In 2024, we organized the DSH academy, with 2 programs for middle-school students in Sidi Ifni, and a program for children in the local communities served by Fog-Water. During these programs, teenagers and children were introduced to a whole new world of knowledge, with ecology at its core, using a fun but equally formative approach. We also brought to a close our ethnographic field school (EFS) program, whose theme was the Argan tree: symbol, resource and culture, launched in 2021 with our partners at UC Merced University in California and the University of Tampa, Florida. Courses, visits and fieldwork enlivened our July 2024 program and added value for all participants. Students from Lewis & Clark in Oregon, our long-standing partner, also benefited from an educational program focused on Amazigh heritage, identity and culture. This heritage is interwoven and constitutive of the local ecology.
The biennial Echos Vitales edition of the Rhizome Art program, in partnership with young curator and visionary Soufian Aaraichi, honored the figure of the shepherd, in both his material and symbolic milieu. The language of the whistle, rock art, song, a deep bond with the flora, and intimacy with the livestock, the shepherd was celebrated as the repository of a heritage and the symbol of a culture, and this underlined the deep links between the Canary Islands and southwest Morocco. The program included conferences, debates, an artistic residency, music, song, dance and a great communion to celebrate the officialization of Id-Iyanner in 2024. This is the official recognition of the heritage and continuity of Amazigh identity in Morocco, and proposes a transmission of such heritage, a synergy and coherence with the Amazigh fact in this region of the world.
From the Argan tree and cultural heritage, we continue to work on all our ecological projects. Hyperaspis Trifurcata, the Mexican ladybug we have named Lalla Messaouda, has taught us the value of adaptation and the usefulness of copying nature to combat a devastator of our crops; our biological control program against the mealybug using bio-pesticides and Lalla Messaouda has adapted in many fields in our territorial commune. TinAmoud, our seed library and Agdal Brahim Aachour (ABA), the experimental farm, both continue to be essential in the concept of adaptation and resilience in the difficult climatic conditions of southwest Morocco with the persistent drought. Many seeds were shared, reproduced and protected, and hope was reborn among the farmers of our communes, whose ancestral knowledge continues to be valued and practiced in the face of the area’s profound social and ecological mutations.
Rain hasn’t visited us for ten years, but Dame Fog Tagout, did for 76 nights in 2024, drenched our nets and each square meter collected an average of 27 liters.
Whistling, the language of the shepherd, rock-art, the seed of TinAmoud, the school of water to sustain our culture, echo each other from the Canary Islands to Mount Atlas, were all milestones in this Amazigh year 2974. Lalla Messaouda will watch over Aknari, Ficus Indica, both are from faraway Mexico, perpetuating the songs of our lands, and the seed of Tin Amoud will germinate with Fog-Tagut. It is a trust, by the grace of God, we will all pass on.
