Welcome to the MoroccanCulture Blog

Morocco is a very fascinating place of travel and vacation. It is a perfect place for nature lovers as well as architecture and history enthusiasts. The landscapes, monuments, historical sites, architecture, ruins, desert, beaches, and even its markets are welcome attractions to be explored that would appeal to any tourist. Rabat is the administrative capital of Morocco and is also known as the ‘Garden City’. Rabat is a mixture of the old and new, a traditional city but also a modern one. Rabat is known for its bedecked alleys, beautiful white houses, and beaches. Chellah Rabat is said to be the first place to be settled along Bou Regreg river around the third century BC. Rabat is also home to many impressive monuments and other attractions and one of these attractions is the beautiful Citadel of Chellah Gardens. It is beautifully landscaped with various flowers that bloom during springtime and fills the place with its wonderful scent. Its sanctuary was used as royal burial place and its entrance door is magnificently decorated and inscribed with Arabesque calligraphy. Chellah Rabat experienced a very strong earthquake during the 18^th century which destroyed many of its structures from ancient Morocco. What used to be a thriving city and port, Chellah is now a major tourist attraction and is converted to a lush and beautiful garden.

"Travel and Vacation Abodes: Citadel of Chellah Gardens in Rabat, Morocco." 2 Nov. 2008 .

Image via Wikipedia The court of appeals of Agadir on Thursday ordered the provisional release of Moroccan blogger Mohamed Erajji, the official Maghreb Arabe Presse agency (MAP) reports.

Erraji had been sentenced to two years in prison on Monday for "lacking the respect due to the King" and the Royal family. He had been arrested last Friday after posting an article on the popular e-journal Hespress, in which he claimed that the King's charitable habits were "encouraging a culture of dependency" and the Moroccan people to be "lazy."

According to one of Erraji's relatives who was present at the trial in Agadir, Erraji was denied access to a defense lawyer and was convicted after a ten-minute trial.

The court of appeals ruled on Thursday that the lower court had failed to respect certain legal procedures under the Press and Publication Law. The public prosecutor's office did not object to Erajji's release.

Mohamed Erajji was the first blogger in Morocco to be given a prison sentence.


From MENASSAT:

Two years for criticizing the King
Posted on 10/09/2008 - 15:04
Moroccan blogger Mohamed Erraji has been sentenced to two years in prison for posting an article in which he criticized the policies of the King.

Hassan Hakmoun brings Moroccan music to Bangor

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS

Hassan Hakmoun and his ensemble play the danceable music of the Moroccan Gnawa on the Railroad Stage during the opening night of the American Folk Festival on Bangor's Waterfront.

Ann Herbert is living on the eastern coast of Africa, volunteering in Morocco with the Peace Corps.

The Peace Corps, an independent federal agency of the United States, works in more than 70 countries around the world. The volunteers work with governments, schools, nonprofit organizations, nongovernment organizations and entrepreneurs in the areas of education, health, business, informration technology, agriculture and the environment to help those people meet the need for trained workers and gain a better understanding of Americans.

Herbert graduated from Mitchell High School in 2002 and Butler University in 2006 with a major in religious studies and minors in Spanish and business. She is the daughter of Christy and Hank Wintczak of Mitchell and Rod and Bridgett Herbert of Fort Wayne.

The past 16 months have been filled with new experiences for Ann, but also for her family.

The following is an account of some of them from the perspective of her mother, Christy Wintczak of Mitchell, and includes a description of her biggest project so far. The project has been planned for and with women in the community.

“For the past 16 months, our family has had the experience of having our second-oldest daughter, Ann, living and working in Morocco as a Peace Corps volunteer. I, myself, couldn’t imagine what was driving her to live in such a far away, foreign place, but this is what she wanted so we supported that decision not knowing what was in store for her or us.

“The first thing that became apparent to us was the dress code that was required of her in order of be respected and acceptable in Morocco’s Islamic society. She called home telling us about the women covered from head to toe and was worried the clothes she had taken weren’t conservative enough. I rushed her a package of lightweight, yet very conservative, shirts that would be bearable in the scorching hot summers. The shirts were cut so that the bottom went to mid thigh, the top went up to her neck and the sleeves went at least to her forearm.

“The relationship between men and women and their roles in society is very different from what we are used to. Ann’s work for the most part has been with girls and women, partly because as a woman, men are less accessible to her, but mostly because her work as a health volunteer is best accomplished when women are reached. Women are the ones taking care of the household and are therefore in charge of their family’s overall cleanliness and diet, both of which are crucial in preventing the utmost culprit of infant deaths in Morocco — diarrhea.

“Diet has been one of the most difficult things for Ann while abroad. In the states, she was spoiled with all the products we have available to us. She enjoyed living a healthy lifestyle by eating lots of whole grains, vegetables and fruits. All of these are available in Morocco, the difference being only convenience. Because she is an avid cereal addict, I have sent many boxes of pumpkin flax seed crunch or some other fiber rich cereal which gives her a break from cooking and a refreshing reminder of home. While there, she has learned to cook because things aren’t available in the ready-made form that we are used to. She has learned how to make her own goat cheese, peanut butter, bread, hummus, soy milk, tortillas and other things we just go to the store and buy. Besides ‘American food,’ she is also learning Moroccan cuisine, which consists mostly tagines and couscous. Tagine is a mix of meat and vegetables cooked in a special clay volcano shaped cooking contraption. t meal time, the tagine is set in the middle of the table where all can reach it. The volcano shaped top is removed and everyone tears off a piece of the bread sitting in front of them and uses it to scoop up some of the well cooked food inside. I hope that she will cook it for us when she comes home. Although all of this cooking can be an inconvenience, I get the idea she thoroughly enjoys this aspect of her life there.

“In working with these women she has developed many close relationships, especially with her host family. Ann suggested I send presents for her to share with those people close to her. Simple things like shampoo, lotion, toothbrushes, chocolates, Betty Crocker cakes with a container of icing are special and exotic to those she lives with. In an attempt to share her culture and nurture the most meaningful relationships to her she hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at her house (one of the days when the electricity and water were suddenly turned off in the entire village ) gave her host sisters Christmas presents, and celebrated their birthdays — none of which they had ever done before. I’ve also sent simple work supplies such as tape, transparent laminating paper, pens and pencils because these everyday work essentials are mostly out of reach for people in her town. She has used these to hold health classes for girls and women at their local health clinic and schools as well as holding trainings on association development and grant-writing for the local women’s association.

“From my understanding, she has multiple projects going. The first is a Tashlhate video project. She has worked with another nearby volunteer to develop a series of educational health videos in the local language, Tashlhate, that will be used by Morocco’s ministry of health as well as future Peace Corps volunteers. Although she is proud of the final videos, she mostly boasts about the process in which they were made. She held class for girls and women in the community on various topics such as tooth-brushing, diarrhea, purifying water, etc. After the class, they filmed educational skits featuring Moroccan girls that pertained to that day’s topic. Then the health clinic staff added a professional, detailed run-down of each topic. Some of the pictures were drawn by another volunteer who had studied art and then they put all those components together to produce the video. They now have 12 videos.

“... Currently her time is occupied working with her local women’s association to develop their baking project. Last year, with her help, they held their first Ramadan Bake Sale. Ramadan is a time of year in the Muslim calendar when all Muslims fast from sun up to sundown for an entire month. When breaking the fast as sundown, Moroccans eat various traditional delicacies. The women’s association saw this as an income-generating opportunity and therefore made and sold the customary baked goods. Last year’s project was a success, especially considering all equipment was thrown together by women temporarily donating their various cooking supplies. The money that they made went toward paying for sewing classes, Arabic classes for the illiterate women and to help start up their community-wide trash disposal program. Because of this project, women are taking a leading role in their personal and communal development. However, the project needs improvements. They don’t have good, or enough equipment to sustain the project and therefore have worked with Ann for months on planning a bigger, better version for this year and years to come.

“Although I miss Ann, I have come to see why she has chosen to pursue this adventure. She is getting to do, learn and see things she never would have otherwise. She has developed close relationships and adapted to a different way of living. I sometimes still find her experience hard to relate to seeing that it is so different from anything I have experienced. Ann’s family supports her in any way we can: through sending letters, pictures, packages, calling and donating to the causes she is working hard for. By doing this, I have learned a little about Morocco, about Islam, about my daughter and even a little about myself and the country in which I live. I know most of all, that we have so much to be thankful for.”

Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, June 28, 2008
Lounes Matoub, the beloved Berber singer, was known for d... Berber musician Moh Alileche, who lives in Berkeley, knew...

A little more than 10 years ago, Merzouk Allache was in his Berkeley apartment talking on the telephone with a friend, Lounes Matoub. Allache was worried for Matoub. Both men were singers who vocalized about their native Algeria, but Matoub was known as the most outspoken singer of his generation - someone whose rhetorical lyrics prompted death threats, a shooting that put him in the hospital and a kidnapping that spirited Matoub away for two weeks until he was finally released.

"He said, 'I love you like a brother; anything I can do for you, please let me know,' " Allache remembers Matoub saying from Algeria. "I told him, 'Yes, do me this: Watch out. Take care of yourself. That's the biggest favor you can do.' He was a fatalist. He said, 'If I have to die, I die.' "

A few months after their conversation, Matoub was dead at 42. A gunman (or gunmen) shot the car he was driving with almost 100 bullets. For the funeral service in his native village, which thousands of people attended, Matoub's body was draped in the Algerian flag. On Sunday in Berkeley, Allache will perform at a commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the singer's death. Matoub's life and death are impossible to discuss without addressing the subject of Berbers, the native people of Algeria, of whom Matoub was one.

For decades, the Berbers have struggled to have their rights - and their language - recognized by Algeria's government. Though Berbers in Algeria (and across North Africa) have long adopted Islam as a religion, they are not Arabs, and have resisted any attempts to marginalize their culture. In Algeria, Matoub was openly critical of the government's treatment of Berbers, and openly trumpeted the country's Berber history. One of Matoub's first popular songs, "The Lion," profiled Berber revolutionary Ramdane Abane, an Algerian independence leader in the anti-colonial movement against France, who was assassinated in 1957. Matoub songs accused the Algerian government of mistreating and killing Berbers.

Allache and other friends of Matoub believe the government had him murdered for his outspokenness. Others believe that radical Islamists - like those who kidnapped Matoub in 1994 - carried out his killing, which has never been solved. In the Berber region of Algeria (which is the southernmost, mountainous part of the country), Matoub is a martyr - a Martin Luther King-like figure whose image is everywhere. "There is not a single cafe, restaurant or business," says Allache, "that doesn't have a poster of Lounes Matoub."

Matoub's music is also played everywhere in southern Algeria - and throughout France, where millions of French Algerians live. In the United States, Matoub's music is a staple of many world music afficionados, who gravitate to songs that veer from free-form folksy to studio-produced pop. Matoub, who made 36 albums, played the mondol, an instrument similar to the mandolin. He sang almost exclusively in Tamazight, the Berber language. YouTube features scores of Matoub videos and tributes, which show the singer in his various states of performance, including stadium shows. Part of Matoub's appeal was his infectious playing style - on stage, he was constantly smiling, joking, cajoling, storytelling, anything that moved him. He was like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie rolled into a politicized Berber musician, and like those three American performers, Matoub was a poetic songwriter. In one song, Matoub described the mountains near his childhood village as "my soul; the mountains saw me grow up - they are the mountains that protected me."

Whether he performed at stadiums or smaller venues, Matoub never took a fee, says Allache, who knew the singer for almost 30 years. Instead, the money went to causes he supported. Matoub, who grew up in poverty, made his living from sales of his albums - which made him wealthy. During Matoub's 1993 visit to the Bay Area, he went to San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood and, on the spur of the moment, bought a $1,500 leather jacket.

"You know how artists are," says Allache, who plays the guitar. "They like to dress up."

Two months ago, Allache visited Matoub's grave, which is located by his old village home in Taourit-Moussa. One of Matoub's songs was titled, "Today I Exist, Tomorrow I'm Not Sure." Allache, 47, talks about Matoub as if he's still alive, using the present tense to say that Matoub "thinks of himself as Algerian first, then Berber."

(Though Berbers use the word "Berber" to describe themselves, the word is related to "barbarians," and Berbers often prefer other descriptions, such as "Imazighen" or "Amazigh.")

Events like Sunday's in Berkeley keep the memory of Matoub alive for others who may not have known the singer the way Allache did. In the past week, Matoub events have been held around the world, including Paris, where the mayor wants to dedicate a street to the singer.

"He wanted to spread the truth," says Moh Alileche, who, like Allache, is a Bay Area Berber musician who knew Matoub for years. "That's the reason people like him so much."

A commemoration of Algerian singer Lounes Matoub, who was killed 10 years ago, will be held from 6:30-10 p.m. Sunday at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. (at Spruce), Berkeley. The event, which features music, video tributes and more, is free. For more information, e-mail amazigh_group@yahoo.com.

To hear music by Matoub, go to links.sfgate.com/ZDYG.

E-mail Jonathan Curiel at jcuriel@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/28/DD5611FM0N.DTL