La revue Souffles, 1966-1973

The review Souffles (Breaths), created in 1966 by young poets and artists-painters, was the forum of the literary and cultural avant-garde in Morocco, and had an influence throughout the Maghreb and the Third World. It advocated decolonization of culture in a time when the Moroccan independence was considered unfinished and threatened by neocolonialism. Produced by left-wing intellectuals, it was also a forum of indirect opposition which, by means of culture and symbolic values, constituted a reaction to the traditionalist dictatorship imposed by monarchy. Influenced by the ideologies of its time (Third-World tendency and Marxism-Leninism), it became more and more openly political. Souffles, and especially its version in Arabic, Anfâs, was the review of both organizations of the Moroccan Marxist-Leninist movement : Ilal Amam (Forward) and 23 March. After the arrest of its most active editors in 1972, new series were published by the militants in Paris until 1973. Souffles remained in the collective memory as an important date in the literary and political history of Morocco.