Casablanca’s poor youth start dreaming again
casablanca (Morocco) — “Teaching young people to dream again” is the vision of a Moroccan cultural centre in a rundown Casablanca district, once home to a group of suicide bombers who killed 33 people in 2003.
Based in a white building next to a tramline and opposite a mosque, the Stars Cultural Centre in Sidi Moumen regularly hosts more than 300 young people for classes in music and music theory, classical dance, hip-hop, English and French.
“When we tell young people that violence is not a means to express themselves, we must find them other means,” said filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, who co-founded the centre with artist Mahi Binebine.
Ayouch’s connection with the district began with his film “Horses of God”, which looked at how young people in the neighbourhood were becoming radicalised.
When he organised a screening of the film in Sidi Moumen, Ayouch realised something: “Even in an area without rights, there is the right to hope.”
That seed of an idea eventually led him to set up the centre in the district that was home to 12 suicide bombers, who carried out the May 2003 attacks in Casablanca.
Yacine, 14, is studying piano and music theory and hopes that one day he can become a concert musician and perform with an orchestra.
“The training is much better than at the Casablanca Conservatoire,” he said. Students’ families pay for the lessons but those on limited means receive subsidised rates. The centre offers free film screenings, hosts foreign artists and gives shows that attract spectators from far and wide.
“Back in 2014, there was nothing — no culture, no cinema,” said the centre’s assistant manager, Soumia Errahmani. But funded by private donations and foreign cultural institutes, the centre has shown that “there are also stars and not only terrorists” in the district, she said.
The 24-year-old said the project had taught her that “if you want, you can”. —