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.