A Moroccan academic gives children the story of 12 centuries of their country's history

Sana Al-Quwaiti-Rabat

"When we study history and get acquainted with its developments ... we are in fact identifying ourselves, understanding them more, and well," .. in this phrase, the Moroccan academic, Mohamed Jabroun, introduces his new series on the history of Morocco aimed at children and young adults.

After years of intellectual and academic production, Dr. Gabron, a history specialist, embarked on a new adventure and released a series that immerses children in the history of Morocco from the Islamic conquest to colonialism.

This work - the first of its kind - presents the history of the Kingdom in a simplified manner through ten parts titles: Islamic conquest of Morocco, Morocco in the era of the Emirates, the Almoravid state, the Almohad state, the Marinid state, the Sa’id state, the Alawite state, Moroccan society through history, and the Moroccan economy through history , Moroccan culture throughout history.

A vacuum in the field
It seems that the emptiness known to writing for the child in general and in the historical field in particular, ignited the enthusiasm of Gebron to direct his series, and he is the author known for his abundant books in the fields of thought and history.

The author regrets the poor knowledge of children and young adults about the history of Morocco and its extensions and the major detours experienced by Moroccans, a weakness that he touched in his children and in school students, who spent years in the education field, during which he realized firsthand the enormous deficiency in this field.

Added to this is the prevalence of the prevailing stereotypes around Morocco and the Moroccans, which reflect a wrong representation of the Moroccan character in its historical and civilizational dimensions.

Writing challenge for the child
It is not easy for a writer accustomed to academic authorship, and indulging in manuscripts and historical references to write for the child.

Gibron says in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the difficulties he encountered are related to style. "Writing to the child in a language that is accessible to his perceptions is not easy, as many abstract concepts and expressions used in historical writing are difficult to express in simple language."

The second challenge relates to pedagogical and deductive transfer, that is, presenting those ideas, events and historical facts - relatively long and sometimes complicated and dispersed at other times - in a simple narrative form and mitigating academic requirements of documentation and conventions.

"The challenge was to transfer a text from an academic level to an educational level accessible to children," he added, a challenge that prompted him to review the text several times until the final version of it is settled.

His main preoccupation during his project preparation was the structure and construction of this historical series, where he preferred to move away from writing in a classic and traditional way and rely on a more attractive scenario that makes children complete the story from start to finish.

Jabroun built parts of his work - directed to children between 12 and 16 years - in the form of a dialogue between a father and his six children, asking the children to answer them with stories consistent and interesting from the history of Morocco extending over more than 12 centuries.

Privacy chain
And found the series History of Morocco for children and young adults interacted by readers and interested in children's literature and historical writing, as it was popular in the International Book Fair in Casablanca, and aroused the curiosity of Moroccans on social networking sites.

Adnan bin Saleh, a researcher in history, considers it part of Dr. Jabron's course of action on workshops on historical knowledge and school historical writing.

However, according to Bin Saleh, it has a specific content, method, methods and message, and it reveals in its ten parts the craft, the concerns, and aspirations of the historian, and historical contents covering the economic, social, cultural and political history of the country.

According to the same speaker, this series adopts the "themes" illustrated by deductive pillars (pictures, drawings, dialogue, question, answer ...) help to receive and absorb the historical event and to inspire the values ​​of "citizenship", "civilization effectiveness" and "characteristics of Moroccan society" and “Values ​​of scientific giving”, “Values ​​of political construction”, and “Radiance of the cultural Morocco”.