Asila Festival (Al Mousem) 1985
Asila a seaside town in
north Morocco, about 40 KLM. from Tanager. In 1978, Mohammad ben Issa and Mohammad al Melehi, both artists, initiated an annual international cultural Festival, known as
Mousem, to be held during Summer, where painters, printmakers, musicians, writers, poets and intellectuals from all over the world get together to exchange experience and hold discussions on thematic issues. Rafa joined the
Mousem in 1979. Collaborated with the prominent Sudanese-American painter and printmaker, Mohammad Omar Khalil, they developed a print
center to enhance
graphic practices by participant artists and printmakers during the
Mousem. Rafa, attending the Moussem on and off, produced some of his brilliant etchings in Asilla until 2010.