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Algeria is submitting, in March 2019, on behalf of Maghreb countries an application to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to include Couscous in the Intangible Cultural Heritage List, the Algerian news agency (APS) reported.
The decision was announced by Algeria’s Minister of Culture Azzedine Mihoubi, during the opening ceremony of a Museums Fair held in Ain Defla.
«It is useless to say that Couscous is a shared heritage for all Maghreb countries (…) We must protect everything that refers to our heritage», the Algerian minister told reporters during the same event.
The Couscous application, however, is a project that has been discussed since the beginning of 2018 by Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. In January 2018, the director of Algeria’s Anthropological, Prehistoric and Ethnographic Research center (CRAPE) Sliman Hachi announced that his country wants to submit a joint application to the UN organization.
The intention of presenting an application to UNESCO sparked tension in 2016 between Algeria and Morocco. In August 2016, the neighboring country made an application to UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list to include Rai music as a uniquely «Algerian Folk music».
The decision has indeed sparked tension at the moment, especially after the Algerian Minister of Culture stated that Algeria’s application came after some countries, referring to Morocco, were trying to do the same.
Indeed, Morocco which organizes every year the International Festival of Rai music in Oujda, a city bordering the neighboring country, announced that it was going to apply to UNESCO for the same purpose the year before but never did.
