Co-published by the Council of the Moroccan Community abroad and Maha Éditions, the book “Between two banks, Morocco-Belgium, parallel stories, crossed destinies” of the Belgian-Moroccan researcher Hassan Bousetta highlights the heritages shared between Morocco and Belgium.
“Between two banks, Morocco-Belgium, parallel stories, crossed destinies”, such is the title of the new work co-published by the Council of the Moroccan Community abroad (CCME) and Maha Éditions, signed by the Professor of the University of Liège, Hassan Bousetta, Belgian-Moroccan researcher and intellectual. It is an original story that retraces the history of the two kingdoms and which sheds light on the shared memories of the Belgians of Morocco and the Moroccans of Belgium. “This abundantly illustrated book crosses long time while focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries, relations between Morocco and Belgium, two geographically distant kingdoms but that human, social and cultural dynamics have continued to bring together. No linear story of migration, nor chronicle of national stories, this work is at the crossroads.
It offers a peaceful and enlightened look at the links woven between these two societies, in a context where the challenges of memory and identity are at the heart of contemporary debates, “we read in the presentation of the book. By mobilizing history, geopolitics, sociology and the social sciences, “between two banks” highlights the shared inheritances, continuities and ruptures and common challenges of a future to build together. We discover in particular the depth and the extent of human rapprochements and the intensity of economic, scientific, technical cooperation. The university partnerships between the two countries are abundant, between Louvain and Fez, Tangier and Antwerp, Brussels and Casablanca, Rabat and Liège…
This book is an invitation to go beyond clichés, refuse simplifications and embrace history in all its richness and complexity. It is intended for all and all citizens of Morocco as well as from Belgium and especially to young generations in search of meaning, anchoring and future. To those who believe in the strength of the dialogue of memories, in the power of the cross -look. At a time when physical distances are erased, but where ideological cleavages persist, he calls us to rebate the bond, build bridges and imagine together a common, more united and enlightened future.
About Hassan Bousetta
Course Hassan Bousetta is a permanent researcher at the National Scientific Research FRS and member of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Migration to the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Liège. Born in Hasselt in 1970, he holds a doctorate in political science obtained at Kuleuven. A specialist in migration, diversity and integration policies, Bousetta teaches at the University of Liège and the Free University of Brussels while carrying out research for several European institutions. He was a Belgian federal senator (2010-2014) and deputy chief of staff to a Walloon Minister (2021-2023). Author of numerous publications, he coordinated several international projects on migration and radicalization. Bousetta sits in various scientific and administrative advice, in Belgium and at European level. Committed to civil society, he collaborated with the King Baudouin Foundation and the CCME. Belgo-Moroccan, he embodies a bridge between research, public action and citizen commitment.
