Morocco Shifts Away from French, Embraces English in Education and Culture

For the past three years, Morocco has generalized the teaching of English in middle school. "It’s the language of social networks, simpler than French, which is poorly taught in public schools, and late," explains Rabia Ridaoui, animator and trainer in cinema at the French Institute of Morocco, to Livres Hebdo. In Casablanca, the decline of French is palpable. Young people aged 18-30 shun French books, preferring those in English. Whether at the Livremoi bookstore or at the Croisée des Chemins and Fennec editions, the trend is the same. "We were Francophone for thirty years. But during Covid, we were saved by opening up English and Arabic sections," says Yacine Retnani, publisher of Croisée des Chemins and promoter of the Carrefour des livres bookstore.

Despite this disaffection for French, Morocco is the guest of honor at the Paris Book Fair. An invitation that follows the state visit of Emmanuel Macron to Rabat at the end of October last, marking the end of a long diplomatic crisis between the two countries and the beginning of a new era in their bilateral relations. But "when they go to France, Moroccans realize the racism against North Africans..." laments a bookseller in the economic capital of the kingdom. In partnership with a local management school, Yacine Retnani has created the collection The Essentials of Business to highlight Moroccan success stories, "rather than books that take the American model as an example".

"For a long time, Morocco has terribly lacked essays in the human and social sciences to better know itself," says Layla B. Chaouni, director of the Fennec editions, noting an absence of solidarity between the links in the Francophone book chain. "Booksellers go directly to the French, with books at 200 dirhams [20 euros], when I sell them in the local version at 10 dirhams! They say it’s not the same paper," she fumes. "The covers are especially ugly," asserts a bookseller. For the author and journalist Fedwa Misk, "publishers maintain an opacity of sales and the discourse that repeats that Moroccans do not read".

In a country where 28% of the population is illiterate, Layla B. Chaouni is worried about the future of books and publishers. "The publishing profession is not sexy for young people, who prefer to work in finance or communications". Another observation: the decreasing number of bookstores in the kingdom. In the economic capital, they have gone from 65 in 1987 to 15 in 2016. But hope remains. Publishers are opting for the production of comics, even if Moroccan cartoonists are rare. As for the authors, they are initiating exchange meetings. This is the case of the Le Matin publishing group, which launched its BookClub three years ago. For its part, the Moroccan government plans to generalize the Youth Pass, which offers 5,000 dirhams (477 euros) to 16-30 year olds residing in Morocco to participate in cultural and sports activities.