A storyteller in Jemaa El-Fna square in Marrakech in May 2006. GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP
They only enter the scene at nightfall, past the “Made in China” souvenir stalls and the spotlight-lit juice vendors and the gargotes smoky with grills. In the dark, hidden behind their ‘halqa’ (audience circle), the performers of Marrakech’s Jemaa El Fna square – or ‘hlaiqias’ – put on a nightly show drawn from popular traditions rooted in Morocco for centuries. They are the symbol of this mythical place, inscribed in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, yet threatened by “acculturation” under the influence of mass tourism, according to Unesco.
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On this muggy December evening, a comedian “msiyah” laid down his mat. As soon as he crouches in front of his oil lamp, the circle forms. Its audience is essentially Moroccan. A few foreign tourists look on, pretend to be amused, and then leave. A little further, Chaabi melodies and Berber rhythms escape other circles and intertwine. In the center, four “Gnaoua” musicians circle, drums in hand, in search of a few dirhams. And then there is the man with the violin. Miloud Weld, 74, bows when you want to get close to him. Recently he has also been selling individual cigarettes. “I don’t make a living from music,” he complains.
The famous storytellers who are considered the quintessence of Jemaa El-Fna are not here tonight. You are gone. The rush and hustle and bustle overwhelmed them. tragedy, injustice? “Fate,” replies Mohamed Bariz, met in a café in the medina. The 64-year-old with the frail appearance and smiling eyes is one of the last traditional storytellers in Marrakech. “One of the last two,” he says. When I started telling stories on the pitch at the age of 10, we were twenty-six. And when I finally left it in 2010, there were eight left. He now reserves the 168 stories from the Arabian Nights that he keeps in his memory for his rare interventions in schools or cultural sites. None of his five children took up the torch. “Storytelling is a small job,” he said. I didn’t want to put her in a mess. »
“Trade has become hegemonic”
Simultaneously with this decline came the “success story” of Marrakesh. Dubbed the “Red City” or the “Pearl of the South” in the brochures, the city established itself as the kingdom’s tourist flagship in the 2000s. Stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic, activities have gradually resumed in order to “match or even exceed pre-Covid visitor levels this autumn,” reports Abdellatif Abouricha, communications manager at the Regional Council for Tourism. Of all the city’s squares, the most popular is the grand triangular esplanade, the nerve center of the medina. More than 2 million visitors per year.
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In the course of the tourist development, the square was concreted, modernized and standardized. New players have appeared. “Commerce has become hegemonic. Open-air gastronomy is becoming more and more invasive, while the space for the arts has shrunk to a trickle,” laments Jaafar Kansoussi, President of the Al-Munya Association for the Preservation of Marrakech Heritage. For more than twenty years, the cultural heritage specialist has been committed to defending the “Halqa” alongside other intellectuals. And he talks about it with passion:
“Jemaa El-Fna epitomizes Moroccan culture in its diversity – Arab, Berber, Gnaoua… – and its ultimate space for free speech. Its inscription on the Intangible Heritage of Humanity List in 2001 aims to preserve it, but has also led to a strengthening of its tourist attractiveness. The commercial dimension took over and our cause was pushed into the background. »
“The place lives from tourism, but the storyteller dies from tourism,” sums up the academic Ouidad Tebbaa
Because despite all good intentions, the tourist makes the right. “It reconfigures the balance of power, it reverses the roles: whoever was in the center has migrated to the periphery and vice versa,” sums up the academic Ouidad Tebbaa. In her opinion, the biggest victims are the storytellers: “They don’t interest the tourists. First, they submit content in their own language. And then they are too sober, too subtle. Whoever sings or dances does it better. The place thrives on tourism, but the storyteller dies on tourism. »
For these intellectuals, mass tourism has also led to an impoverishment of rituals. Catch the daytime show, which caters to foreign visitors in a production that responds to their quest for a change of scenery. It is the folkloric “Guerrab”, the water carrier, who announces himself on the square by ringing his bell – more for the photo shoot than for the water cup. These are the “naqachat”, the henna artists who sell a hand-drawn souvenir of Marrakech.
They are also monkey trainers and snake charmers. In the morning they saturate the sound space with their “ghaita” (flute) and insistently stalk tourists: “Photo? photo ? » So much so that they often prefer to skirt the square or take refuge on the panoramic terraces that surround it. However, their performances are firmly rooted in a cultural and spiritual tradition. “Snake charmers come from a Sufi brotherhood broken in asceticism and the search for oneself,” says Jaafar Kansoussi. But all of that fell apart. It has become a tourism profession. »
“No one gives us anything”
According to Mariam Amal, President of the Association of Halqa Artists, there are only about 300 “hlaiqias” left among this multitude of actors. Short hair and a djellaba for men – a style that dates back to the days when female performers were not allowed on the square – the 56-year-old “Ghiwane” singer has performed there every night “for as long as we can remember”. She, who experienced the “Baraka”, talks about her precarious circumstances. Or how she has to feed her family with 100 dirhams a day (ie 9 euros), sometimes 20, sometimes nothing, without social insurance. Especially since the Covid. “Most of the artists have worked for charity. Today we are very much in debt,” she breathes. For them, Jemaa El-Fna is also an injustice drama:
“Hotels, restaurants, it is thanks to us that they receive tourists, but they are the ones who make the money. Nobody gives us anything. A few years ago we defended the creation of a foundation to support artists. We also suggested to the restaurateurs that they set up a solidarity fund and deposit one dirham a day there. But wow! »
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In this battle for the place, however, the “Halqa” has not yet spoken its last word. Evidence of this is the proliferation of recent initiatives to revive it. A museum of intangible heritage is scheduled to open on the square in early 2023, and a storytellers’ house is planned at the town hall. “We are emerging from cultural short-sightedness,” Jaafar Kansoussi wants to believe. After all, the administration takes care of this legacy and provides the means for it. »
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In order to continue the oral tradition, a storytelling school was founded in 2021 on the initiative of the Al-Munya association. Twenty students have already been trained there. Marrakech also has its International Storytelling Festival this year. “There’s real appeal in this art,” says its director and co-founder Zouhair Khaznaoui, 25. The young Marrakchi, who came from storytelling school, decided to make it his career. But not at Jemaa El-Fna. “I try to be innovative,” he explains. I adapt storytelling techniques in various cultural activities, evenings, visits, role-plays… I would like to come to the square, but not now. Only when the storyteller has respect and a space of their own. »
Summary of the series “Advantages and disadvantages of tourism in Africa”
Storytellers and musicians who are gradually being evicted from the famous Jemaa El-Fna square in Marrakech, leaders who are losing their livelihoods to coastal erosion under the influence of climate change in Côte d’Ivoire, but also the booming hotel schools in Rwanda or an unusual Visiting Johannesburg… This week, Le Monde Afrique takes you to five destinations across the continent where tourism plays a pivotal or growing role.
Episode 1 In Marrakech, the storytellers from Jemaa El-Fna square are being ousted by mass tourism