SHARJAH: Loubna Chakhnoun, a Moroccan painter, spends a busy evening at Sharjah Heritage Days showing visitors some five paintings of portraits that portray the life, fashion and diversity of her country’s cultural composition.
She is in a stand clearly marked: “Moroccan Heritage”. Morocco is a regular exhibitor in the 15-year old event whose latest edition ends on Apr.22.
She points at the portraits to explain the geographical diversity and ethnic composition that form the Moroccan identity of the Amazigh “who are indigenous people of Morocco; the Arabs who came from the Arabian Peninsula or the Phoenicians and settled on the coasts and the people of Andalusia who settled in Morocco after their departure from the Iberian Peninsula.”
On display is a saaqi, a man holding a jug and copper cups ready to provide water to thirsty people in the desert.
“The pictures that you see here represent Moroccans living in three main areas: North, Central and West,” says Loubna in the company of her brother, Abderrahim and a compatriot, Khadija.
“We are very diverse in ethnicity and religious beliefs,” she says. “This is what has rendered Moroccan heritage a crucible in which creative contributions of various cultures gather. This is what is known as the Moroccan heritage.”
Abderrahim says the Moroccan nature is a “living catalogue of all known seasons and climates on the surface of the earth: the desert with its sand, dunes, and high mountains are covered by the snow.
“Morocco is coated with green colour throughout the year and the beaches that extend to over 3,500 km from the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts.”
Abderrahim explains to the visitors that “every part of Morocco is distinguished from the rest by its own heritage, in terms of fashion, food, music and folk dances.
“But the atmosphere of tolerance and coexistence that Morocco has known throughout history has facilitated the integration of these heritage patterns to be the culture of this country which Moroccans are proud so much as it fills a large part of their daily lives.”
