The Kingdom of Morocco

Image: fruit stall No.28 at Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech

4 October 2023

Post 4 of 4

As we drove past countless well-kept and security patrolled palaces during our trip, I became curious about the King of Morocco and his role. He is dually known as the ‘King of Cash’ and the ‘King of the Poor’. He promoted democracy in his early days, in particular by granting women more power in society in 2004 and amending the constitution in 2011, but today the ministers of parliament are mostly his high-school friends and no action can be taken without the King’s ok. You may have read about the delay in assistance to the earthquake damaged areas of Morocco in August 2023 – this was because the King was out of the country at the time. The Moroccan’s we spoke to were blissfully unaware of most details of their King’s life. This may be because the King has never given a press conference or a television interview, and the media is strictly controlled in Morocco. No one I spoke to knew that the King is rarely in the country (he’s mostly in Paris) or how many children he has (two) and only a few knew that he’d divorced from his wife in 2018. Morocco is considered a regional power in global affairs and a relatively stable country for industry and tourists, so I guess the government is doing an ok job of its semi-democracy, constitutional monarchy.

We were mostly grateful that alcohol was not an easy or tasty option in Morocco. The food was generally a bit bland and we had varying stages of the runs most days. I usually can’t answer the “what was the best” question, but with Morocco I can say the best tagine is lamb with dates or prunes, and the Moroccan meatballs are very tasty. I was also in pomegranate heaven.

We visited some stunning mosques, mausoleums and ancient universities during our tour. All were heavily decorated with intricate mosaics, wonderful wood carvings and layers of green intwined. We learnt that lots of things are green in Islam because green is the colour of life and earth. We had a different guide in each city we visited with a number of them keen to encourage our interest in Islam and hammered home the five pillars of Islam – commitment to God, prayer, charity, Ramadan and pilgrimage to Mecca. I have not changed my mind towards Islam.

In all, I enjoyed Morocco for all its juxtapositions and quirky bits. Yes, we were harassed as tourists, but a simple “no thank you” in Arabic worked wonders. The café and restaurant service was at times confusing and at worst terrible, with waiters often insisting on rearranging the things on our table to suit their preferences – i.e. water bottle goes on the right side, basket of bread in the middle? We enjoyed the taxi experience with taxis being a different colour in each city – red in Casablanca, beige in Marrakech, blue in Fes – and we had some fantastic taxi drivers full of personality, thoughtful and fun. We didn’t brave the food stalls on the street because our bellies weren’t coping with the “tourist” food we were having and we didn’t want to risk more toilet time. But I did absolutely love the dates and olives – two more bests for Morocco!

The earthquake damage was mostly around Marrakech which was towards the end of our trip. Some of the roads were being rebuilt, houses were propped up with scaffolding and areas closed off. People often thanked us for visiting Morocco in the wake of the earthquake – tourism is such a huge industry there and every penny counts. So yes, do visit Morocco. Ask some questions about the King, be happy to be alcohol free for a while, explore the medinas and the mosques, and enjoy the mishmash of cultures and landscapes that creates this interesting country.