

Introduction Travelling to Morocco in the 1930s would have been pioneering. The French spent the 1920s developing tourism infrastructure and promoting tourism to its colonies (more on ’empire tourism’ in a future blog). Travel to French Morocco by Europeans was for the privileged few, not the masses. It seems fitting…
The wild boar meant business. Blocking our path more effectively than even Gandalf would have done, he gave a haughty snort of derision and impatiently scratched at the ground, sending clouds of dust swirling into our faces…
Only as recently as the 2011 Constitution did the Moroccan Berbers see their ‘language’ (Tamazight, one of the Berber languages) recognised as official in Morocco alongside Arabic. There is also now a Royal Institute of Amazigh (Berber) Culture in Morocco, separate TV and radio channels dedicated to Berber-language productions, and,…
On a recent short trip to Spain’s Andalucia one of the highlights was visiting the great mosque (Mesquita) in the city of Cordoba. I’m always fascinated to encounter the legacy of the Berber-Arab conquests in southern Europe and it encourages me to try to read up more on the subject. Visiting…