With Shakira and other top international artists performing in open air venues around Morocco’s capital — often for free — the annual Mawazine world music festival doesn’t at first seem like something anyone could dislike. Activists from Morocco’s pro-reform February 20 movement, however, tried to get it canceled, describing it as a symptom of the country’s corruption and cronyism.
In the past, religious conservatives have criticized the eight-day extravaganza for being decadent, and last year they were angered that it featured openly gay performer Elton John. This year, however, the attacks are coming from Facebook-savvy youth who would normally be found in the audience of such celebrations of international music. “The struggle against the Mawazine is the struggle for democracy,” said Rachid el-Belghiti, a freelance journalist heading the National Campaign to Cancel the Mawazine, a Facebook group with more than 30,000 members.
He’s using online organizing much the way protest movements in Tunisia and Egypt did in uprisings earlier this year that overthrew longtime authoritarian presidents and sparked protests around the Arab world. “I love Shakira, I have no problem with Shakira — she gave $400,000 for a school in Haiti — but there are serious education problems here,” he said. Colombian superstar Shakira closed the festival Saturday night.
He said the millions of dollars raised for the festival, which come from the public and private sector, should have gone toward education and development — or even other festivals outside the capital.
The festival is put on by the nonprofit Maroc-Cultures association and paid for by corporate sponsors.
Maroc-Cultures, however, is run by Mounir El Majidi, a close confidant of the king, and many of the sponsors, such as Maroc Telecom and the national airline, are at least partly owned by the state. Critics say the festival underlines how intertwined the royal palace remains in Morocco’s economy.
“We just think it’s a waste of money, it could be invested in more constructive projects,” said young activist Zineb Belmkaddem, a teacher at a local American school. “Presenting Kanye West and Shakira for free is ridiculous in a country with so much poverty.”According to Abbas Azzouzi, a member of the festival’s organizing committee, the event cost around $7.8 million — a hefty price tag in a country lacking the oil of its North African neighbors and with at least 30 percent unemployment, especially among urban youth.
Protesters against the festival gathered last week in downtown Rabat before they were dispersed by truncheon-wielding policemen.
The festival comes at a delicate time for the February 20 movement, which through demonstrations around the country pushed Morocco’s all-powerful king, Mohammed VI, to start a process of constitutional reform. The movement, however, has refused to meet with the committee deliberating the new constitutional amendments, because that committee was appointed by the king, and now they risk being left out a reform process expected to stretch through the summer. Also:
RABAT: Police on Saturday dispersed dozens of protesters who had assembled to denounce the use of force in protests a week before. “Security forces turned out in overwhelming numbers to stop us from gathering in front of Parliament,” said Najib Chaouki, a member of the February 20 movement, named for the day when thousands first took to the streets calling for change. An hour before the evening protest was to begin, an AFP journalist witnessed a massive concentration of police. The previous weekend, police broke up demonstrations across the country, injuring dozens.