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[Auriea]

February 27, 2006
Marrakesh Journal

Keeping a Moroccan Tradition Alive, One Tale at a Time
  By MARLISE SIMONS

MARRAKESH, Morocco — It's time for work and Mohammad Jabiri heads for  
Jemaa el Fna, the main square of Marrakesh, often called the cultural  
crossroads for all of Morocco.

  Stooping a little, he weaves through the crowds, past the snake  
charmers and their flutes, the racket of drummers and cymbalists, the  
cheers for the acrobats and the shouting of the kebab vendors, until  
he stakes out a quiet spot for himself.

  Mr. Jabiri is a storyteller, a profession he has practiced for more  
than 40 years. Every day, he conjures up a real or imagined past that  
is filled with ancient battles and populated with sinners and  
prophets, wise sultans and tricky thieves.

  For this he needs few props: he puts down a small stool and some  
colored illustrations. The rest is performance. His eyes can grow  
large and magnetic and his voice booms or whispers, depending on the  
intrigue.

  Mr. Jabiri, 71, is one of eight bards still performing publicly in  
the Marrakesh region of southern Morocco. But most, like him, fear  
that their generation may be the last in a line that is as old as  
this medieval city.

  These men descend from the era — long before radio and television,  
movie theaters and telephones — when itinerant narrators brought news  
and entertainment to country fairs and village squares.

  Yet somehow, Mr. Jabiri still manages to defy the formidable  
electronic competition.

  "Some people feel that television is very far away from them," he  
explained to a visitor. "They prefer making contact, they prefer  
hearing live stories."

  And so they did on a recent afternoon, as Mr. Jabiri called out a  
blessing, raised his right hand and began the tale of the young woman  
who fell in love with a saintly hermit. But the hermit rejected her  
as an envoy of the devil, so she decided to lie down with a shepherd  
who crossed her path, became pregnant and said it was the hermit's  
child.

  As the story unfolded over the next hour, it took on several  
subplots with unexpected twists and turns. The audience was made up  
of men only, some sitting on the ground, some leaning on their  
bicycles. Women are not supposed to stop and listen to wild or bawdy  
tales.

  "Young people like stories from '1,001 Nights' because there is  
less religion," Mr. Jabiri said later that day as he listed his  
considerable repertoire.

  "Older people like stories about the life of the Prophet and his  
companions," he said. "They like war stories, battles between the  
Muslims and the Persians or between the Muslims and the Christians.  
People also like miracles, like Jesus Christ healing the blind."

  Students of local customs say the stories are a great melting pot  
of religious and folk tales from the region's Berber, Gnawi and Arab  
traditions.

  Mohammad el-Haouzi, a biologist who grew up near the square, said  
he loved the ever changing spectacle of jugglers, healers, musicians  
and storytellers. "I may stop by at night when I need some  
distraction," he said. "You can eat, laugh, have your teeth fixed or  
your body painted."

  Mr. Haouzi has heard uncounted tales here, and even when he knows  
them, they rarely sound the same. The magic is in the telling, he  
said, and the mood may change with the narrator's antics, or the  
shouting or taunting from the audience. The tales may be moralizing  
or burlesque or may spoof the powerful.

  "One man often parodied the bombast of television journalists," Mr.  
Haouzi said. "He had the crowds howling with laughter."

  Juan Goytisolo is a rare European expatriate who speaks Morocco's  
Arabic dialect and understands the storytellers. A prominent Spanish  
writer who has lived here since the 1970's, he is devoted to Jemaa el  
Fna and its artists. They inspired his novel "Makbara," he said.

  In a cafe overlooking the square, he spoke admiringly about the  
"old masters" he has known, their improvisations and pranks, and the  
tricks they use to capture and hold their audience. Some may start a  
fake fight to attract listeners. He recalled that "Sarouh, a very  
strong man who is dead now, would lift a donkey up into the air. As  
it started braying, people would come running. 'You fools,' he would  
yell at the crowd. 'When I speak about the Koran nobody listens, but  
all of you rush to listen to a donkey.' "

  Another narrator, seeing the crowd thin, would shout, "All those  
cursed by their parents must leave," Mr. Goytisolo said with a  
chuckle. "So of course everybody would stay, and pay."

  Mr. Goytisolo has been the driving force behind a movement to  
protect the square, which he calls a "great and rich cultural space,  
that is in danger of being drowned by commerce, by the pressure to  
develop." The group has in recent years managed to block projects  
like a tall glass tower and an underground garage. Cars have now been  
banned altogether.

  He also obtained help from Unesco, which in 2001 designated the  
square part of the "Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity."

  Over the past few years, students have used video recorders to  
document the sights and sounds of the square, and some of the  
storytellers have visited schools, Mr. Goytisolo said, "so that  
children know there is more than the canned stuff they see on  
television." But he worries, he said, that the old masters are dying  
and not being replaced.

  Mr. Jabiri said that in his youth it was easier for a storyteller  
to make a living. Although he could barely read and write, he learned  
his trade by listening to older bards and imitating them. Finally, he  
wanted to see the world and, he recalled with pride, told his stories  
as far away as Casablanca, Fez and Meknes.

  But now, foreign tourism has brought inflation and, earning two or  
three dollars per day, he can no longer afford the bus fare to travel  
or pay for a bed. He sees change all around him. Some of his  
colleagues are sick and have stopped coming. Two young apprentices  
working in Marrakesh have a long way to go.

  As dusk falls on the square, Mr. Jabiri is still telling his tale  
and it has reached a critical moment. The pregnant young woman, the  
hermit and the shepherd have all been summoned to be judged by the  
king. The king tells the hermit he will be beheaded, but he can make  
one last wish.

  At this point, Mr. Jabiri abruptly stops and suggests that his  
enraptured audience make a payment so he can continue. He collects  
his coins, intones a blessing and, his voice rising and his eyes  
large and wide, he completes his tale, in which the baby speaks and  
saves the hermit, who falls in love with the young woman. At least  
this story has a happy ending.



  
   
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