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Historian wants UNESCO to consider Moroccan ceramic skills as intangible cultural heritage

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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.

Culture

Collabo with Burna Boy enabled me buy house for my mum— Mozambican DJ Tarico

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Mozambican disc jockey and sound-producer, DJ Tarico, has credited Nigeria’s Afrobeats sensation, Burna Boy, with his sudden wealth which enabled him buy a house for his mother.

DJ Tarico attributed a collaboration with the Grammy Awards winning “African Giant” as the turning point in his story and said he would forever be grateful to the Nigerian star.

Speaking with the BBC African Voice on Saturday, DH Tarico said when he came up
with a particularly energetic beat one day, he couldn’t have predicted how it would change his life and that of his two friends.

He said one of his friends, Nelson Tivane, a songwriter and vocalist, came up with the lyric “Yaba Buluku” which was “inspired by the sound of coins jangling in a pocket”, while the other friend, Preck, “belted out that lyric with his gravelly, powerful voice,” with the song becoming an instant hit in their country.

“After we concluded the song, we went to a rural zone and we put a car with a big sound there, and we connected the song on the car and we saw many people dancing and ask ‘who is the owner of this song?’ Then we knew this song was going to be big!” Tarico recalls.

He said he was surprised that
none other than Burna Boy, realised the strength of “Yaba Buluku” and jumped on the remix, a move which had a massive impact on Tarico, Tivane and Preck.

“We were travelling all over Africa. Too many big artists were asking us for features. People started to know our face outside of Mozambique. We became internationals.

“And money! I bought a car, land and a house for my mother.”

The trio who now call themselves “Yaba Buluku Boyz”, have dropped their debut album, “Donsa”, on Friday, and are hoping to ride on the success of the collaboration to reach greatet heights in Africa and globally.

“Donsa”, according to DJ Tarico, “is high-energy, danceable amapiano, and features big African names including Ghana’s dancehall King Shatta Wale, Timaya from Nigeria and Harmonize from Tanzania,” he said.

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Culture

African men run away from single mothers— Joselyn Dumas

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Veteran Ghanaian actress and media personality, Joselyn Dumas, has lamented the fact that most African men shy away from getting married to single mothers due to the added responsibilities they will be saddled with.

The actress who made the assertion in her recent podcast, “Keeping it Real with Joselyn Dumas, The Perfect Picture”, opened up on the challenges of many single mothers who are struggling to find a partner because of societal biases.

In the podcast, Dumas who shared a personal story of a male friend whom she said refused to settle down with a lady because she had a child.

According to her, the friend named Anthony, firmly stated that it wasn’t his thing to be with a ‘born one’ or ‘born two’.

“He said B1, B2, I’m not in and I said to myself, ‘this is the reason why a lot of single mothers are single with their children.

“Now his reason was, why am I going to raise somebody’s child? That’s not my bloodline. He doesn’t have my DNA in him. Why am I now going to help someone’s bloodline grow? What about mine?” she said.

Dumas who is a single mother, noted that Anthony’s mindset is a “reflection of the views of a larger majority of people who don’t want to have meaningful relationship with single mothers.”

She also criticised what she termed as the double standard in society’s views on raising non-biological children, arguing that it should not be seen differently from adoption.

“I have a child but these men won’t even ask you, they don’t even care why you have a child. You’ve had seven miscarriages when you got married. You meet a guy, you were dating and you got pregnant, are you going to abort the baby because you aren’t married?

“He doesn’t want the child, are you going to throw the child away? No! You can raise the child. It takes a village to raise the child, so even if you don’t have a job, you will get support. This is part of the sacrifice you have to make regardless of what has happened,” she said.

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