Beer
Casa A fine local pilsner beer
Flag Special Affordable and the most popular beverage in Morocco (25 million units consumed annually)
Wine
White Moroccan white wines are a solid bet, including the crisp, food-friendly Larroque; well-balanced, juicy Terre Blanche, a Chardonnay/Viognier/Sauvignon Blanc blend; citrusy, off-dry Cuveé du Président Sémillant; and Siroua S, a cool coastal Chardonnay.
Gris & Rosé These are refreshing alternatives, especially not-too-fruity Medaillon Rosé de Syrah; peachy-keen Eclipse Grenache/Cinsault blend; fresh, fragrant Domaine Rimal Vin Gris; the juicy, aptly named Rosé d’un Nuit d’Eté (Summer’s Night Rosé) of Grenache/Syrah; and the crisply top-range Volubilia.
Red Reliable reds include the quaffable Burgundian-style Terre Rouge from Rabati coastal vineyards; well-rounded Volubilia from Morocco’s ancient Roman wine-growing region; and spicier Merlot-Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon Coteaux de L’Atlas Premier Cru. Guerrouane Rouge is a heavy red at the cheaper end of the scale, while Morocco's Jewish community has bequeathed the country an interesting selection of kosher wines.
Spirits
Mahia, a Moroccan spirit distilled from figs, is around 80% proof, with a flavour somewhere between Italian grappa and Kentucky moonshine. You won’t find it on most menus, because it’s usually made in home distilleries for private consumption. If you’re staying at a guesthouse, your hosts may know where you can get some, but they may try to warn you off the stuff – mahia hangovers are legendary.
BEEN THERE, EATEN THAT
Eat your way across Morocco, north to south, with these outstanding regional dishes:
Casablanca Seksu bedawi (couscous with seven vegetables)
Chefchaouen Djaj bil berquq (chicken with prunes)
Demnate Seksu Demnati (couscous made with corn or barley instead of semolina)
Essaouira Hut mqalli (fish tajine with saffron, ginger and preserved lemons); djej kadra toumiya (chicken with almonds, onions and chickpeas in buttery saffron sauce)
Fez Kennaria (stew with wild thistle or artichoke, with or without meat); hut bu’etob (baked shad filled with almond-stuffed dates)
High Atlas Mechoui (slow-roasted stuffed lamb or beef)
Marrakesh Bessara (fava beans with cumin, paprika, olive oil and salt); tanjia (crock-pot stew of seasoned lamb cooked for eight to 12 hours in the fire of a hammam)
Meknès Kamama (lamb stewed with ginger, smen, saffron, cinnamon and sweet onions)
Southern Coast Amlou (argan-nut paste with honey and argan oil)
Tangier Local variations on tapas and paella
Music
Any trip to Morocco comes with its own syncopated soundtrack: the early-evening adhan (call to prayer), and the ubiquitous donkey-cart-drivers’ chants of Balek! – fair warning that since donkeys don’t yield, you’d better, and quick. Adding to the musical mayhem are beats booming out of taxis, ham radios and roadside stalls, and live-music performances at restaurants and weddings, on street corners, and headlining at festivals year-round. There are plenty of Maghrebi beats to tune into.
Classical Arab-Andalucian Music
Leaving aside the thorny question of where exactly it originated (you don’t want to be the cause of the next centuries-long Spain–Morocco conflict, do you?), this music combines the flamenco-style strumming and heartstring-plucking drama of Spanish folk music with the finely calibrated stringed instruments, complex percussion and haunting half-tones of classical Arab music. Add poetic lyrics and the right singer at dinner performances, and you may find that lump in your throat makes it hard to swallow your pastilla (pigeon pie).
You’ll hear two major styles of Arab-Andalucian music in Morocco: Al-Aala (primarily in Fez, Tetouan and Salé) and Gharnati (mostly Oujda). The area of musical overlap is Rabat, where you can hear both styles. Keep an eye out for concerts, musical evenings at fine restaurants, classical-music festivals in Casablanca and Fez, and look especially for performances by Gharnati vocalist Amina Alaoui, Fatiha El Hadri Badraï and her traditional all-female orchestras from Tetouan, and Festival of World Sacred Music headliner Mohamed Amin el-Akrami and his orchestra.
No, that’s not a musical rugby scrum: the haidous is a complex circle dance with musicians in the middle, often performed in celebration of the harvest.
Gnaoua
Joyously bluesy with a rhythm you can’t refuse, this music may send you into a trance – and that’s just what it’s meant to do. The brotherhood of Gnaoua began among freed slaves in Marrakesh and Essaouira as a ritual of deliverance from slavery and into God’s graces. A true Gnaoua lila (spiritual jam session), may last all night, with musicians erupting into leaps of joy as they enter trance-like states of ecstasy that can send fez-tassels spinning and set spirits free.
Join the crowds watching in Marrakesh’s Djemaa el-Fna or at the annual Gnaoua & World Music Festival in Essaouira, and hear Gnaoua on Peter Gabriel’s Real World music label. Gnawa mâalems (master musicians) include perennial festival favourites Abdeslam Alikkane and his Tyour Gnaoua, crossover fusion superstar Hassan Hakmoun, Saïd Boulhimas and his deeply funky Band of Gnawas, Indian-inflected Nass Marrakech and reggae-inspired Omar Hayat. Since Gnaoua are historically a brotherhood, most renowned Gnaoua musicians have been men – but the all-women Sufi group Haddarates plays Gnaoua trances traditionally reserved for women, and family acts include Brahim Elbelkani and La Famille Backbou.
To explore Amazigh music in a variety of styles, languages and regions, check out samples, musician bios and CDs from basic bluesy Tartit to ‘70s-funky Tinariwen at www.azawan.com.
Berber Folk Music
There’s plenty of other indigenous Moroccan music besides Gnaoua, thanks to the ancient Berber tradition of passing along songs and poetry from one generation to the next. You can’t miss Berber music at village moussems (festivals in honour of a local saint), Agadir’s Timtar Festival of Amazigh music, the Marrakesh Festival of Popular Arts and Imilchil’s Marriage Festival, as well as weddings and other family celebrations.
The most renowned Berber folk group is the Master Musicians of Joujouka, who famously inspired the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and William S Burroughs, and collaborated with the Stones' Brian Jones on experimental music with lots of clanging and crashing involved. Lately the big names are women’s, including the all-woman group B’net Marrakech and the bold Najat Aatabou, who sings protest songs in Berber against restrictive traditional roles.
Marock on Film
This Is Maroc
(2010) Hat Trick Brothers’ road trip
I Love HipHop in Morocco
(2007) H-Kayne, DJ Key, Bigg and other hip-hop groups struggle to get gigs
From Marock to Hibhub
Like the rest of the Arab world, Moroccans listen to a lot of Egyptian music, but Moroccopop is gaining ground. A generation of local DJs with cheeky names such as Ramadan Special and DJ Al Intifada have mastered the art of the unlikely mashup. And so have some of the more intriguing talents to emerge in recent years: Hoba Hoba Spirit, whose controversy-causing, pop-punk 'Blad Skizo' (Schizophrenic Country) addresses the contradictions of modern Morocco head-on; Moroccan singer-songwriter Hindi Zahra, Morocco’s answer to Tori Amos, with bluesy acoustic-guitar backing; Darga, a group that blends ska, Darija rap and a horn section into Moroccan surf anthems; and the bluntly named Ganga Fusion and Kif Samba, who both pound out a danceable mix of funk, Berber folk music, reggae and jazz. Algerian influences are heard in Morocco's raï scene, most notably Cheb Khader, Cheb Mimoun and Cheb Jellal.
But ask any guy on the street with baggy cargo shorts and a T-shirt with the slogan MJM (Maroc Jusqu’al Mort – Morocco 'til Death) about Moroccan pop, and you’ll get a crash course in hibhub (Darija for hip hop). Meknès’ H-Kayne raps gangsta-style, while Tangier’s MC Muslim raps with a death-metal growl, and Fez City Clan features a talented rapper and an Arabic string section. The acts that consistently get festival crowds bouncing are Agadir�
��s DJ Key, who remixes hip-hop standards with manic scratching and beat-boxing, and Marrakesh’s Fnaire, mixing traditional Moroccan sounds with staccato vocal stylings. Rivalling 'Blad Skizo' for youth anthem of the decade is Fnaire’s 'Ma Tkich Bladi' (Don’t Touch My Country), an irresistibly catchy anthem against neocolonialism with a viral YouTube video.
International musicians find themselves increasingly attracted to Morocco. The Festival of World Sacred Music held in Fez attracts an ever-more diverse range of headline acts, from Björk to Patti Smith, while Rabat's Mawazine Festival of World Music brings in the pop mainstream from Beyoncé to Elton John. The latter highlighted the sometimes delicate nature of the position of music in Morocco – while the government defended Elton John's homosexuality against Islamist criticism, Moroccan musicians have to tread a finer line, especially if commenting on social issues. In 2012, and following the the Arab Spring, rapper El Haked was imprisoned for a year for ‘undermining the honour’ of public servants when the video for his song 'Klab ed-Dawla' (Dogs of the State) pictured corrupt police wearing the heads of donkeys. El Haked had previously been jailed for criticising the monarchy.
MOROCCAN MUSIC FESTIVALS
March Rencontres Musicales de Marrakesh (classical); Tremplin (urban music)
April Festival of Sufi Culture (www.par-chemins.org); Jazzablanca (http://jazzablanca.com)
May Jazz aux Oudayas, in Rabat; L’Boulevard (www.boulevard.ma); Mawazine Festival of World Music (www.festivalmawazine.ma)
June Festival of World Sacred Music (www.fesfestival.com); Gnaoua & World Music Festival (www.festival-gnaoua.net)
July Marrakesh Popular Arts Festival (www.marrakechfestival.com); Voix des Femmes (Women’s Voices), in Tetouan; Festival Timitar (Amazigh Music), in Agadir; Festival du Desert (www.festivaldudesert.ma)
September TANJAzz (www.tanjazz.org)
October Nuits Sonores Tangier (www.nuits-sonores.com/tanger)
Literature & Cinema
Morocco’s rich oral tradition has kept shared stories and histories alive. Watch the storytellers and singers in Marrakesh’s Djemaa el-Fna in action and you’ll understand how the country’s literary tradition has remained so vital and irrepressible, despite press censorship. More recently, novelists such as Tahar ben Jelloun have brought their rich prose to bear on the national experience. Moroccan cinema is younger still, but the country is actively moving beyond being a glitzy film location to being a producer in its own right.
Grab a copy of Josh Shoemake's Tangier: A Literary Guide for Travellers for an essential tour of this most storied of Moroccan cities, with appearances by everyone from William Burroughs to Mohamed Choukri.
Literature
A Different Beat
The international spotlight first turned on Morocco’s literary scene in the 1950s and '60s, when Beat Generation authors Paul and Jane Bowles took up residence in Tangier and began recording the stories of Moroccans they knew. The Sheltering Sky is Paul Bowles' most celebrated Morocco-based novel, while the nonfiction Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands are Blue is a valuable travelogue. Following exposure from the Beats, local writers broke onto the writing scene. Check out Larbi Layachi’s A Life Full of Holes (written under the pseudonym Driss ben Hamed Charhadi), Mohammed Mrabet’s Love With a Few Hairs and Mohamed Choukri’s For Bread Alone. Like a lot of Beat literature, these books are packed with sex, drugs and unexpected poetry – but if anything, they’re more streetwise, humorous and heartbreaking.
In Moroccan Folk Tales, Jilali El Koudia presents 31 classic legends ranging from a Berber version of Snow White to the tale of a woman who cross-dresses as a Muslim scholar.
Coming up for Air
Encouraged by the outspoken Tanjaoui authors, Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi founded the free-form, free-thinking poetry magazine Anfas/Souffles (Breath) in 1966, not in the anything-goes international zone of Tangier, but in the royal capital of Rabat. What began as a journal became a movement of writers, painters and filmmakers all heeding Laâbi’s editorial outcry against government censorship. Anfas/Souffles published another 21 daring issues, until the censors shut it down in 1972 and sent Laâbi to prison for eight years for ‘crimes of opinion’.
The literary expression Laâbi equated to breathing has continued unabated. In 1975 Anfas/Souffles cofounder and self-proclaimed ‘linguistic guerrilla’ Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine published his confrontational Ce Maroc!, an anthology of revolutionary writings. A Souss Berber himself, Khaïr-Eddine called for the recognition of Berber identity and culture in his 1984 Legend and Life of Agoun’chich, which served as a rallying cry for today’s Berber Pride movement.
In Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, Malika Oufkir describes her demotion from courtier to prisoner after her father’s plot to assassinate Hassan II. Unsurprisingly, it was initially banned in Morocco on its publication.
Living to Tell
Still more daring and distinctive Moroccan voices have found their way into print over the past two decades, both at home and abroad. Among the most famous works to be published by a Moroccan author are Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood and The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam, both by Fatima Mernissi, an outspoken feminist and professor at the University of Rabat. In Rabati author Leila Abouzeid’s Year of the Elephant and The Director and Other Stories from Morocco, tales of Moroccan women trying to reinvent their lives on their own terms become parables for Morocco’s search for independence after colonialism.
The past several years have brought increased acclaim for Moroccan writers, who have continued to address highly charged topics despite repeated press crackdowns. Inspired by Anfas/Souffles, Fez-born expatriate author Tahar ben Jelloun combined poetic devices and his training as a psychotherapist in his celebrated novel The Sand Child, the story of a girl raised as a boy by her father in Marrakesh, and its sequel The Sacred Night, which won France’s Prix Goncourt. In The Polymath, 2009 Naguib Mahfouz Prize–winner Bensalem Himmich reads between the lines of 14th-century scholar and political exile Ibn Khaldun, as he tries to stop wars and prevent his own isolation. Several recent Moroccan novels have explored the promise and trauma of emigration, notably Mahi Binebine’s harrowing Welcome to Paradise, Tahar ben Jelloun’s Leaving Tangier, and Laila Lalami’s celebrated Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. In 2016 Leila Slimani won the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize, for her novel Chanson Douce.
Cafe Clock in Marrakesh has weekly storytelling sessions, inviting the Djemma el Fna's last traditional storyteller to weave his magic, while teaching a new generation this dying oral art form.
MOROCCO'S LANDMARK CINEMA REVIVAL
Despite Morocco’s creative boom, cinephiles have begun to fear for Morocco’s movie palaces, since ticket prices can’t compete with cheap pirated DVDs. In 2007 only 5% of Morocco’s population went to the movies, while more than 400,000 pirated DVDs were symbolically seized from souq stalls in Rabat and Casablanca. Thirty years ago there were 250 cinemas in Morocco; in 2010 only 30 were left.
Moroccan cinema buffs have rallied to preserve and promote Morocco’s historic movie palaces as architectural wonders and key modern landmarks in Morocco’s ancient storytelling tradition. Tangier’s 1930s Cinema Rif reopened in 2006 as Cinematheque de Tanger, a nonprofit cinema featuring international independent films and documentaries. Cinéma Camera in Meknès – possibly Morocco's most glorious art-deco movie theatre – continues to thrive on mainstream Egyptian, Hollywood and Bollywood fare. Check out its fabulous 'Golden Era Hollywood' mural as its stairs sweep up to the auditorium.
Cinema
On Location in Morocco
Until recently Morocco had been seen mostly as a stunning movie backdrop, easily stealing scenes in such dubious cinematic achievements as Sex and the City 2, Prince of Persia, Alexander and Sahara. But while there’s much to cringe about in Morocco’s IMDb filmography, the country had golden moments on the silver screen in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew
Too Much, Orson Welles’ Othello and David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia.
Morocco has certainly proved its versatility: it stunt-doubled for Somalia in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, Tibet in Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, Lebanon in Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, and Iraq in Clint Eastwood's American Sniper. Morocco also stole the show right out from under John Malkovich by playing itself in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Sheltering Sky, and untrained local actors Mohamed Akhzam and Boubker Ait El Caid held their own with Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt in the 2006 Oscar-nominated Babel.
None of the 1942 classic Casablanca was actually shot in Casablanca. It was filmed on a Hollywood back lot, and the Rick’s Café Américain set was reputedly based on the historic El-Minzah hotel in Tangier.
How big is Bollywood in Morocco? Around a third of all films shown in Morocco originate in Bollywood, and stars from Shah Rukh Khan to Amitabh Bachchan make regular appearances at Marrakesh's international film festival.
Morocco's Directorial Breakthrough
Historically, Morocco has imported its blockbusters from Bollywood, Hollywood and Egypt, but today, Moroccans are getting greater opportunities to see films shot in Morocco that are actually by Moroccans and about Morocco. In 2015 half of the top 10 box office hits in Morocco were locally made.
Moroccan filmmakers are putting decades of Ouallywood filmmaking craft and centuries of local storytelling tradition to work telling epic modern tales, often with a cinéma vérité edge. Morocco’s 2010 Best Foreign Film Oscar contender was Nour-Eddine Lakhmari’s Casanegra, about Casablanca youth thinking fast and growing up faster as they confront the darker aspects of life in the White City. Other hits include Latif Lahlou’s La Grande Villa (2010), tracking one couple’s cultural and personal adjustments after relocating from Paris to Casablanca.
Lonely Planet Morocco Page 87