it is a structure governed by the power of integration and intermingling.

It is a form of dynamism with fixed values that local integration is considered the basis of national integration. It is identical to narratives such as the narrative of “citizenship” in the United States of America, or the narrative of “Mother of the World” in the Egyptian Arab Republic, or the narrative of “Interculturalism” in Canada, etc.

In this regard, in the Moroccan case, it is impossible to neglect many determinants such as plurality and diversity, and rely instead on elements that mimic the myth of monism, which contradicts the Moroccan narrative. Anthropologically, this narrative is based on the cultural components,which are included in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco, and refer to multiple and diverse elements of ideological, symbolic, human, and civilized living, and shared with the countries of Africa, the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East.

From a social sciences standpoint, the feeling of belonging to the Moroccan nation in its relationship with social and historical phenomena can be linked to the duality of the so-called harmonious identity. It is belonging at the same time to open spaces, i.e., the World, Africa, the Maghreb, the Middle East and North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and to close intimate spaces through the territorial, cultural and geography of the Kingdom of Morocco, whereby it takes into considering the Morocconess narrative as a soft power and a horizon for this intimacy. This territorial victory will enable the consolidation, cohesion and interdependence of the components of the Moroccan society, and the recognition of the various human, cultural, civilizational, historical, religious, and linguistic aspects of the Moroccan personality, mentioned in the Constitution.

In the Moroccan case, the threat that has been posed by diversity and pluralism lies in the fact that if, in the future, the transition takes place from an advanced regionalization based on functional, administrative, and economic criteria to a regionalization characterized by linguistic, cultural and identity features, it may increase the danger of separation, division and harm to national unity.

Nevertheless, the recognition of the dimensions of pluralism and diversity in the 2011 Constitution in order to respond to advocacies underlying linguistic and cultural rights as virtues and capabilities to strengthen and consolidate the unity of the Kingdom of Morocco shows that these risks and deviations seem insignificant compared to the references of social cohesion and coexistence of the Moroccan people that have been deeply rooted in history for more than 33 centuries.

It is important to note that the transition from realistic citizenship to virtual citizenship, “Netizenship” has attracted young people to digitally cultural content with its peculiar features and characteristics. Similarly, this transition has led to the abandonment of cultural content and local value foundations, which were not rehabilitated in view of the relatively unprofessional interaction with the national, regional, local, and cultural issues.

Moreover, due to the decline in civil and political mediation, the disappearance of the role of incubators of socialization, and the rooting of values ​​among young people has become necessary to create a new mediation, to build a Morocconess society. In this respect, it is critically significant to emphasize the role of the public school, the importance of media, and the role of social networks in raising the level of public debate and national major issues.

From this angle, in order to lead to an open and tolerant “we are Moroccan” and to abolish narrow and convulsive “we are Moroccan,” by building an identity policy and creating a societal contract based on “positive citizenship”, it is urgently necessary to fortify the references and postulates of the Morocconess narrative.

In the context of the Post-Coronavirus pandemic, it is also possible to anticipate a societal change in the form of a digital Morocconess narrative (Neo-Morocconess), which could be the result of the transformation from a realistic social bond to a virtual community bond. One of the most important features of this age is continuing presence, digital vigilance, citizen control, and collective and individual interaction through a bridge which can be described as “collective individuality” and “liquid elites.”

In this new environment, the value contract remains a prerequisite for valuing a social bond in parallel with a virtual bondin complete harmony with the principles of advanced regionalization and the transition from regions attached to the center to regions with autonomy, which in turn constitutes economic poles that can contain local unemployment, and help the transition into a society of trust and citizenship through “Neo-Morocconess”.

Indeed, several questions remain unanswered, including What is the extent of the influence and effectiveness of the elite community and the mobility of the floating and liquid elites in the spirit, logic and references of Morocconess? Have the features of the social bonds, which have defined what it means to be Moroccan, changed and become a hostage to the components of a virtual bond? Will this duality leads to the amplification and transformation of the Morocconess narratives into dogma and national fanaticism? Have some upbringing incubators become sites for the disappearance of alienated narrative elements, e.g., belonging, identity, behavioral defects, and value warming?

Since the current Morocconess narrative is mainly related to the question of individual and collective awareness and recognition of difference, at the same time, it is also related to the consolidation of a historical, civilized and human path of intermingling and overlapping all components of the Moroccan nation, and incubating all elements of Moroccan identity.

Therefore, such a Morocconess narrative may be considered as a field for equitable citizenship, which can be perceived as a bridge to build Post-Corona pandemic Morocco where hard development is combined with soft development, while its understanding should not be equated to an emerging chauvinism or a new nationalism.

Instead, it is soft power in the form of a “citizenship passage” for the personality of the Kingdom of Morocco so as to cross over to globalization and build an appropriate ground for harmony and cooperation with neighboring countries, let alone building a pillar to support the attractiveness of the ‘Grand Maghreb’ and the flourishing of the North African region.

At the end, the book of “Morocconess” can be considered as an endeavor to reconsider some of the features of the Moroccan personality and identity as a worthy recognition of the virtues of a country /Uma founded on plurality and diversity, fascinated by civilization and has a natural propensity for human generosity.