114 Writing the Graphic Travelogue

It is a bit as the dilemma about the chicken or the egg: which came first. I made the story Destination Iligh out of sketches without text. Now that Bert is back in Amsterdam for a while, it is all about text. She liked the story, but the outline for the text doesn't quite follow the ramblings of the sketches. It also has to do with the material and the sources. There is little sketch material about some subjects where there is an abundance of text sources. How to balance sketches and text, that is the question. Nothing comes easily. In the sketch: the first meeting between Bert and me and the Imam and Fatima Aboudmiaa. Love for Egyptian Movies and Soaps was the common denominator that opened the door for friendship.

113 Sketches galore

The original Graphic Travelogue called 'Destination Iligh' was only 4 pages. It was supposed to go into a 'Cahier' Bert was making about Iligh with contributions of different experts. Bert and I were going to do 'something' together. She was doing the text, me the drawings. The 'something' had come to nothing yet. We both were busy with other things. i had given it some thought though and when I needed to 'play' as part of recovery I thought this was a good place to start. It turned out, I had given it already so much thought that it didn't take much time to fill up 4 pages with sketches. Each page of basic A4 size was forming one chapter. There were 4 distinct chapters: View of Iligh from 4 sides, The court, Imam and the Museum and Foreign (in particular Dutch) Interest in Iligh. That done I was eager to continue. Bert was away on the Orkneys. The text had to wait. I decided to add 4 more pages. Highlighting the itinerary to Iligh and Michiel de Ruyter's expeditions to Iligh. That made 8 pages. I discovered that keeping the strickt regime of one page one chapter, I could endlesly extent the story line of the Graphic Travelogue adding pages on ways to travel, slaves, the environs of Iligh, the family Aboudmiaa and flora and fauna. This sketch depicts the wondrous landscape on the mountains between the Rout N ! and Iligh.

109 Back in the Muzeeum in Vlissingen

After much ado and thanks to the interference of Bert I finally got word that I could come and sketch the model of Michiel de Ruyters ship the Salamander in the Muzeeum in Vlissingen. The Salamander was the ship on which De Ruyter made his profitable voyages to Morocco. The model was taken out of storage and placed on the table in a meeting room. Bert and I were welcomed by Pol Verbeeck one of the curators of the museum. He explained that several models of the ship had been made over the years. They were all made by retired ship builders from the nearby wharfs who modeled the Salamander after descriptions given by De Ruyter in his Diary. The model in the Muzeeum wasn't older than 60 years. While I was sketching Bert had a conversation with Verbeeck about a young man from Eindhoven who had written a book about the 10 years that De Ruyter sailed on the Salamander. Verbeeck did rather scathing about the scientific content of the book. Apparently there was a lot of speculation but he had extensively written about Iligh. Bert's curiosity was peaked. During the lunch break we went to the local bookshop only to find that the book was not only sold out but also out of print. Later Bert had mail contact with the writer, but when she found out he hadn't even visited Iligh, she lost interest.

89 Am I an ‘Orientalist’?

People often ask me if it is through Bert Hogervorst and her Flying Hippo travel organisation that I travelled sketching through the Middle East and Morocco. They are surprised when they hear that from the age of 19 I’ve travelled and even lived and worked in the nearby Islamic world. Ever since as a child I was read from the Thousands and One Nights (with illustrations of Rie Kramer), I’ve had a fascination for the ‘East’. One could call me an ‘Orientalist’. However Orientalism and the Orientalist does have a patronizing and disparaging connotation. Nineteenth century British and French male travellers come to mind. They were lured on by perverse fantasies of alluring, sex-crazed women locked up in Harems. They would use the excuse of ‘study’ to scan the place for colonial purposes and they would undertake expeditions solely to establish ‘scientifically’ their own and their religion’s superiority over the indigenous Islamic and Jewish population. I don’t know if I fall under that definition of an ‘Orientalist’. I’m an elderly woman from a European country and a Lesbian to boot and I don’t have the tendency to ‘go native’. Maybe that could make me a sexist with neo-colonial tendencies and feelings of moral superiority. The only thing that I know for sure about myself is that I’ve always felt myself at home and safe in most of the Islamic countries I visited. Paradoxically I was also spurred on by an exiting sense of the dangerous unknown like so many travellers before me.

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.

The preparation for the 'Reunion'

In February Bert went to Morocco for a symposium on Moroccan-Jewish history at the Jewish Museum in Casablanca. She hoped to meet Jossy Chitry from Haifa and Taroudant there a specialist in Moroccan Jewish manuscripts. She also wanted to meet Zhor Rehilhil the director of the museum again. Zhor was one of the experts interested in attending the 'Reunion' that would be held in Iligh from March 22 to 24. After the symposium she went to Agadir to meet up with Aisha. As neither Bert nor the Aboudmiaa family had any funds,the plan was to have everybody stay in Iligh. However when Bert went on to check the situation in Iligh she was in for a shock. Unexpected changes had taken place there that put in doubt if the 'Reunion' could take place at all. However she couldn't sort out the situation as she had to meet a group in Tangiers. In the drawing Bert is writing her diary in Iligh. The diary that would make up a large part of the Graphic Story.

Chapter 6 Top Guns for Iligh

The only thing that is left to reveal the secrets of Iligh and turn the tide of the deterioration of the historical archives is to get international recognition. In Chapter 6 Bert the writer of the Graphic Story and Aicha Aboudmiaa set out to mobilize the experts in the field of documents, linguistics, history, anthropology and Jewish/Moroccan relations. The family Aboudmiaa starts a society of 'Friends of Iligh'. There is plenty of interest, but everybody demands to be shown examples from the archive that is important to their particular field of interest. Moulay Imam Aboudmiaa lets be known through his daughter that he can and will deliver. This results in a 'Reunion de Amis d'Iligh' on March 22, 23 and 24 2018 in Iligh. What will happen when everybody knocks on the gate of Iligh? Will Moulay Imam Aboudmiaa open up the coffers of the archive and if he does, will it reveal what everybody hopes and even expects it to deliver? And what will the reaction of the experts be? Will they be sufficiently impressed by what they see and by the attitude of the family to offer means and money to safeguard everything for future generations? How will the story end? The drawing shows Bert Hoogervorst and Moulay Imam Aboudmiaa. Do they really understand each other or is it a Biblical confusion of tongues as the Hebrew Thora text reads in the Museum of Iligh?

Chapter 2 Before the closed gates of Iligh

In Chapter 2 the text writer of the graphic story, Bert Hogervorst takes center stage. Three times when visiting Iligh she stood in front of closed gates. Coming upon Iligh by chance for the first time she was struck by its imposing, exotic architecture standing seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The casbah's of Iligh were like no other casbahs. It reminded her of pictures she had seen of sub-saharan buildings. Back in Holland she started an internet search. The first thing she discovered was that in the South of Morocco along the edges of the Sahara desert there were ancient Jewish settlements. Turns out the Jews played a crucial role in the Trans Saharan trade. The oldest settlement was in Ifrane (Atlas Saghir). From there the Jews had spread and brought prosperity to the region. It seemed that the rise of Iligh as a karavanserai, goods depot and trading post in the first half of the 17th century coincided with a particularly cruel episode in the history of the Jewish people of Ifrane known as the Mass Suicide when a ruthless ruler forced Jews into killing themselves and each other. From 1620 till 1968 when the last Rabbi left the place, the fate of the Jewish community and that of the family of the 'Maison d'Iligh' was tightly connected. At the end of the 19th century Iligh boasted the largest Jewish population of any place in the South of Morocco. The drawing is of Bert in the Jewish cemetery of Ifrane while on a reconnaissance of Jewish settlements in southern Morocco. Will the gates of Iligh finally open for her and what will she discover once inside?

Doubt is creeping in

In the two months between booking the plane tickets and hiring a car for our trip to Iligh and actually traveling doubt started to creep in. At least with me. Bert and I rarely spoke. I was busy in Polranny, Ireland and she was busy in Amsterdam. I knew she tried a couple of times without success to get Aicha on the phone or by Messenger. We knew already that she had been ill for quite a while in the winter. But what was ailing her we didn't know. What were we going to find when we stood at the door in Iligh? It was all one big uncertainty. Letterlijk & Figuurlijk the book by Joost Pollmann about the different forms a graphic story could take had had a profound influence on me. Did it still make sense to draw a straightforward historical story set into the traditional framework? I had visions of me researching endlessly the original props surrounding Michiel De Ruyter on his trips to Iligh. And how about the detailing of the court of Aboudmiaa? It would take years for the graphic story to get finished. On top of that I always had said myself that a 'historical' movie said more about the time it was made in than the time it was supposed to be in. Wouldn't it be the same for a graphic history? And what about making an entire graphic novel on the computer instead of on paper? Was Photoshop really the right software for it or did I have to resort to Illustrator or Indesign? Did I have to take a subscription out for the software and do a course in how to use it? Did I really want to spend time and money on those things? When Bert and I got together again three weeks before the departure we didn't know anything anymore. Wasn't the whole rigmarole surrounding our involvement with Iligh a story in itself?

Bert's first visit to Iligh

At the end of 2014 Bert is in Amsterdam planning the itinerary for the next group she'll be taking to Morocco. She writes: 'I'm looking for interesting places to visit between Tafroute and Agadir. The name Tazerwalt pops up and on a photo on the internet I see for the first time the thrilling architecture of the stronghold of Iligh. There are also references of more Jews that move from Ifrane this time to Iligh. Surprise, surprise: in connection with Iligh the name of a seventeenth century Dutch admiral of the fleet Michiel De Ruyter is mentioned in a book about Morocco in Dutch I've just bought written by De Mas and Obdeijn. According to them Iligh is in that same century destroyed with the loss of everything. Obviously a new Iligh has arisen because when I visit Iligh in March 2015 the stronghold is there. Nobody home. It is Friday afternoon. Everything seems asleep. A village woman whom I speak to mentioned a name in connection with the stronghold: Aboudmiaa. Apparently he is not here but in Tiznit. In the Summer of 2015 I discover articles about the region Iligh is in: Tazerwalt or Tazeroualt. A second name pops up Paul Pascon a Moroccon researcher. He has written a book called 'Maison D'Iligh'. But I can't find the book anywhere. But 'Maison d'Iligh' does have a Facebook page. I contact the name attached: Aicha Aboudmiaa. We set a date to meet during my next trip with a group. But when we arrive the door stays closed. Eventually I meet Aicha in the Oases Tulip Hotel in Agadir.'

Bert's story

Bert Hogervorst has her own story about how she got interested in Iligh. She writes: 2013 I was struck by the prominent presence of Jewish people in the history of Morocco. I find it fascinating. Not only in the big cities but also in the south of Morocco where I visit the Ferkla Oases with Peti. The local museum gives a very elaborate presentation of Jewish life in the past. More Jewish traces in the Valley of the Draa river. The connection is with caravans and trade. I see old photographs on the Internet thanks to local man Kacimi. 2014 I'm in south Morocco in the fall with Peti and others. With some difficulty we reach Ifrane and visit there the synagogue. Ifrane has a surprisingly old Jewish settlement. There is also a Jewish cemetery next to the Oued (river). Later I find a reference about Ifrane in a blog of a Jewish American. The settlement is pre-Islamic. On the same trip we visit the Mellah of Tahala. After much asking around we find a very kind and knowledgeable young man. There is a small cemetery. The Souk is well preserved and many more buildings. It is a small ghost-town. We are shown a register of the Jewish families that used to live here. The young man brings the Souk and the Jewish community to life with stories from when he was a kid and the stories from his father and great-parents. These five Jewish families came to Tahala from Ifrane. He tells about the loss and sadness in the small town of Tahala when the Jews left. Apparently it were the Rabbys that left first. According to him there was a library with documents. Where was this? He waves vaguely towards the mountains. Would he have meant Iligh, a place I hadn't heard of at the time?

Meeting Aicha Aboudamiaa in Agadir

On the last day of October 2016 Bert Hogervorst and I met up with Aicha Aboudamiaa in the Ibis Hotel in Agadir where we were staying prior to our flight back to Amsterdam. Bert and Aicha welcomed each other as old friends. It was the first time I met Aicha. Still Bert didn't know much about her. She is a daughter of Imam Aboudamiaa the descendant of the first ruler of Iligh: Ali Aboudamiaa. Bert had told me that the name in Arabic meant literally 'Father of Tears'. One could only speculate what it stood for. Aisha didn't have the answer there on that day in Agadir. Aisha told us that her father wanted to get international interest in Iligh and its history. Aisha was supposed to do that, but she has a full-time job in Agadir and not the time nor the connection. Could we help? I thought: I don't think so! Bert told her about our visit to the Jewish museum in Casablanca and our talk with Zhor Rehilhil director of the museum. Bert told Aicha that she should get in touch with Zhor. The museum is very well endowed and Iligh obviously isn't. But Zhor wants proof of the many documents in Hebrew that are supposedly in Iligh. Aisha tells us that her father doesn't want any of the documents to leave Iligh not even for preservation and documentation purposes. He has been in contact with the government minister in charge with the national heritage. He is afraid that once the historical papers are in Rabat, he will never get them back. Her father wants to get the international focus on Iligh in the hope that that way enough money will be generated to get the documents saved without interference from up high. After excuses that nobody had been in Iligh to open the door for us when we were there, I showed Aicha the drawings I had made there. The one of the Zaouia and the two in the part of the stronghold that is open to the public. She likes them very much and asked point blank if I want to come back a.s.a.p. and make more drawings.

Balancing text and image

I was going to split up the book I had written about Morocco and divide it in different graphic stories. First I was going to do a try out. I would take Tangiers. Tangiers was easy I thought. There I had made many sketches in one neighborhood the Bab Teatro district. It is full of stories both contemporary and historic that are also interesting for people who would never go to Morocco. I wrote the text. It was too much really compared to the drawings I had. Next question could I make extra sketches from photographs? Was that 'cheating'? Rework portraits of historic people featured in the story and taken from the internet? Did I have to draw the story? Or could I just stick to the random sketches I had made of the neighborhood? Could the images be totally separate from the content? Wouldn't it become an illustrated book instead of a graphic story? Did it matter either way? I didn't find a solution. In the end I decided to go back to Tangiers to make more sketches in the Bab Teatro district and to have them correspond with the content of the text. The graphic story about Iligh Bert Hogervorst and I were going to make was by that time already on the cards. It turned out that on the next trip to Morocco I could combine a visit to Iligh with a stay in Tangiers. Bert and I would go to Iligh before we would go to Tangiers where Bert was going to meet a group she would take on a train trip through Morocco. I would stay on in Tangiers for another week to make more sketches.The distance between Iligh and Tangiers is enormous, but with the use of busses and trains it could be done with ease in two days. It turned out we did it in 24 hours.

Discoverings about Iligh

The Graphic Story about 'Maison d'Iligh' and its history got as provisonal title: The Tears of Iligh. Bert started on the research more or less right away. Earlier she had discovered that two names kept popping up: the Dutch 17th century admiral Michiel Adriaanzoon De Ruyter and the French Moroccan social-geologist Paul Pascon. Paul Pascon had written extensively about Maison d'Iligh. But the book wasn't in print nor was it second hand available. Aicha Aboudmiaa told Bert in Agadir that among the participants of the research project of Paul Pascon was a Dutchman, but she had forgotten his name. Then Bert finds in a footnote somewhere on the Internet that the co-writer of Pascon's book on Iligh H. Van der Wüsten was. With a name like that he must be the Dutchman. She contacts him. He is pleasantly surprised and send her immediately a copy of 'La Maison d'Iligh'. For a learned non-fiction book it was riveting reading. Herman van der Wüsten also gives Bert the name of another Dutchman who was part of the group that helped Paul Pascon: Paolo De Mas. De Mas was also co-author of a history book about Morocco. Bert also contacted him, but he didn't seem to have reacted to her email. In July 2017 Bert and I contacted Aicha. Yes, her father would be glad to see us. We booked our next trip to Iligh for September 26 to October 6.

My first visit to Iligh

In October 2016 Bert and I called on Maison d’Iligh. Although contact was made beforehand again nobody was there and again we finally met up with Aisha in Agadir. Bert asked her for proof of the chest. Aisha promised a photograph. Then the problem was revealed: her father had contacted the ministry for culture in Rabat, but they only want to make the documents and books safe for the future if they can stay in the national library. That was a bit too much to ask of the last descendant of the illustrious House of Iligh. Moulay Imam Aboudmiaah wants his daughter to put Maison d’Iligh on the international stage. It is his only hope to safeguard the place, treasures and history from oblivion. But Aisha has a busy job and it is not an easy task to honor the wishes of her father and save Iligh. After looking at the sketches I made in Iligh and the Zaouia she asked me to come back and made a book of drawings of Iligh. Preferably soon. However there are no funds. In the plane going back to The Netherlands Bert and I decided that a booklet with drawings of Iligh wouldn’t do. Bert had already researched a bit the history of the small kingdom at the edge of the Sahara  that dates back to the seventeenth century and its Sufi saint founder. She had also discovered the interesting connection Michiel de Ruyter had with the place and a tentative link to the Sephardic community in Holland. It wasn’t difficult to come to the conclusion that only a graphic novel about Iligh and its history would do. 

First sight of Iligh

Bert Hogervorst and I are making a Graphic Story about an small former chiefdom in the south of Morocco. This is how we got into it: Bert visited the stronghold of Iligh on the edge of the Sahara desert for the first time in March 2015. She owns a company for private travel called Flying Hippo and was there with a small group. Bert was charmed by the architecture of the old buildings of 'Maison d'Iligh'. They looked more Sub-Saharan and less traditional Moroccan. There was a sign that said: Museum. She knocked on the nearest door. Nobody was at home. A few days later in Agadir she met up with Aisha Aboudmiaah the daughter of the owner of Maison d’Iligh. Aisha told Bert about a chest containing 1500 documents in Arabic and Hebrew in addition to a library of 3000 old books. All of which are in grave danger of  falling apart with age and neglect. At her return in Amsterdam Bert contacted the Jewish Historical Museum. They had organised in 2009 an important photo exhibit  about Jewish life in Southren Morocco. She also contacted the director of the Musée du Judaisme Marocain in Casablanca: Zhor Rehilhil. But Zhor reacted doubtful: is there proof the chest really exists? In October Bert and I visited her. It was an interesting and informative meeting, but we didn’t succeed then to bring her in contact with Aisha.