Category: all things moroccan

I came across these two videos last night… I nearly dropped my laptop: Jamel Debbouze and Gad El Maleh spoof rai stars Faudel and Cheb Mami. You can also watch their “infomercial” for “la barre de faire.”

U.S Government: Do you want American funding for your local media?
Morocco: No, thanks.

Although I keep a close eye on literary news, I had no idea that Leila Abouzeid had a new book out in the United States. Released in January, the book is a collection of stories, titled The Director. Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

The stories in this volume deal with issues both traditional and modern-relations between parents and children, between husbands and wives, and between citizens of newly independent Morocco and its new nationalist representative government.

Independence from French colonial rule has brought many changes to Morocco–some more beneficial than others. Women have entered the work force in great numbers, a development which has brought them new freedoms, but which has also caused problems within the traditional family. Abouzeid shows us how these changes have affected ordinary men and women, how small everyday events loom large in individual lives.

If you are new to Abouzeid’s work, you may want to start with Year of The Elephant (‘am al-feel).

King Mohammed began a five-day visit to Laayun and other cities in Western Sahara yesterday. The visit comes only a month before the Moroccan government is to submit a proposal to the United Nations on the status of the region. The conflict between Morocco and RASD has now become Africa’s oldest territorial dispute.

Related: Reuters slideshow on the Western Sahara dispute.

Morocco’s cultural heritage artifacts continue to be pillaged. The latest episode involves a German tourist being caught with a large number of archeological objects in the Spanish presidio of Ceuta. I can only guess at how he passed through Moroccan customs.

In its March 4, 1956 edition, Le Monde had this little, but significant note about Morocco:

CETTE INDÉPENDANCE que l’on a, sept ans durant, marchandée aux Etats “ex-associés”, cette indépendance qu’aujourd’hui encore on dispute à la Tunisie, le Maroc l’a, en fait, acquise hier vendredi 2 mars au Quai d’Orsay d’un trait de plume.

Lorsque lundi prochain, regagnant son palais de Rabat, Sidi Mohammed sera de nouveau l’objet de longues acclamations, il pourra se flatter de rapporter à son peuple le cadeau royal qu’il était venu chercher à Paris : le document qui consacre l’état de fait dans lequel son pays s’était installé depuis le 6 novembre.

C’est en effet à cette date, dans la déclaration de La Celle-Saint-Cloud, qu’est apparu dans un texte officiel le mot-clé, le mot-force : indépendance. Depuis hier, cette indépendance est donnée sans contrepartie et sans garantie.

In commemoration of its fifty years of independence, Morocco has released a major report that details changes and progress in matters of health, education, infrastructure, etc. The report is available in Arabic, Amazigh, French, English, and Spanish, and can be accessed here.