Moroccan critic Said Yakten, winner of Sheikh Zayed Book Award, said that the volume of awards in the Arab world reflects the marginalizing Moroccan intellectuals, as there are two awards in Morocco, including the Book Award and Atlas Award, while there are no competitive awards.
He said that in an exclusive interview with Morocco Today, on the sidelines of the International Book Fair organized in Casablanca, that Moroccans have always been present in the Arab awards which shows the true nature of intellectual and creative Moroccan writers, so the recognition of culture Morocco is a true confession, even though the Moroccan intellectuals believe that the state's encouragement of creators and intellectuals remains inadequate.
He explained: "For me I do not have this feeling, I'm convinced of what I do, and I work with my students and researchers, I won twice Morocco's Book Award and I did not waited at all, because my job is not to invest in the awards as it is search in the area which I devoted myself."
He stressed that the cultural field is like other political, economic and social fields which witnessed internationally major shifts.He added that "this shift created a new culture, while intellectuals who are familiar with a particular style of communication, are still resisting integration with the digital world, so they see the creations of young people in the digital spaces as trivial, and vice versa. The new generation sees that the older generation is over," he explained.
"My opinion is that these generations should overcome this controversy, and the old generation has to contribute to the understanding of the digital world and to exercise a certain amount of influence. So we need thinkers and innovators who can cope with the cultural transformations in the world.