A Narrative Tale Of Morocco

"This is a ten day excursion with my wife Jane, myself, and over ninety other people on a tour through Morocco."

Marrakech is the heart and lifeblood of Morocco's ancient storytelling tradition. For nearly a thousand years, storytellers have gathered in the Jemaa el Fna, the legendary square of the city, to recount ancient folktales and fables to rapt audiences. But this unique chain of oral tradition that has passed seamlessly from generation to generation is teetering on the brink of extinction. The competing distractions of television, movies and the internet have drawn the crowds away from the storytellers and few have the desire to learn the stories and continue their legacy. Richard Hamilton has witnessed at first hand the death throes of this rich and captivating tradition and, in the labyrinth of the Marrakech medina, has tracked down the last few remaining storytellers, recording stories that are replete with the mysteries and beauty of the Maghreb.

New stories by Leila Abouzeid, the noted Moroccan writer, constitute an event for both East and West, for, as in her critically acclaimed novel, Year of the Elephant, the author cuts across cultural and national boundaries to offer fiction that has meaning for both Western and Middle Eastern readers. 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. To her crisp style, reminiscent of some Western realist novelists, she adds elements of Arabic fiction—the oral story-telling technique, for example. Abouzeid writes first in Arabic, which she has stated is a political choice. This makes her a literary pioneer in North Africa, where, until recently, most authors wrote in French. Elizabeth Warnock Fernea has written an introduction for this book, setting the stories in historical context.

Drawing on stories he heard as a boy from female relatives, Jilali El Koudia presents a cross section of utterly bewitching narratives. Filled with ghouls and fools, kind magic and wicked, eternal bonds and earthly wishes, these are mesmerizing stories to be savored, studied, or simply treasured. Varied genres include anecdotes, legends, and animal fables, and some tales bear strong resemblance to European counterparts, for example Aamar and his Sister (Hansel and Gretel) and Nunja and the White Dove (Cinderella). All capture the heart of Morroco and the soul of its people. In an enlightening introduction, El Koudia mourns the loss of the teller of tales in the marketplace, and he makes it clear that storytelling, born of memory and oral tradition, could vanish in the face of mass and electronic media.

Freedom For Morocco: A Family Tale is a historical and autobiographical book. By weaving together two intertwined narratives, a personal account invites readers into the home of one Moroccan family. A collective narrative reveals the shared struggles of Moroccan citizens for democracy. By alternating between micro- and macro-histories, this book presents fragments that have long been erased from the history of contemporary Morocco. Thus, it offers a corrective re-examination of concepts and key events conveyed by official historical sources from 1921 to the present day, notably Morocco's anti-colonial uprisings, the emergence of neocolonialism under the guise of formal independence, the institutionalisation of predatory capitalism, the establishment of a democratic facade, the Islamisation politics of the governing elite and the emergence of Islamism.

Jewish Moroccan Folk Narratives focuses on two central elements: textual research to examine the aesthetic qualities of the narrative, their division into genres, the various versions and their parallels, and acculturation in Israel, as well as contextual research to examine the performance art of the narrator and the role of the narrative as a communicative process in the narrating society. The collection includes twenty-one narratives by twelve storytellers; an account of the narrators' lives and a commentary have been applied to each. In contrast to most anthologies of Jewish folktales, the texts in this book were recorded in the natural context of narration and in the language of origin (Judaeo-Arabic), meeting the most vigorous standards of current folklore scholarship.

A master of the short story form, Muhammad Zafzaf is one of Morocco’s greatest narrative writers. This anthology, the first collection of his work translated into English, is a tribute to the remarkable influence he exerted on an entire generation of Moroccan storytellers. Zafzaf’s stories are set within a variety of contexts, each portraying a slice of life, a simple struggle for survival in a challenging world that is changing at a rapid pace. Narrative time is reduced to a single glimpse in these stories, full of irony, sarcasm, and sympathy. He covers all aspects of Moroccan life, from remote rural villages to modern cities. The stories in this collection explore the various myths, beliefs, and traditions that operate within Moroccan culture, questioning them from a distance in an easy, conversational manner that is the hallmark of Zafzaf’s style.

After eleven years, Richard finally felt he possessed the necessary skills to put his first, and most adventurous trip yet, down on paper. This is his story. This is a book about a rather ordinary man who had an extraordinary adventure. At thirty-seven, Richard wanted excitement so embarked on a month-long, solo motorbike ride from England to Morocco and back. What he didn't realise was that he was about to get a little more excitement than he bargained for. He was shot at somewhere around the Morocco/Algeria border, he rode through a minefield, completely lost his way in the blistering fifty-degree heat of the desert, got blind drunk in Alicante and cartwheeled his bike down the road in Ibiza. He also experienced many wonderful characters, moments of pure joy, intense emotion and enlightenment that changed him as a human. This book is not only about his adventure, but also about Richard's progress as a person and his battles with his past.