Sufi Music Performance in London

Sufi musicians from Essaouira will join up with the English early music ensemble Passamezzo to perform together in a unique creative collaboration at St Mark's Church, Regent's Park, London on 20 February 2012.

The concert is part of a series celebrating 17th century music, song and dance from England and Morocco. Called Shore to Shore, the project is an intercultural initiative organised by the educational charity REEP.

Passamezzo in concert

Passamezzo and the Ensemble Mogador Chant et Musique Soufie started to extend their musical horizons after Passamezzo's Artistic director Tamsin Lewis and the Sufi singer Voix de Vent Abdou met at the 2010 Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. “Abdou and I spent all our spare time making music together and experimenting with blending our two styles” says Tamsin.

Passamezzo and the Ensemble Mogador Chant et Musique Soufie

The result is an elegant fusion of Renaissance England an the tonalities of the Maghreb – with Abdou's voice weaving and soaring around the music of lute, violin, viol and recorder. Passamezzo will perform in period costume with two actors and a dancer – together with the two Sufis Abdou and Boujemaa.

The programme contains devotional songs from Christianity and Islam and there will be readings from Shakespeare and Jallaludin Rumi.

Following the concert, The 17th English-Moroccan experience will be completed with food from both countries, created by period cooking expert Caroline Yeldham.

REEP director Diana Lazenby describes Shore to Shore as “an ongoing exploration of life, the senses and the environment through a series of activities in England and Morocco.” The focus is on young people and those who work with them. Shore to Shore is unusual in that it draws its inspiration from both the 17th century and modern times.

The current series includes a concert in Warwick, followed by performances in Essaouira and Marrakesh.

The View from Fez would like to thank Mary Finnigan for tipping us off about this story.

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German Wings Over Morocco

Germanwings, a wholly owned Lufthansa subsidiary, is set to fly into Morocco on a regular basis. The Germanwings routes announced for the coming 2012 Summer Flight Schedule feature the Moroccan destination of Nador. 

Demand for flights is such that the airline is starting flights to Nador six weeks earlier than the actual planned launch date for the new route. 

Germanwings originally announced that Nador in the north-east of the country, would be included in the route network from 25 May. Now the first flight has been brought forward to 30 March.

This summer, Germanwings will initially fly to Nador every Friday, then from 25 May, every Tuesday and Friday. Using connecting flights, the routes Berlin – Nador (from 30 March 2012), Munich – Nador (from 30 May) London-Heathrow – Nador (from 30 March), Dresden-Nador (from 30 March) and Leipzig – Nador (from 30 May) can also be booked at germanwings.com.

However, be aware that all of these flights are operated via Cologne/Bonn with optimised transfer times.

The city of Nador is very popular with Moroccans as a holiday destination. The Mar Chica Lagoon (pictured above) with Nador on its western bank and both the Djebel Sebt and Djebel Tazoud volcanoes are particularly breathtaking beauty spots.

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Getting Up Close with Fez Artisans

Sefrou-based artist Jess Stephens has created a new, up close and personal tour of the medina, which bridges the divide between tourists and local craftspeople, writes Vanessa Bonin.

Called Artisanal Affairs and offered by Culture Vultures, the new tour gives you the chance to meet and talk to the artisans of Fes, pick up their tools, have a try at the potter's wheel or feel the weight of a wood carver's hammer.

We set off from R’Cif and plunged in, starting at the street of the dyers. I was accompanied by a friend, Kirsty McBeath, who was a first-time visitor to Fez - so our experiences were quite different but equally astounding. For me, having lived in the Fez Medina for two years and seen the sights with many visiting friends and relatives, the opportunity to take it slowly and chat at length with the true artisans of the medina was a revelation.

Kirsty said she was amazed to meet people who have had their skills passed down through generations of workers, using methods that remain unchanged for centuries. “It was incredible to interact with the local artisans and to gain a more in-depth insight into their craft,” she said. “The experience allowed me to be a participator rather than a spectator.”

With a local guide, Hakima, as our translator and go-between, we met and interacted with these proud and talented craftspeople, who, once given the chance to be more than just a passing photo opportunity, were only too pleased to tell us their stories. Old photos came out, problems and worries were shared along with achievements, traditional working songs were sung and histories related.

An old metal worker in Place Seffarine showed us a picture of himself as an apprentice aged fourteen (above). He related the time he was invited to a conference of artisans in Germany and his amazement at meeting a female metalworker from Austria who used the same tools as he did. He left us with some sage advice: “Handicrafts – if it doesn’t make you rich, it makes you good,” he said.

Another metalworker proudly showed us a photograph of a giant hammam water heater he had made after three weeks of labour. He also confided that some of the workers suffered from hearing difficulties after a lifetime of working amongst the repetitive banging sounds of hammers on metal.

Another highlight was visiting the tanneries – and this was no ‘elevated viewing platform clutching a sprig of mint’ experience! We entered from the river side, behind the giant wooden wheels that churn the water for washing the skins. The smell, initially overwhelming, was quickly forgotten while we concentrated on negotiating our way between the gullies of lime and sludge and workers carrying piles of dripping skins.

Men in work-worn shorts with wiry legs nimbly scurried along the edges of the dye pits, while we cautiously edged our way in, having visions of ourselves ending up half submerged in a pool of red, yellow or brown liquid.

The extent of the backbreaking labour involved is only apparent when you get this close. The sight of a man using his full body-weight to flay skins with a giant blade will stay with me for some time.

Shortly after getting our feet dirty, it was time for our hands to follow suit. This was during an out-of-the ordinary visit to the potteries where we got to handle the clay and try our pot throwing skills. Alas, despite being tutored by a ‘mallam’ (master craftsman) my efforts were unlikely to see the inside of a kiln.

The tour finished at the modern Artisanal Centre in Batha, which gives an opportunity to see how these ancient techniques are being carried into the future in an environment that is better for the wellbeing of the craftspeople. Master wood-workers, embroiderers, saddle makers, painters, rug-weavers and cobblers fashioning babouches are all here passing their expert knowledge on to the next generation of artisans. 

Part of that knowledge is the songs that are traditionally sung to pass the time while working, and we finished our visit with an impromptu rendition of some of these folk songs by a roomful of babouche makers. We learned about poetry called Ghalnassi and heard a recitation from the poet Gnoun.

Jess Stephens (or another Culture Vultures representative) accompanies the tours as a facilitator, to bridge relations between artisan and visitor. “The Fes-based experience is the first of two Artisanal Affairs tours – I will also be starting one in Sefrou,” Jess said. “In shaking hands with the craftspeople I hope that the visitor will also discover the experiences, lives and traditions such as the songs, poetry and tales of their trade.”

Jess Stephens, right, with a master carver

So, for those who prefer wellies to stilettos, and are keen to get down and dirty with the real people of the medina, this experience is for you. It did leave me wondering however, how many more generations will continue these traditions? Will the time capsule that the medina artisans inhabit last? Here’s hoping the amazing skills, songs and histories of the master craftspeople of Fes is not lost.


For more information on the Artisanal Affairs tours click HERE.

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Morocco Loses Two Legendary Musicians

On January the 17th this year two of Morocco’s musical legends, Mohamed Sousdi and Mohamed Rouicha passed away. Imad Estito, writing for the Arabic daily Al-Akhbar, today published a celebration of their contributions to the North African music of the marginalised.

Mohamed Sousdi (1952-2012)

The newspaper describes Mohamed Sousdi (1952-2012) as "the pulse of the oppressed". Back in the 1970s Sousdi, along with the late Mohamed Batma and Cherif Lamrani from the famous Lemchaheb (The Torches) band, inspired the a generation, which rebelled against injustice under dictatorial rule. With his companions, the late Sousdi provided a unique musical experiment that left an indelible mark on the memory of Moroccans. “We used to engage in issues that political parties could not broach,” said Sousdi in one of his last interviews as he watched the Arab Spring unfold. “We were one of the first to demand the advent of spring with the song M’jmaa L’arab in 1977, which called for revolution,” he said.

Sousdi grew up in Quartier Al Mohammadi, in Casablanca, the birthplace of the band Nass el Ghiwane. He began working in the theatre as a child and joined a group affiliated with known Moroccan playwright Tayeb Saddiki. In the early 70s, he became a professional singer and musician. With Mbarek Chadli, he started two groups – Ahl al-Jouda and al-Diqa – before joining Lemchaheb in 1974.

The band achieved resounding success. Sousdi used to write colloquial poetry, compose music, and sing. Lemchaheb’s work brought the wrath of the authorities down on them and they were persecuted by the security services, who feared that their songs, combined with Sousdi’s melodious voice, would feed the rising revolutionary tide. “We knew we would be arrested after every concert,” Sousdi said once. Lemchaheb’s songs were infused with politics. Nobody who heard the song Palestine, which incidentally was once sung by Sousdi in Moscow, during the conference of the Socialist International in 1978 will ever forget it.

Some of his most famous songs are Lghadi Baid, Ellil, Ya Latif, and his masterpiece Bghit Bladi, (I loved my country).

His words reached a wide range of working class people for four decades before he passed away at the age of 60 due to respiratory problems.

Sousdi lived as a hermit, disdaining fame, with his finger always on the pulse of the oppressed. As Al Akkhbar put it, so eloquently paraphrasing the Palestinian novelist Ghassan Kanafani - The legendary leave silently, disdaining life, believing that it is nothing but a truce with death.

In a tragic coincidence the man nicknamed the Moroccan Bob Marley, Mohamed Rouicha (1950 - 2012), died on the same day. Another politically engaged musician,  the "Amazigh Farid al-Atrash,” Mohamed Rouicha died at his home in the Middle Atlas town of Khenifra in the Meknes-Tafilalet region following a sudden deterioration in his health.

A king of the ouatar – a rare Moroccan instrument similar to the violin –  Rouicha (his real name is Mohamed Lhwari), managed to create a popular base from the south to the north of the country, despite the fact that many did not understand the words of his songs in the Amazigh language of the Atlas mountains.

Politics was always close to his heart, not surprisingly as his mother was one of the fighters in the battle of Ait Atta – a Berber tribal confederation in northeastern Morocco – against French colonialism,.was apparent early on. 

He recorded his first song Abibi Osghouy in 1964 at the tender age of 14. Rouicha was also known for his interest in percussion and poetry. He employed his knowledge in infusing various music genres to create his own, which led to the revival of Amazigh songs. Thus the singer earned his nickname “Rouicha,” which means mixing and blending in Amazigh.

 His genius led him to add a fourth string to the ouatar, making him the king of the instrument. His golden fingers also added a new and special Sufi character to the instrument. He left behind a number of timeless masterpieces like Inas Inas (“Tell Her” in Amazigh), Chehal Men Lila (How Many Nights), Goulou lmimti (Tell My Mother), Allah Jmaa Lmoumnin, and other songs adopted from the Tuareg heritage dealing with many themes, including the homeland, peace, love, nature, and the suffering of the oppressed.

 Disdaining tributes and honors, Rouicha died only days before the ceremony was going to be held for him at Mohammed V Theatre in Rabat. That is how he desired death, in the embrace of his Atlas mountain, his major source of inspiration. Until his final hour, he remained true to the shy man behind the artist – to his introversion and solitude. The touch of sadness that appeared on his face and enveloped his songs never left him.

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The Alchemy of Poetic Space- Majoubi Aherdan Exhibits in Rabat

The master of "the alchemy of poetic space"

Painter, poet, writer and politician, Mahjoubi Aherdan is a man who has dedicated half his life to promoting and protecting Amazigh culture in Morocco. The veteran artist's works are presently on display at the National Theatre in Rabat.

The works reflect the 100 year-old artist's devotion and love for Amazigh (Berber) culture. Over the years Aherdan's works have been displayed all over the world and his paintings have done a lot to introduce people to the Amazigh culture of Morocco.

"I am a free man. I came to this state of freedom through the painting. We must dare in painting as in everything," - Mahjoubi Aherdan

Mahjoubi Aherdan's work is also commemorated on Moroccan postage stamps

Perhaps what helps his art stand out from others is his diverse experience over the years. He served his country in Morocco's battle for independence from France and went on to hold a string of ministerial posts. He is a creative artist, poet and writer, according to many who admire his work, Aherdan and his art is helping to revive Amazigh culture across the region.

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Fez Film-makers Share Vision

Documentary maker Youness Abeddour                                              Photo: Suzanna Clarke

Youness Abeddour is a young film-maker from Fez whose work is taking him places. As one of the first students to graduate from an innovative documentary making course in Fez, he has directed two films and is set to show his first one at a conference in Prague. 

Youness, 23, showed his new documentary to an audience for the first time last Thursday. Made with fellow Cultural Studies students from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, My Neighbor...the Jew was a thought provoking piece which follows on from his first film Moroccan Judaism: A Culture in Danger. 

"I completed my BA in English studies in 2009 on "The Presence of the Mellah in Morocco" The current one I am working on is on "The Representation of Moroccan Jews in Moroccan Cinema" said Youness. "My thesis was 100 pages long and is only accessible to a small group of people. But now I have learned documentary film techniques, I can transmit the same message in 30 minutes and I hope it will be seen much more widely."

The impact of cultural collisions was one of the major themes of the five documentary films shown at the media center of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University on Thursday.  Professor Khalid Bekkaoui, Professor and Chair of the Department of English, said that he was delighted by the results of the documentary course, which is co-sponsored by the American Language Center Fes and the Fulbright Commission.

Documentary students and staff from the university

"The students have been creative and innovative, although they have only recently learned how to make documentaries," Professor Bekkaoui said. "This is the first course in Morocco to offer a combination of the technical skills and the academic side, which teaches students how to research ideas and turn them into stories...We hope to make Fes a center for documentary film-making in Morocco."

 The works shown at the premiere showcase were primarily about cultural differences and change. They also included Do We Have Political Freedom in Morocco?, McDonaldization and Moroccan Culture, Youth & Sufism and America in the Eyes of Moroccan Hairdressing Salons.

Course supervisor, Jamal Morelli, said he was also proud of what the students had achieved, particularly given the limited resources they had had access to. "We hope in future to get good software and more powerful computers, so that we can take production to the next level," he said.


Another showing of the works is planned for a few months time, so there will be the opportunity for those interested to see them then.

You can see the trailer for Moroccan Judaism: A Culture in Danger HERE.

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The Belgians Are Coming !

The tech team at The View from Fez report that we have had a big increase in the number of people from Belgium visiting our pages. We were at a loss to explain this until we discovered (courtesy of Quid in Fès) that Jetairfly, a Belgian airline which is a subsidiary of the largest Belgian tourism group, TUI Belgium, has taken over Jet4You.

The Moroccan low-cost airline Jet4you, was started in 2005,  but "since its inception, the Moroccan airline ran at an annual loss," says Hans Vanhaelemeesch, a spokesman for Jetairfly. Due to its small size Jet4you was hit hard by the economic crisis. This strategic merger will involve staff, flights, and planes as well as costing 39 Moroccan jobs with another 259 at risk. Jetairfly carried 2.2 million travellers in 2011. In 2012, its fleet will comprise 20 aircraft, mostly new generation Boeing 737s. The close collaboration between the two companies will enhance their position as well as create an opportunity to strive for further growth.

The airline also flies between Fez and Charleroi for (at times) as low as 29 Euro, between Liege and Tetouan from 39 Euro

Jet4You management confirms that flights to Morocco are assured at three airports: Marrakech, Casablanca and soon, Agadir. The name Jet4You will also be retained for the moment. In addition,  Jetairfly has already proposed flights to Nador, Oujda, Tangier and Tetouan.


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Feats of Memory

Contestants as young as seven years old often demonstrate the extraordinary ability to memorise the entire 600-page Koran - without actually speaking Arabic. 

This can be seen every year in Quranic contests, which are popular throughout the Islamic world. Young people see it as an honour to represent their country and compete fiercely to do so.

One of the most prestigious competitions is held each year in Egypt, where during Ramadan more than a hundred of the best young students from more than 70 countries across the Islamic world converge on Cairo for the International Holy Koran Competition. Morocco has always sent entrants and many have done particularly well.

 Back in their home country, Moroccan children take part in their own competitions and this last weekend saw the conclusion of the 7th edition of Morocco’s International Quran Competition. It wrapped up on Saturday (January 28th) in Casablanca.

Winners of different categories were awarded at the closing ceremony held in the city’s Al-Hassan Thani Mosque. Forty-one young Quran reciters and memorizers from Islamic and Arab countries took part in the competition, which was organized by Morocco’s Awqaf and Charity Affairs Organization. 

Ten internationally acclaimed Quran reciters and experts in Quranic sciences made up the contest’s jury panel, which was headed by Muhammad Jamil Mubarak from Morocco. Other members of the jury panel included As-Salem bin Muhammad Al-Shanqiti from Saudi Arabia, Samih Ahmed Khalid Al-Asaminah from Jordan, Farajullah Shazli from Egypt and Al-Hadi bin Muhammad Rushu from Tunisia.

 Winner of the top title in the category of memorization of the entire Holy Quran, reading and interpretation was Amina Salamah from Algeria while Zakaria Muhammad Ali Al-Tirablusi from Lebanon came first in the category of memorization of 5 Hizbs (sections) of the Quran, reading and interpretation.

For those interested in finding out more about these competitions, there is an inspiring HBO documentary Koran by Heart that captures the drama of the 2010 edition of the annual event in Cairo, following three extraordinary ten-year-olds who have dedicated their lives to honouring their families, countries and culture through memorization of the religious text.

Nabiollah, from Tajikistan

Koran by Heart follows two boys and one girl as they go head-to-head with other children, some nearly twice their age, and spotlights the second and third-place winners, who inhabit an environment caught between fundamentalist and moderate visions of Islam.

Rifdha, for example, is from the Maldives and is one of only 10 girls in the competition. Although both parents want her to be educated, Rifdha's father insists that she grow up to be a housewife; her mother encourages her to work toward a career. Nabiollah, from Tajikistan, receives widespread acclaim at home and abroad for his masterful recitation skills, but is virtually illiterate in his native language. Djamil, from Senegal, is asked to represent all of Africa at the competition, but must travel to Egypt alone without any family or friends to guide him.

 Director Greg Barker says the greatest challenge in making Koran by Heart was “finding a way to make the ancient art of Islamic recitation accessible to a non-Muslim, Western audience. As ordinary people make decisions over how to educate their children, the future of the next generation of Muslims hangs in the balance.”

 Koran by Heart premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and was an official selection of 2011 Mountain Film in Telluride and 2011 HotDocs. The trailer is below.

 

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Morocco - 5th Most Active Twitter User in Africa

In a follow-up to our look at mobile phone use in Morocco, we are in debt to the "Notebook", the blog run by Portland for a look at Twitter.  Portland is an independent consultancy involved in strategic communications, public affairs, international affairs and digital research.

In their latest research Portland embarked on an attempt to comprehensively map the use of Twitter in Africa. Portland and Tweetminster analysed over 11.5 million geo-located Tweets originating on the continent during the last three months of 2011. This pan-African analysis of Twitter traffic was complemented by a survey of 500 of Africa’s most active Tweeters.
And the result? It is young people, not leaders or business people Tweeting from mobile devices that are driving the growth of Twitter in Africa.

 The top twitter uses in order are South Africa (5,030,226), Kenya (2,476,800), Nigeria (1,646,212), Egypt (1,214,062) and Morocco (745,620).

To view a larger image - open image in a new tab and click to increase size

Interestingly, 68% percent of those surveyed say they use Twitter to monitor news. 2% use it to search for employment opportunities.

Mark Flanagan, Portland’s Partner for Digital Communications, says: “One of the more surprising findings of this research is that more public figures have not joined Africa’s burgeoning Twittersphere. With some notable exceptions, we found that business and political leaders were largely absent from the debates playing out on Twitter across the continent. As Twitter lifts off in Africa, governments, businesses and development agencies can really no longer afford to stay out of a new space where dialogue will increasingly be taking place.”

How Africa Tweets found that Twitter is helping to form new links within Africa. The majority of those surveyed said that at least half of the Twitter accounts they follow are based on the continent.

Beatrice Karanja, Associate Director and head of Portland Nairobi, says: “We saw the pivotal role of Twitter in the events in North Africa last year, but it is clear that Africa’s Twitter revolution is really just beginning. Twitter is helping Africa and Africans to connect in new ways and swap information and views. And for Africa – as for the rest of the world – that can only be good.”

You can find out more about the Portland research here (PDF):  Portland - How Africa Tweets

The View from Fez is an active Twitter user. We send out links to our stories and also use Twitter to gather news. To date we have tweeted 1656 stories. You can follow us here: The View from Fez Twitter


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Mariah Carey at Morocco's Mawazine Festival 2012

Since Mariah Carey attempted to opt out of the spotlight around eighteen months ago in order to have her twins, she has been under intense scrutiny. The main reason for all the attention was that Mariah and her husband, Nick Cannon named their children Moroccan and Monroe. At the same time Ms Carey showed the world the Moroccan-themed room in her New York apartment.

The choice of names was a great generator of media focus, but not always with the result an aspiring pop-diva might have hoped. The couple’s son Moroccan tied with Alicia Silverstone’s son’s name Bear Blu for the worst boy’s name of the year, according to Ministry of Gossip. More than 10,000 visitors to BabyNames.com voted on the worst and best names of the year.

But despite the adverse publicity in the gossip rags, it has paid off in one way. Mariah Carey has the closing night gig at the Moroccan Mawazine Festival. It will be her first performance since the birth of her twins last year.

 The 11th Mawazine Festival runs in Rabat from May 18th to May 26th. According to the organisers, Mariah Carey will close the festival with a set that includes at least two new songs.

 As The View from Fez has reported in the past, previous performers have included Shakira, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Elton John and Whitney Houston.

Elton John at Mawazine

SEE UPDATED MARIAH CAREY AT MAWAZINE STORY HERE

See our previous Mawazine Festival stories here.


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Morocco's Mobile Phone Mania

What is it with mobile phones in Morocco? If you believed the statistics, then Morocco, with a population of around 32 million has 36.55 million mobile phone users at the end of 2011. That is more phones than people in the Kingdom.  Compared to 2010, this is a growth rate of 14.29 percent giving the country a penetration rate of 113.57 percent.

Of course the raw figures do not paint an accurate figure. A 100% penetration rate is an impossibility, given that there are large sections of the community who do not possess a mobile phone. Some people are either too old, too young or too poor. Rural areas fall a long way below the national penetration rate.

 This is more than 100% penetration rate is not unique to Morocco. In fact it can be observed in a large number of countries. The explanation is that many pre-paid customers have multiple sim cards for use on different networks and telcos have difficulty establishing when a card becomes inactive. In Morocco at present around 26 percent of all phone customers have a contract and are "post-billed" compared to almost 14 percent for pre-paid. The number of multiple sim card owners is unknown.

According to a recent report from the national telecom regulator ANRT, Maroc Telecom saw its mobile market share fall to 48.85 percent at the end of 2011, compared to 52.81 percent a year earlier, Medi Telecom’s dipped to 32.92 percent from 33.74 percent and Wana Corporate (Inwi) was the big winner, growing from 13.45 percent to 20.23 percent.

Moroccan favour smart-phones for going online

In a booming mobile phone market, it is not surprising that fixed phone subscribers fell by 4.89 percent to 3.57 million, for an 11.08 percent penetration rate. Fixed call traffic came down by 9.42 percent year-on-year. Wana Corporate had a 64.59 percent share of the fixed phone market at the end of 2011, followed by Maroc Telecom with 34.79 percent and Medi Telecom with 0.62 percent.

As we reported a few days ago, Morocco's love affair with the Internet continues (see story here). The number of Internet users increased by 70.44 percent to 3.18 million, and the fact that there are 4.1 million FaceBook users indicates just how many Internet users are using a mobile device to go online. Mobile internet accounted for 81.41 percent of all internet users at the end of last year, followed by ADSL at 18.53 percent, up 18.49 percent on a year earlier.

The mobile phone market in Africa is massive 

On a broader front, mobile phone ownership in Africa continues to increase. By early 2010 mobile subscribers in Africa had smashed through the half billion mark and according to Blycroft Mobile Operator database there were some 508.6 million subscribers. Today that is reckoned to be over 600 million

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Moroccan Students For American Exchange Programme

If you are a young Moroccan student at high school or university and have ever wanted to study in the United States, tomorrow night there is an opportunity to find out more about the wide variety of exchange programmes available. 

An information night is to be held tomorrow (Thursday January 26th) at the American Language Centre in Fez.

At 5pm the Deputy Cultural Affairs Officer, Sam Werberg, from the U.S. Embassy in Rabat will give a presentation and discuss the various U.S. government-sponsored exchange programmes available to Moroccans, including exchange programmes for high school students, university students, post-graduate students, and professionals.

There will be a discussion about will discussion about who is eligible for these programmes, how to apply, and how to find out more information about each programme. Also to be discussed will be the benefits of these programmes and what some of our exchange program alumni have done once they returned to Morocco.

DETAILS
 Who: ALC students, high school and university students and professionals
 When: Thursday January 26 at 5pm
 Where: ALC Fez Room 1

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Winter in the Sahara

Venturing into the Sahara during winter can be challenging. But as today's guest post from intrepid travellers, Mary Finnigan and partner Chris Gilchrist, shows - there is poetry to be found everywhere and at any time of year. 

Light glazes the dunes like honey - Photo Chris Gilchrist

"Four days in the Sahara fulfilled our R&R dreams like no previous holiday."  

We are middle aged and so were appreciative of the creature comforts offered by an impeccably managed and elegantly presented Moroccan guest house, Dar Daif. Situated three kilometres from the outskirts of Ouarzazate, Dar Daif is a short stroll from the shores of Lake Ouarzazate.

The RAMSAR wetlands - Photo Sandy McCutcheon

The lake is a RAMSAR designated wetland, teeming with bird life. We sat for hours in pleasant winter sunshine gazing at hundreds of cormorants and storks, alongside osprey, spoonbills, black wing stilts, ruddy shelduck, great crested grebes, ringed plover, many varieties of wheatear and wagtail.

Mary and Chris

We had two days of luxury either side of the bit in the middle that satisfied our craving for novelty and adventure. We camped, walked and rode with three camels and three Berber gentlemen - Echou the guide and Omar and Idir the camel men. Zaid the driver completed the ensemble.

Chris, dressed for comfort, stays warm

 The trek was glitch-free and enormously good fun. The stars at night, the silence of the days and the awesome beauty of the dunes are best captured in poetry and in pictures.

 Light glazes the dunes like honey, 
 melts them like wax, 
 fixes them harsh at noon, 
 draws lines with them at sunset, doubts them at night. 


 Wind and sand and powdered rock - 
 a life reduced to mere clinging at the surface, 
 thin as a camel's cough, 
 the sussurant shower of a small cascade of grains. 


 No body lives here; 
 all burn out, dry to wisps and curls of hair, 
 talismans of bone. 


 Fold upon fold, the voluptuous dunes 
 threaten a serpentine erotic embrace. 
 Sandriffs build a symphony 
 always fading away. 
A set of fading footsteps 
 is my only hope of return 
 to browsing camels, water, 
 the small fierce dry-wood fire 
 under the starless heft 
 of the ancient tamarisk. 

Poem by Chris Gilchrist 

 the ancient tamarisk 

  DETAILS

Find out more about Dar Daif and the Ouazazate area here; Ouazazarte

Dar Daif is an old kasbah house. Owners Jean-Pierre Datcharry and his wife Zineb have recreated the feel of a desert caravanserai with richly coloured carpets, plants and artifacts. The guesthouse has been awarded La Cle Verte - one of a handful in Morocco - due to its ecologically sustainable practises.

Visit Dar Daif


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The Not-Very-Moroccan Mall

The construction of the Morocco Mall was a massive undertaking. The site manager, Salwa Idrissi Akhannouch, says that 100,000 people were involved in the construction and that, to date, the shopping centre has created 5,000 direct jobs and 21,000 indirect jobs. "It is something the nation can be really proud of," Akhannouch said. At the time of the opening, the outgoing Trade Minister, Ahmend Reda Chani, was also upbeat, "The mega-complex could turn Casablanca into a major shopping destination like Dubai," he said.

 After the mall was officially opened and the razzmatazz had subsided, Linda Harris, a contributor to Morocco World News, decided to take a look. Her report about the new Morocco Mall was first published by Morocco World News and is reposted with permission.

 It lit up the night in florescent colours covering the entire spectrum of the rainbow. Coming out of Casablanca in the evening, after a 15 minute drive past dark stretches of beach front on one side and walled-off slum quarters on the other, the sudden appearance of the massive Morocco Mall was truly overwhelming. I turned to my Moroccan friend, who had been kind enough to offer me a drive out, poked him in sheer exaltation and said something to the extent of “My Goodness, it is HUGE!! Look at all these lights. I can’t believe my eyes. This place looks like Shanghai!!”

My absolute surprise in the grandeur of the mall was not entirely unfounded. While Morocco is one of the more progressive counties in Africa, it is still plagued by vast poverty, run down buildings and streets in need of repair. Although new construction is happening across the country, nothing compares in scale to the mall.

As I sat in the car in front of the grand new building, I could not believe my eyes. The grounds were green with immaculate landscaping. The sidewalks were accented by decorative street lights, all of it leading towards the entrance of the giant structure. Never have I seen a place in Morocco that even remotely resembles the glow and glitter of the Morocco Mall. “They have a movie theater”, I exclaimed joyously, “and it is so clean here, so full of light. Can we go in?”

It opened the day I left Casablanca. I was told that the evening air was filled with excitement, as locals travelled to the mall to see it open. They stood, amazed, at a distance, outside barricades and looked into a Mecca of splendour and richness. The Morocco Mall is an astonishing project that has been four years and $270 million in the making. The mall features 350 stores and stretches across 24,700 acres. It has more than forty restaurants, a 1,000 square meter state-of-the-art 3D IMAX theatre, a large musical fountain and a massive fish tank with more than one million litres of water. The fish basin is a magical journey and is on display in the heart of the mall, from a glass elevator that ascends though the water.

Princess Lalla Meryem inaugurates Morocco Mall  

Morocco Mall is said to be the fifth largest mall in the world, and is expected to receive more than fifteen million visitors a year with sales approaching five billion Dirham (600 million US dollars). The project is expected to create 21,000 indirect jobs and 5,000 direct jobs (Source: AP).

I couldn’t wait to go. So when I returned to Casablanca a little more than a month later, I made a point of reserving an entire day and night to explore this amazing mall. I took a taxi from the city and arrived into an oasis of order and peace. Each entry is armed with guards and alarms, as is every flight of stairs and escalators. Almost everyone speaks French and English and is delighted to do so. The main entrance is a screening point, fully equipped with armed guards and handheld metal detectors, where some are allowed to enter, and others are not. Those who are not, are the poorly dressed, the pan-handlers, and thieves.

Leave it not to me to attempt to understand how the guards know who is who with nothing more than a glance; but they do. Some are summarily shown the door, long before they can get to it. Subsequently, the mall has a distinct feel of safety and tranquillity. Morocco’s wrestling match with a massive social and economic imbalance stays outside.

I went directly to the Starbucks coffee and ordered my usual drink. With a little explaining back and forth in English and French, I managed to get it just the way I like it; and at that, I even got service with a smile. Sure I had to pay 35 Dirham, but it tasted good, and since I make a western sized monthly income, I could afford to pay this higher than western price. Cup in hand, I walked the sizable mall. The layout is quite simple to figure out. The mall is cruise ship-shaped with an oval figure-8 walk area in three levels, with Galleries La Fayette in the middle of the ovals, and the surrounding areas filled with stores.

At the ends are the Marjane, the Adventureland Theme Park, including ice rink, and the food courts, placed beautifully with a view of the ocean. In the front is the IMAX theatre. Flowers, high-end decor and seating areas are all pleasing to the eye. As we neared midday, a melodic voice came over the speakers and started reciting Adhan. A few employees scurried off through back exit doors to attend to prayers. In the closed off sections of the mall there are prayer rooms, along with meeting rooms, six classrooms for language, cooking, beauty school, and two exhibition halls.

Critics have argued that there is little about the mall that is Moroccan. They are wrong. There is nothing about the mall that is Moroccan. Shy of the Souk, the location, and the call to prayer, there isn’t anything here that you wouldn’t find in any American or European mall. And the souk bears little to no resemblance of the souks one can find around Morocco.

(Photo: Samia Errazzouki courtesy of Al Akbar

The stores are a broad selection of western mall staples. At the bookstore play-zone, a young mother can be seen reading to her 4 year old child from a book. At the coffee shops, westerners and well dressed Moroccans are plugged into their computers and surfing the net over a cup of coffee served in paper cups. The food-court displays the familiar brands and tastes of fast food from the palates of American, French, Italian, Chinese, Lebanese, and Thai. The crowded discount chains are featuring goods made in China, the same goods as one finds at discount stores throughout the west.

In a separate section, the upscale western luxury stores are bedazzled with crystals, handsome security guards and high-end lighting, along with prices so impossibly high that even I, as a westerner, felt intimidated, and decided to remain on the outside looking in; joined at the windows by the brave few local Moroccans who had dared to enter the ‘luxury-zone’. In front of the lingerie stores, teenage boys can be seen pace back and forth, trying to look inconspicuously at the tiny silk and lace garments that are near impossible to find anywhere else in Morocco, and on benches exhausted husbands take small breaks while the wives finish shopping. All of these sights are familiar throughout malls in the west.

On the outside of the mall, along the magical musical fountain, stand rows of guards, preventing the public from coming close to the water’s edge. In the evening, faint globe lights encircling the fountain cast a romantic light over the night. The fountain is designed to play for 5 minutes every 30 minutes. Sitting outside, in the green zone, gave me pause to look at the people and reflect. Will this mall really succeed?

Although I spent more than 10 hours at the mall, I spent less than 400 Dirham, settling for two books, coffee, and a food court meal. Why? Ultimately, I couldn’t get past how western it was, so I didn’t feel like shopping. There was nothing at the mall that I would not be able to find at the mall close to my home in Europe. Nothing tempted me. And since I had packed everything I needed to wear for my trip, I found no reason to buy anything else. What is more, despite a sales event, the prices were close to double of the price I would pay at home. It struck me as foolish to spend extra and go through the hassle of packing it through the airport, just to bring home clothes and shoes that I can just as easily find on a 5 minute walk from my home.

The mall investors calculate their future success on tourists and the mall revenues are closely tied into European tourism. Thus for the mall to succeed, European tourists must not only visit the mall, they must also spend a significant chunk of their vacation money there. I don’t foresee that happening. Tourists come to Morocco for the Moroccan Experience, and much as we hate it, the haggling and dirt, stress and craziness of the souks and medina, are part of that experience. These are the stories we remember, the events that we share with people at home.

We want to drink coffee out of small glasses, say ‘Shukran’, and lay down to rest on Moroccan couches. We want to eat tagine with our fingers, and argue with vendors about a knocking a few Dirham off the price. We want to come home from our trip with exotic things that we can show our friends and family. The cheap oil-lamps, the spices, the ceramics, the traditional clothes; all of it is part of what makes a Moroccan vacation complete. And the mall can provide none of those things.

I have no doubt that I will be back at the mall on my next trip to Casablanca. Not so much for shopping but because I know that after a week of the hustle and bustle of the Moroccan streets, the mall will offer me the ability to walk around the world for a bit without getting approached which is appealing to a woman who is working in Morocco and travels alone. What is more, I am meeting friends there for coffee; Moroccan friends, who like me cannot justify shopping at the mall, but who enjoys going there to look at the stores and people and enjoy a little of the western order.

Certainly, for the vast majority of Moroccans, the mall may not be a place to preserve values and dreams of what a healthy and blossoming Morocco could be. Instead, it appears as a centre for displaying what some desires that the kingdom should be – a nation where there is a sizable divide between rich and poor, a small and envious middle class looking in without the funds to participate, and where the illiterate and poverty stricken masses are sharply stratified from the wealthy few by something as tangible as gates and armed guards. What looks like progress towards a more modern Morocco, therefore, may instead become an objective example to the world as a symbol of everything that is socially wrong in the kingdom.


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Morocco's Foreign Minister to Visit Algeria

News reports from Rabat, say that Morocco's new foreign minister Saad-Eddine Othmani (pictured left) will visit the Algerian capital Algiers next week. It is an early indication that the new government will continue the efforts of the previous government to normalise ties strained for decades over the disputed Sahara region.

The visit is scheduled to be a short one, lasting only two days, but starting on Monday Saad-Eddine Othmani will hold talks with his Algerian counterpart Foreign Minister, Mourad Medelci and a meeting with the longterm president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

As The View from Fez reported recently, there was a small sign of relations improving, when a judge in the Algerian town of Maghnia agreed to a temporary opening of the Zouj Bghal crossing in order to allow Moroccan cyclists to take part in a cycle race (see our story here).The border between the two countries was closed in 1994 following an Islamist militant attack in Marrakesh in which the involvement of Algerian secret services is widely suspected. Tensions in the border region occasionally flare and a July clash between Moroccan border guards and armed men crossing from Algeria left one soldier dead.

Al Qaeda in El Islamic Maghreb
photo Morocco World News

However, the most serious diplomatic issue between the two countries is the decades-long problem of the Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas in the Sahara. Morocco's reclaiming of the former Spanish colony in 1975 sparked a war between its forces and Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas until a ceasefire in 1991.  UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have since made no headway.

One positive sign that may open the door to progress is the discontent within the Algerian military with the Polisario over infiltration by AQIM (Al Qaeda in El Islamic Maghreb) in the Tindouf refugee camps.

For Foreign Minister Saad-Eddine Othmani, there will be no quick fix. He does, however have the backing of his predecessor, Taeib Fassi Fihri who, back in November said,  "Whatever the differences, it's abnormal not to have a normal relationship with a neighbouring country".


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Meetings in Marrakech: the paintings of Hassan El Glaoui and Winston Churchill

One of Churchill's Moroccan landscapes

A small exhibition of paintings in London is getting big reviews, not only for the art, but also the unlikely but charming story of an unlikely friendship behind the works. On show at London's Leighton House Museum, are nine paintings by Winston Churchill and fifteen by the revered Moroccan painter Hassan El Glaoui. 

The meeting of the British war leader with the young Berber tribesman back in 1943 changed the direction of the young man's life. As he tells it,"Winston Churchill saw my paintings in my father’s office and advised him to let me continue painting. My father had wanted me to work in agriculture on his estates but on the advice of Churchill, he allowed me to continue painting."

Hassan El Glaoui's Hassan El Glaoui's Les feux du Quadrige (1980)

Hassan El Glaoui, son of the famous El Haj Thami el Glaoui, moved to Paris in 1952 in order to study les Beaux-Arts. El Glaoui had no formal artistic training, but managed to work as an apprentice with French artists Jean Souverbie, and Emilie Charmy with whom he worked for 15 years.

Churchill's artistic career is better known. When, during the irst World War, his friend and later painting partner Paul Maze suggested he should take up painting in order to relax, Churchill did so with enthusiasm, and continued to paint for the rest of his life.

Over the years, Churchill became very fond of Morocco, especially the city of Marrakech and the surrounding mountain valleys where he would spend his holidays. It is from those times that we now have so many fine oils by Churchill.

In regard to the exhibition, the Huffington Post quotes Daniel Robbins, Director of Leighton House Museum as saying: “We are extremely fortunate to have these unique collections here, not only because they are outstanding paintings but because they tell such a remarkable story. They reveal both a hitherto unseen glimpse into the private and artistic life of one of Britain’s most significant figures, Winston Churchill, and the beautifully expressive work of one of Morocco’s most significant painters, Hassan El Glaoui”.

Winston Churchill's The Valley of the Ourika' (1935)

Reviewers have been similarly impressed. Jennie Gillions, writing for the on-line Culture 24, says, "Meetings in Marrakech is lovely – small but perfectly formed. There are only 24 works, 15 of Hassan El Glaoui's and nine of Winston Churchill's, but all are bursting with movement, colour and an obvious love for their subject. Churchill once called Marrakech “the loveliest spot in the whole world”; El Glaoui's depictions make it a difficult statement to contest.The colours are beautiful, the scenes are vibrant and the sunny skies feel hot. Churchill's work is more delicate, more serene, but no less evocative. Two different views of the same place by two very different men. Yet there are striking similarities in composition, subject matter and palate, if not in execution."

 The exhibition: Meetings in Marrakech; the Paintings of Winston Churchill and Hassan El Glaoui, continues at the Leighton House Museum in London until March 31 2012

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