Before we start, I’d like to ask you, would you dare to explore a diverse perspective? With all that is happening in the world, it seems so much more important that I release this now. Now, when people of color are fighting to be seen and heard. What better way than to explore and let our voices resonate far and wide.
Thank you for taking the time to travel light with me.
I’m writing this with The Night Window blasting in my ear, the 5th track in Thomas Newman’s soundtrack for 1917 (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). I’m a Newman fan and a soundtrack fan and I need a new one, a good one for every story I try to pull together. It is a rule of thumb.
Today, I’m attempting to piece together a few of my memories and the many bullet point lists I wrote whilst traveling across Morocco — and the soundtrack is fitting. Dramatic, wistful, ancient, majestic — all of the feelings I felt on our long drives across the tip of North-West Africa.
WHY TRAVEL AFRICA?
I’m on a mission to travel through the width and breadth of Africa. There should not be any more reason to validate travel to and through Africa other than that I am from her loins.
I see history as an interpretation and sharing of experiences that construct worlds and memories. An interpretation? Yes. “The action of explaining the meaning of something,” as defined by Google.
The explanation of meaning – is a story. Human knowledge is based on stories and the human brain consists of cognitive machinery necessary to understand, remember, and tell stories. Stories teach us ethics, values, cultural norms, social cues, they pass on knowledge.
If we don’t tell Africa’s stories through Africa’s eyes, then we risk losing Africa’s knowledge, Africa’s ethics, and Africa’s way.
The first country we decided to trek to unanimously was Morocco.
MOROCCAN STORIES
For all the reading I had done whilst sitting on the floor of Exclusive Books in the V&A Waterfront and on my Scribd app, I was not ready. Neither did I know what to expect. I just knew of the stories… and, maybe, Casablanca.
TIP — *Scribd is one of my most favorite apps ever — for just $8.99 a month you can download and read as many eBooks and Audio Books as you’d like. This works perfectly for me, a self-proclaimed bookworm who likes to read 5 different books at the same time and felt that Amazon eReader was a little bit of a waste of money.
We’d planned to undertake an 8-day drive-through and along the coastline of Morocco, starting in Marrakesh. Marrakech has long been known as the ‘heart and lifeblood of Morocco’s ancient storytelling tradition’ and that is why we were excited to have it as the first stop in our Moroccan expedition.
Moroccan tales have a huge educational, religious, and moral impact on their audience, offering timeless values and guidance to all who listen. With their passing, we risk losing something of Morocco’s national psyche and also part of the world’s intangible heritage. Those who have seen the storytellers of Marrakech at first hand have witnessed something that is no longer part of this world, a treasure as precious as the planet’s most endangered species and of immeasurable importance to humanity.
Richard Hamilton
When we eventually arrived in Marrakesh, the terracotta houses were a warm welcome from the searing cold we had experienced for five days prior during a 5-day stop-over in Amsterdam.
It seemed perfect that our accommodation was located on the corner of the Old Medina and just in front of the Jemma el-Fna square – the square where the storytellers gather. Stories, that’s what we were after…
Oral story-telling is an ancient and intimate tradition between the storyteller and their audience. I was anxious to experience this for myself, and I did on the first night. The storyteller and the listeners huddled physically close altogether in a circular fashion. There were circles all over the square, all competing to be heard, all pushing in against the cold.
The circles are hard to penetrate and if you come early (before sunset) you’re welcomed first with piercing songs that rise in the cold air, male and female belly dancers waltzing around with plates in hand, ready to take an offering from you. Soon after the songs have died down with the sun, the storyteller lifts his voice to the huddled audience (generally, of young boys/men), who come back night-after-night to pick up where they last left off.
MOVING ON…
We did not come back the next night.
By dusk of the next day we were well on our way — up the bustling highways and down towards the seaside city of Casablanca, and then Rabat, Tangier, Fes, and back to Marrakech. In a humble effort to capture what we saw and felt, we put together a short visual story of our trip.
Storytelling has earned its place as the most important tradition humans possess. The most important reason for this being that every story contains a lesson to instruct the audience. Stories teach us to love, to forgive others, to be just, and to strive for better than we have.
La Mariposa Films
ENDING NOTE
As a baseline, Mario and I have made some ground rules for the trip, as we do every time we travel together,
- We weren’t going to the main ‘touristy’ spots (this meant no Yves Saint Laurent museum until the last day);
- We would walk and see as much as possible on a good budget;
- We would eat like the locals (all of the street food you could wish for — we have very hardy stomachs);
- We wouldn’t do the desert and camels (we’d done it in Egypt for the pyramids and I had done it in Israel. M was also worried for the fair treatment of the camels).
Here’s a vlog we made while in Casablanca, Morocco…
Was it boring? Not a chance — you can read more here:
- MSIZI Travels Light — The Playlist (a list of our favorite songs and maybe a carpool video as well)
- Top Morocco Travel Tips They Didn’t Tell You
Till our next adventure —
All my Love,
Eden Myrrh
#TheGoodSis
#TravelLight
