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A Voyage through the South of Morocco

Magical Morocco

Annette
2005-08-29 23:05:06

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is the merchandise? I wonder if this mystery will ever be revealed to me.

Marrakech: For most visitors, all roads eventually lead to Marrakech and the Jemma el Fna,the great, ancient square of food and entertainment. You can always orient yourself by the elegant, tall tower of the Koutoubia Mosque when you are in the heart of Marrakech. The layout of the city will get much more manageable quickly. Not far from the mosque, the Jemma is the destination of several wide boulevards coming from all directions. During the day, it is a quiet place. There will be performers at midday, but not many spectators. The snake charmers,acrobats, storytellers and several scribes sitting cross-legged on the ground, will be quite aware of their impact upon the tourists. They provide their services to their local patrons, but they make most of their money from the tourists taking pictures. What I experience when I am there is pure fascination. Always one to be enchanted by stories, I am drawn to the group of people surrounding a storyteller. I squeeze in and try to sneak a peak at him moving around in his little circle, his own stage, where he gesticulates vividly, and captivates everyone's attention with his story. I don't understand anything. There is a special allure even in the inability to follow the story with the intellect. It forces me to employ other means of comprehension. I watch the people who hang on his every word. What is he telling them? I imagine that it is a tale of the world in difficulty, with a hero experiencing hardship and pain, and redemption coming to him in mysterious ways. His voice is clear and carries the momentum of the story he tells. He pauses for effect and takes two, three long steps from one side of the circle to the other. At times, he incorporates a slightly embarrassed bystander into his story, to the merriment of the others. For visual impact, he uses chalk to draw squares and what appears to be a calendar on the pavement ...