This visit, initiated by the Moroccan Embassy in Spain, allowed African and Arab diplomats to revisit the historical and heritage component of the ancestral partnership between the two kingdoms, through works and artifacts, which are exposed for the first time.
On this occasion, the diplomatic delegation has navigated a journey in the cultural and religious context, from the Phoenician and Punic colonizations to the Roman Empire, through the Islamic expansion.
This exhibition is a ”pride for Africa”, said to MAP the ambassador of Gabon in Spain, Patrick Arthur Moukala, dean of African ambassadors accredited in Madrid. Through this extraordinary exhibition, Morocco and Spain have taken a concrete step to revitalize their partnership and strengthen their cooperation.
Morocco is the “voice of the causes of Africa in Europe, including Spain,” said the Gabonese diplomat, noting that this visit, as part of the activities of groups of African and Arab ambassadors in Spain, has allowed diplomats accredited in Madrid to “rediscover the prehistoric, historical and modern past between the two neighboring kingdoms.”
“I congratulate Morocco and Spain for this initiative and I am impressed by the quality and value of the objects from Morocco and exposed in Spain,” said, for her part, the ambassador of Senegal in Spain, Mariame Sy. Morocco has a “significant wealth” that other African countries are invited to share and visit.
Organized under the High Patronage of HM King Mohammed VI and HM King Felipe VI of Spain, the exhibition, open to the public until October 16, puts in the spotlight “the exceptional history linking Morocco and Spain,” said in this regard, the Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich.
This exhibition shows a rich and diverse selection of 335 objects and cultural goods – including works from the collections of the FNM, rarely exhibited outside Morocco, collections of the Spanish National Archaeological Museum and an object from the National Museum of Prado, noted Ms. Benyaich.
Designed in six major thematic parts closely linked, the tour invites visitors to discover gradually the evolution of relations between the two countries, added the diplomat.
The exhibition highlights the ties of neighborliness between Morocco and Spain and reveals this history and joint millennium between the two kingdoms separated by the Mediterranean and located each on a bank of the Strait of Gibraltar.
“Around the Columns of Hercules. The millenary relations between Morocco and Spain” testifies to the richness of a heritage that is both singular and common and underlines the mutual recognition between these two countries with common perspectives.
The exhibition is also an opportunity to discuss the scientific collaboration between Morocco and Spain in the field of archaeology.
