THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
T R A V E L N O T E S
 Telouet Kasbah |
MOROCCO'S AFRICAN HERITAGE
For more than three decades now I have prided myself as an African historian in search of the global African heritage. My books and other publications, along with constant lectures and slide presentations, document much of the research. In addition to the research, writing, and lecturing though, over the past several years I have become the constant traveler, again, in search of the global African heritage.
Indeed, since March 1999--in pursuit of my quest--I have had the good fortune of visiting sixty-seven countries and traveling over much of the world. It has been a wonderful experience and my life is nothing less than blessed.
During 2006 I had my first taste of Morocco and fell in love with the place.
I’ve been to Morocco twice so far this year. My initial visit came in late April. It was spring time in Morocco. The people were friendly and the country beautiful. The blooming flowers, lush countryside, green rolling hills, sandy beaches, and high mountains I remember vividly.
I began my short stay in Casablanca and journeyed north to Rabat (where I visited the national archaeological museum ), Fes (where I spent a day in one of the most memorable medinas in Morocco), Volubilis (where a magnificent arch stands in commemoration to one of Imperial Rome’s African emperors and his mother), Moulay Idriss (a beautiful city perched on a mountainside and named after Morocco’s most revered saint), and the vibrant and high-energy city of Tangier.
TANGIER AND THE STORY OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN
Tangier is one of the most fascinating cities in Morocco and the birthplace of one of history’s most storied travelers and writers--Ibn Battuta. Born in Tangier in 1304, Battuta’s journeys took him from West Africa to India, China, and Southeast Asia.
Tangier is a city on the Mediterranean Sea and became the launching site for my search for the African heritage in southern Spain, as Morocco is a wonderful base from which to visit many of the neighboring regions, including southern Europe and western Africa.
In the case of southern Spain I was searching for the early Moors--the people that helped to reintroduce civilization to Europe after the long period known as the Dark Ages.
But just who were the Moors anyway? Indeed, as early as the Middle Ages and as late as the seventeenth century, "The Moors were," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "commonly supposed to be mostly black or very swarthy, and hence the word is often used for negro." Dr. Chancellor Williams stated that "The original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were Black Africans." To the Christians of early Europe there was no question regarding the ethnicity of the Moors and numerous sources support the view that, at the very least, a significant portion of the Moors were black-skinned people.
Morien, for example, is the adventure of a heroic Moorish knight supposed to have lived during the days of King Arthur. Morien is described as "all black: his head, his body, and his hands were all black." In the French epic known as the Song of Roland the Moors are described as "blacker than ink." William Shakespeare used the word Moor as a synonym for African.
Early in the eighth century Moorish soldiers crossed over from Morocco to the Iberian peninsula. The man chosen to lead them was General Tarik ibn Ziyad. In 711, the bold Tarik, in command of an army of 10,000 men, crossed the straits and disembarked near a rock promontory which from that day since has borne his name--Djabal Tarik (`Tarik's Mountain'), or Gibraltar. In August 711, Tarik won a paramount victory over the opposing European army. On the eve of the battle, Tarik is alleged to have roused his troops with the following words:
"My brethren, the enemy is before you, the sea is behind; whither would ye fly? Follow your general; I am resolved either to lose my life or to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans."
Wasting no time to relish his victory, Tarik pushed on with his dashing and seemingly tireless Moorish cavalry to the Spanish city of Toledo. Within a month's time, General Tarik ibn Ziyad had effectively terminated European dominance of the Iberian peninsula. Musa ibn Nusayr, Arab governor of North Africa, joined Tarik in Spain and helped complete the conquest of Iberia with an army of 18,000 men. The two commanders met in Talavera, where the Moors were given the task of subduing the northwest of Spain. With vigor and speed they set about their mission, and within three months they had swept the entire territory north of the Ebro River as far as the Pyrenees Mountains and annexed the turbulent Basque country.
In the aftermath of these brilliant struggles, thousands of Moors flooded into the Iberian peninsula. So eager were they to come that some are said to have floated over on tree-trunks. Tarik himself, at the conclusion of his illustrious military career, retired to the distant East, we are informed, to spread the teachings of Islam.
Arab writers further buttress the Black identity of the Moors. The powerful Moorish emperor Yusuf ben-Tachfin is described by an Arab chronicler as "a brown man with wooly hair."
MARRAKESH
In Morocco Yusuf ben-Tachfin founded the city of Marrakesh. Marrakesh is in the south central region of Morocco. It was founded almost a thousand years ago and is set just below the High Atlas Mountains.
I visited Marrakesh in July 2006. Marrakesh is one the imperial cities of Morocco. It has a population of about one and half million people. It was founded by the great Almoravid leader Yusuf ben-Tachfin in 1062 and became one of the most important cultural and artistic centers in the Islamic world.
Yusuf ben-Tachfin also left his mark on southern Spain and conquered deep into Senegal and Algeria. He must have been quite a man and, like Moulay Ismail in Meknes, utilized a great many Africans in his armies. The descriptions that we have of him leave no doubt that he was Black African. Indeed, my biggest highlight in Marrakesh was a visit to his tomb, which, perhaps like the man himself, was quietly splendid and yet simple and unassuming.
It was an honor to visit the tomb of Yusuf ben-Tachfin. Situated on a crowded street in the bustling city of Marrakesh, there was no one at the tomb at the time of my visit but the two tomb attendants (a mother and daughter), me, and my personal guide. I did not even see any mention of the tomb in any of the tour books and I believed myself to have really been blessed to be there. It was the sort of experience that historians dream of.
Red is the official color in Marrakesh and all of the buildings are an ochre (sort of red) color. I have never been anywhere quite like it.
Marrakesh is one of Morocco’s imperial cities. And, like Fes (an imperial city in the north) it is famous for its medina. Built within ancient city walls, the medina is crowded with people living in and walking through narrow streets and lanes and alleys. They are filled with a little of everything. Among the shops, stalls, and vendors are barber shops, banks, butcher shops, pharmacies, bakeries, restaurants, cafes, vegetable stands, fruit stands, mosques, jewelry stores with gold and silver, candy stalls, leather goods, cyber cafes, and just about anything conceivable.
There are Black people and White people of many varieties. There are Berbers and Arabs. There are Moroccans and foreigners. There are people in traditional North African dress and western dress. In the background you hear many varieties of music along with muezzins calling the faithful to prayer.
I can honestly tell you that of all of the places that I have been I have never been anywhere quite like It. Of all of the places that I have visited I have never felt so much like I have stepped back into time. Of all of the places that I have seen I have never, with the possible exception of India, felt so much like I was in another world.
ZAGORA
From Marrakesh, in search of the African heritage, I journeyed to Zagora, southeast and deeper into the Sahara, about sixty miles west of Algeria. I came in search of African people and, as the old expression goes, watch what you ask for because you just might get it. Well, I got it.
To get to Zagora we had to cross the breathtakingly beautiful High Atlas Mountains. Along the way we passed through many Berber villages and then drove through the Anti Atlas Mountains, just as beautiful but very different from the High Atlas. Then I was driven on east to Zagora.
The farther we drove the more African the people became. These were Black Berbers, and specifically the Almoravids. Everything was brown, the mountains, the people, the buildings. The Berber houses that I saw were rectangular shaped with square towers and made of mud and straw.
It was very hot but it rained for most of the day. We stopped several times for cactus fruit and mint tea, and that afternoon had the national dish called tagine. That day the tagine that we had was made with lamb.
Many of the people that we met refused to believe that I was not Moroccan and one person insisted that I must be Nigerian. Even when I showed her my US passport she would not believe that I was not Nigerian.
I guess that you would just have to have been there. It was something like a dream, as I never had an experience quite like this one. Of all of the places that I have been few have been as fascinating as the Saharan region of Morocco, and especially Zagora.
QUARZAZATE
From Zagora, after an overnight stay, I was driven to the city called Quarzazate. It is pronounced War-zazat. It is in South Central Morocco (still in the Saharan region,) and closer to Zagora than to Marrakesh. It has a population of about 40,000 people, many of them Black.
Indeed, there was the most beautiful African woman cleaning my room as I checked into my hotel. I was tempted to ask her if I could take her photo but several of the people that I had asked to photograph turned me down flat and so that put a damper on things. You have to respect their wishes. Actually, she reluctantly allowed me to take a quick couple of photos of her the following day!
Folks seemed friendly in Quarzazate and it was a good fit for me. English seemed to be a little more widely spoken than most of Morocco that I have visited so far. Of course, everybody seems to speak Arabic and French, and many speak Berber.
In addition to the Black folk that I met in Quarzazate, very interesting to me were the structures called kasbahs--the administrative, fortress like structures seen all over Morocco. The first stop on my last day in Quarzazate was the eleventh century kasbah-fortress of the famous Yusuf ben-Tachfin. It is a magnificent monument and like much of Morocco it has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Indeed, you may have already seen it, as it was used for the background of such movies of Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Kingdom of Heaven. It was just wonderful.
Saharan Morocco was an exceptional area but it is not the only part of Morocco that stood out to me. So before I conclude this brief essay let us return back to the north of Morocco in our search for the African heritage.
VOLUBILIS
Volubilis is just a short drive from Fes and is one of highlights for those searching for the African heritage in Morocco. It is really not a city in the modern sense but a collection of ancient Roman ruins. Indeed, in northwest Africa it marks Rome’s farthest frontiers and is well worth a visit.
In 211 C.E. the African born emperor Septimius Severus was succeeded by his son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus aka Caracalla (211-217 C.E.). Caracalla was born April 4,188 C.E., in Lyon, France, where his father had been serving as governor under the emperor Commodus. The child's name originally seems to have been Lucius Septimius Bassianus, the cognomen commemorating the family of the boy's Syrian mother, Julia Domna. When he was seven years old, his name was changed to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Caracalla, a nickname and originally derisive, was never used officially.
The year 212 C.E. saw a flurry of administrative reforms under the young emperor's leadership. Soldiers received increases in pay and in legal rights, but the most noteworthy change was the bestowal of Roman citizenship upon all free residents of the empire. In gratitude, a triumphal arch was erected in honor of Caracalla’s and his mother Julia Domna at Volubilis, Morocco. On my July 2006 trip to Morocco I gave a brief lecture to the d’Zert Alumni group before the Caracalla Arch. I thought of it as a real feather in my cap.
Caracalla’s rule was followed by the short reign of Mauritanian born soldier Marcus Opellius Macrinus. Macrinus, born in 168 C.E., was the Praetorian Prefect and the first non-senator to become emperor. Macrinus was emperor of Rome for fourteen months, between April 217 and June 218 C.E. He took the name Severus to endow his reign with some of the stature and continuity of Septimius and Caracalla. He was an emperor from the equestrian class and the first Roman Emperor from Mauritania.
MEKNES
Meknes, the third of Morocco’s imperial cities (Rabat is the other besides Fes and Marrakesh) is principally the city of Moulay Ismail and has been referred to as the “Versailles of Morocco.” Moulay Ismail came to power in 1672 and remained firmly in control for fifty-five years. The key to his reign was the military. And the core of the military was the near-legendary Black Guard.
Early during his rule Ismail brought in from the interior of Africa sixteen thousand unmixed African soldiers. They were loyal soldiers and Moulay Ismail provided them with wives. By the end of his reign they had grown ten times in number. I was told that many of the Black people that I saw on the streets of Meknes were the direct descendants of Moulay Ismail’s original Black Guard.
I cannot wait to go back to Morocco and I want you to come back with me. Anybody who comes to Morocco and does not like it needs to have their head examined. Personally, I loved the place. It has African people, a rich history, a unique African heritage, and you can receive both an education and a vacation all at the same time.
So journey back to Morocco with me and share the African heritage. See the Wonders of Morocco, the Imperial Cities and the Sahara. See the mosques and kasbahs, visit the medinas and the holy tombs. Drive through gorges in the High Atlas and Anti Atlas Mountains. Talk with Almoravids and ride a camel over sand dunes. Spend a day at the beach and attend a folklorist show. Stay in the best hotels and even spend a night under the Saharan stars. Shop until you drop and listen to lectures by Runoko Rashidi.
Come to Morocco with me.
*Runoko Rashidi’s first group tour to Morocco is scheduled for April 7 to April 21, 2007. It is called “The Wonders of Morocco: Imperial Cities and Sahara with Runoko Rashidi.” The cost is $2995.00 double occupancy. The United States departure airport is New York’s JFK.
CLICK for tour details or contact:
Casablanca Travel and Tours
WWW.ARABWEBSITE.COM
CTT@ARABWEBSITE.COM
Phone: 202-337 0800
Fax: 202 318 1088
1-800 - MAGHREB
1-800 - 624 - 4732
Address in USA:
3029 M Street NW Suite # 202
Washington DC 20007
Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Posted/Revised: January 1, 2007
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