"I have Morocco in my genes and Belgium in my veins"

Mohammed Sennahe explains how he ended up in Verviers in 1981, when he was only 21 years old. "On the way to the Netherlands, I stopped in Verviers to meet a Moroccan friend. We climbed the stairs of Sainte-Julienne to reach the Rue de France where he lived... I didn’t expect to settle there a few months later," he confides to La Libre. And to add: "[...] here I am, 40 years later, living here and in love with it. This city has given me everything, and I have given it everything."

On September 22, 1982, he settled permanently in Belgium after being accepted to the Verviers engineering school. "I remember very well my definitive arrival in Belgium. It was already snowing. I had nothing: no family, no scholarship, no money. I was broke..." he details. Today, the Moroccan is fully integrated into the city. With his Belgian-born wife, he organized festivals at the Petit Théâtre for six good years. The couple also owns the restaurant "Des goûts et des couleurs", open for 14 years, and runs the Facebook page "Proud to be from Verviers".

Alexy Mesrour, born in 1988, did not have the same path. "My Dad’s name is Abdallah, he’s from Agadir, my Mom’s name is Denise, she’s from around here," he says, evoking the difficulties encountered during his adolescence. "At school, I remember they talked to me ’them’, the Moroccans of the city who had to be welcomed. But to whom could I belong, me? To the ’us’ of the Belgians, or to the ’them’ of the Moroccans? My uncles were called Robert and Jean-Paul on one side, Ahmed and Mohamed on the other," he develops.

Alexy Mesrour did not fail to renew his love for Verviers where "he grew up". "This is where my best friends live, it’s in the streets nearby that I rode my bike. I love the colors, the climate, the smell, the rivers of the region. Even if I had to leave the country for 50 years, on the day of my death I would think back to Verviers. It’s carnal," affirmed the Belgian-Moroccan. And for Mohammed Sennahe to conclude: "I believe I have Morocco in my genes and Belgium in my veins."