2nd Edition

Rabat has traditionally been a crossroads of the Moroccan cultural heritage. It is a combination of the Amazigh, Mediterranean, Jewish, African, Muslim, and Andalusian cultures and a global platform for promoting the values of coexistence and dialogue between cultures. In 2019, after 35 years of the papal visit of Jean-Paul II, Rabat welcomed Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics as part of the development of interreligious dialogue.

Rabat has been chosen as the Islamic world’s cultural capital for 2022 by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), in appreciation of the city’s successful implementation of an urban and cultural development program initiated in 2015. Rabat’s nomination by ISESCO is based on the successful implementation of the “Rabat Capital of Culture, City of Lights” initiative which was launched by HM King Mohamed VI to protect the city’s cultural history while simultaneously making local services and facilities more accessible. On June 2^nd, 2022, Rabat was officially elected as the capital of African culture to recognize the rhythm of important cultural events that carry the African dimension and which reflects the commitment of the Kingdom to work for the African continent.

Thus, Mimouna Association believes that Rabat is the perfect city to host the second edition of the Jewish Africa Conference, an opportunity to gather groups of Jewish African academics, diplomats, religious figures, and activists to enshrine interfaith dialogue and cultural preservation.

Cabo Verde is an archipelago of ten small islands off the coast of the African continent. In the 19th century, a group of mostly Jewish men from different Moroccan cities sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle on the African Islands in quest for better economic opportunities.

The advent of the North African Jewish community added to the cauldron of Portuguese-African cultures in the country. Today, there is a proud community of those Moroccan immigrants with some distinctly Moroccan Jewish last names like (Benchimol, Benlolo, Benoliel, Maman and Pinto).

The Jewish Moroccan community in Cabo Verde had intermarried with catholic women and had gradually lost affiliation with their Jewish Sephardic customs and tradition, However, The Moroccan surnames, etched onto the gravestones in the burial grounds across the islands, are considered as a tangible reminder of the Jewish North African presence in this African region.

In 2015, the Moroccan ministry of migration and Moroccan living abroad invited a delegation of Cape Verdeans from Jewish descent to visit the land of their ancestors. This visit to Morocco, which was at the invitation and the expense of the Moroccan government, was extremely meaningful. The ten Cape Verdeans toured Morocco to visit the cities from which many of the Jews of Cabo Verde hailed.

With the financial support of HM king Mohammed VI and his deep commitment in preserving the cultural heritage of the Moroccan Jewish Diaspora, the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage project restored multiple Jewish cemeteries on different islands of the archipelago. The restoration of the Jewish cemeteries, on the Christian islands, by the Muslim monarchy sent a strong and a powerful message to the world that religious harmony and coexistence is not a myth.