Diaspo #43 : Rachid Santaki, a passionate writer and novelist

Rachid Santaki is a writer and scriptwriter who organizes giant dictations. The French-Moroccan national has been interested in culture and literature for more than ten years in France. Since a young age, Rachid was passionate about writing.

Indeed, the Saint-Ouen-native (Ile-de-France) was far from being a typical student growing up. «School was not my thing. I couldn't get my baccalaureate and since then I started working», he told Yabiladi. In 2000, the writer was working with a friend on a website : «I got into press and writing, otherwise I would have dropped everything, my dream was far away».-

Heading a magazine

In 2003, Rachid Santaki started a new adventure : He headed for eight years a free urban magazine called 5 Styles. «I had missed online writing», recalls the Moroccan national.

When the magazine project ended, he decided to do the thing he loves the most. Rachid started writing crime novels. «In 2008, I published my first novel and since then I kept doing the same thing. I have published nearly ten books», he proudly declared.

The thing that helped him the most was creating events and street marketing for his books. «I did a lot of wild posting, I used social media at the time and once I had even made a trailer for one of my books, as if it were a movie», he added.

Giant dictations

However, Rachid Santaki has another talent that sets him apart from others and shows his commitment to promoting cultural events. Since he discovered the concept of giant dictations in 2013, when he was invited as a writer by the city of Clichy-sous-Bois, he has  been working on organizing giant dictations throughout France. On March 31, he even organized one at the Stade de France : «the biggest dictation in the world, with 1473 participants».

Rachid Santaki is dreaming of organizing a giant dictation in Marrakech, his father's city. «The idea is to do it at least in two cities in Morocco. We are currently working and we will see how we can organize all of that», adds the novelist. Moreover, he is very attached to the kingdom, where he lived during his first five years. «I always wanted to materialize things in Morocco, it's part of my dreams», he said.

All this commitment and hard work has been fruitful. In 2006, he received the Espoir de l'économie prize at the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry for his work with the magazine 5 Styles. In 2010 he was awarded by the ministry of the city on the theme of success and educational support. Lastly, on May 19, he received the title of Chevalier in the National Order of Merit.

Rachid Santaki is the author of La Petite Cité dans la prairie, his first book published in 2008, Figures et Litres (2012), Business dans la Cité (2014) or La Légende du 9-3 (2016). His books have been published by Moisson rouge, au Seuil ou encore Ombres Noires.