Belayed… The passing of an encyclopedia of knowledge

SME – About the Moroccan National Team – By: Badreddine El-Idrissi
A year after his passing, the family of the late sports media personality, Belaid Bouyemad, gathered with those who shared his passion for creativity and art, to fulfill his last wish: the publication of a book that beautifully and artistically compiles the psychological expressions of the art of political cartooning, an art form in which the late Belaid excelled.
This occasion also prompted me to write an elegy for the late journalist, thinker, and intellectual, Belaid Bouyemad, as I knew him.
While all elegies lament the pain of loss, they are, in essence, a celebration of immortality after death. We mourn his passing today, but his thought lives on within us, his creativity remains a part of our landscape, and the banner of his brilliance continues to fly high in our nation.
I never imagined that I would stand here among you, mourning my brilliant colleague, Belaid Bouyemad, a year after his passing. But what I have resolved to do is to transform this profound grief—which is also felt by his small family who breathed his essence every day—into a celebration of his brilliance and creativity, an inspiring story of a journalist who defied narrow molds, limited frameworks, and simplistic definitions. He presented himself as an encyclopedia, where journalism and intellectualism, media and thought, intertwined to create the exceptional personality of Belaid Bouyemad. He masterfully combined opposites to produce beautiful meanings and opened new horizons in the world of thought, creativity, and art. Among all the colleagues I encountered during my long career in media, and considering the wealth of memories I hold, the late Belaid Bouimed was truly exceptional. He inspired me, stimulated my intellectual faculties, and prompted me to delve into philosophical and existential questions. During our discussions, when the debate became heated, he would delve into profound intellectual depths, taking me and himself to beautiful realms that others could not reach. Our dear departed colleague often transcended the narrow confines of sports journalism. He refused to be confined by the limitations of sports media, recognizing the vastness of his own intellectual world and the boundless flow of ideas within him. How could he erect barriers to stifle this flow of thought? One of the defining characteristics of the late Belaid Bouimed, I can say without hesitation, was his groundbreaking approach to sports journalism. He imbued sports with meaning, gave it a global perspective, and opened up vast horizons, transforming it into a realm of science, philosophy, thought, and art, not merely a physical activity. Adding this celebratory and artistic dimension to his written and spoken analyses required immense intellectual effort, which many around him could not comprehend. Those who truly understood him, however, could not help but express their astonishment or even disapproval. “What is Belaid Bouimed doing in sports journalism?” they would ask. “Why did he abandon all other forms of media and focus on sports?” The answer was simple: sports is a platform where thought and creativity intertwine, where literature and the arts converge, and where humanity celebrates values ​​that are often suppressed or ignored in other fields. This, precisely, was what Belaid Bouyemad meant by his lifelong dedication to sports journalism: to elevate sports, to imbue it with philosophical depth, to reveal its true essence, thus making it accessible to all, as a celebration of creativity, a reaffirmation of values, and a staunch defense of those who dream of it and its true, not merely imagined, heroes. The interplay of literature and art was one of the most prominent characteristics that distinguished Belaid from others. He was eloquent with words, crafting them into expressions of progressive meaning; and his pen, through caricature, conveyed biting satire. Belaid wasn’t mocking our sports scene, but rather challenging it, urging it to break free from its stagnation and rigidity. The satirical undertones in his writing and caricatures were, in fact, waves of anguish emanating from his soul. He was tormented by the fact that sports did not receive its due attention in public policies, strategic plans, scientific research, or national debates. This constant concern, coupled with his philosophical inquiry into the future of sports, was a shared trait among his generation, enabling us to shake things up and establish sports as a cornerstone of public discourse and academic research. It is true that what I shared with the late Belayed Bouyemid is far too vast to summarize in a few words. Our numerous trips, travels, and joint television debates are replete with countless memorable moments. Disagreements, however, never diminished the purity of his intellect or the nobility of his character. I can attest to the late Belayed’s unwavering commitment to the struggle, which he embraced wholeheartedly, not out of compulsion, to reform the stagnation and rigidity within Moroccan sports, and to expose the entrenched interests of those he called “bastions of resistance” to any attempt at genuine change, echoing the sentiments of the Nas El Ghiwane group, one of his favorite musical groups, for its revolutionary approach to lyrics, transforming them into powerful expressions that denounced injustice and oppression. This was my friend and colleague, the late Belayed Bouyemid. All that I have said about him is but a small fraction of his many virtues, virtues that undoubtedly benefited countless people. Our grief at his passing ebbs and flows, but celebrating his journalistic legacy is like perpetual charity, its reward with God Almighty. May God have mercy on this great figure of journalism, art, literature, and sports. May God have mercy on the last true embodiment of encyclopedic knowledge in its purest form. And to God we all return.