Royal religious lecture highlights spiritual bond between Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa

King Mohammed VI chaired a fifth Ramadan religious lecture highlighting the centuries-old religious, cultural, and human ties between the Maghreb region and Sub-Saharan Africa.

In his lecture, Ousmane Kane, Professor of Islamic Thought at Harvard University in the United States of America, challenged the western narrative which tends to treat North Africa as a separate entity from its Sub-Saharan neighborhood.

Delving deep into Quranic verses praising exchange and interaction between human beings, Kane went on to highlight the central role played by Morocco throughout history in strengthening ties with the rest of the African continent.

He said western thought failed to take stock of the close bonds between the greater Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa, two regions that share the Muslim faith, the use of the Arabic language, and the Maleki rite.

In this time-honored bond between the Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa, or the Sudan as Muslim scholars call it, the Sahara served as a bridge between the two spheres of the Muslim world, he said.

Saharan trade routes between Maghreb centers and West Africa in particular were not only for goods and gold but also served to spread Islam and its lofty values, he explained.

The Red Sea played a similar role bridging Africa with the Arabian peninsula and Asia, he said.

Moroccan cities in particular, especially Fez and Marrakech, were favorite destinations for Sub-Saharan students seeking to gain knowledge of Islam and sciences, he said.

Suffi tariqas spread from Fez to the rest of Africa carrying the message of the love of God and his creatures, he said.

Nowadays, Morocco continues to perpetuate the tradition of bringing African scholars together, said Kane, who mentioned several initiatives including the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Ulema