Mr Driss El Yazami, President of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME), attended a ceremony in the city of Agadir , on Saturday 8 February 2025, in tribute to Mr Arsala Idder, former President of the Association of Moroccans in France (AMF).
The ceremony was organised by the activist's family and friends to commemorate his 94th birthday. Mr Idder was a prominent anti-colonial activist in 1956, and a member of the Moroccan left-wing trade union movement after the country gained independence. From 1967 to 1995, Mr Idder lived in France as a refugee, before returning to Morocco.
Several speakers attended the ceremony, including his son (who had travelled from Ireland, where he lives), Ms Souad Frikech and Mr Mohamed Chaoui, the AMF's chairmen, Tarik Kabbaj, a former member of parliament and mayor of Agadir, several of Idder's friends and comrades, Mohammed Charef, a professor and president of the regional Human Rights Commission, and Driss El Yazami.
Mr Driss El Yazami with Mr. Arsala Idder
The CCME President addressed the meeting, expressing his deep esteem for Mr Idder and their friendship since the late 1970s. He also mentioned the important part AMF and Mr Idder both played in the history of Moroccan migration to France and Europe. The AMF was founded in Paris in 1960, and is considered to be one of the oldest North African associations in France. The association has been involved both in the socio-political changes in the Moroccan community and French politics, contributing to every battle for equal rights and against Xenophobia. Mr Idder's activism led to his threatened deportation from France in 1974 for disrupting public order, when the freedom of foreign association was still not granted.
Speaking about the history of AMF and immigration during the last quarter of the XXth century, Mr El Yazami said it was part of a long political and cultural history involving immigration, giving the example of the Association of North African Muslim Students in France (AEMNA), founded in Paris in 1928, which was a real incubator for North African Nationalist leaders. In this year, 2025, we will also be commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the publication of Driss Chraïbi's ‘Boucs’, a major novel on immigration.
CCME
