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9/1/1987 - Glimpses of Morocco - Part I by Dirk J. Vandewalle

INSTITUTE OF CURRENTWORLD AFFAIRS DJV Ambassade Belgique Avenue Marrakech Rabat September GLIMPSES OF MOROCCO PART I Mr Peter Martin Institute Current World Affairs Wheelock House West Wheelock Street Hanover NH 03755 Dear Peter My three reports contain fragments travel notes Morocco They follow chronological order route through country roughly clockwise circle starting Ceuta ending Tangiers In between thousand miles almost months traveling The reports contain rather rough drafts often without historical general background Since narrative often 3umps forward different towns locations without seeming connection included names cities inscribed The captions underneath pictures fragments notes Omar Tunisian friend oined There already slight smell taste Morocco Marseilles Vans enormous bundles heading south Moroccan migrant laborers returning their summer vacations At night parking along highways blankets rolled tarmac tired children among loaves tabouna bread harissa thermos bottles Women cascade skirts under woolen kaftans hover The mustaches harsh guttural berber accents direct affairs these temporary caravanserai gentle toward children commanding toward their women morning parking toilets crowded A young wanders accident women bathroom follow ensuing conversation while filling gastanks An angry woman yells daughter stumbles You business taking dress public place This bathroom young woman retorts What doing Why instead You should these things happen Is everything happens fault Dirk Vandewalle North Africa Fellow Institute Current World Affairs His interest political economy Egypt North Africa particular development strategies Egypt Algeria Libya Tunisia Morocco decades Near Algeciras flavor Morocco picks Restaurants selling t__aines Moroccan stews couscous More berber dialect guttural rattles around The increase number harbor loading docks garbage unwashed people Sabra Shatila custom official calls guides Land Rover The families tired The children hausted asleep windows leaning other rolled women Outside window pillowcase yellow little swirl tortured cookie crumbs encrusted spilling plastic hairbow It quiet morning camping above mountain Chefchaouen A shepherd guiding flock through scrubbery below Shariff owner little clambered watch wondrous stranger typewriter Chefchaouen sixty miles Spanish enclave Ceuta until seventy years couple Westerners visited sacred One Walter Harris British journalist almost rumor spread christian entered News seemingly still travels While buying bread baker approaches Are typewriter Yes Pleae Another invitation You quickly about invitations Either A moment hesitation brings tightly lasped orearm minute worth persuasion Once place impolite difficult reuse heitate waves baskets bread bright lightblue courtyard Behind curtain women chattering unaware visitor The baker their conversation bring minutes later There thirty eight bakers Chechaouen Omar The assure cracks smile bellowing laugh Cookie bread morning tajine aternoon The penetrate A baguette almost handle before Omar indeed baker Could letter My lives Arles haven heard month He there several years barely reads arabic grandson speaks French The letter litany paternal devotion implied ilial irresponsibility The baker searches convey stern without wanting alienate araway It emotional blackmail Your mother nearly blind She would children There three thousand Chefchaouens perhaps hundred European towns percent population about national average figure Many return Omar clings straws Perhaps enough money little grandson Quranic school every When morning young singing field beyond raucous yelled abandon thinking alone valley From hundred yards above valley floor watched riverbed where hours night farmers their horses forth across wheat Women scooped grain large round sieves throwing remove chaff still miles Taza Rif Middle Atlas From El Hoceima landscape seeming solitude burned brown The solitude misleading At every children scrambled steep appraoch pleading dirham candy They looked ragged barefoot shaved summer their hands rough calloused A young brought younger brother dying enormous hardened infection ankle already shone bright fever mouth trail spittle grimace The Taza Casita where shade cluster acacia impromptu little market organized Each little foodstand tarpaulin strung above vegetables The smelled mutton tomatoes We ourselves scrutinized group veiled women The tables spring covered bright dropcloths below ground trampeled At policeman asked papers On other occasions Omar passport produced suspicious looks prolonged questioning Such psychological travel West Arabs cannot conceive other Arabs tourists their countries What interest could ustaz professor money opportunity visit Paris London looking Taza Luckily officer Taza grudges He greeted Omar warmly called Arab brother Some banter followed What brings Morocco ustaz Tourism never country The officer flips through pages passport You married Im still looking beauty settle On grass spring women laugh The young policeman senses ready audience smiles their direction There around The women shrieking lling pretend indignation Maybe I better stick Tunisian least those CHEFCHAOUEN There prison Chefchaouen kasbah little grove trees magnolia bushes where Abd Krim languished couple years This before organized great Riffian revolt before became Morocco nationalists Krim accounts impressive figure handsome intelligent courageous Sayid Ayad corpulent rather outspoken guide Chefchaouen pronounced himself unimpressed Mr Krim credentials Perhaps historical knowledge about country minutes before rather startling opinion called General Lyautey arrived Morocco great eighteenth century statesman Sayid nevertheless considered himself authority Moroccan history authority derived shiny brass medallion around This proof university diploma history In course observed close these official medallions They thrust whenever whenever youtre about enter museum In Fes enterprising little become official guides tender seven eight without university degree difference presumably dirhams A particularly amusing brought scrutiny Rachidiya where bearer according crudely stamped lettering GUID OFFICIAL GARDIEN DES VOITUES He indignantly refused delightful forgery VOLUBILIS The Roman ruins Voiubi disappointing But setting magnificent shallow deserted grain filled plateau valley The already started drove across dusty plain Moulay idris darkening evening crimson filigree around pillars Forum The gatekeeper grudgy closing right change return promise Mouiay idris afterwards produced tickets But already wander around walked Forum watched travel companion hurried search mosaics other guidebook cated treasures The stone around against valley below where distance fields being burned Small figures running forth cutting firebreaks across fields Above hawks riding watching rabbits fields until their wings folded suddenly graceful plunged toward always believed minimalist approach traveling sometimes there pleasure seeing Once night visit church Cordoba mosque priest intonating behind slipped behind curtain darkened mosque It partial exquisite moonlight vowed never return mosque entirety And Voiubilis setting perfect again softening crimson fires fields deserted lichen stained ruins almost mauve grenadine shadow cypress infinitely across plain DYERS PITS IN FES The stench leather tanning dyeing Fes tourist guides sprigs their customers through these infernal places Little processions everone dutifully sniffing bright green leaves their heaps animal horns discarded pieces urine tanning clouds biting flies The spectacle truly medieval In crumbling walls covered drying hides little stand kneedeep cauldrons The little brick walkways which covered nauseating grayish slime slippery Their already permanently colored indigo In summer their backs covered flies winter tolerate water minutes Unti cuppe outra anyth forwa water The deman thems WATERSELLERS IN MEKNES selling water large cities thought cartiste employment extra dirhams littl village beaten track encountered young Iking weekly market They carry assortment siIver bangles their wrists bronze circul peaked about whose origin could A slight forward shoulder makes water goatskin carried between shoulders cities refrigerators shiny Coke ellers money chief posing tourists They friend calls Morocco between economy longer traditional almost certainly never employable Moroccan economy Toufists become their source income andard photograph dirhams When supply outlasts price becomes dirham In times dirham miniscule amount about cents argue among shove CEMETERY NEAR TINE IDAD For Morocco rural population Islam simple austere religion continues dominate daily Older people still measure voice m_u_ad_h_i_n_ reciting Quran minaret Out Tinedad hamlet juncture High Atlas Sahara voice three clock morning The village darkness desert Only harsh unshielded lightbulb inside mosque provided light Inside dozen lined nightair Here hours drive Land Rover nearest Islam continued simplicity timelessness In morning again carrying villager cemetery Austerity prevails death Burials place within twenty hours The wrapped simple white shroud A piece propped upright grave direction Mecca There carved stone equal before Allah Sometimes cemeteries located around local marabout saint More often plain desert miles After sandstorm villagers where graves HOUSE NEAR GORGE DU tODRA In region often shrewd often ruthless rulers Hassan Ii takes special place The skillful difficult perform concerns religion rural Morocco often called God deputy earth Khalifat Allah Ard countryts constitution considers Amir Mu minin_ Commander Faithful Between difference popular islam Islam educated elite Popular Islam venerates marabouts pious salihun hints possibility human intervention blessings The Islam educated elite finds unacceptable The carefully rather murky between popular formal designations their implications Popular Islam provides crucial support It essentially rural phenomenon makes little distinction between state poiitical authority The countryside littered three words unity popular conception Alla AI Watan A Malik God Country King The words painted crumbling walls berber homes picture scratched traffic white pebbles mountainsides The formal arabic another important aspect popular perception religious authority accounts living Arab ruler But three words official stationery formal statements scrupulously consistent tenets Islam educated elite I0 How people photographed tells about think themselves always photography shops Taza medina disappointment The young looked macho hands nonchalantly stuffed denim jackets shirt tennis shoes The little girls patches mascara photographer standard blond Western beauty The resembled miniature King Faisals photographed against cheaply exotic backdrops palms camels Sadam Husseins filled mustaches berets plastic decoration pinned their uniforms There unavoidable pictures young karate outfits Here there family portrait father looking stern unapproachable children shoulders seated inches family Fes eternal Fes tumble houses medieval walls running across landscape dusty setting It arrived unannounced without usual collection grease stained carshops flocks American converted taxis waiting Nothing until apparition three parts curved around mountainsides seemingly endless chain There still plenty light arrived everything shaded covered against summer In mornings alleys buzzed activity afternoon shops closed until evening squares people gathered under tarpaulins sticks lined along shaded walls The squares blindingly white against darkness alleys group occasionally ventured minutes soccer beside Nejarine fountain young plastic Whatever white duncolored brown everything within except where black shaded alleys And drabness monochrome cityscape scraps color stood jewels the_silver miniature kohlbottles filigrained amulet containers their splotches enamel crudely worked surface bright blues irregular berber small octagonal brass lined mirrors little dirham often dirham cigarette nightime approached ceramic tiles fountains silky freshly cotton hanging bamboo poles encrusted alleys piled dripping donkeys sidebaskets In Morocco poverty endemic deformed bodies common occurrence In Fes later nauseating extent Marrakesh turned asset exploit tourist sympathy And tourist sympathizing poverty becomes comforting emotion cheap sentimentality At times parts moment tourist rolls dusty market square Human activity suspended until arrival there bodies toward vehicles baring withered limbs bleeding sores little receive money exclamations tourists curses guides Soon square returns normalcy awaiting Amid squalor splendor stood souvenirs development recycled grainbags world Cumin peppers cotton Roumania plastic From People United St henna chickpeas burlap People Republic China Morocco accepts equanimity ambassador small country lunch We passed Atlas dessert Near ridge first valley Midelt clouds color pewter mountaintops They fingered among boulders Col Ta ghamt sense isolation increased Then mountains receded passed through tunnels French Foreign Legion century Swiftfooted young beside little trays fossils minerals The valleys widened large spaces eroded purple buttes laying against horizon We different world There persistent wouldn leave nearly month sometimes moment notice swelled storm marooning carried imprint detailed piaster casting Before utensils dusted Each color changed burgundy burned orange ochre After storm drove hours sepia landscape A bdued valevloo Wherever blown dustc sunshine sliced across landscape shredding valleys We different world The atmosphere vaguely African The architecture desert there hints Agades Timbuktu Beyond magnolias drooped banks Ziz riverbed stood tistory houses crenellated Qis walls wooden gutters walls shuttered against geometric decorations painted around windows Only minarets truly North African whitewashed square goldplated crescents Islam still orthodox conforming allow adaptations found Saharan vernacular hitecture But strict austere desert Islam found least divided loyalty Perhaps accurately across universal human trait putting basket later Rissani wonder doctor AIi Received Hanover