A historian and curator at a national museum in Morocco, Said Chemsi said the Moroccan government hopes to submit an application to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to consider the ceramic skills of the city Safi as an intangible cultural heritage at some point in the future.
Safi was the site of Operation Blackstone, one of the landing sites for Operation Torch during the Second World War. The beautiful city of Safi is in western Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean in the capital of Asfi Province.
“…contributes to the marketing of ceramic products internationally. That prompted the Ministry of Culture to prepare a file in order to classify the ceramic skills of Safi as an intangible heritage on the UNESCO list,” says Chemsi.
A potter based in the city, known for its colourful ceramics, Mohamed Sentil Rbati has said the geology around the city gives it an edge advantage and access to plenty of raw materials.
Rbati was quoted in a report on africannews.com that “the clay of the city of Safi is famous worldwide thanks to the raw materials that we have here, and this makes it an easy material to knead, and when we work on it, it is very flexible, and this material is available in the city of Safi and it is easy to obtain.”
Rbati has worked as a potter since 1972, in a small workshop where his grandparents worked for nine generations. Many artisans like Rbati shun modern techniques and technology in favour of traditional methods.
“We, as potters in Safi, are proud because we still adhere to the traditional and simple ways of working and this method we inherited from our ancestors, and despite the fact that we are in the era of technology, but people always encourage these traditional ways of working, whether in the matter of kneading clay or mixing colours,” Rbati said.
Although the city has chemical (phosphate-based) and food-processing industries located nearby to the south, it is best known for its pottery.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the governorate of Marrakesh-Safi signed an agreement in 2018 that was designed to improve the business climate and bolster the competitiveness of local enterprises, part of an effort to create jobs and drive economic growth in the region.