The Moroccan goumiers: testimonies
On 3 and 4 October 2018, a special tribute was paid to a delegation of three one-hundred-year-old goumier veterans - Moroccan soldiers of the French army who won renown in the liberation of Corsica in 1943 - at the different ceremonies held on the island. The event was given considerable coverage by the French media, which contributed to developing the rich shared memory that unites the two countries.
The Moroccan delegation, led by the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War (ONACVG) in Morocco, also included two students from Al Khansaa high school in Casablanca, who presented the remembrance project they had carried out during the school year to Geneviève Darrieussecq, state secretary to the Minister for the Armed Forces.
Throughout this year of their baccalauréat studies, Othmane Chamcham and Abdelghani Rahim worked to complete the project with the ONACVG.
The project was coordinated by the remembrance officer of the ONACVG in Morocco, Naoual Boulkhir, and filmed by a promising young film director, Mustapha Mamouni, who worked with us as a volunteer.
It involved interviews with three goumier veterans who fought in the liberation of Corsica (Messrs Baroudi, Zouza and Ghornite). The film is a moving testament to these veterans, made by young people with sensitivity and respect. It is all the more precious since Abdellah Baroudi died five days after being interviewed, as if intent on leaving his last testimony to these heirs to his memory.
Those who watch the film cannot fail to be struck by the youthful faces of the young interviewers, who must resemble the young goumiers, sent so far from home at the same age, to liberate an island they had never even heard of.
The beautiful landscapes of the Atlas Mountains shown in the film are, similarly, not unlike the Corsican maquis...
Muriel Baggio, head of the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War in Morocco