Morocco: Essaouira

The cry of gulls is so loud that it pierces the thick walls of our Riad.

The Moroccan Winter sun struggles to keep its warmth and eventually we will retreat back to our comfortable guesthouse - a four room suite at "Les Matins Bleus".

First of all, however, we will need to dispatch the last of many local coffees ("nous-nous") and gâteaux at the cavernous Pâtisserie Driss ("fondée en 1928").

The Mella

The old quarter of the city is battered by the sea. Our first morning led us down, stinking alleyways away from the main tourist thoroughfares, past abandoned mansions and into the confusing tangle of streets with old doorways, some with crumbling, time blackened Stars of David like this one:

This is the former mella, the Jewish ghetto.

I am reading Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond by Budgett Meakin, published in 1905.

I come across several passages describing the very substantial presence and role of Jews at the time in the social and economic life of the nation, but cringe at the anti-Semitic references and prejudices apparent back then.

Take this passage for instance which, by the way, throws light on its author's own anti-semiticism:

With the exception of a few ports wherein European rule in past centuries has destroyed the boundaries, they (Jews) are obliged to live in their own restricted quarters, and in most instances are only permitted to cross the town barefooted and on foot, never to ride a horse...Always clad in black or dark-coloured cloaks, with hideous black skull-caps or white-spotted blue kerchiefs on their heads, they are conspicuous everywhere. They address the Moors with a villainous, cringing look which makes the sons of Ishmael savage, for they know it is only feigned. In return they are treated like dogs, and cordial hatred exists on both sides. So they live, together yet divided; the Jew despised but indispensable, bullied but thriving. He only wins at law when richer than his opponent; against a Muslim he can bear no testimony; there is scant pretence at justice. He dares not lift his hand to strike a Moor, however ill-treated, but he finds revenge in sucking his life's blood by usury. Receiving no mercy, he shows none, and once in his clutches, his prey is fortunate to escape with his life.

The next day we visit the foreigners' cemetery just outside the Bab Doukkala Gate and are shown several Jewish graves amongst those of French, Spanish, British and even German residents of Mogador (the old colonial name for Essaouira).

Slaves

There are the graves of several Vice Consuls and one mysterious stone written in English which refers to a shipwreck in 1883. The grave digger who has suddenly appeared out of nowhere launches into a well rehearsed commentary about the trade in African slaves from Essaouira. Apparently the city was a major, slave trading port and point of departure for slaves kidnapped from neighbouring Mali, Guinea and the Sudan. These slaves were transported in large numbers across the Atlantic to America, Brazil and the Carribean.

I can't make out whether our impromptu guide is suggesting the British schooner, "Jessie Shuttleworth" and Robert Jabez Cannan was involved (I can't find information about either on the Internet) but what I do manage to make out from my subsequent reading is the very real frustration the British Government had with its own citizens involved as agents in the trafficking of slaves abroad.

Britain used its international strength to put pressure on other nations to end their own slave trade, and very concerted attempts were made on Morocco. The Royal Navy, which then controlled the world's seas, established the West Africa Squadron in 1808 to patrol the coast of West Africa, and between 1808 and 1860 they seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. The Royal Navy declared that ships transporting slaves were the same as pirates. The trade from Morocco continued however and slavery itself within the country was still prevalent in 1912!

Meakin provides some devastating descriptions of the trade.

It's important to keep in mind he is describing the contemporary situation - that of the early part of the 20th century:

The slave-market differs in no respect from any other in Morocco, save in the nature of the "goods" exposed. In most cases the same place is used for other things at other times, and the same auctioneers are employed to sell cattle. The buyers seat themselves round an open courtyard, in the closed pens of which are the slaves for sale. These are brought out singly or in lots, inspected precisely as cattle would be, and expatiated upon in much the same manner...

...The next brought forward are three little girls—a "job lot," maybe ten, thirteen, and sixteen years of age—two of them evidently sisters. They are declared to be already proficient in Arabic, and ready for anything. Their muscles are felt, their mouths examined, and their bodies scrutinized in general, while the little one begins to cry, and the others look as though they would like to keep her company. Round and round again they are marched, but the bids do not rise high enough to effect a sale, and they are locked up again for a future occasion. It is indeed a sad, sad sight.

Orson Welles Again

In 1952 Orson Welles moved down the coast from El Jadida to Essaouria to take advantage of the medieval looking tangle of alley ways to shoot Othello. The kasbah provides a great opportunity for recreating Shakespeare's Venice and it is easy to get lost in the labyrinthe of its lanes and passages.