THE AMAZIGH (BERBERS),PART II: ERFOUD AND RISSANI

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000567

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/MAG, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2011
TAGS: MO PGOV PHUM PINR SCUL
SUBJECT: THE AMAZIGH (BERBERS),PART II: ERFOUD AND RISSANI

REF: RABAT 540

Classified By: Pol/C Timothy Lenderking, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: This is the second in a series of cables
drawn from a combined outreach and reporting trip by Poloff
and PAO to the anti-Atlas from March 10-17. Erfoud is a
medium-sized town, which is quickly becoming a tourist hub
for the region, whereas Rissani is a small town on the road
south of Erfoud. With the lack of water in the region,
traditional date farming, which was the main source of
income, is dying out. The tourist industry is now the main
employer in the area. While the tourist industry "sells"
Amazigh culture and history to visitors, the local
inhabitants understand themselves to be fully integrated and
not to have a separate identity from other Moroccans. At the
same time, leading citizens indicated that other towns and
areas benefit more from the regional governmental structure
than the Erfour-Rissani area does. End Summary.

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On the Road
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2. (U) The road from Rabat to Irfrane, the location of the
only English-language university in Morocco, Al-Akhawayn,
winds through agricultural fields to the foothills of the
Middle Atlas mountain range. In the second week of March,
the remains of a major snowstorm in February were still
visible. Al-Akhawayn University is designed like a small
French village -- small, modern buildings with red, pitched
roofs.


3. (U) The road slowly winds through the mountains to
Midelt. Midelt lies on the northern side of the mountains
and has a large Amazigh population. Hassan Aourid, the Wali
of Meknes-Tafilalt (reftel),established an Amazigh center
and museum in Midelt. It is in Midelt where a visitor is
initially exposed to the selling of Amazigh culture. Souvenir
vendors, who concentrate on fossils and minerals from the
mountains, readily admit that there is no other employment in
Midelt. From Midelt, the road winds through the mountains,
and descends to Er Rachidia, the largest town in the
anti-Atlas. The drive south to Erfoud is through foothills
and eventually desert.

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Erfoud
--------------


4. (SBU) Erfoud is a busy place, clearly directing its
economic energies towards tourism. Billing itself as the
"threshold of the desert," Erfoud attracts European campers
in vans and busloads of tourists who will spend time riding
camels on the Saharan dunes in Merzouga to the southeast.
The main road south is lined with tourist shops, selling
cultural artifacts from rugs to jewelry, and places to eat.
Driving through Erfoud, cars and trucks vie for road space
with bicycles. The cyclers are of all ages and both sexes:
men and boys, as well as women and girls with scarves.
(Note: While it is usually assumed that a women or girl with
a scarf covering her hair is making a religious statement,
the truth may have more to do with other cultural patterns,
e.g., the lack of water mitigates against daily hair washing;
the wind and sand quickly make hair dirty; and, riding a
bicycle with hair whipping around one's face would be
dangerous. The women and girls knotted their scarves or tied
them gently in the back, two more indicators that these
people were not exhibiting conservative Muslim leanings.
Conversations with the population indicated various reasons
for women wearing scarves, not all of which were indicators
of strict interpretations of Islam. End Note.)


5. (SBU) As the traditional date farming in the Erfoud area
has declined, the population is mostly employed in aspects of
the tourist industry. The industry caters to all levels of
tourists from backpackers to tour buses. A hotel training
institute is located on the outskirts of Erfoud. (Comment:
The water problems in the Erfoud-Rissani area are obvious. A
dam in Er Rachidia has partially created the problem, i.e.,
available water resources are being used to the north, but,
the lack of rain in the last ten years in the entire eastern
section of the anti-Atlas has exacerbated the water shortage
problem. Palm trees are dead or dying and there is
insufficient water to use in the irrigation system.
Throughout the anti-Atlas, the traditional irrigation system
is used: plots of land have soil berms around them, water
floods the plot. The water allotment system is based on
trust, each person knows how much water he is allowed and
only uses that amount. The water measurement is the
"tartassed" in Amazigh and is both a unit and an amount of
time. Note that the tourism industry will likely demand
greater water resources, as tourists will use more water than
the local population. End Comment.)

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Rissani
--------------


6. (U) The two-lane road south of Erfoud to Rissani is
lined with what once were extensive date palm farms. Today,
most of the trees are dead or dying and the ground has
patches of salt. In early (Roman) and late antiquity,
Rissani was a major caravan center because of the oasis which
was known as "Sijilmassa." With the oasis mostly gone and
the date farm industry all but over, the poverty in the area
is visible: multi-storeyed mudbrick houses, known as
"kasbahs," are falling down, water is brought by women from
central faucets, and, young children beg for dirhams from
tourists.


7. (U) Modern Rissani is known as the founding place for the
current ruling Moroccan dynasty, the Alaouite. A museum in
the town, the Alaouite Research Center, attempts to depict
Alaouite history, using Sijilmassa as the basis. The panels
were created by the American archaeologist who excavated the
site and are the primary museum display. The panels
explicate the site's history and the importance of the gold
from Sudan. (Note: The Moroccan archaeologist present would
not comment on pre-Islamic inhabitation at the site. End
Note.)

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Being Amazigh in Erfoud and Rissani
--------------


8. (C) On March 12, Missionoffs met with Houcine Boubekri,
an Amazigh English teacher, who may become the regional
English coordinator for the Ministry of National Education.
Boubekri described himself as an "integrated Berber," which
means "someone who accepts life as it is." Part of the
reason why Boubekri defines himself as integrated has to with
the history of the Amazigh in the Erfoud-Rissani area. The
Amazigh have intermarried with Arabs for centuries, although
there were severe tensions in the 1960s between the two
groups. (Note: Boubekri seemed to be alluding to
difficulties immediately following independence. When
pushed, he would not discuss Moroccan national issues. End
Note.) When problems occur between the individuals,
reconciliations are reached in the mosques. From Boubekri's
perspective, the population is "a bit of everything" because
of the caravans. (Note: Boubekri said there are racial
problems in Souss-Massa to the west (reftel),because the
sub-Saharan African population, who were originally slaves
brought to work in the fields, has not intermarried. End
Note.) The most important Amazigh characteristic with which
Boubekri identifies is "tamsumat," or, "to take the
diplomatic way." Following "tamsumat," an Amazigh must be a
noble man, who is honorable and diplomatic.


9. (C) For Boubekri, the important organizations with which
to work are local ones, not those in Rabat (reftel). Local
associations should concentrate on economic and social
development and not on, as Boubekri said, "Berber identity or
Berber language." If people want to know those things, he
asserted, they should learn them at home. Parliamentarians
in the Erfoud area are predominantly centrist; the National
Democratic Party (PND) is the most appealing, he said. Women
are not involved, according to Boubekri. Boubekri's "raison
d'etre" appeared to be to maintain the Erfoud area as it once
was with date palm farms. (Note: This theme was repeated
consistently. While educated individuals know the GOM and
the regional government can do little about the water
shortage, the general impression given was that all the GOM
needed to do was "push a button" and everything would be as
it used to be in the Erfoud area. End Note.)
Parliamentarians and business people are, according to
Boubekri, concentrating on finding solutions to the lack of
water. For Boubekri, if there was water, the people would
return from Rabat, Casablanca and Europe; and, even more
significantly, he thinks they would gladly return to their
old ways of living, e.g., herding sheep.


10. (C) Boubekri guided Missionoffs through a partially
restored "kasbah" or large family dwelling which would
originally have accommodated between 400 to 500 people. He
was proud of the kasbah which is being refurbished with
private funds. He was, however, more proud of the gender
differentiation within the kasbah, e.g., the area around the
gate was for the men and the wells were for the women.
(Comment: When asked why he did not live in a restored
kasbah, Boubekri said he was not married and lived in a
concrete house. His appreciation for the kasbah seemed to
extend to a romantic view of what the past was like in
Erfoud. End Comment.)


11. (C) Boubekri showed no interest in the Western Sahara
issue, and, he discounted the new Family Status Code, the
"moudawana." He said the people in the Erfoud area "do not
really care" about the moudawana because they had the same
rights prior to the new code. His implication was that the
code was for an Arab population, although he did not state
that specifically. When asked about judges and the court
system in implementing the new family reform, he said the
judges used "tamsumat" before the institution of the
moudawana, and, he was sure they would continue to do so.
Boubekri implied an Amazigh tribal adjudication system, again
without being specific.


12. (C) Mubarak Achabrou, an Arabic and Amazigh teacher in
the Erfoud-Rissani area, echoed Boubekri's attitude -- he
also thinks that integration of the Amazigh has happened and
is fine. Achabrou, however, is actively engaged in teaching
the language and is himself a poet, involved in the oral
Amazigh culture. Like his father before him, he recites
poetry at weddings and cultural events. While arguing
strongly for a standard Amazigh language because the three
main groups (reftel) do not necessarily understand each
other, he did not relate language to a political identity.
Achabrou desires an Amazigh identity within the larger
cultural identity of Morocco. He did, however, stress that
he understood why others, e.g., people in Rabat, felt
differently. Wanting to be understood, he underscored the
importance of the long-term Moroccan military base which was
in Erfoud under King Hassan II. He implied that the
population in the area lived under intimidation and that
their attitudes were still colored by the past.


13. (C) Over dinner on March 12, Missionoffs met with
Abdelrahman Bel Hassan, the president of the Erfoud commune;
Moulay Mustapha Idrissi, an area businessman; Abdlaziz
Mestouri, a pharmacist and journalist for La Liberation
(Note: La Liberation is one of the French-language
newspapers, affiliated with the left-wing Socialist Union
Popular Forces, USFP. End Note.); Malika Dejjari, a teacher
and member of a human rights organization; and Malika
Akhenji, secretary of the Amelagou Association. (Note:
Amelagou is a village in the Atlas mountain range,
approximately four hours from Erfoud. Akhenji and her
colleagues traveled to Erfoud to meet Missionoffs. End Note.)
According to the dinner participants, the Erfoud area is
isolated from Er Rachidia and the rest of the Meknes-Tafilalt
region and suffers because of this. There is a lack of
attention paid to the area on the part of the government, and
the regional government is not dealing with the water
problems adequately, they said. Waste water is a problem in
the area; however, the commune cannot afford the 30 percent
of the cost the government is expecting it to provide,
according to Bel Hassan. (Note: Solid waste disposal is
also an issue in the Erfoud-Rissani area; however, water was
the main concern. End Note.)


14. (C) Of the dinner participants, Bel Hassan was the most
outspoken concerning political parties, as might be expected
being an elected official. His opinion is that only the
Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) is organized,
and, it is the only party which may be able to assist people.
While Idrissi, Mestouri, and Dejjari were not as vocal, they
echoed Bel Hassan's sentiments. Bel Hassan, however, was the
only participant who said he would change his party
affiliation, presently with the National Democratic Party
(PND),to the PJD. Like Boubekri and Achabrou, Bel Hassan
viewed Amazighs to be fully integrated; he does not
understand how anyone could trace their Amazigh heritage. He
said that some of his ancestors were Arabs to emphasize how
integrated the population is.

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Comment
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15. (C) Discussions in the Erfoud-Rissani area focused on
the lack of distinctions between Amazigh and others. Being
integrated into the wider Moroccan society was most important
to those with whom Missionoffs spoke. Local issues,
including the lack of potable water, waste water management,
employment and the tourist industry, are foremost in people's
minds. An interesting point, however, is that the tourist
industry is selling Berber (Amazigh) culture to visitors:
the industry is selling a distinct identity, yet the
population seems to be integrated, or, at least, wanted
Missionoffs to understand the population as integrated.


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Riley