Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Traveller's Tale


Moroccan Maiden


I had the fortune of beginning my college education as a student on an ocean liner that traveled the world. My parents had close friends whose daughter had studied and traveled this way for two years, and her stories, intellect and worldly knowledge were quite impressive. Carol was the type of young lady that would have made the best of a junior college experience, but she was an excellent ambassador for what was first known as the University of the Seven Seas.
The institution has undergone many name changes through the years, as it has changed affiliations with colleges and universities in the United States . When I attended it was called the World Campus Afloat, and the land campus was Chapman College, of Orange, California . Today it is known as The Institute for Shipboard Education, Semester at Sea, and the academic sponsor is the University of Pittsburgh .



The year I attended (Fall 1967-1968), was quite extraordinary in the world of political affairs, as well as in the history of the sailing university. That was the year that fierce fighting in the Arab-Israeli War resulted in a first time closing of the Suez Canal. Being a successful teen model, embodying the African American version of the “California Girl”, living in Los Angeles, these events would normally have been of little importance to me. But because I was about to expand my horizons, traveling the world by its oceans and seas, this turned out to be of great significance.
The closing of the Suez resulted in a drastic change of itinerary for my semester at sea. Normally the ship left from either the East or West Coast, traveled half of the globe and returned home. But closure of the Suez Canal meant we would have to travel all the way down and around the Cape of Good Hope . Our tour now would be circumventing the entire globe! Around the world in about 110 days. And all for the same price!



One experience I will always cherish was the visit to the North African port of Casablanca, Morocco . The city has such a rich and exotic culture. It would be my first experience being in a land where people of color were in the majority. With people of all shades of brown I was eager to explore the feeling of blending in and becoming one with the native people. I was also fortunate in that I spoke French, one of the countries’ major languages. Mrs. Marquez, my high school French teacher, had always complimented me on my accent.



Our first day out shopping, I headed straight to the Old Medina, the souk where Casablanca ’s residents did their shopping. No tourist markets for me, I was looking for a Djellaba, the long robe worn by the local women. I added the accompanying head wear and face coverings and Voila! My transformation was complete! And what a transformation it was. Now, speaking French and covered head to toe in the traditional garments, I became a Moroccan.
While we shopped, I saw that my money got a lot more than what my white shipmates were able to bargain for their purchases. The only drawback was that I was now prohibited from escaping the hot sun by retreating into the clubs or hotels for a cool alcoholic beverage as we were used to doing. A young lady sitting and drinking alcohol wearing a Djellaba in those types of establishments was definitely a ‘No No’. And it was only after getting several dirty looks by local men that a bartender kindly explained this to me.


However, the deepest implications of my obviously very authentic image hit home that evening as I walked up the gangplank and attempted to board the ship with my friends. There was a normal routine that consisted of first passing the port officials, then greeting the designated ship officers. After doing it so many times, one was no longer required to show your passport and documents, as the officers by now were familiar with the faces of their 300 or more student body. This evening was different though, because I greeted them in French instead of English, and for all intents and purposes, I looked like a Djellaba covered Moroccan woman.



Before the officers could allow me to step onto the ship, the local port police thrust their arms in front of me and told me, “Arête!! Arête!!” They were ordering me to stop. Very adamantly they were not about to allow me to board the ship. In French, they kept asking me where I was from. In my playful mood, the first time they asked I said, “Je suis (I am) Moroccan”. My friends and I, being young college kids were all laughing at the confusion I was creating. Each time they asked me, I would switch, where I said I was from between being Moroccan and American. I kept responding, “Je suis Americaine”, but I would pronounce Americaine with my very good accent, and it would sound like I said, “Je suis Moroccan”.



Things took a serious turn when the ships’ officers finally told my friends to embark, but said that I would not be allowed onboard. When we all asked why, we were told that the port police had determined that I was a Moroccan prostitute attempting to get onboard to offer my services to the young men! Overcoming my shock, and now very sober, I began to speak English, and the ships’ Captain was called. He quickly verified my identity and ushered me onboard.



Needless to say, I realized after reflecting upon all of the experiences I had that first day wearing the Djellaba, that donning a costume worn by the local people one is visiting, entails a lot more than, “Hey look at me! I look just like the natives!” For, truly respecting the dignity of the people and the cultures that one meets is much more than a surface effort. The significance of customs and learning what’s behind the symbols of that culture is as much an important part of the travel experience, as being there. I learned that I could easily look like a native, but that behaving like one was a completely different matter.


And because you know, I love to create a banquet for you, here's.....a bit more.......


In the Heart of the Medina:

Dances of North Africa



The Medina, the walled city, is the centre of traditional urban life in North Africa today. The maze of confusing streets is the home to the souk or market where traditional crafts are still practised and offered for sale. Modern and traditional urban women mingle with peasants in from the countryside who have come to ply their wares and make special purchases. Continue on a winding narrow ravine-like street between the high walls of the flanking buildings and you will come past solid, wooden doors, decorated and protected with an amulet, offering the possibility of entry with a huge bronze knocker often shaped like a hand. But what one cannot see is the world which opens if one can only pass these doors, past a blind entryway, to where they open on magnificent tiled courtyards with gardens and a fountain, surrounded by rooms which all open to the central communal space and the distant sky. This is the domain of women, their work place and traditionally a place for their celebrations: births, circumcisions, marriages, sacrifices, trance-healing rituals and eventually death.

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Eric Tournaire

Serpent in Batik by Eric Tournaire

Moroccan artist

Water Color and ink on Paper


Eric Tournaire was born in 1958 in Africa, in Casablanca, Morocco. He lived there until 1974. In 1981, thanks to its education and scholarship, he spent one and a half months in Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, and Ghana. He returned to Morocco in 1999. He painted as an assistant of Claude Morin for 10 years, building its iconography of African inspiration. He lived and painted in Pennes - Mirabeau, still developing his particular universe.

He writes:
Africa ... Africa, the cradle of humanity, is one of my sources of inspiration most intense and the paintings of Korhogo, in northern Côte d'Ivoire. The magic of nature at large, with his powers and cosmogonies primitive touch me a lot. In my paintings I try to refer to all these civilizations that succeeded and mixed in the crucible of the history of this continent. By overlay patterns, colors, and transparencies, I try to express a succession of images, legends, religions and myths together closely in the space of my paintings and drawings.To obtain a summary of these overlays I use different techniques with each other.


Check the Inside African Art link for more of the art being created today by Africa's artists.
http://www.insideafricanart.com/

And here's more!


A wonderful website detailing a festival of extraordinary music of the the Black Africans of Morocco. The festival is in it's 11th year and will be held June 26 - 29, 2008 in Morocco. Some of the website is in French, but much of it is in English, and the homepage offers a taste of the music. Go There! http://www.festival-gnaoua.net/



Gnawa are the descendents of slaves originating from Black Africa who established brotherhoods throughout Morocco. They are made up of master musicians (maâlem), metal castanet players, clairvoyants, mediums and their followers.
They are at the same time musicians, initiators and healers, blending African and Arabo-Berber customs. Despite being Muslims, the Gnawa base their ritual on djinn (spirits) straight from the the African cult of possession.


The most spectacular and important ceremony is the Lila, whose function is essentially therapeutic. During the celebration the maâlem and his group call on the saints and supernaturel entities to take possession of their followers who fall into trance.


Their instruments : 3 stringed percussive lute (guembri) Large metal castanets (qraqeb) Drums (ganga)


Their ritual can be compared to Haïtian voodoo and Brazilian macumba.
The music of the brotherhood - of which only the profane part is played on stage to the public during the festival - has sparked a wave of emulators on the international scene.

GLOSSARY
Gnawa : plural of Gnawi. A generic term which includes all members of the brotherhood including the master musicians, castanet players, clairvoyant healers and the followers of the cult.
Maâlem : master of the ceremony
Moqadma : priestess Tallaâtes,
chouwafates or arifates : clairvoyant healers
Mlouk : supernatural entities
Guembri or Hajhouj : percussive 3-stringed lute
Aouicha : small guembri
Qarqabats or Qraqech : metal castanets
Tbel : drums
Ftouh errahba : beginning of the mlouk repertory of songs
Derdeba ou Lila : Ritual of possession
Hal ou jedba : transe
Koyo : Pre-Islamic musical repertory
Click on this link and scrool to the end of the page for a more photos from a blog by some music lovers that were at last year's festival.
Here's what they had to say:
"We reach Essaouira late that day. It is the 21st of June, 2 days before the start of the Gaoua Festival.
23rd of June. It is Festival time. The town's buzzing. The craze, that the Gnaoua music creates in peoples' heads, is toxic, contagious. You cannot escape it in these next 4 days. Concerts from 6 p.m. to sometimes 3 in the morning. I am loving it. "
Travel My People...Get out there and enjoy yourself, and let the world enjoy you! Why not.... consider Morocco..... instead of Monterey this year?
Just food for thought from this feast of infinite possibilities laid out before you~
Kentke

3 comments:

  1. Very cool article on Gnawa trance music. The World Music Institute up here hosted a show by some Moroccan musicians at Symphony Space a year or so ago. We are so fortunate in NYC, there are both commercial groups and non-profits dedicated to exposing world musics to us in many ways. The Garifuna peoples are interesting too. Africans who shipwrecked in the Caribbean in the 1600s or earlier and blended with the native Arawack/Caribs, their culture is very distinctive and now spreads across three or more central American countries, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Belize and various small islands. In diaspora they have communities in the US too, Texas, New York, New England...etc. They've won support from the UN as an independant indigenous people, the only living descendants of the Carib language group displaced and killed off by Spanish and British colonial invaders. There are several political initiatives afloat to get them allkinds of reparations. Cool, to see some "Indians" who are also black, get reparations for Columbus.

    N.Y. Music Lover

    ReplyDelete
  2. Went through the blog quickly.
    You've got stuff in there which requires real brains to read.

    You had told me the Ship story before & I had related it to Chris & Denyse.
    There is more for me in this telling.

    Some weeks ago was going through Nile civilizations & discovered for myself the Meroe & other references you make.
    That was interesting.
    Didn't tell me exactly which group(s) you feel that you are from (based upon).

    It's is another economic history which intrigues me.
    Depots, ports of call, stops on the land routes, and distribution points that are now being put into the picture are very interesting in themselves and help explain demographics & development of places, trade, and what we do & use.
    Many places had fallen off the map.
    They are being rediscovered & brought into the knowledge base.

    So the area, past & future, is now one of interest for me.
    David
    Harrowsmith, Ontario
    Canada

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear David,

    Thanks for the comments. How heart-warming, that something you found here both correlated with your own inquisitive mind's explorations, AND inspires you to delve even deeper into the history, of the region that was once the Civilization of Meroe.

    For me, however, it's equally important to also keep your eyes on the current happenings. That area is now in the country known as Sudan, so you can imagine, my anguish when I read of the suffering, ignorance and violations of Life's expression going on there today.

    The people of Darfur and Southern Sudan I would think are descendants of the Nubian kingdom that once ruled Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.

    Now, how does it all tie in with Morocco? Although Morocco is thought of as an Arab nation, it is definately an African nation, being located on the continent of Africa. For me, to distinuish the presence of the African footprint, whether in the music, metal working, philosophy ---in other words ---to see how that presence still manifests itself is important to a more wholesome understanding of the dynamics that have created the reality that we deal with today.

    It's always a pleasure to be able to recognize how the roots of my human lineage have evolved, adapted, and still reign supreme, feeding the various cultures of the people of our Planet.

    Kentke

    ReplyDelete

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