Morocco Seeks to Claim Couscous as National Dish, Challenging UNESCO’s Shared Heritage Status

Mehdi Bensaid aims to give the ancestral dish a Moroccan label. In a recent statement to 2M, he indicated that "the idea is to create a ’Made in Morocco’ label to end the debate on whether couscous is Moroccan or Tunisian," without mentioning Algeria, with whom the kingdom disputed the paternity of this ancestral dish.

According to the minister, it is a question of defining "what is part of the Moroccan heritage" in order to then "interact with international institutions including UNESCO to obtain international recognition of the Moroccan heritage and history". "We have asked the director [of the inventory and documentation division of heritage at the Moroccan Ministry of Culture] to draw up a list of all the components of the Moroccan heritage," he detailed.

But this ambition of the minister is seen in a bad light. "It’s populism. The department that is supposed to prepare its label file [the inventory and documentation division of heritage] is the same one that had prepared between 2018 and 2019 the Moroccan file for the joint candidacy with Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania," explains to Middle East Eye a source who was involved in the preparation of Morocco’s file.

To recall, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Tunisia had filed a joint application "Knowledge, know-how and practices related to the production and consumption of couscous" to inscribe couscous on the intangible heritage of UNESCO. In December 2020, the file was successful, and this ancestral dish entered the intangible heritage of the UN organization. "It is a strong sign of cultural recognition and it is also a real diplomatic success, on a subject so important and so symbolic for the peoples of this whole region, and far beyond. This consensus shows that a cultural heritage can be both personal and exceptional, and transcend borders," Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, had declared.