Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Cultural heritage has altered content significantly in recent decades, partly due to the methods developed by UNESCO; it does not cease at archive, library, and museum. It also includes living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, or traditional crafts knowledge; called intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO, 2021).
Jemaa el-fna square inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2001) (UNESCO, 2022). The purpose of this paper is to assess the different layers of periods at the ‘’heritage’’, focusing on the dissonance of the site, to understand how the initial role of Jemaa el-fna square as a place of pain and shame is remembered.
The empirical findings indicate that dissonant heritage can be a significant communication means not merely to remember the past, yet to serve as a reminder for the present and a caution for the future. The case of Jemaa el-fna square, the heritage place as lieux de mémoire (Nora, 1989) illustrates participatory memory; how the respondents memorialize, celebrate, and draw reflections around the physical space of the heritage site. Which can be of use to Communication for Development, particularly in post-conflict contexts.