The 3rd edition of the Marrakech African Book Festival (FLAM), scheduled from January 30 to February 2 at the Les Étoiles Jemaâ El-Fna Cultural Center, will highlight the richness and literary and artistic diversity of the African continent.
Marked by the presence of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Nobel Prize winner for literature, this edition will offer a rich program, with the participation of around fifty authors and artists, from more than twenty countries and from three continents.
“After a successful birth in 2023, a confirmation rich in encounters and emotions in 2024, this third edition aims to be an exaltation of African literature and cultures, an exaltation of everything that unites us: our voices, our stories, our creations common areas and our shared humanity”underlined the general delegate of FLAM, Younès Ajarraï, during a press conference held Thursday in Casablanca, dedicated to the presentation of this edition.
“FLAM 2025 will introduce this year the Marrakech High School Students Literary Prize, which is becoming a pillar of the event, and will diversify its programming by integrating forms of artistic expression such as cinema, music and other performances”he added.
Round tables will also highlight female voices. Hanane Essaydi, co-founder of the festival and responsible for programming, indicated, in this regard, that this event will pay tribute to women writers, artists and politically engaged figures from the African continent, while celebrating the centenary of Frantz Fanon, a major figure of thought. decolonial.
“A special place is also given to young people by offering activities aimed at bringing young people closer to reading, to revive their desire to read and express their ideas”she noted.
Among the guests of honor, the Mauritian writer Ananda Devi will deliver the inaugural lesson, while Christiane Taubira, former Minister of Justice of the French Republic, will be the Grand Witness of this edition. Round tables will also address the condition of women and their role in literary and artistic creation.
At the same time, the FLAM will offer literary cafés, discussions, readings, signing sessions, film screenings and late-night evenings. An exhibition by Haitian artist Marie-Denise Douyon and works by Moroccan visual artist Najia Mehadji, from whom the festival poster is inspired, will also enrich the event.
A special program will also be dedicated to youth, with writing workshops, master classes and literary meetings in partner schools and universities, to promote reading and writing among younger generations.
Founded by the writer and visual artist Mahi Binebine, the cultural entrepreneur Younès Ajarraï, the academic Hanane Essaydi and the journalist Fatimata Wane-Sagna, and organized by the WE ART AFRICA//NS association, FLAM brings together writers, thinkers and intellectuals from Africa, its diasporas and its descendants.
This event, which has become an unmissable cultural event, aims, according to its organizers, to contribute to the cultural and artistic influence of Africa while highlighting the richness of its literature and arts.
It also seeks to encourage culture, promote writing and support economic and social development through art.
(With MAP)
