wouldn't you like to know

By AUTUMN on March 9, 2008 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Once upon a time there was a princess who lived in a castle. One day her cousin asked for her hand in marriage, but she refused. Angry and insulted by her refusal, he threatened to kill her, and so she fled, leaving behind her luxurious life as a kings daughter. Now she needed to find a way to feed herself, so she shaved her head and dressed herself in mens clothing, looking for a job. Her costume convinced everyone, but many people just didnt need anyone to work for them. She finally found a job with a man who sold doughnuts. For her payment, she only asked that she have three doughnuts a day for herself, and a place to sleep. Business soared for her and her boss. Some years later, her brother and her father, the king, came to the shop and recognized her.

If I knew Darija, or Moroccan Arabic, I could tell you what happens next and some more detail, but this is a work in progress. In the meantime we must rely on someone telling me what he can about whats going on (choukrane to my wonderful translator!).

This is the kind of story that you can hear in the Djemma el Fna. An older man tells the story in front of a small crowd, made up entirely of men. There are no women, I am told, because the language can fall hard on the ears. Just before he finishes, he solicits his audience for some coins.

I think I came across some chatter that in the old days, some anthropologists believed that the market and culture were separate things (I will have to brush up on this debate). However, when you see that culture in the form of say, Moroccan storytelling, becomes marketable, even to itself as in Moroccan people, the fusion is undeniable. You cant help but ask how this comes to be, and how, and if, you can distinguish the culture that is marketed from that which is not. In a place like Marrakech, culture is top commodity. Some things are modified especially for foreign tourists, like the hammams, or public baths, while the typical un-glorified ones continue as they were (as far as I know) to be a facet of Moroccan daily life. On the other hand, Marrakchis learn language on top of language to cater to foreign tourists. Language is an asset in the market, for both tourist buyers and Moroccan sellers, but it also becomes a feature of Moroccan culture, indeed one of the fastest means of cultural assimilation.

Obviously the causes and effects of this fusion demand a long, involved, but fascinating, study. For now, we do what we can with 9 days.