Essaouira – Crowds overflowed on the opening day of the Gnaoua World Music Festival’s Human Rights Forum in Essaouira this morning.
Day one included a diverse panel of artists, intellectuals and innovators collaborating to discuss “identity” and what role it plays in the futures of Morocco and Africa.
Moroccan anthropologist Yasmine Chami, Ivorian writer Yacouba Konate, French-Moroccan CEO of sustainable energy company “Solvay” Ilham Kadri, and Moroccan international affairs scholar Hisham Aidi all came together in the panel to discuss the importance of “identity”.
Konate spoke to African identity, the dangers of “exoticism,” and the role that this has had in shaping African identity on the global stage as well as within Africa itself.
He said that addressing ideology is a key component to a strong and sustainable human culture: one that promotes diversity, equity, and accessibility.
“Ideology is related to identity. It is the basis of all identity. So when you tell me that there is resistance to identity tensions, we shouldn’t believe that art can change the world,” Konate explained. 
“In the best cases it’s that the world can change the art. When an artist can accept this, it’s a win.”
Each speaker also spoke to the role of past and present when it comes to the role identity plays in human connectivity.
“It’s a question of belonging, and exploring between us what it means to be Moroccan,” Chami said, emphasizing that the question is “complicated.”
Chami noted the importance of inclusiveness and cultural flexibility in order for Morocco to become stronger economically and socially as a diverse and eclectic nation.
“The ideas that are dangerous and completely detached from reality, these are sensitive identities,” she detailed. “They are founded on pride, and fear.”
She also remarked on the importance of structural change to accompany ideological shifts in culture, and how much we have to learn from slavery and stories of our past.
“We talk about the state of the planet today as a sum of individuality, but we must also talk about the exploitation of resources and humans,” Chami emphasized.
She said that it is imperative for us to collectively address crises lying ahead while the globe grapples with the ongoing effects of climate change and will continue to do so in the years to come. 
“We must come together to reinstate a model that nourishes us,” she explained.
She called for a global response to address climate change through art, culture, literature, and ideas, as well as through policy and social change.
“We have to collectively decide that the memory of the earth; the water, the ocean, the flora and fauna; that this is precious and what we do together is important. And imperative,” Chami added, specifying that it is essential for human survival to embrace diversity.
“It is a human need to incorporate and hold in solidarity identity with humans, incorporating originality and unique identities to strengthen our communities and our culture,” she said.
The speakers and those in attendance of the forum agreed that a movement towards renewable resources, structural changes to address ongoing economic disparities, reparations for transgressions of the past, and a flexible cultural identity that celebrates diversity within Morocco are integral to a strong cultural fabric and the ongoing strength of the nation in the years to come.
