Arabian Records (1st post : Eid Al Fitr – 01st Shawwal 1439 (AH) / 15th June 2018 ) / (BETA testing – Research – starting April 2020 till date, on-going)

Anthropologist Abdelmajid Hannoum has just published a fascinating historical enquiry into the origin of the term Maghreb, invented to a large extent by the theoreticians of French colonialism. That word, which he has studied in various archives, especially those of the Bureaux Arabes, did much to cut the region off from the rest of the African continent and the Middle East.

Abdelmajid Hannoum is an anthropologist who teaches at Kansas University and is the author of a scholarly tome on the history of North African mythologies. Based on Arab sources and colonial archives, his work has led him to analyse with remarkable precision the figure of the Berber queen Kahina or the relationship between colonialism, violence and modernity. Cambridge University Press has published this year his latest book: The Invention of the Maghreb. Between Africa and the Middle East, a work which raises a major question: is the Maghreb a colonial invention?

Hannoum exposes the consequences which the colonial narrative had—and continues to have—on the genesis of North-African regional groupings since, in his view, colonial rhetoric was not content to wreak havoc among existing identities and traditions but created others out of whole cloth. These seem authentically local but have never been any such thing. The term Maghreb, he claims, is not the least of these inventions.

Consider the name Maghreb; it is almost unchallenged. It appears Arab, even local, from the heart of the local tradition, yet it is a francophone name as well, invented from a translated Arabic tradition, its ’foreign’ resonance hiding its colonial invention. (p. 232)

Nation-building narratives

As a geographical, historical, and anthropological construction, the Maghreb was isolated by the theoreticians of French colonialism in Africa as well as the Middle East. Of course, as Hannoum reminds us, the notion that Egypt and the Maghreb constitute two separate zones is not only a colonial idea. Both Romans and Arabs distinguished Egypt from Africa/Ifriqia. However, nowhere do they mention the idea of a “white” Africa as opposed to a “black” Africa, notion developed much later by geographer Emile-Félix Gautier and taken up by historian Charles-André Julien.

Hannoum’s book inaugurates a reflection on the function of history and its relation to the structures of power. He points out that contrary to the colonising nations, the Ottomans made few efforts to develop methods of power based on historical narratives intended for societies under the sway of the Sublime Porte. Their writings describing the past took the form of chronicles or annals but were not meant to be nation-building instruments. The idea was to confer legitimacy on the Sultan’s power, not to grant any to his subjects by way of an historical narrative:

The conception of history (of which archaeology is a part) as a” science” of the past, one that is politically useful, and even vital since it provides the substance of the nation and the validation of the state, is part of modernity (p. 19)

Hannoum shows that Western modernity is characterised not so much by the elevation of history to the rank of sconce as by its accession to the rank of discipline capable of legitimising the construction of a nation and the validation of the State. In the Ottoman provinces, on the other hand, “Even in the work of Ibn Abi Diyâf ¹, history remains an auxiliary of religion, not a major tool for building nationhood” (p. 19). Nationhood is achieved without any separation from the centrality of Islam.

As early as the 17^th C., he reminds us, the ruling regimes present in Tunisia and Algeria were perceived as autonomous and negotiated as such with the European powers. The efforts made later to conceptualise and describe the geography and boundaries of the Maghreb were accomplished by French officers, scientists and colonial officials. Even after independence, a good many local and national historians continued to use models inspired by the colonial narrative and to write them down in French:

Hence, the sad observation that French—not Arabic—remains the language of the study of the area, its history, its culture, its population, even its intimate sexuality. (p. 23)

A cartographic invention

Several sections lend credence to the idea that the Maghreb is a French invention. The first associates geography and cartography. Maps are cultural artefacts produced by the power structure and State institutions. “For even as states have the monopoly over historical production, so do they over cartographic production” (p. 31). Thus, the map of the Maghreb is a graphic representation produced by the colonial power structure: “(…) the Maghreb itself is not only a French colonial creation but also the product of and the field of colonial power”.

18^th C. cartographers depicted a region called Barbary, sometimes split up in different units (Kingdoms of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli) from which Egypt was excluded as was “Black Africa” (called “Nigrita”). While the region did not wait until the 1830s to be mapped, the occupation of Algeria and its annexation by France constituted a decisive break with the old maps. As the conquest of the country proceeded, the French presence in Algeria served as an argument to justify its occupation of Tunisia to the detriment of Italy, and Morocco, to the detriment of Spain.

Maps were soon showing a North Africa devoid of Libya—under Italian influence—and of Egypt under the sway of Britain, —in other words an Africa identified with French possessions. In Hannoum’s view, “Atlases are not just maps whose signs are to be read and deciphered” (p. 65). They express power relationships and the cartographic division between North Africa, West Africa and East Africa was based not so much on anthropological realities as on the rivalries between colonial powers.

A partial vision of archaeology

The author’s second approach is through archaeology, which he designates as one of the most important disciplines involved in the creation of modern identities.

Dealing with the importance attached to the ancient ruins unearthed in Algeria and the Maghreb, Hannoum points out that the French colonial imaginary encompassed Islamic as well as Roman history, the former being envisaged as “other” while the latter was “ours”. The presence of Roman ruins in Algeria and the interest they aroused contributed to the construction of a narrative which made Algeria an extension of Rome and, by identification, a part of France. Prioritising Roman archaeology, colonial research made short shrift of other narratives: Punic, Arab, Islamic or Berber. Thus, the Arabs were regarded as an illegitimate population since they came from the East to a region which was “historically” Western.

Hannoum develops the concept of historiographic state. After 1870 a colonial state asserted itself in Algeria. Not content to produce the tools for knowing and governing the colony, it also transformed the colony thanks to that very knowledge. From then on, history became the key discipline, serving to legitimise colonial sovereignty. This later became more sophisticated with the creation of such institutions as the University of Algiers, where the faculty included such important figures as Stéphane Gsell and Fernand Braudel.

The historiographic state made Algeria a French territory and created the semantic foundations for a region called the Maghreb. In this sense it was different from the ethnographic state, the form taken by the power in the early days of armed conquest. It was in 1870 that the civil authorities took over from the military and the historiographic state replaced the ethnographic state. Historians took over from the officers with ethnographic training who had manned the Bureaux Arabes and assumed the task of validating colonisation through the traces of the past. In other words, history—as is so often the case—placed itself at the service of present-day needs.

Hannoum also shows how that conception was popularised by way of tourist guides:

Tourist guides of the Maghreb reinforce the idea that the region is a single unit and yet, despite distance and geographical interruption between it and France, it constitutes a continuous part of the metropole, linked to it by historical connections (p. 113).

The ruins of Volubilis, that “Moroccan Pompei”, served to bind Morocco to a Latinity of which France claimed to be the heir. This picture postcard Maghreb, made up of shots of archaeological diggings was also illustrated by French novelists, from Flaubert to Camus.

Language, race, and territory

The author’s third approach is threefold, associating language, race, and territory. Descriptions of the Maghreb have, to this very day, ascribed a key importance to the distinction between Arabs and Berbers. That dichotomy was built on a racialist basis drawn from Arthur de Gobineau’s theory of races which held sway in Europe well beyond the 19^th C. Hannoum points out that immediately after its military conquest, the first visitors to Algeria—among them de Tocqueville and Louis-Adrien Berbrugger—did not fail to observe the diversity of the population.

While Berbrugger saw the inhabitants of Algeria as belonging exclusively to the Semitic race, he did admit that the latter was highly varied, made up of Jews, Turks, Moors, Kouloughlis, Berbers, and Arabs. On the other hand, Hannoum tells us, a decade later, i.e. after the 1850s, this description of racial diversity vanishes to be replaced by the Arabs/Berbers dichotomy. Hannoun thinks the Bureaux arabes are at the origin of that dichotomy. It was in Algeria that they first made this sharp distinction between Arabs and Berbers, and later Morocco, when the Native Affairs Service was established to replace the Bureaux Arabes.

Hannoum believes that the idea of setting up a barrier between Arabic and Berber, defining Arabic as a non-native language, differs from the Arab conception of the language, less rigid if we abide by the one established by Ibn Khaldùn. The latter distinguished between two language categories: lisân (لسان) and lughât (لغة). The lughât is the abstract language spoken and written by a generation. The lisân is an updating of the lughât, now spoken by the present generation, the everyday language of practical things, a living language that changes as it passes from one generation to the next. Ibn Khaldùn was also aware that it was likely to vary through contact with non-Arabic speakers, and his conception of the language was a dynamic one.

Hannoum goes on:

Colonial linguists constructed Berber as a single language that crosses northern Africa from central Morocco to Libya. But the various “Berber languages” are as distinct from one another as Hebrew from Arabic and as Arabic from Aramaic (p. 137).

According to him, a new generation of orientalists seem to have refined the racial concept using a linguistic argument. But in the last analysis, they hitched language to the concept of race in order to create geographical and cultural particularities equivalent to the old racial prioritisations. The colonial postulate remained that of the purity of language—be it Arabic or Berber—in line with the purity of race. In this sense, Arabic was described as a language foreign to Algeria and by extension to North Africa.

One strange fact revealed by Hannoum concerns Emile-Félix Gautier who was the chief historian of North Africa in the inter-war years and yet who spoke neither Arabic nor Berber. It was he, nonetheless, who imposed the name Maghreb for the three French colonies in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia². He built a legitimacy inscribed in ancestral times to justify the colonial separation between French Maghreb, Italian Libya and British Levant. He cast aside Arab historiography—which he could only read in translation—on the pretext that it was unintelligible for a Western mind and undertook to reinterpret the region by emphasising the role of the Berbers and their European connections. In Gautier’s interpretation, Hannoum explains, if the Berbers, sedentary villagers, who have much in common “with us”, were incapable of forming a nation it was because they were prevented from doing so by the predations of the nomadic Arabs.

Hammoun does not confine his critical analysis to French and European authors but extends it by pointing out how modern authors in the Moslem and/or African traditions have sought to elaborate a different narrative. He concludes that whether they come from Muslim traditionalism, Arab nationalism or “négritude”, they often turn the colonial narrative upside down but without changing it in any way.

source/content: orientxxi.info / julien lacassagne (headline edited)

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Map of the Maghreb (1843) by the geographer Alexandre Vuillemin, taken from his Atlas universel de géographie ancienne et moderne à l’usage des pensionnats (Universal Atlas of ancient and modern geography for the use of boarding schools)

Wikimedia Commons

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MOROCCAN / FRENCH / AMERICAN

Abu Dhabi’s AD Ports Group has entered the Latin American market through the acquisition of Brazil’s Corredor Logistica e Infraestrutura, a leading independent agri-bulk port terminal operator, in a deal valued at 3.1 billion dirhams ($835 million).

The move strengthens AD Ports Group’s exposure to global agricultural supply chains through key export terminals at the ports of Santos and Itaqui. CLI operates two strategic assets under long-term concessions.

CLI Sul, located at the Port of Santos, is a major sugar export terminal and an important gateway for corn and soybean shipments. CLI Norte operates at the Port of Itaqui in Brazil’s rapidly growing “Arc of the North” logistics corridor, a major route for agricultural exports.

The acquisition reflects growing efforts by Gulf logistics and infrastructure companies to expand internationally through investments in strategic assets along global trade routes. Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of agricultural commodities, has attracted increasing investor interest amid rising demand for food security, supply-chain resilience and export infrastructure.

Mohamed Juma Al-Shamisi, managing director and CEO of AD Ports Group, described the acquisition as a “game changer” for the company.

“The transaction extends our group’s international reach for the first time into Latin America, and deepens our growing agrifoods activities, one of our core verticals,” he said.

AD Ports Group, which operates in more than 50 countries, said it is acquiring CLI from joint owners Macquarie Asset Management and IG4 Capital. CLI owns 100 percent of CLI Norte and an 80 percent stake in CLI Sul.

Al-Shamisi said the investment would strengthen the company’s global network while supporting trade in one of the world’s fastest-growing agricultural commodities markets.

Fernando Lohmann, head of Macquarie Asset Management in Brazil, said the country’s agricultural export sector continues to demonstrate resilience, reinforcing its role as a leading global supplier of agricultural commodities.

He added that AD Ports Group is well-positioned to support CLI’s next phase of growth.

Paulo Todescan L. Mattos, co-founder, managing partner and CEO of IG4 Capital, said the company had focused on strengthening CLI’s operations and positioning it for long-term growth since becoming a shareholder.

He said AD Ports Group brings global trade expertise, infrastructure capabilities and a long-term investment horizon that will support the business going forward.

According to the company, ports and terminals in northern Brazil recorded the country’s fastest growth in 2025, underscoring the rising importance of the Arc of the North corridor in reshaping Brazil’s logistics network.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals. CLI’s senior management team will remain in place following completion.

The acquisition expands AD Ports Group’s global footprint across maritime, logistics and trade infrastructure while establishing a presence in South America’s growing agri-bulk terminal sector.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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The move strengthens AD Ports Group’s exposure to global agricultural supply chains through key export terminals at the ports of Santos and Itaqui.

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ABU DHABI, U.A.E

The Egyptian diaspora in North America represents a vast reservoir of experience, knowledge, capital, and international exposure that could contribute meaningfully to Egypt’s future development.

Across the US and Canada, Egyptian communities have built one of the quiet success stories of modern immigration. 

Over several decades, Egyptians have established themselves in medicine, engineering, academia, business, finance, technology, and the arts without drawing much attention to themselves. Their rise has been gradual, steady, and deeply rooted in education and professional discipline. Today, Egyptian names can be found in major hospitals, universities, laboratories, research centres, banks, technology firms, and private companies across North America.

What makes these communities particularly remarkable is that distance has not dissolved their relationship with Egypt. Many Egyptian families abroad remain emotionally tied to their towns and villages in Upper Egypt and the Delta or to Cairo, Alexandria, and the Canal cities. Parents still speak to their children about the streets where they grew up, the schools they attended, and the neighbourhoods they left behind decades ago. Visits to Egypt remain part of family life. Weddings, holidays, summer vacations, and religious occasions continue to draw many expatriates back home, even after years of settlement abroad.

This attachment has endured across generations. Many second- and third-generation Egyptian-Americans still grow up with a strong sense of belonging to Egypt while remaining fully integrated into American and Canadian society. Churches, mosques, family gatherings, cultural associations, and social networks have helped preserve that connection. Technology has strengthened it further. Daily communication has erased much of the distance that once separated immigrant families from their homeland.

Meanwhile, the professional profile of Egyptian communities has continued to evolve. Egyptian-origin physicians have become highly visible within American and Canadian healthcare systems, particularly in specialised medicine and surgery. Egyptian academics have risen through university systems as researchers, professors, deans, and administrators. 

Engineers and scientists have contributed to advances in medicine, software, artificial intelligence, and other cutting-edge technologies. Others have entered business, construction, pharmaceuticals, real estate, hospitality, and financial services. In many cities, Egyptians have developed reputations for educational achievement, technical competence, and strong professional ethics.

The environment in North America provided these communities with room to grow. Access to advanced universities, research institutions, healthcare systems, and open markets created opportunities that many immigrants transformed into lasting success. Egyptians have become part of the broader immigrant experience that has helped shape modern America and Canada alongside Greeks, Indians, Eastern Europeans, Turks, and many others. Yet, Egyptian communities have also often maintained exceptionally strong family structures and educational priorities, helping successive generations advance socially and professionally.

For years, Egypt tended to view expatriates primarily through the lens of remittances or sentimental attachment to the homeland. The reality today, however, is far greater. Egyptian communities abroad represent a vast reservoir of experience, knowledge, capital, and international exposure that could contribute meaningfully to Egypt’s future development.

The global economy is changing rapidly. Technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, medical innovation, and digital infrastructure increasingly determine the strength of nations. Many Egyptians abroad already work within these advanced sectors. Some participate in cutting-edge medical research. Others work in software engineering, AI systems, data science, pharmaceutical development, or advanced manufacturing. The expertise already exists. The challenge is how to build serious and lasting channels between these professionals and Egypt’s long-term development needs.

Healthcare offers one clear example. Egyptian doctors abroad have accumulated decades of experience in some of the world’s most advanced hospitals and medical institutions. Their knowledge could support training programmes, research partnerships, emergency medicine development, and specialised medical education within Egypt. Similar opportunities exist in higher education. Egyptian professors and academics working at leading North American universities understand how modern research institutions operate, how scientific funding is managed, and how universities integrate technology into education and innovation.

The same thing applies to technology. The gap between advanced economies and developing countries is increasingly measured by research capacity, software systems, patents, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure. Egyptian expatriates working in these fields could help connect Egypt to emerging technologies that will shape future industries and economies.

Investment is equally important. Many expatriates maintain a genuine interest in contributing to Egypt through investments in real estate, industry, tourism, pharmaceuticals, and technology ventures. Emotional attachment alone, however, cannot sustain long-term investment. Investors seek stability, transparency, efficient administration, and predictable regulations. Expatriates who have spent decades working within advanced economic systems naturally expect professional standards and clear procedures when dealing with institutions in their country of origin.

The younger Egyptian-American generation may ultimately become the most important bridge between Egypt and North America. Young professionals growing up in the US and Canada move comfortably between cultures, technologies, and international business environments. Many possess expertise in fields that barely existed a generation ago, including digital branding, software development, venture capital, media production, artificial intelligence, and startup culture. At the same time, many continue to maintain a genuine emotional connection to Egypt through family ties and heritage.

Egyptian communities on the American West Coast, particularly in California, also possess significant cultural and creative potential. Egyptians working in film, media, entertainment, advertising, and digital communications bring valuable experience from industries that increasingly shape global influence and public perception. In an age dominated by screens, platforms, and visual storytelling, cultural presence has become closely linked to national influence itself.

The East Coast, particularly New York and the surrounding metropolitan areas, is home to many of the earliest waves of Egyptian immigrants. These communities include small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs, United Nations professionals, banking and financial services personnel, skilled workers, and food industry operators. Their expertise and networks remain underutilised and deserve greater integration into Egypt’s broader engagement strategy with its diaspora.

Likewise, Egyptian communities across the American Midwest, particularly Chicago and Michigan, represent a powerful concentration of scientific expertise, technological innovation, industrial experience, and investment potential. These communities embody precisely the combination of skills and resources that Egypt needs as it continues its economic development journey and seeks to strengthen its competitiveness in a rapidly changing global economy.

At the same time, maintaining strong ties with expatriate communities requires continuous improvement in the services provided to them. Consular services, banking procedures, property transactions, digital government systems, travel coordination, and educational services all shape how expatriates perceive their relationship with state institutions. Communities accustomed to efficient systems abroad naturally expect faster and more responsive services. Addressing these issues is not merely an administrative matter; it is an essential component of maintaining long-term trust between Egypt and millions of Egyptians living overseas.

In recent years, Egyptian officials and diplomats have expanded outreach efforts towards expatriate communities across the US and Canada. Visits to community organisations, universities, churches, mosques, businesses, restaurants, and family gatherings reflect a growing recognition that these communities represent far more than citizens living abroad. They are an integral part of Egypt’s broader human presence in the world.

The success of Egyptians in North America was never built solely on ambition. It was built on education, sacrifice, family discipline, adaptability, and a deep determination to succeed without severing ties to home. Many left Egypt in search of opportunity, but few truly abandoned their connection to it. That relationship has endured across decades and generations. Preserving and strengthening it may prove to be one of Egypt’s most valuable long-term investments in a world increasingly shaped by knowledge, innovation, and global networks.

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* The writer is a professor of international relations at Geneva School of Diplomacy and senior fellow at Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg/ sameh aboula-enein (headline edited)

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EGYPT

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), a Bahrain-based aluminium producer, has agreed to acquire France’s Aluminium Dunkerque for approximately $2.2 billion, in one of the largest international industrial acquisitions undertaken by a Bahraini company.

Announced during the Choose France Summit in Paris, the transaction forms part of Alba’s strategy to build a global low-carbon aluminium platform and expand its international footprint.

Located in northern France, Aluminium Dunkerque is the European Union’s largest aluminium smelter, producing around 300,000 tonnes of aluminium annually for customers across Europe.

The acquisition will provide Alba with direct access to the European aluminium market and a manufacturing base in one of the continent’s key industrial regions. The facility’s industrial infrastructure and automation systems are also expected to strengthen the company’s operational capabilities.

The transaction will be financed through a consortium of Alba’s banking partners. Upon completion, Alba will acquire full ownership of Aluminium Dunkerque.

France’s public investment bank, Bpifrance, is expected to invest €100 million for a 6% stake in the company and take a seat on its board, subject to regulatory approvals.

The deal comes as manufacturers across Europe seek secure supplies of lower-carbon industrial materials and reflects a broader trend of Gulf industrial companies pursuing international expansion to gain market access, increase scale and strengthen technological capabilities.

source/content: cairoscene.com (headline edited)

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BAHRAIN

On 28 August 2024, the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific academy, awarded the prominent Tunisian mathematics professor, Ali Baklouti, the Africa Prize for his contribution to science. As part of his groundbreaking works, Baklouti developed new mathematical approaches to solve two long-standing mathematical problems.

These problems are referred to as conjectures in his field. A conjecture is a mathematical statement, hypothesis or proposition that has not been proven. Once proven, a conjecture becomes a theorem or a mathematical statement with a definitive conclusion based on proven facts.

Baklouti’s work on the Corwin-Greenleaf conjecture and the polynomial conjecture for nilpotent restrictions helps push scientific frontiers by opening the way for them to be applied in various scientific and technological domains.

University World News spoke to the award-winning professor about his work, his fears about the significant challenges of teaching maths in Africa that he says could affect the future of scientific and technological progress on the continent, and his commitment to his community.

UWN:When and how did your interest in mathematics start?

AB: My interest in mathematics began at a very young age. I was always fascinated by numbers and logical puzzles, and I would spend hours solving maths problems just for fun. While I wasn’t considered a prodigy, I had a natural affinity for mathematics and enjoyed tackling complex challenges.

Although there were no mathematicians in my family, my parents always encouraged my curiosity and supported my academic pursuits. This support, combined with my passion, naturally led me to a career in mathematics.

UWN:Where did you study and what impact did it have on you?

AB: I graduated from the University of Metz [now part of the University of Lorraine] in France in 1995. My time there had a profound impact on my academic and professional development. The rigorous training and exposure to advanced mathematical concepts during my studies laid a strong foundation for my future work.

After completing my degree, I quickly joined the Tunisian university system, where I rapidly advanced through the academic and scientific ranks. This early integration into the academic community allowed me to contribute significantly to both research and teaching in Tunisia.

UWN:Apart from harmonic analysis, what other branches of mathematics are you grounded in and why do they appeal to you?

AB: I am also well-versed in Lie groups and Fourier analysis. These areas of mathematics appeal to me because they offer powerful tools for understanding symmetries and transformations, which are fundamental concepts in many areas of mathematics and physics.

The rich structures in Lie groups and the versatility of Fourier analysis in breaking down complex functions into simpler components have always fascinated me. The deformation theory comes also as a very important related subject and has many meaningful aftermaths. These fields not only complement my work in harmonic analysis but also provide a broader perspective on how different mathematical concepts interconnect.

UWN:What does it take to be a good mathematician?

AB: It takes a combination of curiosity, persistence and creativity. Curiosity drives the desire to explore new problems and understand the underlying principles of mathematics. Persistence is crucial because solving complex problems often requires sustainable effort and the willingness to embrace challenges and setbacks. Creativity is needed to think outside the existing methods and ideas and to develop innovative solutions or new approaches.

Additionally, a good mathematician must have a solid foundation in mathematical theory, the ability to communicate ideas clearly, and a passion for continuous learning and discovery.

UWN:What do you consider your major mathematical breakthroughs?

AB: One of my major mathematical breakthroughs was proving two long-standing conjectures, the Corwin-Greenleaf and the polynomial conjecture for nilpotent restrictions. These achievements were the result of years of dedicated research and collaboration with other mathematicians. By solving these problems, we were able to unlock new insights and open further avenues of exploration in the field.

My work has contributed to humanity by advancing our understanding of complex mathematical concepts, which can have applications in various scientific and technological domains. Although my contributions may seem abstract, they play a crucial role in the broader progress of knowledge and innovation.

UWN:What do you think of mathematics teaching at African universities?

AB: The teaching of mathematics at African universities faces significant challenges, one of which is the decreasing interest in mathematics-related fields among students. This trend is alarming, as it could affect the future of scientific and technological progress in the region.

To address this issue, it is essential to cultivate a love for mathematics in children from a young age. Creating a positive and engaging experience with mathematics early on can help prevent later reluctance or avoidance of the subject. Strategic solutions and innovative teaching methods are needed to make mathematics more appealing and relevant. This can include incorporating hands-on activities, real-world applications and interactive learning experiences that highlight the importance of mathematics in everyday life.

Additionally, improving the overall quality of mathematics education, investing in resources, and supporting teachers are crucial steps in reversing this trend and ensuring that more students recognise the value and potential of pursuing mathematics.

UWN:You championed your university collaboration with a Japanese institution. Are there any other collaborations? What is the importance of university collaborations?

AB: I have been deeply involved in fostering collaboration between my university and Japanese institutions. We organise a Tunisian Japanese conference every two years, with the most recent one held in 2023 in Monastir, where nearly 30 Japanese participants joined us to exchange ideas. This ongoing partnership has been highly productive and has greatly enriched our academic environment.

In addition to our work with Japan, we have also established collaborations with institutions in France, Germany, India, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. These partnerships are crucial for several reasons. They facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas, enhance research opportunities, and provide valuable international perspectives that can drive innovation and academic excellence. Such collaborations help broaden the scope of our research, improve educational outcomes and strengthen our global academic network.

UWN:During the 25th Annual Congress of the Tunisian Mathematical Society that you helped organise, there was an exhibition of women in mathematics in the world. Why do we have so few female mathematicians and what needs to be done to usher more women into this field?

AB: Acting as president, I had the privilege of helping to organise the conference. We featured an exhibition highlighting women in mathematics from around the world. This exhibition aimed to shed light on the achievements of female mathematicians and inspire more women to enter the field. The underrepresentation of women in mathematics is a multifaceted issue.

Historically, societal stereotypes and biases have discouraged women from pursuing careers in mathematics. These biases can manifest in various ways, from subtle discouragements to a lack of female role models and mentors. To increase the number of women in mathematics, several key actions are necessary. Encourage girls to pursue mathematics from an early age by providing positive reinforcement and challenging them to engage. Highlight the achievements of female mathematicians and provide mentorship programmes to support young women. Seeing successful women in the field can inspire and motivate others to follow in their footsteps.

UWN:Is there a relationship between maths and the empirical world; any examples from your work?

AB: Yes, there is a significant relationship between mathematics and the empirical world. Mathematics provides a framework for understanding and solving real-world problems, and its applications are found in numerous fields. For example, in artificial intelligence (AI), mathematical concepts such as algorithms, probability, and linear algebra are fundamental. These mathematical principles are used to develop models that can recognise patterns, make predictions, and improve decision-making processes.

Distortion of geometric shapes in nature can occur due to various external factors. Many naturally occurring geometric shapes exhibit significant beauty but can be altered by factors. To organise and understand these distortions, we can take several approaches, like use mathematics to describe and explain how environmental factors affect geometric shapes. For example, differential equations can be employed to model erosion or weathering processes and how they alter shapes over time.

UWN:The job of mathematicians is to help solve problems, but some mathematical problems have been unsolvable. Why?

AB: This deeply depends on the nature and the complexity of the problems. The resolution of difficult problems depends also upon the human capacities interested in the related subjects.

UWN:Which books have you written and how are they used?

AB: I have authored several important books that are used at advanced levels in mathematics:

• Representation theory of solvable Lie groups and related topics [part of the Springer Monographs in Mathematics series and co-authored by Hidenori Fujiwara and Jean Ludwig, published in 2021]. This book is aimed at researchers and advanced graduate students, focusing on the representation theory of solvable Lie groups. It offers an in-depth exploration of theoretical aspects, making it a key resource in this field.

• Deformation theory of discontinuous groups [De Gruyter Expositions in Mathematics series, published in 2022] targets graduate students and researchers with an interest in group theory, particularly in the deformation theory of discontinuous groups. It provides comprehensive coverage of the topic, both theoretically and practically.

These books are essential resources for those involved in advanced mathematical research and study.

UWN:You were born in Sfax, Tunisia, and you still live and work there. The brain drain has cost Africa some of its most brilliant minds. What has kept you at home?

AB: Indeed, I was born in Sfax and served as the vice president of the University of Sfax from 2020-24. Currently, I am a professor in the faculty of sciences.

What has kept me at home is a deep sense of responsibility and commitment to my community. I believe in the potential of our institutions and the importance of contributing to their growth. My goal has always been to make a difference here, where my roots are, and to inspire others to do the same.

source/content: universityworldnews.com/africa edition (headline edited)

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Professor Ali Baklouti, winner of the Royal Society Africa Prize 2024, Image provided

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TUNISIA