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.

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.

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.

Bert and Aicha try Plan B

A week before the 'Reunion' of friends of Iligh would take place Bert and Aisha met again in Agadir. An impressive list of people who were coming to Iligh was ready. But there was nowhere to stay for them and it was still unsure if they would get to see anything. Iligh was still more like a warzone than a place of any importance. In the meantime Moulay Imam Aboudmiaa had suggested two locations in the neighborhood of Iligh where people could stay now that Iligh was out. But to stay in the neighboring 'auberges' would cost money and there wasn't any. Aisha suggested to pull political strings. She thought that the safeguarding of the heritage of her family was a matter of public interest. And there was a little matter of certain documents from Iligh having given proof to the legality of the annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco in 1975 or thereabouts. She also anted to cash in on that. Bert and Aisha moved to Tiznit the provincial capital to work the authorities there. For the next days they tried very hard to convince the politicians and civil servants of the prestige of footing the bill for the 'Reunion'.

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?

Meanwhile, back on the ranch

In the meantime, while Bert works her fingers to the bone on the computer to organize the reunion of the Friends of Iligh, I'm back in Polranny, Ireland where I'm teaching an art class in a local watering hole: McLouglin's Bar, Achill Sound. Once a week on Tuesday mornings Bert and I Skype about the progress of the Graphic Novel. In October and November I did 29 pages using as text the dairy that Bert wrote while in Iligh. I could hand out these pages to the experts at the meeting at the Leyde University. But then I started to falter. There was so much that went on before Bert started her diary and not in the least how to finish the story after the ending of the diary. Also when in Ireland there were other things that ate up time. The Red Queen in 'Alice in Wonderland' would say: 'Off with his head! He's killing time!' Still we managed during the weekly Skype moments to hammer out a structure. Bert left for Morocco again on February 19th. Just before we managed to send off a grant application for funding the Graphic Novel as a 'Special Journalistic Project'.

'Friends of Iligh'

In the winter of 2017/2018 Bert Hogervorst and Aicha Aboudmiaa started to organize a 'Reunion des Amis d'Iligh' (a reunion of the friends of Iligh) that had to take place in Iligh in March 2018. The aim was to bring the experts to the 'Museum' of Aicha's father Imam Aboudmiaa. There the 'coffres' (travel boxes)with the old and secret documents of the family would open and the content be revealed. Or at least that was the intention. The experts could then assess the state the documents were in, the level of deterioration, the language in which they were written and the identity of the writers. Or at least they would get a general idea to be able to judge the next steps. Aicha and Bert worked very hard to get an impressive list of participants together. But they ran into a couple of problems. The most important being: where to put up the guests? A stay in Iligh was not an option and the organizers had no funds to spent on accommodation. Aicha decided to make it political: the importance of Amazigh heritage as a tool to battle Islamist radicalism. Bert and Aicha set out to make the 'Reunion d'Amis d'Iligh' the responsibility of the Governor of the Province of Tiznit.