Morocco marks independence manifesto anniversary

Morocco marks this Saturday the 59th anniversary of the presentation of the Independence Manifesto by Moroccan nationalists to the French colonial authorities.

On January 11, 1944, a group of nationalists, representing all Moroccan social layers handed the French colonial authorities a document requesting the independence of Morocco under the leadership of the Late King Mohammed V.

The manifesto was seen as the culmination of the Moroccan popular resistance to foreign occupation and as the beginning of the peak of the people's desire and determination to emancipate itself from unfair domination.

"The manifesto marked a decisive turning point in the struggle of the Moroccan people to obtain independence," says Professor Abu Bakr Kadiri, one of the signatories of the Independence Manifesto.

"The Manifesto promoted a new kind of awareness amongst Moroccans that independence has become inevitable," Kadiri told MAP news agency.

The new reality was faced with an intensified repression by the colonial powers, a repression that peaked with the exile of the Late King Mohammed V and the Royal Family. The move only ignited more the anger of Moroccans, who expressed their rejection of the occupiers' schemes with more resistance, token of the population's attachment to the return of their legitimate King and the recovery of independence and dignity.

This supreme and long-waited objective was materialized with the return of the late King Mohammed V and the Royal Family and with the proclamation of Morocco's independence in 1956.