Touring Morocco - Who Feels It Knows It

As a native of Ghana, and a student of Ghana's social and political history, the Ghana leg of our Africa trip this past summer did not add anything overly substantial to what I already know about the country. That is not to say, however, that I did not enjoy visiting the country with my colleagues, I did. If anything it was an honor and a pleasure to facilitate our pre-departure Harkness conversations on Ghana and Africa, as well as being sort of the fall back guy in Ghana, helping colleagues avoid the pitfalls of the marketplace during our shopping trips, and filling in the details for them as we moved from one landmark site to another. Perhaps the greatest excitement of all was seeing the Asante King in person at the graduation ceremony of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumase, as unexpected as the opportunity was. That said, for broadening my knowledge beyond my imagination, it was the Morocco tour which turned out to be the real thriller for me.

The one week tour of Morocco - from Casablanca to Rabat, Fes, Meknes, Volubilis, and Kenitra - raised my consciousness about the central place the country occupies in world history to a level no book alone could ever have. You see, mainstream academia and international bodies, such as the World Bank, have always decoupled North Africa from the rest of the continent in their dealings with Africa, to the extent that the so-called "sub-Sahara Africa" has come to mean Africa, in general. And yet, Morocco (which, together with Algeria, was known collectively as Mauritania at the time of the Moslem conquest) is, perhaps, surpassed only by ancient Egypt in any consideration of Africa in world history during antiquity and the medieval era. As an instructor of African history, I knew quite a bit about the history of Morocco, but only from the distance of written texts. Since our return from Africa, I have gone back to my books, re-read them, and have come to a better understanding of the central place of Morocco and Islam in the nearly thousand-year-long (from about mid-7th century to the mid-17th century) history of the region that stretches all the way from Spain through Morocco to the ancient empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai - all because of what I saw and heard from our tour guides in Morocco.

To walk through the imperial cities of Fes, Rabat, and Meknes is to appreciate the power of the Arab dynsties - from the founding Idrissids through the Merinids to the current ruling Alaouites. By leaps and bounds, Fes, a city of three cities - the Idrissid Fes el-Bali (Old Fes), the Merinid Fes el-Jedid (New Fes), and the French Fes - is the place to visit if one really wishes to know what I might call Arabic Morocco. Its grandeur is matched only by Marrakech to the south, the other imperial city which gave Morocco its modern name. It is unfortunate that, for security reasons, we had to skip going there. Founded by the Almoravids, an African dynasty from the Senegal River valley whose hegemony stretched all the way from Spain to the Ghana Empire during the 11th century, Marrakech was retained as the imperial capital by the succeeding Almohad and Saadian dynasties, both of which were also African.

It is hardly a stretch, therefore, to say that, if Fes is the spiritual and cultural center of Arabic Morocco, then Marrakech is its African equivalent. Although French is currently the European component of the multicultural character of Morocco, historically, that distinction primarily belongs to Spain. I cannot count the number of times our tour guides kept mentioning "Andalusia," the generic name given to Moslem Spain. It was there that, with Arabic, African, Jewish, Greek, Roman, and Chinese influences, the revival of higher education blossomed and laid the foundations, in part, for the subsequent European Renaissance centuries later.

Without a doubt, the most indelible experience of all for me took place in Kasbah d'Ouidas, a fortress enclave near Sala, Rabat's twin city, which served as the capital of the short-lived pirate-controlled Republic of Bou Regred (named after the nearby river). Upon turning a corner during a tour of the Kasba's narrow but pristine streets, we suddenly came upon a colorfully-dressed traditional street musician seated on a pavement chanting and strumming on a guitar. I was so moved by the spectacle that before I knew it I had joined him on his mini cymbals, at which point Ali, our tour guide, proceeded to adorn my head with some of the musicians's head gear. The spontaneity of it all was a thrill of a lifetime!

Well, the thrill may be gone now, but certainly not my new consciousness. I look forward to teaching the "Islam in Africa" unit of our "Pre-Colonial African History" course this fall with more enthusiasm and confidence than I could ever have gained without the trip to Morocco. How true the maxim that "who feels it knows it." We spent only one week in Morocco, but, in terms of consciousness awakening, I feel like I have lived in Morocco long enough to effectively teach the general contours of the central role the country played in world history during the medieval era - an influence that stretched all the way from England to the Songhai Empire.

And so, to all those who made this trip possible and memorable - from our sponsor Phil Loughlin to Principal Tom Hassan and his executive secretary, Mikki Deschaine, who was responsible for the pre-departure orientation logistics, my colleague Ahmed Jebari, who helped facilitate the Harkness conversations during our pre-departure orientation, and who also became our de facto fall back guy in Morocco, Hope Staab of Punahou, the leader of the trip, Jamie and Ali, our tour guides in Morocco, Kwaku, our tour guide in Ghana, my Exeter colleagues on the trip, who provided a much-needed moral support throughout, our Punahou counterparts, who serenaded us at every opportunity with a performance of the legendary Hawaiian rhythms and dance, and, last but certainly not the least, my traveling companion and life-partner, Mercy - I say thank you, sukran (Arabic), medase (Twi).
- Kwasi Boadi

Is It Poverty?

The two men in the picture to the right are dyeing agave silk in the medina of Fes, Morocco. The medina is an intricate and fascinating maze of narrow alleyways bustling with commerce. Skilled craftsmen work on their products while shopkeepers display their merchandise and compete for customers. Children run around, family members chat with each other, friends share a laugh. The tourist is struck by the vitality of the place and may wonder whether this can be considered “poverty.” The lives of the people in the medina are simple; yet they often appear happy and dignified. There’s no starvation here, and the many expert artisans take obvious pride in their work. These families are undoubtedly better off than the many we saw in the rural areas of Ghana. But we shouldn’t be misled into romanticizing the lives of these Moroccan households. What they experience, every day, is poverty indeed.

Poverty is best understood as a condition that limits people’s choices. Such choices include not only feeding oneself and one’s family, but also having access to health care, education, and some degree of economic security, as well as having the ability to participate in the life of the community and pursue interests and endeavors considered valuable. Morocco has undoubtedly made great strides toward removing poverty. A mere 2.5% of the population now lives on less than $1.25 a day; this compares to over 50% in the average Sub-Saharan African country. Life expectancy, now over 71 years, is not far from the levels achieved in North American and Western European countries (and nearly twenty years longer than in the average Sub-Saharan African country). Yet literacy levels remain remarkably low and access to health care limited. And there isn’t much of a social safety net to catch those hit by unemployment or a sudden drop in incomes. While the merchants in the medina may get by when things are good, their livelihoods are not secure; an illness, accident, or economic downturn will quickly push them below the poverty line. And their ability to see the next generation move into higher-paying, more secure jobs is drastically limited by an educational system that leaves over 40% of adults unable to read and write.

The next step for Morocco is to expand the reach of its educational system, so as to reduce illiteracy, increase labor productivity, and move a greater share of its population into the relative comfort and security of the middle class. A larger middle class will also allow the country to muster the resources needed to build a stronger social safety net for those who remain at the margins of the economic system.

It is intriguing for the tourist to observe the tanneries in the medina and learn that work conditions here have changed little since medieval times; but chances are that the people who work here hope that their kids will have a better life—one that frees them from the harsh toil of manual labor and affords them more economic security and peace of mind.