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.

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.

It happened in Tiznit

The main square of Tiznit is not the prettiest place in Tiznit, but it is the place where the tourists eventually gravitate to. There are coffee houses where one can sit down, drink NosNos, eat Pizza and watch the farmers coming to town from the outlying villages. I made this drawing the first time i found myself in this town. This trip Bert and me were there again. Bert had to get a Moroccan sim card for one of her phones. After scoring the Sim card and buying a pile of paperbacks with feminist content, we sat down for a coffee. I don't think a market is held in the square anymore. Neither will there be military parades. The building at its short side where one sees the picture of the ruling king was probably the garrison in the days of the French. It still looks pretty official. The square is now used as carpark. The farmers coming in park their 4wheel drives there. Some of the cars are top of the range BMW and Merc SUVs. We were looking out on the preposterous posteriors of two of those, when a poor looking, old woman in dusty wraps sat down in the shade between them. Something about the way she squatted down alerted me. I said to Bert:'I'm sure when she gets up, she will leave a mess on the pavement.' The good thing about wearing all those garments is that nobody notices when you are taking a piss or shit in public. After a while the old woman got up and walked away. A puddle was dripping down from the side of the expensive Merc onto the dust. Point taken. A little later she came back. She was in the company of a farmer, probably her son. The man zipped open the BMW SUV and got in behind the wheel. Herself stepped nimbly over her puddle and got into the passenger's seat. Poor? my ass and of course she hadn't dirtied her own car.

Tiznit

Is Tiznit on the N1 or is the N1 there because of Tiznit? It must be the latter because the French occupiers made Tiznit into a garrison town. It's famous for its silver smiths. That means that in the past it had a Jewish population. But those thing don't make an attractive town. Better drive through quickly in search of better places to visit or stay. But for some strange reason I always got stuck even though the same old man on the same old moped is on the look out for any car with foreign or car hire license plate. He attaches himself to the car like a leach as soon as we enter the walled city by its main entrance. He will offer his assistance and when we decline he will annoy us till he's bought off. By then we are on the main square ready to park the car. But Tiznit also is the centre of a whole province or 'departement' and has a great covered food market and in the outskirts a real Supermarkt. It turned out, Tiznit isn't as bad as the first impression warrants. During our discovery trip to Iligh Tiznit became a very important link and even a fun place to come to. It also has a comfortable Riad with a roomy and leafy garden inside the city walls. What sold me was the kiosk on the main square that not only sold cigarettes, bottled water, biscuits, batteries and other important items, but also books in French and Arabic. There was a whole collection of fiction and non-fiction on the 'leaden years', the years of cruel oppression during the reign of Hassan II. There were also books in French on Feminism and books with a feminist intent. The books in French were published by Fennec Press a Moroccan publisher of quality paperbacks for a very good price.