The last seven storytellers of Marrakech

What is Djemaa el Fna? "It is a sea. You can swimin the sea but you will never be able to entirelyexplore the sea of Djemaa el Fna". These are thewords of the last seven bards, the last seven representatives of a dying figure: the storyteller.

A Photostory by Stefano Torrione / LightMediation

2481-01: Morocco, Marrakech. The storytellers of Jemaa el Fna at Cafe' De Madanie in Derb Dabachi, near the square. From right: Ben Jakkane el Ayachi, Mohamed Bariz, Zouhir El Makkouri, Amhed Bouchama,Mohamed Oujbayr, Mohamed El Jabri and Mohamed Errguibi Sghir.

Contact - Thierry Tinacci - LightMediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 email - thierry@lightmediation.com

/ 2481-01: Morocco, Marrakech. The storytellers of Jemaa el Fna at Cafe' De Madanie in Derb Dabachi,near the square. From right: Ben Jakkane el Ayachi, Mohamed Bariz, Zouhir El Makkouri, Amhed

/ 2481-02: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed Bariz at Cafe' De Madanie in Derb Dabachi, nearJemaa el Fna Square. This is where the storytellers love to meet. / morocco / marrakech

/ 2481-03: Morocco, Marrakech. Timoumi Mbarek, the 'philosopher of the seven colours', explains hiscosmic theory on Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

/ 2481-04: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Zouhir El Makkouri entertains his public during the Moussemdes Conteurs on Jemaa el Fna Square. / morocco / marrakech

2481-32: Morocco, Marrakech. Hassan's restaurant is the first one below the Cafe' Glacier on Jemaa el Fna Square. The smoke coming from the barbecues spreads a strong smell of grilled meat all over the square.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-05: Morocco, Marrakech. The public of a 'halqa' (circle of peoplegathering around an artist) watches a show in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-06: Morocco, Marrakech. Performance with snakes on the lastday of Ramadan. On this day a great moltitude of people crowd Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco /

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-07: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed Oujbayrperforms in Jemaa el Fna square in front of Café de France. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-08: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Zouhir El Makkouriperforms in Jemaa el Fna square with a friend. / morocco / marrakech

2481-04: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Zouhir El Makkouri entertains his public during the Moussem des Conteurs on Jemaa el Fna Square.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-09: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed El Jabri performsin Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-10: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed El Jabriperforms in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-11: Morocco, Marrakech. The storytellers of Jemaa el Fnasquare eat cous-cous at storyteller El Makkouri's house. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-12: Morocco, Marrakech. The storyteller of Jemaa el Fna squareBen Jakkane El Ayachi performs at El Makkouri's house. / morocco / marrakech

2481-35: Morocco, Marrakech. A little girl watches the comedians' show in a 'halqa' (circle of people gathering around an artist).

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-13: Morocco, Marrakech. Jemaa el Fna's storytellers ElMakkouri, Jakkane El Ayachi e Errguibi Sghir sitting at Café de France. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-14: Morocco, Marrakech. Abderrahim, storyteller El Makkouri'sson, performs at Café De Madanie before his father and the other storytellers. / morocco / marrakech

2481-15: The storytellers of Jemaa el Fna square at Café De Madanie in Derb Dabachi. StorytellerAmhed Bouchama shows a picture of his old master and friend, which he always keeps in his bag.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-16: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed Oujbayr duringhis performance in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

2481-07: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed Oujbayr performs in Jemaa el Fna square in front of Café de France.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-17: Morocco, Marrakech. The old storyteller of Jemaa el Fnasquare Ahmed Tamiicha in front of Café de France. He is now retired. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-18: Morocco, Marrakech. An old man crosses Jemaa el FnaSquare at daybreak. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-19: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Ahmed Bouchama at caféAgueram, close to Jemaa el Fna Square, where he sometimes also spends the night. / morocco /

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-20: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Ahmed Bouchama leavesthe Medina to take the bus home. His village is 24 km far from Marrakech. / morocco / marrakech

2481-36: Morocco, Marrakech. Performance of Gnawa musicians in Jemaa el Fna square.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-21: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Ahmed Bouchamaperforms in Jemaa el Fna in front of Café de France. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-22: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Ahmed Bouchamaperforms in front of Café de France in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-23: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Ahmed Bouchamaperforms in Jemaa el Fna in front of Café de France. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-24: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Ahmed Bouchama at caféAgueram, close to Jemaa el Fna Square, where he sometimes also spends the night. / morocco /

2481-12: Morocco, Marrakech. The storyteller of Jemaa el Fna square Ben Jakkane El Ayachi performs at El Makkouri's house.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-25: Morocco, Marrakech. Young acrobats call for the attention ofthe public before performing in their show. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-26: Morocco, Marrakech. A couple of comedians during theirshow in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-27: Morocco, Marrakech. Performance in Jemaa el Fna square./ morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-28: Morocco, Marrakech. A Marrakchi musician in Jemaa el Fnasquare. / morocco / marrakech

2481-16: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed Oujbayr during his performance in Jemaa el Fna square.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-29: Morocco, Marrakech. A group of women stops at one of thestreet restaurants in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-30: Morocco, Marrakech. Under the awning of the snakecharmers in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-31: Morocco, Marrakech. Mounting of the street restaurants forthe night in Jemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-32: Morocco, Marrakech. Hassan's restaurant is the first onebelow the Cafe' Glacier on Jemaa el Fna Square. The smoke coming from the barbecues spreads a

2481-10: Morocco, Marrakech. Storyteller Mohamed El Jabri performs in Jemaa el Fna square.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-33: Morocco, Marrakech. Ahmed Giliz is one of the oldest artistson Jemaa el Fna Square. He performs with a company of actors. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-34: Morocco, Marrakech. The members of a group ofcomedians eat together at the the lodging they share in the Medina close to Jemaa el Fna. / morocco /

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-35: Morocco, Marrakech. A little girl watches the comedians'show in a 'halqa' (circle of people gathering around an artist). / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-36: Morocco, Marrakech. Performance of Gnawa musicians inJemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

2481-39: Morocco, Marrakech. A woman waits for a taxi at night, when the square starts to empty of its many shows and spectators.

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-37: Morocco, Marrakech. The public of an halqa is invited by theartist to take part to the show with Baraka (good luck) invocations and thanks to Allah. / morocco /

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-38: Morocco, Marrakech. A fortune teller waits for clients inJemaa el Fna square. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-39: Morocco, Marrakech. A woman waits for a taxi at night,when the square starts to empty of its many shows and spectators. / morocco / marrakech

The Last Storytellers of Marrakech / 2481-40: Morocco, Marrakech. A cock employed by the musicians fortheir shows in Jemaa el Fna. / morocco / marrakech

The last sevenstorytellers ofMarrakech

What is Djemaa el Fna? "It is a sea. Youcan swim in the sea but you will never beable to entirely explore the sea of Djemaael Fna". What is Djemaa el Fna? "Djemaa el Fna islike a spring of Art", "Djemaa el Fna ismore than a school, it is a University", "It isdrama, poetry, creation, singing,enchantment"."In Djemaa el Fna you forget about allyour problems and enter a different worldwith a mysterious culture where you canlearn a lot - that's why it is called Djemaael Fna".These are the words of the storytellersgathered at Cafe' De Madanie in DerbDabachi, in the heart of the Medina, sinceMatich, the historical popular andintellectual meeting place, real beatingheart of Maghreb's most famous square,shut down.

Zouhir El Makkouri, Ahmed Bouchama,Ben Jakkane el Ayachi, Mohamed ErrguibiSghir, Mohamed El Jabri, MohamedOujbayr, Mohamed Bariz are the lastseven bards, the last sevenrepresentatives of a dying figure: thestoryteller.According to an on-line encyclopediadefinition: "Storyteller: traditional itinerantentertainer... storytellers live on theirspectators' offers...".In Morocco there is a unique place in theworld where artists, musicians,storytellers, dancers, acrobats and

charmers exhibit themselves every singleday of the year before large crowds ofpeople. This place is Djemaa el FnaSquare."Jama", mosque, and "El Fna",uncompleted and ruined, the origin of itsname is still matter of research for thehistorians, but they all agree about the factthat since the XVI century the square ofMarrakech has been a meeting point of the arts and cultures of Maghreb.My first time in Djemaa el Fna was aterrible shock. Back from the mountainvillages of High Atlas where I had met shypeople who hid behind their houses toobserve the foreigner, I was submergedby the babel of Marrakech square. I couldnot take a single picture becauseeveryone wanted to pose before mycamera for money or they even ran afterme to ask me money when they saw metrying to frame in the distance.So, like everybody, I took shelter on theterraces of Café Glacier and Arganà fromwhere at least you are free to takepictures before a cup of ordinary butexpensive tea.I decided to go back and confront theSquare in 2002 when I learnt aboutUnesco Masterpieces of the Oral andIntangible Heritage of Humanity from myjournalist friend Paolo Galliani. Djemaa elFna had infact been included in the firstlist of Masterpieces in 2001.Only a few know that the proclamation ofIntangible Cultural Heritage of Humanitywas set out by Unesco and the MoroccanNational Commission who organized aninternational consultation on thepreservation of popular cultural spaces inMarrakech.The Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo, afervent defender of Marrakech's culturalheritage who settled there in the '70s, wasone of the pioneers of the Proclamation ofMasterpieces of the Oral and Intangible

Heritage project, that was created tosafeguard and protect all those forms oforal culture, such as storytelling, theatre,singing, music, dance, that are transmittedfrom generation to generation bycommunities, groups and, in some cases,individuals and that are recognized as partof their cultural heritage.Goytisolo was fascinated by the oralculture of the storytellers who animatedthe square in those fertile days nowunfortunately forever gone.People like Tabib, "the insect doctor", theilliterate shepherd who could recitePrévert; like Cherkaoui, the mystic whocould talk to birds; like Abdeslam calledSarouk, the solemn and bold preacher; tocontinue with Mamadh, probably the lastgreat acrobat with his bicycle andBakchich the clown.Fascinated by the linguistic dynamics thatlink written language to the oral one usedby illiterate storytellers, Goytisolorecognises the huge value of a free spacewhere the oral expression gives birth toliterature and where mimic and the directrelationship between the storyteller andhis public is the missing link between thereader and the writer in literature.Goytisolo writes: "The people thestoryteller addresses are his accomplices.The story he tells is like a score thatleaves a great amount of freedom to theinterpreter". The richness of the oral tradition ofDjemaa el Fna comes from theinterpretation of the classics like OneThousand and One Nights, Antaria, butalso from popular legends inspired byheroes like Xeha, Aicha and Kandixa andit lends itselfs to comic and burlesqueimprovisation.On a short but enlightened stay inMarrakech, Elias Canetti depicted himselfand the storytellers with these words: "Ici,je me suis trouvé soudain parmi des

poètes vers lesquels je pouvais lever lesyeux parce qu'il n'y avait pas un mot d'euxà lire". ("Here, I suddenly found myselfamong poets I could look at because therewas not a single written word to read").

In 2003 I decided to go back to Marrakechand the living stage of Djemaa el Fna. Iasked a wise friend of the Square foradvice, the pharmacist of rue Mohamed V:"...tu dois partir tout seul affronter Djemaael Fna, sa place il faut la mériter". He wasright.My first friend in Djemaa el Fna wasAhmed. A dancer, he exhibited himself onthe Square with a branched candlestick onhis head, a traditional show that has beencopied by hotels and riads to amuse theirguests.While drinking tea under the bigumbrellas, I started to perceive themovements of Djemaa el Fna from theinside: the right time to start invitingpeople to form a halqa (the circle ofpublic), the competition among artists forthe stage and the clients. Ahmed lived in atiny room in Bab Ftouh with his companyof actors and musicians. Promiscuouslives, distant loves, a life spent on thestreet to amuse people for a few dirhams,petty troubles and great passions.Everytime I arrived at the Square I went tolook for him like a sort of propitious rite, awell-wishing "thé à la menthe" for mywork. After a few years, not finding him athis usual place, I was informed that hehad been stabbed to death underambiguous circumstances. The drama ofthe street behind Djemaa el Fna's curtain.Timoumi Mbarek was my second friend,the philosopher of a special cosmic theoryof the seven colours. A past as ajournalist, a distant family, anothersuspended life. Among a moltitude ofunintelligible sentences, gleams of puretruth. I used to bring him asthma

medicines from Italy, he embarassed meby reverentially kissing my hands.Tymoumi too is another piece of squarenow gone forever, but his seven cosmiccolours will always be part of Djemaa elFna; number seven often occurs, like thelast seven storytellers, the most importantchapter to be completed.In the '70s they were 18, and since thentheir number has been fatally decreasing.The mysterious and charismatic Halaiquis(storytellers) are revered in the Squarebecause of their age and wisdom but theyare more and more marginalized by thesocioeconomic change of Djemaa el Fna.Hard to approach and to understand, theyhave a traditional social background, theycome from a distant past.Only Bouchama and El Jabri can regularlybe found in the Square, the others'presence being much less constant.I sit down and listen to them in theiruncrowded halqas, I meet them againevery time I return to the Square, I bringthem the pictures I took to leave a sign ofmy passing. They appreciate the oneswho return according to the law of thestreet that welcomes the wayfarer. Oneday Bouchama dated me to reciprocatemy presents. He brought me a book in mylanguage, Italian, that he could not read.To my great astonishment I found out thatit was a gift from the last Sicilian"cuntastorie" Culicchia; the inscriptionread "from conteur to conteur" and itsealed a meeting between the two in2002. I awkwardly let the book fall in myhands thinking that was the will of thesquare.Around eleven o'clock in the morning thetwo storytellers usually stand before CaféArganà, in the afternoon, at about four

o'clock, they can be found in front of Caféde France, the true place of storytelling. Inthe same spot years ago, for the first time,I met Bariz, the cultivated one, the laststar among storytellers. Bristly beard, thick glasses, a wollen cappressed down on his head, envelopped inhis traditional djellaba, Bariz's life is like anovel. Dazzled by the stories in the halqasof his first mentor, El Jabri, he quit schooland family at the age of ten to follow hisvocation for errant storytelling. He firsttravelled around the country andeventually settled in Marrakech to work inDjemaa el Fna, where he earned enoughmoney to raise five children and lead asuccessful life. A few years ago,disillusioned by Djemaa el Fna's culturalimpoverishment, he abandoned theSquare to become a "conteur de salon"abroad. He made adaptations for halqasof great writers' works like Borges andAverroes among the others. I asked him to help me gather all thestorytellers still alive. I wanted to take a"historical picture" and record a story fromeach of them. We met all together twice atBen Jakkane el Ayachi's home and at thestorytellers' café. They finally posed forme before my camera, then they recitedtheir story in turn before the microphone.Stories of kings and queens, diamondsand treasures, fountains and stormy seas,destiny and divine will.El Ayachi brought his son Abderrahim withhim, the only one who is learning hisfather's art, and the boy exhibited beforethe old masters. He is good, but he didn'tmention following his father's steps inDjemaa el Fna.What will the future be like for the Squareand the storytellers? The Square isundergoing a slow but inexorable culturaldecay as it is subject to the rules ofbusiness of a country whose goal is toattract 10 million tourists by the end of

2010. Thanks to Unesco, Djemaa el Fnaheld out against real estate agents andarchitects' plans who wanted to turn it intoa big, modern amusement park, but itsfuture is someway mortgaged.To the ones who knew its glorious past,the Square looks more and more like anopen-air restaurant with live music.Barbecues choke down the art ofperformance. The storytellers' halqa willbecome more and more impenetrable tothe foreigner who doesn't understandneither the language nor the roles. At thesame time, Moroccan young generationsdesert the Square attracted as they are bythe lounge bars of the new fashionabledistricts of Guèliz and of the city center.The association "Amis de la Place"founded and inspired by writer Goytisolohas lost its energy, and Goytisolo himselfquit it.A tragic fate is falling on the storytellers:they have been declared part of theHuman Heritage, still they are now moreendangered than ever before.Last year they even went on strike andorganized sit-in protests to ask Moroccanauthorities for the creation of a wage fundfor storytellers and a school to hand downthe art of storytelling to young people. " Kan ya ma kan.." (Once upon atime...)...in Djemaa el Fna.