Dialna Maroc, a showcase to perpetuate and enhance Moroccan heritage

CASABLANCA: Salma Bensaïd, television producer, has worked in particular on the design and production of projects that offer concepts for young people and for the general public to Moroccan channels. It has launched many concepts in the fields of lifestyle, habitat, crafts, social and heritage. The real estate and house project, in particular, or the weekly meetings Dar wa Decor and its special issues, Decocœurs, have been, for more than ten years, unmissable events for Moroccan families. With her team, she went to more than three hundred and eighty Moroccan families and more than twenty accommodation centers. She has fitted out and furnished more than four hundred spaces. Salma traveled across Morocco and met women and men passionate about their culture, their tradition and their art.

You have just launched the Dialna Maroc platform. One of its objectives is the enhancement of all facets of Moroccan heritage…
The Dialna movement and the Dialna Maroc platform are the natural flow of a twenty-one-year journey in audiovisual production and content creation. The promotion of Morocco, its know-how, its history, its arts and its heritage were among my priorities, but what accelerated the launch of this movement was the meeting I had with a family of craftsmen in Fes. The latter had suffered the full brunt of the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, the closing of borders and the drastic reduction in tourist arrivals. Moroccan craftsmen suffered during this period when activity was completely at a standstill.

Our mission then consisted of finding alternative markets and sources of income for artisans and relaunching production in certain workshops. We first created a need in a market abroad and, in a continuous spirit of solidarity, we continued with the production of the collection called “SB” on a new solidarity platform born from the Covid -19 and marketed via digital. The objective is to maintain the momentum of productivity among these craftsmen and to create a link between the artist or craftsman and the customer.

What are the main missions of this “patriotic” movement and its scope?
Dialna Morocco is an ecosystem that aims to be unifying. It is a platform of networkingto relaunch a dynamic of creation, upgrading, meetings and debates around this authentic and multicultural Morocco.

It makes it possible to support craftsmen in their digital shift and serves as a bridge between art curators, historians, opinion leaders and Moroccan youth. Our main mission, through a participatory culture and shared responsibility, is to revive the legacy of the past, to protect it, to enrich it and to pass it on to future generations.

With the help of its members and its ambassadors, Dialna Maroc federates and disseminates its values ​​through its various contents and its various alliances, in Morocco and beyond the borders of the Kingdom. Our projects spark debate and stimulate creativity. They are produced and exported thanks to a modern vision and the strength of digital, which gives us visibility. Our main themes are Moroccan identity, living together, good manners, artistic and cultural terroir, know-how, architectural heritage and gastronomy.

Moroccan craftsmen face several constraints, particularly relating to marketing and digitalization…
The question is how to provide them with effective tools so that they can promote their skills, create their networks and regularly win new markets without depending on one-off events or intermediaries. Awareness campaigns and training on the ground should be launched, which can be supported by Moroccan economic actors. With Dialna Morocco, in its solidarity component, we launched the caravans called “Artisan w Aala bal”, which provide artisans with training in marketing, digital, e-commerce and offer image coaching.

Morocco is at the confluence of several civilizations. Its cultural richness is well established. How to promote and pass on this legacy?
Culture, architecture, crafts, art and even gastronomy are millennial Moroccan cultural particularities and are the subject of international recognition. Unfortunately, the craftsmen are on their own; they do not have any real support or follow-up. An entire economy, heritage and professions risk disappearing. Today, cultural transmission is a common responsibility and a necessity. The protection of heritage and its transmission also consist in putting this subject at the heart of the debate, stimulating interaction and interest among young people, attracting research, awakening reflection and helping to project oneself in the community.

Thanks to Dialna Maroc, we have launched “Maghrebna”, a photo contest for students and academics. The objective is to bring together young people who want to better understand and analyze their history and heritage. We offer him to immortalize the moment through photographs rich in information.

Other projects are planned. The goal is to federate, stimulate interest and engage around common values ​​of enhancement and preservation of our heritage and our culture. Our mission aims to encourage and ensure the training of our young talents, despite the crisis, in order to perpetuate our ancestral professions, guarantors of our cultural heritage. We are African; our values ​​are support and solidarity. Our identity is what we are: our past, our present, and what we will leave to future generations.