Al Arabi Al Sabban

He is considered one of the pioneers of the art of caricature in Morocco. He was born in the city of Kenitra, north of Rabat, in 1948. He worked as a teacher and began publishing caricatures regularly since 1968. He contributed to the issuance of Moroccan newspapers specialized in caricature, the first of which was the newspaper “Akhbar Al-Souq” which achieved a massive spread in 1978, (it achieved a record distribution in the seventies and eighties, reaching 120 thousand copies), the most recent of which was the experience of “The Slingshot” in the year 2000. He joined the staff of the newspaper “Al-Alam” where he worked as a cartoonist and press editor.

He also worked for the newspaper «Le Ponion» in French. He was banned from working in the press for political reasons in 1986 and 1987, due to a cartoon criticizing the relationship between Morocco, the United States of America and Iran during that period. He was a founding member of the first association of Arab cartoonists in Damascus, headed by the assassinated Palestinian artist Naji Al-Ali in 1980

He held the first caricature exhibition in his hometown of Kenitra, Morocco in 1966. He also held more than twenty individual and group exhibitions at the international level. His artistic works were approved in five graduation theses at the Higher Institute of Press in Rabat, and a book was published for him by Sheraa Agency, which includes a group of his distinguished works that enriched the Moroccan treasury in this field. His drawings were published by a number of Arab platforms, including the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper

Chosen by the Moroccan Association of Cartoonists as honorary president for the year 2020

Al-Sabban speaks Arabic, and Berber languages ​​(mother tongue)

He was also known for the caricature “Spur” that he created.

The “Spur” was chosen as a national character by Radio Tangiers in 1981. The “Spur” is a popular critical figure that contradicts the vulgar political, social and economic conditions in Morocco and abroad.