Marrakech, Morocco – The city of Marrakech is set to host the Marrakech African Book Festival (FLAM) in 2024, a significant cultural event created by Mahi Binebine, Fatimata Sagna, Hanane Essaydi, and Younès Ajarraï. Organized by the WE ART AFRICA//NS association, FLAM stands as a pioneering literary festival on the African continent.
According to Africa News Agency, FLAM aims to converge authors, thinkers, and intellectuals from Africa, its diasporas, and descendants. The festival’s agenda includes literary cafés, interviews, book signings, a bookstore, youth programs, educational activities, and outreach in universities and schools. The event’s evenings are filled with music, readings, storytelling, poetry, and cinema. Additionally, FLAM provides an exhibition platform for a visual artist.
The 2023 edition of FLAM was a success in terms of public engagement and media coverage. It featured forty writers and intellectuals from 25 countries, attracting over 8,000 participants and more than 30,000 live and streaming spectators. The festival garnered substantial media attention, with over 40 journalists, around twenty radio and TV programs, and a press review exceeding 300 pages.
From 2024, the festival will be presided over by Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio as its honorary President. Le Clézio, with his African heritage, enriches FLAM, emphasizing the festival’s significance in Marrakech and its connection to African identity, referred to as a ‘spirit of oasis’.
Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté, a prominent figure in African visual arts, will illustrate the FLAM 2024 poster. His work, which blends tapestry, tailoring, painting, and sculpture, symbolizes a fusion of socio-political engagement and aesthetic beauty.
A notable innovation for FLAM 2024 is the introduction of the Giant Dictation, a global first. This initiative involves writing workshops with school participants to select a text for dictation, fostering a connection through writing. Open to all and multilingual (Arabic, French, English), this activity celebrates Morocco’s and the continent’s plurilingualism and multiculturalism. Registrations for this event will be available soon on the FLAM website.