Morocco on my mind

I’d been planning for a while to write about this country I fell in love with after barely 2 weeks of experiencing its beautiful red city (Marrakech) and its stately Casablanca in June this year. Sadly, it’s a time of tragedy that finally jolts me into action. ??

In the last hours of Friday 8th September, 2023, Morocco suffered a 6.8-magnitude quake, the country’s deadliest in more than six decades. Over 2,000 people have been reported dead (as at the time of writing), with many more injured and homeless. My friend I met in Marrakech, who worked as my assistant exhibitor at the phenomenal GITEX Africa conference (more on this later), has lost his family home. He and his family are however currently all alive and safe, thankfully.

This friend and colleague–let’s call him Manny–is one of the most impressive, professional and charming people I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with. He was recommended by a friend of a friend in the country, and I contracted with him before leaving Ghana to visit my first north African country. From our earliest WhatsApp correspondence, to us riding around Marrakech to the conference site on his super-fast motorcycle as he gave tour guide-worthy tips, to him evangelising and demonstrating SnooCODE to conference visitors as if he had been working with us for years, he was nothing short of a resourceful, energetic, witty companion, always smiling or offering some help.

I share such high praise of Manny publicly because while I think he’s a special person, I also believe he is a testament to the welcoming, resilient and hardworking people of Morocco, especially the mostly low-income inhabitants of the Marrakech Medina (the older, historical part of Marrakech, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site), which was badly hit by the earthquake.

Even the Marrakech taxi drivers with their insanely exorbitant charges we were forewarned about were largely polite, professional and even entertaining (shoutout to Mohamed, the driver who took it upon himself to show us a bit of the Medina outside our route, and managed to get us to spend 100s on oils at his friend’s shop ;)). I’ll also never forget Hassan, our tour guide through the breath-taking Atlas Mountains (sadly, the earthquake epicentre, pictured from my trip in June), who got the whole tour group and the argan women’s collective we visited to make my birthday extra special with a joyful happy birthday song. Thankfully, he’s also alive and well.

There’s so much more I can say (both positive and negative, but overwhelmingly positive) from my short time in Marrakech and Casablanca, but for now, I’ll sign off with a quote from another good friend I made, who chided me for being surprised when Afrobeats kept playing at the spots we visited: “it’s one Africa; we are all Africans.”

I wish all the people of Morocco safety, relief and solace as they mourn their lost ones, recover and surely build back stronger.

This story will definitely be continued.

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