88 Michiel de Ruyter in Iligh

Michiel de Ruyter has written in his diaries about his visits to Iligh and his meetings with the ‘Sant’. But until now there are no documents found written by people in Iligh about his visits. Of course Iligh was destroyed a few decennia later. The strange thing is that there isn’t a memory either among the family Aboudmiaa of a Dutch trader selling them modern weaponry. Maybe the sounds of the name were just too foreign: El Soussie who wrote about Iligh in the nineteen fifties did mention him and gave him an unrecognizably scrambled name. Bert Hogervorst hasn’t figured out yet how he came by his information: from the biography of De Ruyter or by documents he got from the Aboudmiaa family and reportedly never gave back? Thinking about De Ruyter in Iligh I can see that the set up might be different from what he was used too, but I’m sure De Ruyter also saw similarities between Iligh and the Dutch Republic. Iligh was small but was making a name for itself in international trade in particular across the Sahara. It had mighty enemies that were eager to destroy it. It was wealthy and it had a liberal attitude towards others. Jews in particular had found refuge there. Not Jews from the Iberian Peninsula as in the Republic but Jews from nearby Ifrane. And as in the Low Countries the Jews had brought prosperity because of their connections. It was ‘The Golden Age’ in the Republic but the same can be said about Morocco. In the seventeenth century there wasn’t such a big difference between the standard of living and the level of development in Europe and the Islamic world. That only came to be in the nineteenth century with the industrial revolution in Europe.

87 Thinking about Michiel de Ruyter

During his lifetime Michiel de Ruyter was portrayed many times. His portrait in paint and print must have decorated many a wall. Clearly people needed at the time of threatening civil war an idol and he fitted the profile. When De Ruyter became vice admiral of the fleet under Cornelis Tromp, the less talented son of the celebrated Maarten Tromp, he was a novice to the viper pit that was the Dutch political scene. He had no connections and was a self made man. He came from an Orangist Island but got his commission from Johan de Witt a staunch State supporter. Although admiring Johan de Witt and his gifted brother Cornelis and becoming friends with them, he never chose sides. In contrast his boss at the Admiralty Cornelis Tromp was an card-carrying Orangist and took part in intrigues to bring Willem III Prince of Orange to power. De Ruyter’s only loyalty was with his family and the Dutch Republic. On the portrait paintings of De Ruyter he has a fleshy, glum but not unfriendly face albeit rather plain. He is clearly heir to generations of Jenever drinkers as so many Dutch. His stance is confident but rather square. His clothes are plain and practical. His ability to stay neutral yet be loyal to a few principles, combined with a sharp mind and healthy curiosity in anything that was new, different and could be put to use, made him an ideal ‘traveller’. His ships might have been an extension of his home island, but once on foreign shore he was open to new experiences. Hence his learning the Irish a.o.. This worked very well of course when he was not tied to the duties of warfare. The Bros De Witt stimulated his innovative tendencies. That’s how a.o. came the forming of an ‘army at sea’ about: the Marines.

86 Michiel De Ruyter on shore

After his lucrative period on the Salamander Michiel De Ruyter settled into the life of a respected Burger of Vlissingen. He married Anna van Gelder a 38 year old widow with children and bought a house. To celebrate his love for his new wife he called his house: ‘De Gecroonde Liefde’ (The Crowned Love). It could have been the name of a ship. With the narrow, steep stairs and small low-ceilinged rooms houses in Holland and on the islands (Zeeland) could be seen as ships on shore. Of all the properties in Vlissingen De Ruyter chose the house right across the warehouses of Cornelis Lampsins. I drew the street and the house. There was a sharp cold wind from the north. It made sitting out of the sun very unpleasant. There was also no seating. However the man of the house where I leant against the windowsill kindly gave me a chair: to leave when I had finished. De Ruyter never sold the ‘Crowned Love’. However his plans for a peaceful life on shore was never to be. That same year the Republic got into war with England. The Admiralty of Zeeland asked him for help and he couldn’t say no. Although he really didn’t want to go back to sea. From that time onwards till his death in 1676 he was in the Navy. The ships the Province of Zeeland send to war were just merchant ships with guns. Nevertheless De Ruyter defeated the English war ships in the Battle at Plymouth. After the death of Admiral Maarten Tromp, De Ruyter was asked by Johan de Witt the ‘Raadpensionaris’ (leader of the governing council) of the Republic to take Tromp’s place in the Dutch fleet. This promotion forced him and his family to move from Vlissingen to Amsterdam. He and his wife bought a house on the ‘Buitenkant’ (Outside) with a view of the harbour. Now it is Prins Hendrikkade 131. He became the hero of three sea wars with England, invented the Marine Corps and modernized the fleet.

85 Wives’ tale

In the 17th century the life of sailors wasn’t easy. They were a long time away from home if they came home at all. Michiel de Ruyter had a relatively charmed career. He was wounded only twice and survived. The first time when he was just a lad he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Spanish. He escaped and walked home from La Coruna. The second time was when still in his early twenties he got an axe in the back of his head fighting the feared pirates of Dunkirk. The third time he didn’t survive. Sailors tended to marry girls from home, because they knew how life was, coping without men. A life at home with a husband at sea wasn’t easy especially when the money ran out and children had to be fed. However it had also its compensations. The women of the Dutch islands were independent of character, knew how to be thrifty and were money wise. They often bought her husband’s ship’s supplies and knew how to get a good deal. If they survived long enough to develop those talents. The main trouble that faced women in the 17th century wasn’t life without men, but having children. Childbirth itself and complications after childbirth were the major causes of death. De Ruyter had three wives. The first one died in childbirth and her child soon after. About 5 years later he married again. 13 years and 4 children later she kicked the bucket too. Only 2 of the four kids survived. During those years De Ruyter traded with the ‘Sant’. By then h had a nice bit of money to his name and got the honour of having citizenship of the city of Vlissingen. De Ruyter was looking for certain qualities in his next wife and that wasn't youth and beauty. He wanted someone he could grow old and wealthy with; somebody with a sense for business and in robust health.

84 Weapons for Feathers

For eighty years the Dutch Republic was in a state of war with the Spanish Kingdom and made it a profitable business. The Republic started off on borrowed money trying to fight a war the traditional way with hired troops under the command of Princes. That didn’t work at all. Quickly enough the Republic came to rely on the Merchant Navy. With letters of consent in the pocket and guns below deck the captains of the merchant fleet became the scourge of the Spanish. Part of the loot went to the coffers of the Republic but a sizable part stayed with the ships owners, skippers and the crew. That part was often in kind: goods, riches and weapons. The Dutch became important weapons’ traders. The story goes that the most important client was actually the very people they had taken the guns from: the Spanish. When Michiel de Ruyter sailed his own ship the Salamander to Morocco, he brought at first ‘regular’ stuff for trade with him. In the MuZeeum in Vlissingen they told me with a knowing smile he brought ‘beads and mirrors for the natives’. It was a little bit different. Ali Aboudmiaa, the ‘Sant’ as De Ruyter calls him, had territorial ambitions. He wanted weapons of the most advanced variety. And that was what De Ruyter provided. In exchange he got Ostrich feathers. Was it a good deal: weapons against feathers? De Ruyter thought so. At home the rich and powerful liked to wear Ostrich feathers on hats and helmets. They were willing to pay handsomely for ‘fashion’. Ali Aboudmiaa probably laughed till his stomach hurt. The once very advanced guns are now decorating the sea wall in Vlissingen. Ancient or not they still have firing power. On special occasions the wick is lit and the cannons boom.

83 About Pilots, Pirates and ‘Lorrendaaiers’

In the old days pilots were fishermen who for a bit of cash helped skippers through the treacherous waters of the estuaries that made up the Low Countries. Even now with satellite navigation, radar and depth sounding there is not a ship that passes Vlissingen without a pilot. The pilot’s boats are high-powered affairs that flit in and out of the pilot harbour like hornets out of their nests. The sketch shows a pilot leaving port. To the left on the fort the statue of De Ruyter. It is funny to see the small boats speeding angrily up towards one of the huge freighters, swerve around, latch-on and board. When the job is done they race back full throttle. The whole procedure reminds me irresistibly of pirates. The Dutch Republic owed in its first 25 years a lot to pirates and privateering. In the beginning the Republic didn’t have a fleet and on land it could do little against mighty Spain. But on the waters between the many islands and beyond on sea belligerently fearless and reckless skippers and their crews did Spain but also England a lot of harm. Writing out letters of consent to privateers (Kaperbrieven) kept the Republic in money. The biggest triumph was when the pirate Piet Hein captured the Silver Fleet that sailed from the Americas back to Spain. It provided the State’s coffers with money for almost a year. De Ruyter did the ‘kaap’ (privateering) once: in 1637 commissioned by Lampsins. Pirates were considered respectable until the Dutch got a proper fleet. On the other hand ‘Lorrendraaiers’ were bad asses! There is a painting of two ‘Lorrendraaier’ ships before Vlissingen in full sail and proudly flying the Republic’s colours in a devil may care attitude. ‘Lorrendraaiers’ were ships that carried no letters of consent and didn’t belong to any organisation. Instead they pirated on the regular merchant navy. In particular they did a bit of illegal slave trade. Before becoming an admiral De Ruyter worked all kinds seafaring jobs but never did he stoop so low.

82 In search of the ‘Salamander’

The most important reason for visiting Vlissingen was to sketch the model of Michiel de Ruyter’s ship the ‘Salamander. De Ruyter commandeered ships of Cornelis Lampsins and war ships of the Admiralty, but only once he had stood on his very own decks. That was on the Salamander when he traded with Morocco and the Caribbean. I knew the MuZeeum (MuSeaum) had a model in its collection. So there I went. The front desk of the museum is manned by volunteers. They had heard about De Ruyter’s ship but it didn’t ring a bell that the museum should have a model. They were most helpful but further than a printout of the model from a general maritime site they didn’t come. I was stunned. They called the back office. There were the professionals, but everyone was out to lunch. If I could wait? Of course I could, I chatted a bit with the volunteers and took a tour of the museum. The museum is set up in three parts: the new building next to the Lampsins House and behind the Lampsins warehouses. It is a huge complex over three floors, a cellar and an attic. Between the Lampsins House and the warehouses were glass encaged galleries. Here I found among other gable stones a very big one representing a ship that looked like the Salamander except that it had sails two stories high instead of three and it was rigged out as a war ship with two rows of cannons. I decided to draw the stone as it was nicely detailed. One of the volunteers had an interesting comment. He said that the Salamander was only a small ship. Regular VOC vessels had up to 250 men on board, but the Salamander would only carry 50 men or so. Half way on my tour somebody came down from the offices to tell me that indeed the model was in the museum, but it was not on view. Later Gabrielle Baumann the director of the museum came to see me. I explained I wanted to draw the model for the purpose of using it in a graphic story about Dutch contacts with Iligh. She told me she couldn’t let me into the museum’s warehouse. I had to write a letter and the board would than take it in consideration. I did and I haven’t heard from her or anyone else since.

81 Lampsins of Vlissingen

After the Church of Saint Jacob where Michiel de Ruyter was baptized and married the next logical step was to the Lampsins House. Lampsins was is an important ship-owner. Originally from Oostende Jan Lampsins settled in Vlissingen and made his fortune there. He was also the first employer of Michiel de Ruyter. As a young child after flunking school Michiel took up a job working on the ropewalk one of the businesses of Jan Lampsins. Later a children’s song was written that starts with this period of his life when ‘turning the big wheel, all day, while his boyish heart longed for a life of adventure on sea’. Or something like that. In 1618 as a 11 year old he went to sea. In 1631 after a very adventurous life on shore and at sea he was hired again by Lampsins. This time it was Cornelis Lampsins the son of Jan. Michiel was send to head the company’s office in Dublin where he learned to speak fluent Irish. The story goes that on a trip back to Vlissingen his ship was attacked by pirates. He saved his ship by smearing Irish butter on the hull of the ship. In 1638 De Ruyter was made captain of one of the Lampsins’ ships. By 1644 he had his own ship the Salamander. In 1652 he bought a house right behind the Lampsins House. The Lampsins house is now a museum. The balcony on the roof is said to function as a kind of crows’ nest. It was used to watch the ships depart and come in. The old tidal dock is now a marina. Hence the high walls. When sketching the sun was out, but a freezing cold wind from the north was blowing around my ears. High time to go inside in the MuZeeum (MuSeaum).

80 Vlissingen 1652

1652 was an important year in the life of Michiel de Ruyter. Het married Anne van Gelder and had bought a house. His trade with Iligh and the Caribbean had made him a rather wealthy man. He wanted to spend more time with his family and less time on the seven seas. However that was not going to be. Johan de Witt asked him to help out the young Republic as it was threatened on all sides. This map of Vlissingen shows a relative big city that is well protected from outside enemies both human and water. The population of Vlissingen has grown but not by much. The old town and coast are still more or less the same. Although most harbours and docks as well as the moat have been filled in. What I had to draw I could find on this map. The history of Vlissingen is a long one. It has always been a desirable possession because of its strategic position at the entrance of the Schelde estuary and its rich hinterland of Antwerp, Brugge and Gendt. In 1572 it became the second city within the very young Dutch Republic to rid itself of Spanish rule. They weren’t ‘taken’; the population freed itself. After that it became a wealthy port and trading centre by itself till Amsterdam took over in importance. Typical after getting his commission as Vice Admiral of the fleet De Ruyter had to move to Amsterdam. However he kept his house in Vlissingen.

79 Michiel de Ruyter and the Church of Saint Jacob

I’ve read it many times: when somebody in history becomes something like a ‘saviour’ or ‘hero’, people will find ‘signs’ of the later greatness in earlier life. The same happened with Michiel de Ruyter. Even though quite a bit is known about his youth that didn’t prevent myths to be spun. A few had to do with the Great or Saint Jacob’s Church. It is said, he climbed the tower to better see the ships on Vlissingen’s roadstead and the North Sea beyond. When he came down he chose to come via the façade: as if the tower was the main mast of a ship. De Ruyter was baptized in the church and was married there, but he is interred in the ‘Nieuwe Kerk’ (New Church) in Amsterdam. After having made a drawing of the church tower the day before, I wanted to ‘do’ the interior. Like most old churches in the Netherlands this church became Protestant during the 80year liberation war with Spain. That meant that the church was stripped of all altars, statues, confession boxes and little sanctuaries. What was left was a rather naked, open space. The inside of churches like this one I find extremely difficult to draw. It is just too big and there is little to take hold of. The only focus point is the pulpit and that structure is usually an over ornate and rather pompous affair. I always admire the perfect acoustics those churches have. That’s why the Saint Jacobs church is also used for concerts nowadays, the churchwarden in charge of ‘events’ told me. The day I sat down to sketch, the ‘evangelical’ broadcasting corporation (EO) was preparing the space for a televised recording of public church singing: ‘Nederland Zingt’ (The Netherlands Sings). In the drawing the lads have just finished hanging the lights and putting up the recording system. While drawing the pulpit the musical instruments were tried out. I was invited to stay on for the rehearsal, but I declined and hastened from the place of worship to head for the nautical venues.

78 Michiel de Ruyter as seen on TV

On my first night in Vlissingen my local friend Martina and I settled in front of the TV to watch ‘The Admiral’ on Netflix. The film tells the story of Michiel as head of the fleet during the wars with England. It is set in the period after he was a trader, had his own ship the ‘Salamander’ and travelled with it to Morocco and the Caribbean. It starts in the year he was asked by the council of the Dutch Republic to join the admiralty. Apart from his prowess in battle and his genius as a naval tactician we are shown the political reality of the times. The Republic was rich and doing well in international trade. The other sea powers were jealous and attacked the young country: in particular England and later France. Inside the Republic a civil war threatened. The Seven Provinces were ruled by the party of traders and ad hoc politicians called the ‘Staatsgezinden’ or State Supporters. Their leader was Johan de Witt who was supported by his brother Cornelis. They were opposed by the faction around the Prince of Orange. The princely pretender was Prince Willem III the later King William of England or King Billy. Willem III was gay and Lord Bentinck was his lover as seen on the film. Michiel de Ruyter came from a region that was staunchly Orange, but was also a great friend and admirer of the bros De Witt. Apart from some misplaced, modern American style and lengthy speeches about ‘freedom’ the movie explains a very complicated and for an Anglo-Saxon public totally incomprehensible moment in history succinctly effective. Well done! The sketch is of the Great or Saint Jacob’s Church the most important landmark in the coastal town and very important in the life of De Ruyter.

77 Introduction to Vlissingen

Nowadays Vlissingen can be reached easily by train. But till the sixties of the last century Vlissingen was on an island: Walcheren. After the devastating effects of the Flood Disaster of 1953 the islands that made up the Province of Zeeland were connected to each other and the mainland by dykes, bridges and flood defences. Walcheren is no longer an island and if you didn’t know you would never notice it had been. The train ride took just over three hours. Because of recent rescheduling it took half an hour longer than during the time I visited the town for work. I had always enjoyed visiting the province. Work for the National Bureau of Water Management had taken me many times to Zeeland. In 2001 while recovering from cancer treatment I had been kindly taken in by a couple living on Walcheren. In the nineties my aunt Taat had taken Bert and me for a Whitsun holiday to Vlissingen. We had stayed in the Grand Hotel Brittannia or ‘De Brit’. All rooms in the hotel had balconies looking out over the Roadstead of Vlissingen. That view I wanted to have this time too. But ‘De Brit’ had been demolished. Fortunately there are more hotels on the ‘Boulevard’. I chose the Hotel Truida and was given a room with the desired view. Better still: when I sat on the loo I could draw this sketch. Martina, a Dutch friend from Achill Island has a ‘pied d’à terre’ in Vlissingen. She welcomed me and gave me a thorough introduction to the town. She took me and her dog for a circular tour around the old city. Starting on Wall Street she took me to the Saint Jacob’s or Great Church and on to the yacht harbour and the Lampsins House, past the Pilot’s port and Bellamypark or the old dock harbour to the statue of Michiel de Ruyter and to the harbour inlet and on to the Prisoners’ Tower and the boulevards. Turned out her home was just behind the hotel in the 19th century part of the town. In the evening we watched the movie ‘Admiral’ on Netflix. I couldn’t have gotten a better introduction to Vlissinge the town of Michiel de Ruyter.

76 In search of Michiel de Ruyter

The first chapter of the Graphic Story about Iligh will be about the Michiel de Ruyter connection. Michiel de Ruyter was born in 1607 and died in 1676 during a sea battle against the French. He hailed from the town of Vlissingen on the island of Walcheren in the Province of Zeeland. Zeeland was in the 17th century an independent region of small but rich and powerful islands within the Dutch Republic of Seven Provinces. Michiel de Ruyter is an iconic hero of the seas. His sailors gave him the honorary title of ‘Bestevaer’ (grandfather). The latest biography about him by Ronald Prudhomme van Reine was called ‘De rechter hand van Nederland’ (The right hand of the Netherlands) and a movie about his exploits during the wars with England was titled ‘Admiral’. At primary school I learned the song ‘In een blauwgeruite kiel’ (In a blue tartan shirt) about him as a youth dreaming about going to sea while working on a ropewalk. Lately his heroic status has been questioned and to have an interest in him is considered dubious and ‘not done’. He is accused of facilitating the slave trade. The Dutch had taken over the cross-ocean trade from the Portuguese and made it more ‘efficient’ and thus more vicious and dehumanizing. As with all iconic figures a lot of myths were attached to him and he had become more like an institution than a human being. Time to get a ‘feel’ for this man and to make drawings ‘in situ’ for the graphic story. I took the train to Vlissingen. It was a beautiful sunny day when I set out to the railway station only to find out that the scheduled direct train to Vlissingen had been cancelled. Time enough to sit down and do some serious sketching of the monumental Amsterdam Central Station.

75 Paolo de Mas in Iligh in 2011

Paolo de Mas only came back to Iligh in 2011 with a TV crew with presenter Daphne Bunskoek. The Dutch national broadcaster made a series about slavery and the Dutch: a rather controversial and neglected subject. One part of the series was dedicated to Dutch hostages or the so-called Christian slaves. They weren’t really slaves they were hostages held for ransom. But of course when they weren’t paid for they ended their lives as slaves. In the meantime they were set to work: for instance on building the city walls of Meknes. The rulers in Morocco tended to hold all Dutch sailors for ransom that stranded on Moroccan shores or whose ships were looted. In the 17th century that were quite a lot: among them was also Dutch rebel warrior Piet Hein. The VOC had a ‘ransom fund’ for these occasions. But crews of ships that weren’t part of that organisation had to rely on private or parochial fundraising to be bought out. The House of Iligh also held Christian sailors for ransom and among them was a number of Dutch. Michiel de Ruyter describes in his diaries how he could buy out a number of them but also had to leave behind some as he didn’t have enough funds and he didn’t know if he would be paid back for his troubles. To highlight this story Paolo de Mas took the TV crew to Iligh. They were welcomed in the White Castle by his old friend Hamdi Aboudmiaa. Most shots were taken amid the rundown southern part of the village: not even in the ‘court’. And by the look of it, the weather was cold and miserable. But it is a great story and Paolo told it well in front of the cameras.

74 Paolo de Mas 1975-1982

From 1975 to 1978 Paolo de Mas was in Morocco for the REMPLOD project Willem Heinemeijer was doing for Dutch minister Jan Pronk: Reintegration of Emigrant Manpower and the Promotion of Local Opportunities for Development. For this project the University of Amsterdam, UvA worked together with the INSEA in Rabat: the Institut National de Statistique et d’Economie Appliquée. For this project De Mas visited Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa for the first time in 1975. Later he would stay there for a while. Him and the other project members would stay in the building the Friends of Iligh would later have lunch. When the project was done, Paolo de Mas and others didn’t want to leave Morocco yet and went on the look out for another opportunity. They found it in the building in the lot next to that of the INSEA. It was the INAV Institut National Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II in Rabat. In this institute Paul Pascon set the tone. From 1979 to 1982 the UvA and Paul Pascon worked together. First on the REDRA project in the Rif: (Ressources en Eau et Développement dans de zônes Arides). In 1979 however Paul Pascon published his inventory of the documents on the trade the House of Iligh conducted in the first half of the 19th century. After this publication he wanted to conduct an in depth study of not only the trade, but also the political and social history of the House of Iligh. In October 1980 he took Herman van der Wüsten and Paolo de Mas on a fact-finding trip to Iligh. After that Paul Pascon collected a large ‘equipe’ around him and VD Wüsten contributed Dutch funds for the Iligh project that would last till 1982.

73 Who was Willem Heinemeijer?

Bert Hogervorst was given a copy of the book by Paul Pascon about Iligh as a present by Herman van der Wüsten. The former owner had written his name inside and that was not VD Wüsten. The name didn’t mean a thing till our conversation with Paolo de Mas in the 1ste Klasse Wachtkamer in Amsterdam Central railway station. Suddenly we read what had been written: W. Heinemeijer. The name brought back memories. This man had not only had a very important influence on the life of Paolo de Mas, but I had also known him in a totally different context and only very shortly. Who was he? Willem Heinemeijer was born in Amsterdam in 1922 and died there in 1999. He didn’t live anywhere else, but apart from Amsterdam he loved Morocco. Paolo de Mas told us the story that Willem’s father was as stamp collector corresponded with the (French) postmaster of a small village in the High Atlas. One day Heinemeijer saw a picture of the postmaster’s daughter and fell instantly in love. He hitchhiked via Marseilles and Algeria to the high Atlas. At the time both Algeria and Morocco were French colonies. His infatuation with the daughter didn’t pan out and instead Heinemeijer fell in love with the country. Heinemeijer studied Social Geography at the University of Amsterdam and later became professor there. Reflecting his continued interest in the country his 1968 phd thesis was about National Integration and Regional Diversity in Morocco. Heinemeijer wasn’t just a academic he also loved to mingle in popular political and social debates. In particular where it touched on his ‘beloved’ Amsterdam. In the mid nineties I came to know him as member of a think-tank set up by the squatters of the Nineteenth Century port of Amsterdam. We, the squatters wanted to make an ‘alternative’ development of the old port possible based on ‘what was already there’. The city wanted to make as much money as possible on the land and location. Heinemeijer and a few of his old ‘cronies’ helped us. Paolo de Mas knew him a very long time. He got to know him as a very inspired and inspiring teacher and hands-on intellectual with whom he became fast friends and who stimulated his choices. As a Social-Geographer he saw ‘development’ and ‘under-development’ in the context of the dynamics between the land and the communities that develop there. Exactly what we did as squatters in the old port of Amsterdam (The Turning Tide, Buchel, Hogervorst, Vermaase, 1996 Amsterdam, see my website: www.petibuchel.com). A pungent detail for Dutchs fans of the author Gerard Reve: in his acclaimed novel ‘De Avonden’(the evenings) Heinemeijer and his wife are both portrayed . Eduard Hoogkamp is Heinemeijer.

72 Paolo de Mas and Morocco

Paolo studied Social Geography under Willem Heinemeijer in Amsterdam. Heinemeijer stood at the foreground of research into migration and in his youth had ‘done’ Morocco hitchhiking. When in the mid-seventies the then Socialist minister for ‘Collaboration with the Developing World’ set aside billions for research into the effects of immigration in the home countries Heinemijer got the moneys meant for Morocco. Paolo de Mas was one of the promising students whom Heinemeijer trusted with the job. The two focus areas were the Rif in the north and the Souss region in the south. That was where the bulk of the Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands came from. Paolo de Mas started his Moroccan adventure touring the country with a friend for a month to get ‘a feel for the place’. After that he settled into the research job in a village in the Rif near El Hoceima. Later he moved (of all the possible villages in the Souss region) to Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa for more research on the impact of migration on rural communities. If I remember correctly the Social Democrat government was looking into the possibility if they could make it a policy to provide the ‘returning’ migrants with the infrastructure to help building a ‘better’ community at home. In the Netherlands the need for un-schooled labour had shrunk. They wanted to stem the tide of incoming migrants. If there was job opportunity at the place they came from there would be no need for immigration was the reasoning of politicians. Paolo de Mas remembered those years as him being an ‘elephant in the porcelain cupboard’. Meaning: probably doing more harm than good. I think that that was exactly what was wrong with the attitudes regarding ‘aid’ that were in ‘vogue’ at the time. At least it was not overtly greed driven... yet. By the time the research should have led to policy Thatcher had come into power in England and everything changed. However Paolo de Mas came away from his research job with a lasting love for Morocco in his heart.

71 Paolo de Mas

Paolo de Mas was one of the Dutch experts who didn’t come to the Reunion Des Amis d’Iligh. He had prior engagements. However he was one of the Dutch connections with Iligh. All through the preparations for the Iligh project he also had been extremely helpful. Chapter 5 of the Graphic Story that had to deal with Paul Pascon had him as the protagonist. We had boldly made that choice although we didn’t have a clue what he had really done during Pascon’s stay in Iligh. He wasn’t on the cover of the book. Herman van der Wüsten was as was Daniel Schroeter and Mohammed Tozy. Bert set up a meeting with him in the ‘1ste Klasse Wachtkamer’ at the Amsterdam Central Station for May 8. Before we went we read up on him. There was an in depth interview with him and his brother on the Internet. He was the son of Italian immigrants who came to Alkmaar in the Thirties and started an ice-cream parlour there. Paolo and his brother were second-generation immigrants. When he went to school in the fifties and sixties other waves of immigrants came to the Netherlands: Italians, Spanish, Yugoslavians and from the early sixties onwards Turks and Moroccans. According to the interview on the Internet Paolo keeps close ties with the village of his parent’s birth in the Dolomites. He visits it at least once a year and takes part in the community. He also cherishes his diploma Professional Ice Cream Maker. From childhood on he was fascinated by maps and geography. When he went to study at the University of Amsterdam he chose Social Geography. His professor there was Willem Heinemeijer and that man had a great influence on Paolo’s life.

Aicha and her projects

To be able to 'get things done' for the village Aisha Aboudmiaa went into politics. She stood for election for the regional council. She got in and is now a representative. Although she works and lives in Agadir where she is a civil servant and works on her phd, she applies herself to make life in the local community better. The dusty football pitch is a visible example. In March 2018 work was on the way to upgrade the pitch to a proper sports field. In the sketch Aisha is talking to the workmen who are setting out a sports oval. Another successful undertaking was the coming of the Medical Caravan. For about a week a number of mobile medical facilities were set up in the village. People were seen to for free. The aim is that in future the Medical Caravan visits the village on a regular basis. Aisha had also asked the women of the village, what they needed most. On top came out: good quality water. The water the diesel pump brings up is barely good enough for irrigation. Because of the opening up of water as a marketable commodity, drinking water is now bottled and sold in shops and has become too expensive for most local families. Through Aicha's efforts a deep well has been sunk that brings up drinkable water for the use of the villagers. Another thing is that for the olive harvest the women have to go miles away. Aisha has planted about a hectare or more on the south side of the village with olive trees. In 2018 they stood about at 1.50 m. However the orchard has suffered from draught and theft. Year round safeguarding and maintenance has proven very expensive.

Coming into Iligh from Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa

Driving from Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa for the first time, it takes a long time before you see Iligh. The winding road first dips down into the local Oued. The Oued is green with trees and gardens. A number of water wells of different ages are visible. All are abandoned. If you stop the car you can hear the put-put of the diesel pump that brings up the water for irrigation. After crossing the Oued the road rises amid undistinguished ruins. On the right are the ruins of Old Iligh and an old Souk to the left the extensive ruins of two mellahs. A bent in the road and suddenly the village is there: blocks of houses carelessly thrown down on a plain. The casbahs with their towers and fat bellied walls that make up the fortress are on the other side of the village. They are still invisible. The sketch is made from in front of the village school. There are no other amenities in the village except a dusty football pitch and a tiny little shop in a doorway. For their household and farming shopping the villagers have to go to Tirmigh 20km to the north. For other things like banking, and medical care they have to go to Tiznit 60km to the north-west. In the daytime there will be not many people around as they will be working in the fields and gardens. Some may be employed elsewhere. There are some new houses made out of concrete, but on the whole the village doesn't look prosperous. The people you'll see are all black African. There seems nothing else left of the glorious past but ruins and descendants of slaves that have made Iligh their home for the past 300 years.

What happened at the sanctuary of Sidi Bubkr?

After lunch everybody finally went to Iligh. From Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa it is 6km to Iligh and halfway along the way in the middle of nowhere and in a bend of the road is the sanctuary of Sidi Bubkr. The Marabout is surrounded by a walled graveyard. Nobody seems to know who Sidi Bubkr was, but the Marabout marks an important land division and is mentioned in many old documents. It was also the site of a gruesome murder with far-reaching consequences. Thursday 1 December 1814 a man named Mahmud El Warari was stabbed near the Marabout ten times. His stomach was cut open and filled with stones. The assailants were send by Hashem the ruler of the House of Iligh. Like Hashem, Mahmud was a descendant of Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa. They were related in more ways than one and they were political rivals. Their fiefdoms bordered on each other. But while Mahmud obeyed faithfully his overlord, Hashem also known as 'the Lion of the Tazerwalt'followed an independent course which got him into difficulties many times. It went so far that the fortress of Iligh was destroyed twice between 1810 and 1816 by the overlord. When Mahmud met his death he was crossing the 'border' at Sidi Bubkr while on the way to Iligh for the circumcision ceremony of the son of Hashem and the sister of Mahmud. The case came to court and there is a legal document about the case kept safe in the mosque of Toumanar although it was set afire and torn into pieces. 10 years later in 1825 the son of Mahmud wanted to retaliate a disgrace his wife had suffered when she visited Iligh for a wedding (there are 5 different versions of the same story). He shot Hashem under the famous Argan tree in the souk of Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa during the yearly Moussem in honor of his ancestor the Sufi saint. The murder was part of both a vendetta and a long drawn out civil war. Paul Pascon gives an exhaustive description of the events in his study "La Maison d'Iligh'.

The Dutch presentation

After Paul Dahan's presentation it was the turn for the experts from Holland to say something. The Dutch delegation consisted of Herman Obdeijn and his wife, Mohammed Saadouni and Leon Buskens of the NIMAR in Rabat. Also part of the NIMAR group were Sarah Michiel from Belgium and from Morocco educator Omar Zkik and driver Ahmed Chenouni. Herman Obdeijn took it upon himself to say something about the Dutch connection with Iligh. For us Michiel de Ruyter is of course the most striking connection. However even for the Aboudmiaa family De Ruyter is an unknown factor. They had never heard about him till Bert told them. Herman set things right by quoting from De Ruyter's diaries about his visit with Ali Ben Mohammed Ou Mousa the then ruler who was the first who took the name Aboudmiaa to distinguish himself from the other descendants of the Sufi saint. De Ruyter called him 'Sant' in short. During the presentations Imam was in the room restlessly moving about at first but when he saw that I was sketching he settled beside me. As always I think partly because he want to protect me because he considers me his guest, partly out of affection I think. Of course he knows that when I'm around he gets his portrait taken. After the meeting we went back to the Zaouia were the lunch was served. The students from the driving school joined us and this time men and women mixed around the three tables. Remarkable was that the dignitaries of the Zaouia shared a table with the girls from the hairdressing course and partook in their enthusiasm. It was a heartwarming sight. Maybe the girls were the granddaughters. Who knows.

The meeting in Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa

Next the Friends of Iligh repaired to the municipal building for a meeting during which different presentations would be given. As the 'Reunion' was financed by the Governate of Tiznit Aisha and Bert had to comply with certain demands from high up. One of them was that the Alderman for culture of Tiznit Ahmed Boumzegou would also give a presentation. Apparently he had done his phd on 'Iligh'. Boumzegou had not been particularly helpful when Aisha and Bert had ran up and down the stairs in the Governor's palace in search of support. They both had taken a dislike to him. However in the morning before we set off for Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa word came that Boumzegou suddenly had to go to Rabat. In his stead came a man in a baseball cap. This man insisted that he gave the first presentation right after the introduction by Bert and by the Mayor. His talk was about documents from the archive of Iligh that had proven beyond doubt that Morocco's claim on Western Sahara the former Spanish colony was legit. The claim was never recognized by the international community. The take-over was engineered by General Franco just before his death and king Hassan II. The story goes that one day a helicopter landed in Iligh with people a.o. a minister who demanded of Houcine Aboudmiaa the then ruler of Iligh to hand over the relevant documents. It is unclear to me when this took place and how the authorities in Rabat knew the documents existed. Did Houcine tell them or did they know from El Soussy the historian who died in the mid sixties and who wrote extensively about 'Iligh' in Arabic (never translated). One thing is certain: the documents never came back.I didn't know all this when I made this sketch otherwise the usurper would have been prominent in the drawing. From left to right: Paul Dahan, Manoubi Abdelmjid the Mayor, Bert, Aisha in Hajib and on the phone, Abdullah El Mountassir, and the two Sufi dignitaries from the Zaouia: Moulay El Mahfoud and Moulay Houcine El Ourari.In the background a very large poster of king Mohammed VI.

The girls of Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa

After the visit to the Zaouia the Friends of Iligh were taken to a square that lies beyond the Soek. It has the municipal building and an extremely old Argan tree. Apparently it was already there when the Saint chose this spot to settle in. Or maybe it was because of this tree that he settled here. Who knows. Argan trees are everywhere in this region, but strangely enough not in this valley. The Argan fruit was ripening. The fruit looks like an olive, but when ripening it also has the same color. But at this stage it looks more like a mother's tit. Anyway along side the tree stood a large trailer. It was a driving school classroom. With the Medical Caravan it is one of the amenities Aisha has established in her role as political representative. The school was for girls and women to teach them the 3Rs and simple handicrafts. In front of the caravan was a market stall where the village women sold what they had made. A lot of the traditional handicrafts that women used to carry out have either disappeared or have been commercialized. And this is a way to give them something outside the duties at home and farm. The Friends of Iligh bought a lot of trinkets. At that moment lessons were finished in the trailer. Out came a group of teen girls. It quickly became evident what they had been taught: cutting and styling hair. At least three of them had sat model too and they didn't hide it. The next day I saw them again, but they still had not hidden their stylish 'coup'.

The graveyard of the Zaouia of Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa

I was determined to take every sketching opportunity I could get. I had made only one sketch in Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa thus far. If a whole chapter in the graphic story was going to be devoted to this Sufi saint I had to get to work. The village named after the saint is a small but rather prosperous place. It is also a governmental seat of some sort for the immediate region. There is a police post and a Caïd. As Paul Pascon already remarked that because of the saint settling on the spot it attracted people from all over and was therefore not connected to any particular tribe. Half way up the stairs to the Zaouia I was met by an old man leaning heavily on a stick hardly able to come down the steps. On one of the turning platforms of the stairs he stopped, turned east, leaned his elbows on the parapet and started to pray. I sat down and drew the scene. It said some important things. The old man was one of the elderly that find shelter on the last stage of life in the Zaouia. With the visiting group of o.a. unbelievers he didn't feel free to pray inside the building. His legs were so crippled by old age he could not kneel anymore and get up by himself. That's why he prayed standing up. If one of the strictest rules of Islam, how to pray, can be adapted to necessity than Islam is not strictly cast in concrete. Of course in all religions it is what believers/followers do with it and make of it. The graveyard in the background had a rather newish wall built around it, but the old crumbling walls hadn't been demolished. One can clearly see the devisions. I thought it reflected the expansion of the graveyard, but that isn't wholly true. The lowest part is strictly reserved for the Aboudmiaa family.

On the way to Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa

The next day March 23 the Friends of Iligh went first to Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa. We left in a caravan of at least three cars. Just like in Tiznit the day before there were a number of hangers-on whom nobody knew who they were. The 'Friends' were spread out over two cars and one little bus. The five people of the NIMAR had a big 4WD, Herman and Wies Opdeijn drove a hired Duster and we were in the little bus. Mohamed Ouhaou was also there and a colleague of his. We took the old road that goes from Tiznit to Tafroute. The Anti Atlas that runs from east to west sort of peters out towards the south when it gets close to the ocean. Stretching out from Agadir southwards is a great big flat basin. Where the basin meets the Anti Atlas the landscape changes abruptly. You notice it whatever road you take to Iligh. The road is straight and flat till suddenly it rises while twisting and turning. The vegetation also changes. In the basin flourish Savannah type plants. As soon as the road hits the mountains the plants change. It had rained copiously in the month of March and it was green and lush. Everywhere were flowers. Yellow linseed flowers were in bloom everywhere and the wheat was coming up. It was in stark contrast to the parched outlook the landscape had presented in September. Just before the market village of Tirmigh is the turn off for Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa. From the turn off it is about 20km to Iligh. The first time Paul Pascon came this way he walked the distance and the road wasn't paved yet. In Sidi Ahmed Ou Mousa we were welcomed by Moulay Imam Aboudmiaa, the Mayor of the village and the two spiritual leaders of the Zaouia. Imam came in a brand new Peugeot sedan and was in the company of Bouchari the older half brother of Hamdi, but I didn't know that then. The group was taken up the steps towards the Zaouia for a guide tour. I stayed behind to sketch the butcher who had just skinned a goat. While I was sketching the head was discarded, the heart given to a cat and the intestines were taken out and the insides washed.

After supper in the Tiznit Hotel

In the afternoon of the first day of the 'Reunion des Amis d'Iligh' the group was taken to meet Tiznit's famous resident architect Salima Nagji. I went back to the Tiznit Hotel to take a rest in my room. Although the hotel is situated on the corner of the busiest roundabout in Tiznit I didn't hear the traffic in my room at all. The rooms of the Friends of Iligh were all situated around the landscaped and shaded court with at its centre the swimming pool. A typical three star hotel the Tiznit had an alcohol license and a bar where the local drunks and as far as I could see prostitutes gathered. Right across from the window plus balcony of my room an old gent sat during the day in the shade of a date palm. I soon discovered that he had a great view of what went on in the rooms. I slept till evening and joined the group for supper in the hotel's dining room. Of the experts who met Aisha in Leyde in October only one was in Tiznit: Herman Obdeijn. He was accompanied by his wife Louise (Wies). Poor Harry Stroomer who had wanted to come had had a minor stroke on the day before coming here. Fortunately it wasn't crippling and the prospects for recovery were good. It brought home the fact that it was 5 to 12. Harry's right hand man Mohammed Saadouni was with us. And a good thing it was. During the day there had been a lot of local luminaries that had tagged on to the group, but back at the hotel the group had thinned out considerably. Aisha, Annie and Bert were still staying at Fatima's. After supper the 5 strong delegation of the NIMAR had also gone to the rooms. Left were from left to right Paul Dahan of the Jewish Museum in Brussels, he was accompanied by his Belgian wife and 4 year old son, Herman Obdeijn, retired diplomat and Morocco specialist, Wies Obdeijn, retired medical doctor, Mohammed Saadouni and Abdallah Al Moutassir the history professor with whom Aisha was doing her phd. Paul Dahan, who cherishes his Moroccan passport, was a lively fellow who got a discussion going and who held some outspoken views that he didn't suppress. Around him it was never dull.

Introduction to Tiznit

After the friends of iligh were officially welcomed by the governor we were shown around town. We saw the Mellah, the old Jewish artisan souk, now lovingly restored by Tiznit's architect Salima Nagji. Tiznit is an old oase with and ancient well and an historic mosque of which the minaret is unfortunately very tastelessly renovated. In the late nineteenth century it was walled and became a garrison town. Not in the last place because of the threatening power of Iligh. The French extended the barracks. By that time the power of Iligh was waning and the French used the garrison to suppress the Tazerwalt region. Tiznit also has a resident Sufi saint to whose brand new sanctuary and shrine we were taken. Our guide was Mohamed Ouhamou, the cultural officer of the city. His French wasn't great but the people who spoke Moroccan Arabic or Tashelhyt translated. For some unclear reason he attached himself to me. I suspected he thought I was going to desecrate the Sufi sanctuary, but I was only on the look out for a sketching opportunity. When you are with a group that is sort of aimlessly milling about it is very difficult to find a good moment. Anyway next we went to lunch. We drove a little way out of town in the direction of Guelmim till we came to a Afriquia petrol station. At the back was a great big resting area with an excellent traditional Moroccan family restaurant. I absolutely love those places, but when you are a non-Moroccan tourist, you rarely find them. No doubt we were taken there because of the female element in our group. As on cue the men gathered around one table and the women around the other. It was only remarked upon with the dessert and our guide gamely choose to switch to the women's table. Then I made this sketch of M Ouhamou.

The Friends of Iligh and the Governor of Tiznit

Once in Tiznit I became aware of the enormous achievement that Aisha and Bert had brought about for the comfort of the Friends of Iligh. They had persuaded the Directorate of the Province of Tiznit to rent the Tiznit Hotel for our group for three nights including breakfast and supper. Not only that but the Directorate also provided transport and lunch. They had taken care of the design and printed posters and a folder with relevant information. Of course the Aboudmiaas were once a powerful family in the region and their history is closely tied to that of the Province, but still... Bert is a total stranger without any connections whatsoever. She is not sponsored or endorsed by a government, university or organization. I'm totally impressed! After checking in and dropping off the luggage in the hotel, we were taken to the palace of the Governor to be formally introduced. That happened in one of those great reception rooms that you see all over the Islamic world: seats along the walls, little tables close to the seats and a great big empty space in the middle. The Governor who was accompanied by the mayor of the town and a secretary general was affable and vaguely interested. I didn't get the impression that he exactly knew what he was in for. But his interest became peaked when he realized who was in attendance. In the meantime servants were offering a variety of drinks and sweets. I'm usually all for it, but now I felt that it was more for the intent than the partaking so I did take a bit but left it on the plate. After the introduction Aisha gave a short presentation. The Governor then mumbled some politenesses and that was it.

Back in Tiznit

Aisha's friend Abdellatif Jhilal picked me up from the Tildi Hotel at exactly 10 o'clock. He drove me in an upmarket gleaming black Volkswagen sedan in around two hours to Tiznit. The Tildi is situated in a narrow quiet street that runs down hill to the beach. Just before the beach it is cut short by the main traffic artery that runs north-south parallel to the coast. This wide street took us first to Inzegane past the huge Marijane supermarket, the bus station and the Grand Taxi station. Next it crosses the Sous River that gives the region its name. March should be the time of the year that abundant water is passing under the bridge. It wasn't bad actually. Morocco also had had a miserable and cold month just like in Ireland. Next we drove through Ait Melloul. In this town is the turn off for the N1 to Tiznit and beyond. The other route goes to the airport. It was the route I had come that morning. By that time I knew that Abdellatif was courtious, somewhere in his forties, unmarried and from Taza. He taught theoretical mathematics at Agadir university and had been taken once by Aisha to Iligh to meet her family. After having established his antecedents without giving mine away we could proceed over the N1. First through the string of villages from one roundabout to another and than on to the new fast road. We passed the turn off to Sidi Rabat on the right and hit an empty stretch. Abdellatif had the address where we would meet the others and stay: the Tiznit Hotel. I knew where it was: on the major roundabout. Who would have thought that Tiznit would become such an important part of my Moroccan experiences? At the end of my stay I would finally get the chance to make a sketch of this roundabout from another hotel: the Idou Hotel. On the sketch you look from the west side of the five exit roundabout towards the east. The road to the east is towards Tafroute and is the traditional way to get to Iligh. From left to right is the N1 north to Agadir and south to Guelmim and beyond. That is the new or alternative way to Iligh. The two roads towards the west of which only one is visible go into the town.

Back in Agadir

Back in Agadir, but not for long. For the whole journey from my home in Polranny to the room in the Tildi 14 hours later I had been fueled by adrenalin. As soon as the night porter closed the door of my hotel room behind him I fell on the bed in a deep sleep. Once I'm 'on my way' I tend to relax. I have no problem to leave worries about the next day behind once I'm in the state of traveling. However before I'm on the move I'm totally, insanely nervous and sick with apprehension. I contracted this in my youth. Before I started on another hitchhiking adventure I was ill for a week, but the desire for adventure and the urge to get away always won from the sickening panic. It was delightful to wake up knowing I was in Morocco once again. I thought I would be picked up by Aisha's friend around 2 o'clock. That meant I would miss the beginning of the 'Reunion'. But I didn't care. Now I was in Agadir I didn't worry anymore about if and how to get to Tiznit or Iligh. I felt confident again. However before I went down for breakfast I got a message that Abdellatif Jhilal would be at the hotel at 10 o'clock. During breakfast I had just enough time to make a sketch of the view from the terras of the iconic hill and the fortifications that gave Agadir its name. The complementary fruit basket the hotel staff had so kindly put in my room was hurriedly stuffed into my shoulder bag. At least some of it.

Irish-Moroccan or Moroccan-Irish?

The flight from Dublin to Agadir with Air Arabia was supposed to leave at 10.35 PM. Checking in started three hours before departure. I had arrived at 17.30hours in Dublin with a lot of luggage as I would fly from Agadir to Amsterdam and was going to spend at least 2 months there. That meant I had to cart a lot of medical stuff around. Sightseeing in Dublin was no option. Instead I dragged my heels, looked around a lot and made three detailed sketches to pass the time. The crowd that was going to Agadir was an interesting lot. I never knew there were Moroccans in Ireland. Moroccans certainly hadn't been hired away from the villages to do the dirty work like in the Netherlands. Traditionally people left from Ireland to find work someplace else. Who were those Moroccans on the flight with me? Turned out most were Moroccan men married to Irish women and their families. Around me I heard Moroccans speak English with strong Irish accents. This was cute. It was a few days after Saint Patrick's Day and a week before Easter. Were the mixed families going back to Morocco after visiting Irish family for Saint Paddy's or were they going to Morocco to visit Moroccan family for Easter hols? For most of the flight I slept. Funny: every time I go through passport controle coming into Morocco a Moroccan in front of me is getting into a fight of words with an official. Of course I can't understand what they are saying, but it is always very emotional: the return of the immigrant to the mother country. Never easy.

How to get to Tiznit?

Things were arranged for my trip from Achill to the Tildi Hotel in Agadir. But I still didn't know where the 'Reunion des Amis d'Iligh' was held and where I was going to stay: Iligh or Tiznit? Of course I didn't know the state Bert and Aisha were in trying to get the Tiznit directorate to pay the bill for the event and once they had conceded, the difficulties they had getting them to confirm it officially. I didn't know than that there wasn't a place yet where the guests would stay and where the event would be held. And this was two days before the guests were supposed to arrive in Tiznit. Whenever I had contact with her Bert had funny stories to tell and didn't seem to take anything seriously. Especially not my worries. She seemed almost callous. When she send me a mail that she, Annie and Aisha were staying in Tiznit in the apartment of Fatima and that I should come there, I flipped. Oh yeah, and I should take a 'petit' taxi from the Tildi to the 'grand' taxi station at 'Abat' and from there I should find a group taxi to Tiznit and the prices were this and that but those were for Moroccans. I decided not to go at all. Fuck the expenses for the train ticket, the flight and the Hotel. What did money mean anyway if the alternative was that I had to schlep with a heavy suitcase and a heavy shoulder bag through busy Agadir. Once in Tiznit where did I have to take a 'petit' taxi to? I saw myself telling the driver: take me to Fatima. She lives somewhere inside the city walls. Which Fatima, he would ask. The Fatima who is such a fantastic cook, I would answer. I decided to write to Aisha and Annie and explain my predicament. They quickly found a solution: a friend of Aisha who lived in Agadir and was coming to the event anyway, would pick me up at the Tildi. So far so good. By the time I arrived at Dublin airport the place had gotten very quiet. The otherwise busy departure hall where travellers check in was deserted. It seemed that my flight was the last one out.