Postcards from Fez - the ghosts of colonialism

Many people interested in the Medina of Fez were lucky to attend a recent lecture by Simon Kenrick in which he challenged the audience to not only question the imagery of Fez portrayed in the tourist brochures, but to suggest alternatives.

Simon Kenrick visits Riad Zany


Is Fez "timeless, romantic, mysterious" as the tourist brochures and travel writers insist? Or are these notions part of an ongoing colonial mindset about the "Orient"? And if we are continuously presented with images of "the waterseller', "the snake charmer", " the veiled women entering an arched doorway" and the "timeless face of the Berber carpetweaver"...is that what we then look for when we visit Morocco?

On investigation it seems that the notion of timelessness is historically specific and arose around the time of the industrial revolution, to counter the alienation of instincts and reason produced by modernism and mass production.

The Orient as "other" is also part of this lingering colonial mindset. Rana Kabbani in her 1986 book, Europe's Myths of the Orient, has this to say: Europe was charmed by an Orient that shimmered with possibilities, that promised a sexual space, a voyage away from the self, an escape from the dictates of the bourgeois morality of the metropolis.

Simon Kenrick, in his lecture, raised many other intriguing issues, all of which are worthy of further exploration. His discussion about the famous Bab Boujloud (the Blue Gate) was fascinating. Not only is the gate not old and historic it is, in fact, a French colonial construction. The French first built the gate as a triumphal arch and then replaced it with the gate so photographed today.


As Kendrick surmised, the position of the gate is also interesting, because it was not originally an entrance to the Medina, but rather a hole punched in the walls to allow French troops access to the top of the Medina and to the two main thoroughfares.

Simon Kenrick also questioned the widely held belief that the French decision to preserve the Medina was an enlightened one. Rather, he argues, it was pure self-interest. It was, as other critics have pointed out, urban apartheid with the new city being classical European in style with broad avenues and modern gas, electricity. On the other hand the Medina was prevented from any progress "because we are respecting your timeless heritage." The result was to lay the framework for the tourist industry images of today - "timeless and mysterious".

In fact, the medina is neither timeless or mysterious. It is modernising and - on investigation- its layout and way of life, logical. Yet, as long as the tourist industry feels that they must market Morocco and the Fez Medina with the old images, they will perpetuate attitudes and perceptions that should be consigned to history.

See all The View from Fez POSTCARDS HERE.