Submitted by Taylor Lawrence on the 2016 winter session program in Morocco sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
These past nine days, we spent on an excursion to the south of Morocco. When most people hear “the south” of anywhere, most people jump right to thoughts of empty spaces and almost nonexistent populations and overwhelming conservatism. In this case, most of that is correct. However, in the case of Morocco, the south of the country is more modern than the north despite the north’s proximity to European influences.
While many of the larger cities in the south, such as Marrakech, are very modernized, traditional ways of life still remain in places like Merzouga. In Merzouga, we spent the night in a Berber camp in the middle of the Sahara desert, complete with stargazing, watching the sunrise over the dunes and trekking through the sand on camel back. Afterwards, we 4-wheeled through miles of badlands and desert to visit a Bedouin family that sustains themselves through herding sheep. Their camp was very simple: a tent, a shower hut and a kitchen. We met only the women who were busy rounding up chickens and washing clothes; the men were off in the distance with the herds. The interesting part about the family we met was their refusal to accept modern customs. They didn’t even know who the king of Morocco was and had no interest in learning. In most areas that answer would come about out of a lack of resources, however, some traditional nomadic families simply refuse modern conveniences and knowledge even when the resources are offered. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, it is just very interesting!
Afterwards, we continued our journey, stopping in Ouarzazate for the night then Ait-Ben-Haddou in the morning, where many famous movies like Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia were filmed in addition to shows like Game of Thrones. This was very interesting because the old part of the city and traditional houses/fortresses are preserved, but only due to their modern use in filming. Our tour guide in Ait-Ben-Haddou was actually an extra in Game of Thrones and other features that have come to film in his village; and he was a descendant of the ancient leaders of the town. He spoke English, Spanish, Moroccan Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic and the local Berber dialect. With all these languages under his belt, he has had many opportunities to leave for a more modern city, yet he chose to stay in Ait-Ben-Haddou to spread culture and preserve the local heritage sites.
We also had the opportunity to have lunch with our bus driver’s family in the High Atlas Mountains. They live in a simple rural village off the main highway from Ouarzazate to Marrakech. Their house was three levels: first for the animals (cows, chickens, etc), second for the grain storage, and third for the family. This is a very traditional layout for a Berber house in the mountains. Our driver, Lahssan, had the opportunity to leave his village and become a driver and move to Marrakech whereas his siblings weren’t so lucky, many of them are still living with their parents and grandparents in the mountains in order to care for them.
After that came Marrakech. After Merzouga, Ouarzazate, Ait-Ben-Haddou and all the other more rural villages we visited, Marrakech came as quite a culture shock. The main boulevard was lined with modern clothing stores, Starbucks, McDonalds, five star hotels and bars. There were many more unveiled women in Marrakech versus Tangier, our home base in the north of Morocco. And there were many more tourists in Marrakech despite it being almost 10 hours travel from Europe. So everything was just extremely modern despite it being relatively in the middle of nowhere.
I never expected the south to be quite so different from the north, if anything I expected it to be the opposite of the north – more modern and the south more traditional; so it was very interesting to see the switch! Writing about it simply can’t describe how diverse this country is!
We’re coming up on our last week in Morocco, and heading to Spain after school on Thursday, so it will be a very exciting culture comparison before returning to the USA. I’ve been hearing about all the snow on the East Coast so we will sure be in for a weather shock after the low 80’s in Marrakech and mid 70’s of Tangier!