Lalla Salma Inaugurates Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech

On Saturday, Princess Lalla Salma presided over the inauguration ceremony of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech. Dedicated to the work of the couturier, the museum hosts part of the collection of the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation

After having cut the inaugural ribbon, the princess visited the temporary exhibition of "Jacques Majorelle and Morocco", the permanent exhibition room, Yves Saint Laurent, the shop, the photo gallery and the private library of Feu Pierre Bergé.

Located near the famous Majorelle Garden, the Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech Museum (mYSLm) is a cultural centre that will highlight an important aspect of Moroccan culture.

With a total surface of nearly 4,000 m2, this museum is the appropriate space for fashion and art enthusiasts and for a large audience who enjoy discovering the works of Yves Saint Laurent.

Dedicated to the French couturier and his work, known for his love of the ocher city since he discovered it in 1966 and which has been a source of inspiration, the museum includes a temporary exhibition hall of 150 m2 , an auditorium with 130 seats, a bookshop, a café-restaurant with a terrace and a research library of 5,000 books dedicated to literature, poetry, Andalusian-Arab history and geography, botany, Amazigh (Berber) culture, the work of Yves Saint Laurent and fashion.

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Will Barack Obama Visit Fez?

The Moroccan rumour mill is working overtime with whispers that the American President may soon visit Morocco. This follows on from Michelle Obama's recent trip to Marrakech

 King Mohammed VI, Nov. 22, 2013, in the Oval Office of the White House

The rumours about Barack Obama visiting Morocco started in Rabat when it was suggested that several "American tourists" staying at the Sofitel were not quite like most visitors.

According to the newspaper, Akhir Saâ, these "tourists" are in fact members of a special US security unit that prepare the ground work for visits by top members of the US administration.

It is understood that the officers conducted inspection tours in Rabat and Fes.

This has led to speculation that the President will make a flying visit. One thing is for certain, if Barack Obama visits Fez he will certainly get a very warm welcome. The View From Fez will certainly have some fresh mint ready to make the President a glass of tea!

Michelle Obama's trip resulted in substantial funding of education for young girls.

Michelle Obama and Princess Lalla Salma in Marrakech

The “Let Girls Learn” initiative, launched in March 2015 by President Barack Obama and the first lady, is to be extended to Morocco, the White House announced Tuesday. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government foreign aid agency working in partnership with the Moroccan government, is investing nearly $100 million to transform secondary education in the country. USAID is also giving $400,000 to create five new girls’ dormitories to improve educational opportunities for girls from rural areas.

“The investment in an education now will reap benefits in years to come and that is what my family knew instinctively,” the first lady said. “My parents didn’t go to university. We didn’t have a lot of money. But one of the things … was that my parents understood the value of an education. And they fought for me, they sacrificed, they saved.”

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Lalla Salma Foundation Celebrates 10 Years

Congratulations are due to Princess Lalla Salma for her work in the struggle against cancer. Since its inception in 2005 the Lalla Salma Foundation has made the fight against cancer a public health priority in Morocco. During these ten years the Foundation has provided significant efforts to improve the care of patients and give them new hope

Princess Lalla Salma visiting an oncology centre

On Saturday, for the tenth anniversary, HRH Princess Lalla Salma chaired a gala night in Marrakech. Under the title of  "A gift for life" the gala dinner raised 150 million dirhams.

The funds will be dedicated to the creation of an oncology centre in Beni Mellal. In a speech, HRH Princess Lalla Salma said: "The cancer centre will allow mothers to heal, fathers to continue to support their families and children to regain their health and continue their normal life to build a better future."

Since its inception in 2005 the Foundation has assisted cancer patients treated in public cancer centres giving them have access to 100% of available anticancer drugs. Over that time 1.2 billion dirhams has been raised for the purchase of medicines.

The Foundation also conducted several awareness campaigns and prevention to encourage Moroccans to be more attentive to their bodies and to get tested before it is too late.

Through education programmes 1.5 million college students and high school students have been made aware of cancer and each year 1 million women are screened and 200,000 patients receive medical attention.

The oncology centre at the  Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Mohammed VI in Marrakech 

The Foundation has worked hard to alleviate the suffering of patients and significantly improve conditions for their care through the creation of several health facilities including twenty-four early detection centres. Thirteen new centres are in the planning stage.

Six mobile units have been established, nine new specialty hospitals have been built and four others are in preparation. The creation of accommodation houses in several cities of the Kingdom has helped to ease the burden of patients by hosting with their families during the period of outpatient treatment. These structures provide patients regular monitoring of their treatment and accompany patients by providing them the necessary moral and psychological support.

In cancer research, 14 research projects have been funded to date. In terms of training related to the fight against cancer, the Foundation has trained 500 health professionals during the past decade.

The Lalla Salma Foundation is currently considered a pioneer in the fight against cancer in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa (MEA) through the leadership role played by HRH Princess Lalla Salma internationally.

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Fes Festival of World Sacred Music - Another View

Waddick Doyle reflects on Fez, the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and its director, Faouzi Skali.

Fes is a city unlike any other, a sort of Varanassi of the West, spiritual capital of this country which claims to be the oldest continuous kingdom in the world. Every June for the last 18 years, Fes has also become a capital of sacred music with its festival bringing musicians from all of the world, who come here to share their joy and enchantment.

Fes was and is the centre of the Sufi tradition in the west of the Muslim world which is becoming more and more important in Morocco and an antidote to the rise of fundamentalism elsewhere.

The old medina has 240 mosques and countless zawiyas in the walled city where there is no motorised transport. Mules and donkeys weave their way through the labyrinth of alleys and ways of the largest living medieval city in the world.

Festival Director, Faouzi Skali, is a native of the old city and himself a sufi adept and poet. Worried by the widening gulf between Islam and the rest and in the changing process, he created the Fes festival as an attempt to let people communicate through music. He invited musicians from all traditions in a deliberate attempt to give the festival's public a chance to taste a variety of sonic beauty.

He was and remains convinced that beauty can change the world and that traditions will best understand and appreciate each other if they listen. Eighteen years ago with this simple idea and no money or position he created a festival which now attracts spectators in their thousands and journalists in their hundreds from across the world. It is the one of the few places in the world where Jewish and Muslim musicians sing together in joyous festival as Rabbi Haim Louk and Abderrahim Souiri did on Thursday evening.

This year, the festival celebrated the great Persian poet Omar Khayyam, and was entitled "the enchantment of the world." The opening night featured a specially commissioned work by France's Tony Gatlif, denoting how a mystical song from India to Morocco produces a type of enchantment.

Omar Khayyam's poetry was recited in Farsi, Arabic and French bedore ending with Fes's own Marwan Hajjiek singing the simplest of Muslim litanies, laihillallah, the unity of God. The audience warmed to it despite an unseasonal cool wind.

All of this was choreographed in Bab Mekina, a fort above the ancient city. An international crowd from Europe and America had come to see the King of Morocco's consort, the princess Lalla Salma, who opened the festival in a dazzle of elegance. Zeyba Rahman appeared dressed in an orange sari and explained the evening in English. She hails from Dehli but is now the New York based director of the festival for America and Asia. Fatiha Morchid, Moroccan poet, pediatrician and TV personality accompanied her in Arabic and French.

For 10 days, the festival programmed concerts day and night, all striving like Kabir to realise the sacred in the beauty of spiritual experience. Kabir's poetry was featured by Mukhtiyar Ali who performed in the Batha Palace garden in the shade of a huge barbary oak tree. The audience took up the refrain and this ancient Arab city resounded with a crowd of French, English and Arabs chanting in Hindustani.

The old medina of the city strangely mimics the music with its poor narrow streets and small doors opening into hidden palaces centered around courtyards with trees and tranquil pools, unimaginable from the dusty pathways outside. On entering them one's eyes are transfixed by the symmetrical beauty of the houses and their geometric mosaics. As in Kabir's poem sung by Ali under the tree, if you search God with all your heart, he will appear before you.

The audience was entranced without understanding words. Some of the concerts are at night and the audience wanders the labyrinth of the medina seeking a sudden opening to a new viusal and sonic world. For Fes is a city of deep listening, "samma" in Arabic, where an audience listens to poetic chanting about being drunk with love and falls slowly into another state, retreats into inner worlds of beauty. Deep listening is a term developed by NYU musical anthropologist Deborah Kapchan based on her studies of sufi music and Fes. It is a listening without understanding that goes beyond words and makes people like each other whether or not they understand the meaning.

Skali's intention from the beginning was to bring beauty and spirituality to the centre of a broader political project, based on Dostoevsky's injunction that only beauty can save the world. In this mesh of politics and aesthetics, he has created The Fes Forum based on the idea of giving a soul to globalisation.

He invites a motley crew, mixing those who normally attend the Davos Economic Forum and those who go to the World Social Forum, to discuss the role of spirituality in globalisation. This year much discussion centred around finding new indicators for measuring the well being prompted by the King of Bhutan's suggestion to measure gross national happiness instead of gross national product.

What was clear, however, looking at the faces joyously clapping in unison at the Jewish-Muslim concert, was that the Fes sacred music festival was doing its bit to increase global happiness.

Waddick Doyle is a long time friend of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and a keen observer of its development. is the the Director, Division of Global Communications and Film, and founder and director of the Masters in Global Communications program at American University of Paris. Doyle teaches courses in Media Globalization, Contemporary World Television, Media Law, Policy and Ethics. He has held positions at universities in Italy, France and Australia. His article on the Fes Festival was first published by the International Business Times.

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Bjork - Biophilia @ The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music

The audience is packed in, Princess Lalla Salma has arrived and now it is time for Bjork at Bab Makina in Fes...

The lights fade up slowly and thirteen hooded, barefooted faeries come on stage, garbed in robes of shiny blue and bronze fabric. The first impression is of a slightly odd girl's choir.They begin a low chorus, building up to the moment we have all be waiting for – Bjork’s entrance.

Bjork comes on stage, the projection screen lights up and a solid bass rumble sends palpable vibrations through the audience.

Known for her quirky fashion and statement costumes, Bjork's appearance did not disappoint. An electric blue latex dress clung to her petite figure and was covered in three-dimensional fossil-like coils.

Bjork opened her mouth and the first taste of her extraordinary other-worldly voice caused goosebumps. The first song was Cosmogony, entirely appropriate for starting us on the Biophilia journey.

“Heaven. Heaven's bodies
Whirl around me. Make me wonder
And they say back then our universe was a coal black egg
Until the God inside burst out and from it's shattered shell
He made what became the world we know…”

However Bjork was intent on re-inventing the world we know. A masterful combination of video, lighting and voice created mesmerising soundscapes that pushed the limits of previous musical experience.

The second song Hunter, from her Homogenic album was a crowd pleaser – the audience roared when it recognized the opening bars and realised there was going to be a mix of both old and new material.

Despite having just recovered from a throat infection, Bjork does not hold back and what ensues is Bjork magic. There is no time wasted on chatting with the audience.A fade to black and then on with the next song.

At times her words are indistinguishable swamped by the massive electronic rumble. In other moment's Bjork's voice rings clear. "Have I too often craved miracles?" She trills the "r" in "miracle" for the longest time.

It is amazing what you can do with a few Ipads...

The projected images are intricate; time-lapse photography of mushrooms growing. A cell falling victim to a virus, hundreds of starfish and were they seas worms? At other times - the molten core of the earth, surging up, causing tectonic plates to buckle and shift. It is powerful stuff.

One of two large Tesla Coils discharging

There were no actual pyrotechnics, but the next best thing; inside two huge Faraday cages are Nikolai Tesla's famous Tesla Coils; discharging high voltage lightning bolts. The coils came to life in song number three – Thunderbolt – and the atmosphere was truly electric. Combined with a slow motion video of a lunar eclipse the effect was striking.

“All my body parts are one
As lightning hits my spine,
Sparkling
Prime runs through me,
Revive my wish
Inviolable.
May I, can I, or have I too often?
Craving miracles…”

And always this tsunami of sound produced by the two young men behind the electronic machinery. Bjork hops, skips, shakes her wrists and flexes her fingers as the music moves through her. It is an fascinating alchemy; the melding of faerie and machine.

After this Bjork made her first tentative contact with the audience, simply saying “merci bien” in her child-like voice, and then going straight into Hidden Place. The arresting video with this track was a fast motion film of starfish and writhing eels marching and slithering over coral, which built up to the creatures feeding from the carcass of a seal on the sea floor.

The next song Unravel was another crowd favourite and her singing “like a ball of yarn” was amusing when taken in context with the fantastic wig on her head – a bulbous confection of coloured threads and wool that framed her elfin face. Her dress caught and reflected the light, her tights glittered and she jumped and stomped on her platform boots, shaking her hands in a vibrant dance.

Another time-lapse video of mushrooms sprouting accompanied Isobel from her Post album – bringing shouts of “we love you Bjork!” from the crowd.

Mouth's Cradle and then Joga was next and CGI images of the earth moving and tectonic plates shifting and cracking perfectly matched the crashing electric howls, beats and groaning bass.

The end of the video swirled around an image of Bjork on top of a mountain, who then opened her insides and invited the viewer in to find a lonely island floating inside of her.

This image led perfectly into Hollow, which was accompanied by images of cells, veins and DNA.

“Hollow, my ancestors have access
Hollow, I'm falling down the abyss
Hollow, looking for some answers…”

In the song Hollow, Björk took inspiration from her "ancestors and DNA, that the grounds open below you and you can feel your mother and her mother, and her mother, and her mother, and her mother 30,000 years back. So suddenly you're this kinda tunnel, or trunk of DNA… All these ghosts come up so it ended up being a Halloween song and quite gothic in a way… It's like being part of this everlasting necklace when you're just a bead on a chain and you sort of want to belong and be a part of it and it's just like a miracle."

Virus followed and the hit Pagan Poetry, after which Bjork finally connected with the crowd, saying “Hello, how are you? You seem so far away. You should come closer. I only have a few songs left. You should think about it.”

Then Náttúra -  “this song is dedicated to a volcano in Iceland," Bjork announces. The volcano is Eyjafjallajökull. And in the manner of its namesake, all hell is let loose. This is the moment the concert erupts to another level. The thirteen backing faeries have tossed back their hoods and now appear less like faeries and more like bad pixie escapees from some Nordic summer camp.

The lyrics are as intriguing as Bjork herself and at times as mysterious. Dark Matter features heavy gibberish since the dark matter phenomena are directly "unexplainable". Virus is about "fatal relationships" such as the relationship between a virus and a cell.

The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularised the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life".

"One day it will all make sense" - Bjork

The last song, Mutual Core, has the hooded dancers huddled in a circle and a film of the earth from space showing the fault lines splitting to reveal the earth’s core. The dancers slowly rise up with a harmonious howl and descend to the floor again before the stage went to black.

An extended ovation brought Bjork back out for a solo rendition of One Day: “One day it will happen, one day it will all make sense,” she sang and then encouraged the audience to whistle with her.

A rousing rendition of Declare Independence was the final number and Bjork’s powerful yells of “declare independence, don’t let them do that to you, raise the flag, higher, higher” finally provided the rebellious energy the audience needed to dance with great gusto in the aisles.

Overall the concert had the quality of a musical science lesson and an experimental journey of immersion into the cosmos and sound. The great poet Kabira wrote:

The well is one
Water bearers many
Each one's vessel is different
But the water is the same.


Bjork is bearer and her vessel is very different - but the water is the same.

SET LIST

Óskasteinn
Cosmogony
Hunter
Thunderbolt
Moon
Hidden Place
Crystalline
Unravel
Isobel
Mouth's Cradle
Jóga
Hollow
Virus
Pagan Poetry
Náttúra
Mutual Core
Encore:
One Day
Declare Independence 

AUDIENCE REACTION
Vanessa Bonnin was out and about taking the pulse of the audience.

Marcus Virta from Helsinki 

Expectation was high in the pre-concert crowd for Bjork tonight and there was an army of her fans who had come from far and wide. Marcus Virta from Helsinki was at the first Biophilia concert in Manchester and was wearing the t-shirt to prove it.

“I was coerced into going by my friend because I wasn’t a fan but after that concert I was converted,” he enthused.

Camelia El Hakem from Fes

Camelia El Hakem from Fes was working backstage and said that she’d seen Bjork who seemed “really simple and normal."

"I am a big fan, it was like a dream for me, I didn’t think I’d ever meet her!” she said.

There was a lot of interest in the stage set which had been shipped in and assembled overnight. Head of sound Eric Loots explained the odd-looking baskets hanging at either side of the stage.

“It’s a Tesla-coil inside a Faraday basket – its electrical and discharges a massive current which makes a brilliant sound and arcs of light. It’s linked to the keyboard player so he can vary the amount of current and change the sound. He also controls the three organs on the back of the stage,” he explained.

“I’m really looking forward to it, it’s going to be something completely different for the Festival, and also louder than we’re used to! Plus lots of low frequency bass, which will create vibrations, you should be able to feel it in the audience. I wonder if the suits in the front row will like it?!”

Rebel dancer, and Fes resident from England Gail Leonard said “I was just mesmerised and so excited! The most unachievable sounds were achieved, I was gobsmacked.”

Moroccan Marouane Belayachi said the concert was perfect.
“I thought it was great, we had a lot of fun and it was really spiritual.”

Fes resident from Australia Josephine Kwan said the combination of sounds from the instruments and Bjork’s voice was incredible.

“She has such individuality, I totally loved the whole experience. And the fact that she had saved her voice for Fes – we’re so glad you did! Thank you Bjork!”

As well as the usual sponsors in suits in the front section, Princess Salma was also in attendance.

The pre-concert announcement of a camera ban caused consternation in the crowd, who would have liked to be able to record their experience. It was explained that Bjork had requested no cameras, phones, video or “electronic beepy things” as she wanted the audience to enter completely into the experience and join her in her magical world.

The one negative in the night came after Bjork invited the audience to come forward. Unfortunately the overbearing security at Bab Al Makina did not get the message. Enthusiastic audience members, who had paid a premium ticket price, were roughly repelled by brutish guards who caused an unnecessary commotion and their behaviour was entirely contradictory to the spirit of the Festival.

With even the star performer complaining that the audience were too far away – and the overbearing security who were far more distracting and invasive than the presence of cameras would have ever been; there are issues to be addressed.

Some serious reconsideration needs to be given to the amount of premium space given to sponsors who are only there for show and don’t appreciate the music, to the detriment of serious fans who are denied the right to dance and enjoy the show. This, as we saw tonight, also affects the performer’s experience and Bjork’s disappointment with the restriction of the audience’s ability to interact with her was evident.


BIOPHILIA
Biophilia was Bjork's eighth album and was released released 10th of October 2011.

The album is "partly recorded" on an iPad and, as well as a standard CD release. Biophilia is the world's "first app album" in collaboration with Apple. Björk has described the project as a multimedia collection "encompassing music, apps, Internet, installations, and live shows". Material from the album debuted during a concert series which was held in the summer of 2011 at the Manchester International Festival.

Reporting: Sandy McCutcheon and Vanessa Bonnin


The View from Fez is an official Media Partner of the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music


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Sama’a - Spiritual Songs, from East to West

Sama'a - a little background

As Zeyba Rahman reminded the audience in her introduction, the word sama'a literally means "listening" and is part of a ritual of remembrance of the divine. It is also one of the most refined musical forms of worship.

The Sama'a of Fes differs in many respects from the Sama'a music of other regions because of the interventions of history. The Fez Sama'a was changed and enriched by the arrival of the Andalusian Arabs after their flight from Granada in 1492. The refugees included many musicians who came to Fez and into contact with oriental Arabic music. This musical fusion - beautiful Arabo-Andalous melodies and Moroccan Sufi chants - created an original musical genre that was both local and continuously evolving.

The scale of Moroccan Sufi chants stemmed from oriental roots which themselves came from other Sufi chants of the Arab world or elsewhere.

Sama'a groups can comprise from 8 to 40 members who are intitiated into brotherhoods and trained in this music. Even the term 'Sama'a' suggests that it is this very sound quality that is spiritual, without which music and poetry would have no sacred aspect. It is in fact called Sama'a for its psalm-like quality that is not instrumental, in comparison with the Andalous Nouba, although Sama'a does follow the great traditions of the Andalous Nouba. Hence it arises from a tradition of mystical alliance between the spiritual quality of music and the spiritual essence of ritual song.

Sama'a - the concert 
One thing a Sama'a concert guarantees is that the local Moroccans will turn out in droves - and so it was at Bab Makina tonight. On the bill were all the big names;  Said Hafid from Egypt, Omar Sabouni from Syria, Ibrahim al haj Kacem from Algeria, Mahmoud Frih from Tunisia, and from Morocco: Muhammad Bajdoub, Aderrahim Souiri, and Abd al-Fettah Bennis. Also in the 29 man lineup was the young Moroccan munshid, Marwan Hajji, a rising star in the world of Sufi Music.

Marwan Hajji, a rising star

There was a sense of expectation in the audience, but then the anticipated starting time of 8.30 pm came and went. The crowd became restive. By ten minutes to nine there was whistling and clapping. Then, as quickly as it had begun, it died away. Something special was about to happen and everyone in the crowd sensed it.

A cheer went up as a woman and a young boy came down the aisle. There, not more than a metre away was Princess Lalla Salma accompanied by the young Crown Prince Moulay Hassan. This was not the princess of the opening night with glamorous gown and huge security contingent. No, this was the Princess having a night out at the Fès Festival of World Sacred music with her son. The crowd loved it and, judging by the broad smile on Princess Lalla Salma's face, so did she. This time the security was minimal and she passed without fanfare to take her seat. Now, the concert could begin.

This performance opened with Allahu Akbar - the call to prayer. Eerily the sound seemed to come from the heavens, as none of the performers on stage were singing. As recitation of prayers - dhikr - was performed a sweetly perfumed smoke wafted out to the audience and with the notes of the song, hung suspended in the air before being blown away on the breeze. Then one singer chimed in on the bass notes, giving a human presence to the sound, but still layers of harmony reverberated around the audience.

The arrival of the singers

Finally, ten white-robed men filed out from the wings and continued to sing as they took their places on the stage. Later in the performance, during a quiet musical interlude on the lute, the actual muezzins of Fes sang out with the late evening call to prayer in the medina - the whole city becoming part of the performance.

The audience was treated to a wonderful cultural exchange between the Sama'a traditions of the various countries involved. Between the songs were instrumental introductions - short taqsim - each on a solo instrument; Kaman (violin), Qanun (zither) or Oud (lute). The notes, at times tinkled so sweetly that they reminded one of the sound of water falling from a fountain.

Of course the audience, and no doubt, the Princess and her son, enjoyed it. After all, Sama'a is Sama'a - what's not to like?

TOMORROW'S WEATHER

Tomorrow's Programme
Daily Digest – Fes Sacred Music Festival – Monday June 11th

9.00 – 12.00 @ Batha Museum
Fes Forum: Giving a Soul to Globalisation
Theme – Spirituality and Business

16.00 @ Batha Museum
Mukhtiyar Ali – Mystical and devotional songs of the mystic and poet Kabir (Rajasthan, India)

20.00 @ Dar Mokri (Nights in the Medina)
Mahsa & Marjane Vahdat - Mystical poetry with Pasha Hanjani – ney flute (Iran)

20.00 @ Dar Adyel (Nights in the Medina)
Ihsan Rmiki – The Art of the Mouwashahats of al Andalus (Morocco)

21.00 @ Batha Museum (Nights in the Medina)
Mory Djely Kouyaté & Jean-Philippe Rykiel – Voice meets Piano (France & Guinea Tinkiso)

22.00 @ Dar Mokri (Nights in the Medina)
Mahsa & Marjane Vahdat - Mystical poetry with Pasha Hanjani – ney flute (Iran)

22.00 @ Dar Adyel (Nights in the Medina)
Ihsan Rmiki – The Art of the Mouwashahats of al Andalus (Morocco)

22.00 @ Bab Boujloud Square – free entry
Festival in the City
Chrifa: Amazigh song
Mazagan

23.00 @ Dar Tazi – free entry
Sufi Nights
Hamdouchia Brotherhood

FÈS FESTIVAL QUICK LIST

Festival Programme
Festival in the City
Sufi Nights
Festival Forums
Festival Eating Guide
Art during the Festival #1
Art during the Festival #2
The Enchanted Gardens of Fez
Last Minute Accommodation

Text contributors: Vanessa Bonnin, Sandy McCutcheon
Photographs: Suzanna Clarke, Sandy McCutcheon

The View from Fez is an official Media Partner of the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music


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Morocco launches new national AIDS strategy

Focusing resources on populations at high risk of HIV infection is at the core of a new national AIDS strategy in Morocco. Launched in Rabat on 3 April by the Minister of Health, El Hossaine Louardi, Morocco’s five-year strategy is closely aligned with the targets of the 2011 Political Declaration on AIDS.

Compared with a majority of African nations, Morocco has a low national HIV prevalence, estimated at approximately 0.15% of the general population. However, recent data show a concentrated and growing HIV epidemic in the country among key populations. According to government figures, an estimated 5.1% of men who have sex with men are living with HIV nation-wide. In the south-western city of Agadir, HIV prevalence among sex workers is about 5%. In Nador, a coastal city in the north-east, nearly one in five people who inject drugs is HIV-positive.

Addressing an audience of more than 300 national partners in the AIDS response—including government officials, civil society representatives and people living with HIV—Mr Louardi said that the national plan aims to halve new HIV infections and reduce AIDS-related deaths by 60% by the year 2016. He added the strategy is based on the principles of a right to health, accountability and inclusion of all partners in the HIV response.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé called Morocco’s HIV response “exemplary,” with people placed squarely at the centre of national development efforts. He praised Morocco as a regional pioneer in protecting the health and human rights of vulnerable populations.

Morocco was the first Arab country to introduce harm reduction programmes for people who inject drugs, including methadone maintenance therapy and needle-syringe programmes. Evidence has shown that such programmes are essential to prevent the spread of HIV among key populations.

A new funding paradigm is needed in Morocco and across the African continent—one that is written and owned by African countries  - UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé

Mr Sidibé recognised in his remarks a new medical assistance scheme for the country’s low-income population called RAMED (Régime d’Assistance Médicale des Economiquement Démuni). Under RAMED, 8.5 million Moroccans living below the poverty line, or just under 30% of the population, will benefit from partial or total exemption from treatment costs at public hospitals.

“RAMED is an important reform for social justice and the redistribution of opportunity,” said Mr Sidibé. “Providing vulnerable populations with social protection is a key strategy in the HIV response,” he added.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé with Princess Lalla Salma 

Credit: Le Matin.ma

Recognising Princess Lalla Salma’s contribution

Earlier in the day, Mr Sidibé met with Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco, wife of King Mohammed VI and President of the Association Lalla Salma de Lutte contre le Cancer, a national non-profit organisation. He thanked the Princess for her participation in last year’s UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS and for her on-going advocacy and support for programmes aimed at improving the health of women and children. In recent years, the Princess has been a leading voice in promoting the importance of integrated services for reproductive health and cervical cancer.

A call for reduced dependency on external HIV aid

In a separate meeting with Morocco’s Minister of Health, Mr Sidibé thanked the Minister for his efforts to push forward the Arab AIDS Initiative at a recent conference in Jordan. The new initiative is expected to accelerate national and regional efforts to achieve the targets of the 2011 Political Declaration on AIDS.

Noting that Morocco relies on external aid to fund 50% of its national AIDS response, Mr Sidibé urged the country’s leadership to assume a greater share of HIV investments. “A new funding paradigm is needed in Morocco and across the African continent—one that is written and owned by African countries,” he said.

Underscoring that a vast majority of HIV drugs prescribed in Africa are imported, Mr Sidibé called for the local production of antiretroviral medicines. He spoke of the need for a single African drug regulatory agency to ensure the faster roll-out of quality-assured medications across continent.

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Fez Festival Opening Night ~ Leyla & Majnûn

I pass by these walls, the walls of Layla

And I kiss this wall and that wall

It’s not Love of the houses that has taken my heart

But of the One who dwells in those houses -

poem attributed to Qays ibn al-Mulawwah

The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music opened tonight with a huge cast in the premiere of the oratorio mundi, Leyla & Majnûn, by Armand Amar. It was the perfect work to open such a festival, and much appreciated by the packed house.

From the very beginning drum solo by a petite member of the Shanghai Percussion Ensemble perched on the roof of Bab al Makina, you could tell that this was going to be a superb festival occasion. And it just kept getting better. What was a great tribute to the organisers and the performers alike was the universal acceptance of the work. From local Moroccans to visiting South Africans and Americans, the praise was the same - a stunning opening night.

The story of Leyla & Majnun is one of those tragic love stories like the much later Romeo and Juliet, where the lovers are forbidden to marry. Qeys, who becomes known as Majnun when he goes mad in the desert, is a familiar figure in Islamic folklore, along with Leyla herself. The tale has been told since the beginning of Islam in various languages and across several continents. But it's not just a love story; it represents divine love and man's struggle to attain it.

In this production, the story was first narrated by Nacer Khemir, with subtitles in French and English projected onto the walls. Khemir also wrote the libretto along with Leili Anvar and John Boswell. The orchestra accompanied the narration, superbly conducted by Didier Benetti.

This was indeed a truly collaborative exercise. The artistic director Armand Amar was assisted by John Boswell.

HRH Princess Lalla Salma at the opening

On stage we witnessed not only the Shanghai Percussion Ensemble but a string orchestra led by solo violinist from the London Symphony Orchestra, Sarah Nemtanu who provided a spirited and perfectly timed solo, and other soloists Ibrahim Maalouf who performed excellently on trumpet; his solo was a stunning stand-out on a night of great individual contributions.  Levon Minassian was on douduk; Seye Mohamed, ney; Zaim Abdou, oud, Henri Tournier on flute and Elshan Mansurov Bakou on kamanche.

After the narration, it was then the turn of the soloists to sing their poems in Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hindi and Mongolian. The audience was enchanted by the Mongolians Enkhajargal Dandarvaanchig (also known as Epi) (pictured above) and the gloriously costumed Gombodorj Byambajargal.(pictured below)

Annas Habib of Fez (pictured above) was among the performers - he sang in Arabic. Other Arabic singers were Naziha Meftah and Raza Hussain Khan, who also sang in Urdu. Salar Aghili and Ariana Vafadari sang in Persian, and Marianne Svasek in Hindi.

Our resident musicologist Christopher Witulski adds - Bruno Le Levreur stood out among the impressive cast of performers. His contra-tenor (singing in the high female soprano range) was controlled, lyric, and graceful. When his moments approached, the bed of music around him lowered into simple, classical accompaniments. The purity of his tone emphasized the balanced melodies and heightened the aura of elegance that spread across Bab al-Makina.

Bruno Le Levreur

The composition itself straddled that difficult line, bringing Arabic musical ideas and stylings into Western classical space. Amar negotiated the space between the melodically-driven "Eastern" elements and the harmonically-centered "Western" by often privileging the modes, melodies, and ornaments that are so common here in Morocco and elsewhere in the Arab world. Phrases were long, exercising the listeners' patience, rewarding them with beautifully rendered cadences and closures. Non-Western scales pervaded the work, but they were often underpinned by similarly expansive harmonies from the strings or pulsing rhythms from the deep percussion.

It is easy to become used to hearing vocal acrobatics in the form of high, fast, or powerful notes and sounds, but the featured performers tonight challenged, and ultimately extended, expectations. By including vocalists from unique traditions across North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the oratorio focused on exploring the breath and sound of the human body. In doing so, it attempted to make concrete the connection between spirit and body, of the sacred of religious experience and the sacred of artistic expression.

PRINCESS LALLA SALMA: MOST ELEGANT WOMAN AT ROYAL WEDDING

If you watched the recent royal wedding, you might have caught a glimpse of Morocco's Princess Lalla Salma, wife of HRH King Mohamed VI.

Mustapha Ajbaili of Al Arabiya reports that readers of the UK's celebrity magazine, Hello, have voted the Fez-born princess as the most elegant woman at the wedding in London on 29 April.

“The North African beauty—dressed in a pale pink and gold kaftan, the traditional clothing of her native country—easily triumphed in our most elegant woman competition, gaining 55 percent of our readers’ votes,” the magazine said.

Pippa Middleton came in second as she supported her sister, the bride Kate Middleton, throughout the wedding day.

The magazine wrote that “the battle for third place was closely fought with Charlene Wittstock—who is due to marry Prince Albert of Monaco this July—and Princess Letizia of Spain neck and neck most of the way.”

The Moroccan kaftan can be dressy casual to extremely formal depending on the fabrics used. They can be worn at dinner parties, engagement parties and weddings.

Princess Lalla Salma

photo: Sandy McCutcheon

Morocco's Royal family in Fez

Photographing Princess Lalla Salma's arrival at the opening of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music is restricted. However, there are official photographers, and The View from Fez is delighted to bring you photographs of the event.

The Princess was accompanied to the Festival by Bernadette Chirac, the former first lady of France (on the left), and Princess Norodom Bhopa Devi of Cambodia, sister to the king of Cambodia and choreographer of the Royal Cambodian Ballet who performed on the opening night.

Princess Lalla Salma greets Nadia Benjelloun, Director of the Fez Encounters

OPENING OF JNAN SBIL GARDENS

In other Moroccan royal news, Princess Lalla Hasnae (sister to HM King Mohamed VI) opened the Jnan Sbil gardens in Fez on Monday.

The people of Fez have long awaited the opening of these gardens on the edge of the medina, which have been closed for renovation for several years.

Princess Lalla Hasnae is President of the Mohamed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. Accompanied by several government ministers and local officials including the Wali of Fez, Mohamed Rharrabi, the Princess cut the ribbon and then toured the gardens with children from various local schools.

The View from Fez has, as yet, been unable to establish opening times of the gardens, but will keep you posted.

Fashionistas and Glitterati at the Fest.

Opening night at the Fez Sacred Music Festival is not just a musical event - it is the première social night of the year when the glitterati frock up, get coiffured, manicured and bejewelled. The View from Fez team didn't have a frock between them, but social and fashion editor, Dominique Nicebeat, was on the case. The Photographers were the intrepid Gérard Chemit and Sandy McCutcheon. Here is Miss Dominique's report.

Photo: Gérard Chemit

All that glitters is not gold and this year it was certainly true that silver was very much to the fore. This cowgirl top, bold bare shoulders and all, would not have looked out of place on Emy Lou Harris at the Grand Old Opry in my home town. The broad silver belt was stunning.

Where silver wasn't the predominant colour, it was certainly present in accessories such as the handbag in the left of the photograph below, or the trimming around the very tasteful apricot frock.

Photos: Gérard Chemit

Again we find silver as the unifying motif across a range of formal wear and jewellery. The necklace above was stunning and drew admiring and envious glances. However the "silver award" for the night has to go to this exquisite and beautifully tailored dress featured below. The lace trimming was wonderful

Photo: Gérard Chemit

Photo: Gérard Chemit

Perhaps the most striking departure from previous years was the shortened skirt length and the heels... oh dear, the heels. Let me put it this way; it is good thing that some of the glamorous young things didn't have to totter down the cobbled streets of the Medina.

Photo: Gérard Chemit

Silver - absolute elegance.

Photo: Sandy McCutcheon

The View from Fez fashion accessory award has to go to this wonderful piece of 'Fez Retro' - Hand of Fatima earrings - not in silver, alas, but nevertheless....

All that remains to be said was that Princess Lalla Salma was wearing a wonderful gown - black and silver.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

King and Queen of Jordan visit Fez

No strangers to Fez, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Rania were in Fez this weekend on a private visit.


Accompanied by the King's uncle, Prince Talal and his wife Princess Ghaida, the royal party arrived in Fez on Sunday afternoon and were greeted by King Mohammed VI, Princess Lalla Salma and their son Moulay Hassan.

Private visits such as this one give an opportunity for the two monarchs to discuss the close cooperation between the two kingdoms and to forge a common Arab stance on various issues. They also talked about current events and how to bring peace to the Middle East.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri told the press on Friday that Amman and Rabat had a clear vision about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The creation of a Palestinian state is the solution to the crisis in the Middle East," he said. "It is futile to seek other alternatives."

He said both countries backed Egyptian efforts to mediate a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas in and around Gaza.

King Abdullah and Queen Rania were the guests of honour at a dinner held by the Moroccan royals. Today the Jordanian King and Queen are off on an official state visit to Portugal.

HRH Queen Rania of Jordan at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, 2007

(photo: Sandy McCutcheon)

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news