4 days ago
Diaspo #398 : From Belgium to Morocco, Sarra El Messaoudi celebrates our migrant heritage
Born in Brussels, Sarra El Messaoudi grew up with her two brothers and sister in a distinctly cosmopolitan city. Yet during her primary school years, she was often the only student from a diverse background. Her mother, a Belgian nurse, and her father, an interior designer from Bouyafa near Nador, were always deeply involved in their children's education. Today, the young journalist looks back on that time with pride, remembering herself as always being «top of the class».
«I was lucky to have a mother who had the tools to support us with our studies and homework at home. I know not everyone has that privilege, but her help allowed me to maintain a strong academic performance», Sarra El Messaoudi recalls. She attended schools in the Brussels municipalities of Evere, Molenbeek, and Schaerbeek, where she encountered greater diversity during her middle school years. It was during that period that she began to think about her future, inspired by a growing passion for books and reading.
«I developed those skills thanks to my mother, who always kept books around the house. My father, meanwhile, introduced me to calligraphy on a wooden board at home. I've always loved writing and storytelling».
A Reflection of Belgium's Diversity
Ambitious and grounded from a young age, Sarra El Messaoudi always had a clear sense of direction. «I knew that while I waited to become a writer, I needed to build a stable career. Journalism seemed like the perfect balance between the two», she tells us.
At the intersection of personal stories and shared human experiences, her passion for storytelling draws not only from her own life, but also from her family, her community, and her diverse city.
«My mother is Belgian through and through. On my father's side, my grandfather came to Belgium from Morocco in the 1960s as part of the labor migration agreement between the two countries. My father joined him later, along with my grandmother, through family reunification. My roots are in those working-class migrant families. We all come from somewhere, and understanding that helps us take ownership of our stories, so we can honor them instead of hiding them».
At just 13, Sarra El Messaoudi already had a clear idea of the path she wanted to pursue. She took her first steps into journalism through the print media. After earning a degree in communications and a master's in journalism from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), she joined the editorial staff at La Dernière Heure (DH) before contributing to television news reports for RTBF.
Now a journalist, trainer, and speaker, she creates social impact projects and works as a podcast producer and director. Specializing in diversity and inclusion (DEI) and media education (EMI), she is dedicated to promoting «a more inclusive media landscape» based on what she sees and experiences in the field.
During her early years in journalism, Sarra was struck by how little the diversity she saw in Brussels was reflected in the media. Television, in particular, felt disconnected from the plurality of experiences lived daily off-screen.
«On TV, I rarely saw people who looked like me. First of all, there weren't many women. And those from diverse backgrounds were nearly invisible. The few women who did appear often seemed like they had to apologize for being there».
Telling the Stories That Don't Get Told
Determined to shift the narrative, Sarra made it her mission to go beyond the reductive ways in which stories of diversity and migration are often presented, as short, one-and-a-half-minute news pieces. She wants to «interview a broader range of people and improve how these topics are handled». She contributes to Les Grenades, the RTBF media platform that covers current events through a gendered lens.
In her search for the right format to tell the stories that make up Brussels' cultural mosaic, Sarra launched a podcast series called Nos Héritages («Our Heritages»). Her goal is to «give voice to all the layers of Belgium's diversity», not just her own binational community. These stories range from triumph and resilience to fragmentation and hardship, each deserving a meaningful space in the media.
«As we work on these projects, we realize how little we actually know about our parents' migration journeys», Sarra explains. More than a podcast, the project is driven by a sense of urgency to preserve the undocumented histories of the first generation of migrants.
«Our grandparents are passing away, and that whole first generation is disappearing. What's left of them, and of us? There's a real urgency to tell our stories and reclaim those stories in formats that allow space and depth, instead of restricting people to a few minutes or a narrow angle».
For Sarra, it's essential that those whose stories are being told feel empowered to speak on more than just cultural or religious issues. «Before the interviews, I have a conversation with each guest to decide which story they want to share. It's a process of both transmission and reclamation», she says.
This commitment extends into her volunteer work. As a project leader within the Association for Diversity and Inclusion in the Media (ADIM), she promotes equal opportunity and representation in the media industry.
Through ADIM, Sarra organizes workshops, networking events, and peer exchanges «to help women enter the profession and then stay in it», which, as she notes, remains a major challenge in a field still marked by racism, sexism, cyberviolence, and precarity. Her aim is to create a safe space where professionals can speak freely, reflect collectively, and confront the systemic issues facing journalism today.
Family Histories and the «Sun Map» of Memory
Beyond documenting personal stories through sound, Sarra is also invested in building collective memory in public spaces. She regularly organizes events linked to her podcast projects «to spark conversations and celebrate our cultures».
For the 60th anniversary of the Belgium-Morocco labor migration agreement, she dedicated one of her signature projects to the shared memory between the two countries, told by the people who lived it.
«I was lucky to carry out an entire project on the Belgian-Moroccan community, including an event in Brussels that brought together over 200 people. We revisited our memories and those of our grandparents, especially with the presence of Mohamedi Ben Yadir, the Moroccan-Algerian author behind what's known as the 'sun map'».
This map holds deep meaning for Belgian-Moroccan families. Sarra explains: «Back then, people didn't have GPS to guide them on the road to Morocco for summer holidays. Many families who drove down to Spain would sometimes get lost. To solve this, Mohamedi Ben Yadir created 400 printed maps and distributed them in shops popular with the community. That's how the 'sun map' was born. The tribute in Brussels was deeply emotional for all of us».
Following the success of that project, Sarra was invited to turn it into a guided tour in Brussels. «I never thought I'd be doing that one day! The tour was built around excerpts from the podcasts featuring Belgian-Moroccan guests. We revisited the political context of the labor agreement, the social and economic realities of the migrant families, and their grassroots mobilization against racism», she says.
It was also a chance to trace earlier histories, starting with Belgium's colonial past, and connect it to current realities, from the rise of far-right ideologies and growing hostility toward immigrants, to Islamophobia and police violence and the question of what makes a person feel at home in Belgium.
Through these stories, «people discover one of the country's most significant communities, in a memory project that links the past, the present, and the future». «It's meaningful for older generations to see their stories told, and for younger ones to discover a history they didn't know», Sarra El Messaoudi says with quiet pride.
