Maghreb Nations Unite to Seek UNESCO Heritage Status for Couscous

For these four countries, the question is to succeed in having couscous adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, as an intangible heritage of humanity. For this cause, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania have had to abandon all the forms of rivalry they have maintained, in pairs or not, since they became independent.

In this same momentum, the first two countries are looking at each other like dogs of faience, on the background of a quarrel dating back several decades. But this has materialized since 25 years ago. For couscous, today, they agree. In addition, Algeria has finally given up going it alone on this dish project since it has been difficult for it to reach a consensus, in 2016, with its other Maghreb partners, on the fact that this dish originated on its territory.

In reality, couscous finds its origins in an immemorial era when the Amazighs, also called Berbers, populated a vast North Africa extending to Siwa, an oasis in western Egypt. It comes from the word "Kseksu" which, in Berber, means the semolina grain and the dish made from it. Even as far as Libya, it is a staple food.

Cooked with olive oil, steamed, couscous semolina has the advantage of being the subject of an unlimited number of side dishes, which vary according to the countries and regions that have adopted it, even outside the Maghreb region.