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Moroccan Festival in Washington Suburb Draws Thousands
of Visitors
Festival recreates traditional Moroccan souk
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Brahim, Rachid, and
Faycal of The Kasbah Band enjoy playing for the
crowd at a daylong festival October 2 titled
"Magical Morocco: Sahara to the Sea." (State Dept. -
Elizabeth Kelleher) |
By Elizabeth
Kelleher
Washington File Special Correspondent
McLean, Virginia -- A small patch of land outside
Washington at the McLean Community Center was turned
into a real Moroccan "souk," or marketplace, recently,
as vendors hawked brightly colored Moroccan clothing,
rugs, pottery, brass, jewelry, tile and ceramics.
The souk was the
centerpiece of a daylong festival October 2 titled
"Magical Morocco: Sahara to the Sea," a collaboration of
the Washington Moroccan Club, Friends of Morocco and the
community center.
Kader Rhanime, who
planned the entertainment for the event, said, "A souk
is not a marketplace literally, but a trading grounds --
a cluttery place, full of yelling and shouting." He
said, in Morocco, it might be a place where even stories
or poems are traded.
The scene near
Washington was lively. More than 3,000 visitors came
throughout the day to hear lively singing and thumping
music, enjoy savory kabobs and couscous, buy vendors'
goods and even see a camel up close.
"In Morocco, there
is music at the souk, but not this loud!" laughed Amina
Elaissami, a former employee of the Moroccan Embassy in
Washington who was there to sell imported wares --
tangines, vessels to cook a dish of the same name over
an open fire; pottery; colored-glass lanterns; and
intricately decorated wooden chests.
Other vendors sold
bright tunics and jackets, gold coin belts favored by
belly dancers, rugs and painted furniture. An artisan
demonstrated rug making as experts described the long
tradition.
Musical acts included a group of drummers called "Sounds
of Morocco," who played while roving through the crowds
in traditional outfits -- tunics and pants called
jabadoor. Much of the group's set was devoted to the
joyous, lively musical style of Marrakesh, a city in the
south of Morocco where the Atlas Mountains and the
Sahara Desert converge.
A
Moroccan Jewish singer named Pinhas was the biggest hit
with the crowd. Many in the audience left off eating
lunches of kabobs, roasted vegetables, couscous, hummus
and homemade bread, in order to sway and clap during his
performance. Pinhas is well known in Morocco for his mix
of flamenco sounds with Jewish and Muslim liturgical
music and North African secular songs.
Pinhas was joined
on stage by Muslim musicians for a finale. That fusion
"focuses on what binds us," said Rhanime, noting that
Moroccans are Muslim, Jewish and Christian and have
lived in peace for centuries.
Organizers, intent
on creating a bustling scene, staged a Moroccan wedding
at midday. An engaged couple from Bethesda, Maryland,
Christie Walser and Thomas Mullins, who will marry later
in October in Fes, Morocco, were recruited. While not
Moroccan, the couple happened to be arranging their
"destination wedding" through a travel agency run by
festival organizer Hassan Samrhouni, who is also
president of the Washington Moroccan Club. He talked
them into the "pre-wedding" at the festival.
Walser, dressed in
a white dress, made her entrance carried on an amaria,
an elegant, roofed platform supported by long poles held
by four men. The men hoisted Walser on the amaria into
the air, and they were followed by Mullins on foot, who
was also dressed in white. The wedding cortege was
accompanied by Pinhas and musicians from The Kasbah
Band, who sang and played alongside the dancing amaria
bearers. Atop her jostling amaria, Walser smiled and
waved to the crowd, and expressed relief afterward that
she had not eaten anything earlier.
In traditional
weddings in Morocco, the bride is carried to her wedding
this way, and sometimes the groom is too, from a
different part of the city. Afterward they are lifted
together to greet their guests as a married couple.
"This shows the joy of her," said Samrhouni. "It is like
flying to another place, just before the wedding."
In Morocco, brides
have their hands and feet painted with henna, a natural
dye that washes off in a few weeks. The festival
featured a henna-painting station, which was quite
popular with pre-teen girls. Today, in Morocco, Rhanime
said, women paint their hands or feet with henna to
celebrate any happy occasion.
The Peace Corps,
which has roughly 100 volunteers working in Morocco on
environmental and youth-related projects, showed a film
inside the community center's meeting rooms that quoted
Morocco's King Mohammed VI as saying his country is "a
buffer zone, a melting pot." He said, "To the people of
the West, Morocco is the Orient. To the people of the
Orient, Morocco is the West."
 The festival too
was a melting pot of native Washingtonians, Moroccan
immigrants and visitors. Rhanime estimates that 20,000
Moroccan immigrants live in the Washington area. A group
of children gave a fashion show, with the emcee naming
their local Washington area schools but often noting
that a child's outfit was sent from a grandparent in
Morocco.
Each year since
1990, the community center has held a cultural festival
featuring a different country. Despite predictions of
rainstorms on the day of the event, the Moroccan
festival attracted the "largest attendance for our fall
cultural festivals besides [that for] the Russian
culture," said Sam Roberts, the center's events
director.
Rhanime said he
hopes the day set a precedent. He said he wants to take
"Magical Morocco" on the road to Boston, Orlando and New
York, which all have large Moroccan populations.
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Succès éclatant du
festival sur
"Le Maroc magique, du Sahara à la mer"
mardi 5 octobre 2004.
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(Par Kaddour Fattoumi)
L’espace verdoyant du centre socio-éducatif de Mclean, Etat de
Virginie, a vibré samedi aux rythmes du festival culturel d’automne
consacré cette année, au "Maroc Magique : du Sahara à la Mer".
Organisé par le Mclean Community Center, avec la collaboration
active de plusieurs opérateurs et associations marocaines et
américaines de la région de Washington, le festival a reflété des
facettes du Maroc enchanteur avec la magie de ses rythmes, couleurs,
saveurs et senteurs.
Après la traditionnelle offrande de lait et des dattes qui symbolise
l’hospitalité légendaire des marocains, le public nombreux et
éclectique
 qui
a afflué au festival a admiré l’exposition d’arts plastiques montée
au hall du centre en hommage posthume à l’artiste peintre Nadia
Haddou, lauréate de l’Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Casablanca
qui a immigré aux Etats Unis d’Amérique ou elle a participé à de
nombreuses expositions de peinture et sculpture avant sa mort au
cours de cette année, suite à une longue maladie.
Les visiteurs ont ensuite découvert le "Souk" aux multiples stands
exposant et offrant à la vente, une panoplie d’articles d’artisanat
reflétant le degré de créativité, de dextérité et d’habileté de
l’artisan marocain. Ainsi, des tapis de l’Atlas aux motifs ingénieux
et aux couleurs captivantes ont été exhibés à côté d’articles
d’habillement et d’objets d’arts en poterie, céramique, verrerie,
cuivre, et d’autres accessoires de décoration métallique et florale.
Les visiteurs, dont les narines ont été chatouillées par les arômes
de la cuisine marocaine, n’ont pas résisté à la tentation de
savourer des mets appétissants et variés, tels le fameux couscous
aux légumes et viande, les brochettes et kebab à l’agneau, au poulet
et au veau, le thé à la menthe, la pâtisserie et autres douceurs
propres à la gastronomie marocaine..JPG)
Le point fort du festival, le premier du genre consacré à un pays
africain et arabe, a été incontestablement la cérémonie de mariage à
la marocaine.
Un couple américain a célèbré réellement son mariage en arborant
l’habit traditionnel d’apparat marocain, avec Djellaba, Foukia, fez
et babouches pour le mari, henné, caftan, couronne, ceinture et
bijoux d’or pour la mariée embellie par les soins d’une marieuse
"neggafa".
Les tours d’honneur de la mariée portée dans une "ammaria"
rutilante, ont été salués par un public curieux et enthousiaste et
rythmés par les groupes "Al Kasbah" et "Sons du Maroc" et par les
mouals de l’artiste marocain Cohen Pinhas, venu spécialement du
Maroc, ainsi que par les chanteurs populaires Mourad et Karim.
D’autre part, des activités socio-éducatives et des attractions ont
été organisées spécialement pour les enfants avec notamment des
ateliers de confection de "tarbouches", de tatouages et décoration
faciale et un mini zoo avec un dromadaire et des poneys pour de
gracieuses randonnées équestres.
Ce festival a été clôturé en apothéose par un défilé de mode auquel
ont participé des enfants américains et marocains arborant le
costume marocain, masculin et féminin et par une chanson intitulée
"la voix de la sagesse", interprétée en première par Cohen Pinhas,
artiste marocain de confession juive et Karim Al Hamti, chanteur du
rai de confession musulmane, chanson qui reflète l’image réelle du
Maroc de la paix et de la tolérance.
Le président du comité d’organisation du festival, M. Hassan
Samrhouni, a tenu à exprimer ses profonds remerciements aux nombreux
sponsors et partenaires qui ont contribué à la parfaite organisation
du festival.
Il a assuré que ce festival dont la préparation a duré plus de sept
mois, a pour principal objectif, de "faire connaître des aspects de
la culture, de l’art et de la civilisation du Royaume et donner une
image réelle d’un pays arabe et musulman, privilégiant l’entente et
la paix entre les peuples et cultivant la tolérance et l’ouverture
sur les autres cultures et religions".
Le directeur du "Mclean Community Center", M.Sam A. Roberts, a
indiqué que ce festival consacré au Maroc magique a été organisé à
l’initiative du "Club Marocain de Washington’’ et "Les Amis du
Maroc", en raison de l’existence d’une importante communauté
marocaine dans la région de Washington et l’Etat de Virginie. Le
Maroc a été , cette année, à l’honneur après plusieurs pays, tels
que l’Allemagne, l’Ecosse, la Turquie, la Russie, la France, les
pays Scandinaves et d’Asie de l’Est, le Brésil et le Portugal,
a-t-il indiqué, soulignant que ce festival sur le Maroc, qui a
remporté un vif succès pourrait être réédite, dans les prochaines
années.
Le représentant de la RAM à New York, M. Mohammed Salem Ammagui, a
indiqué que l’organisation de telles manifestations ne manquera pas
d’avoir des retombées bénéfiques sur la promotion touristique du
pays, soulignant qu’une panoplie de publications, prospectus sur le
Maroc ont été exposés et distribués aux visiteurs du festival.
Ce festival a enregistré la présence de plusieurs membres de
l’ambassade du Royaume du Maroc aux USA, du vice-consul général du
Maroc à New York, du nouveau consul du Maroc à Washington et
d’autres personnalités.
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وكالة المغرب العربي
للأنباء
Maghreb Arabe Presse
نجاح
كبيرلمهرجان " المغرب الساحر .. من الصحراء إلى البحر"
واشنطن 4 - 10 - 2004
( بقلم قدور الفطومي) عاش فضاء المركز السوسيو
تربوي لماكلين ( ولاية
فرجينيا) أمس الأول السبت على إيقاعات المهرجان
الثقافي الخريفي الذي تركز هذه السنة على المغرب تحت شعار " المغرب الساحر:
من الصحراء إلى البحر ".
وعكس هذا المهرجان الذي نظمه مركز " ماكلين كومينيتي " بتعاون مع عدة فاعلين
وجمعيات مغربية وأمريكية بمنطقة واشنطن ، مختلف أوجه تميز المغرب المعروف
بسحر إيقاعاته وألوانه وماكولاته وعبق أريجه.
فبعد تقديم التمر والحليب جريا على العادة المغربية الراسخة ، كان الجمهور
الذي حضر المهرجان على موعد مع معرض للفنون التشكيلية أقيم ببهو تكريما
للفنانة الراحلة نادية حدو خريجة مدرسة الفنون الجميلة بالدار البيضاء
والتي هاجرت إلى الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية حيث شاركت في عدة معارض
تشكيلية ونحتية قبل وفاتها خلال السنة الجارية بعد صراع طويل مع المرض.
وكان لهذا الجمهور الكثيف بعد ذلك موعد مع اكتشاف " سوق " به عدة أروقة لعرض
منتوجات تقليدية مغربية متنوعة تعكس إبداع ومهارة الصانع التقليدي المغربي.
كما اطلع الزوار على مميزات المطبغ المغربي بمختلف انواع مأكولاته.
وكان حفل الزواج على الطريقة المغربية من اللحظات القوية للمهرجان الذي اعتبر
الأول من نوعه بالنسبة لبلد إفريقي وعربي، حيث احتفل زوجان أمريكيان
بزفافهما على الطريقة المغربية الصرفة ( مع استعمال الزي التقليدي للعريس
والعروسة وباقي المظاهر المؤثثة للعرس كالعمارية والنكافة).
وتفاعل الجمهور مع أجواء هذا الحفل الذي نشطته فرق موسيقية قدمت ألوانا فنية
مختلفة من الموسيقى المغربية.
من جهة أخرى نظمت أنشطة اجتماعية وتربوية وترفيهية خصيصا لفائدة الأطفال
وورشات خاصة بصنع " الطرابيش" والوشم والزينة .
وقد تضمن حفل اختتام هذا المهرجان عرضا للأزياء شارك فيه أطفال أمريكيون
ومغاربة وأغنية تحت عنوان "صوت الحكمة" أداها كوهن بنحاس ( فنان مغربي
يهودي) وكريم الحامتي مغني الراي المغربي .وتعكس هذه الأغنية الصورة
الحقيقية لمغرب السلم والتسامح.
وأعرب رئيس اللجنة التنظيمة للمهرجان السيد حسن السمغوني عن تشكراته العميقة
لكل من ساهم في التنظيم الجيد لهذا المهرجان.
وأكد أن هذا المهرجان الذي استغرق تهييئه أزيد من سبعة أشهر يهدف أساسا الى
"التعريف بالمظاهر الثقافية والفنية والحضارية للممكلة وإعطاء صورة حقيقية
لبلد عربي ومسلم اختار الوئام والسلم بين الشعوب وتكريس التسامج والانفتاح
على الثقافات والديانات الأخرى".
وأكد مدير مركز "ماكلان كوميتي " السيد سام روبيرت أن هذا المهرجان الذي خصص
للمغرب الساحر قد نظم بمبادرة من " النادي المغربي بواشنطن " و " أصدقاء
المغرب" وذلك لوجود جالية مغربية هامة بمنطقة واشنطن وولاية فرجينيا.
وأشار إلى أن المغرب كان هذه السنة ضيف شرف بعد العديد من البلدان كألمانيا
وتركيا وروسيا وفرنسا وبلدان اسكندنافية وبلدان من شرق آسيا والبرازيل
والبرتغال مؤكدا أن هذا المهرجان حول المغرب الذي حقق نجاحا كبيرا يمكن أن
يتم إعادة تنظيمه في السنوات المقبلة.
وقال مدير شركة الخطوط الملكية المغربية بنيويورك السيد محمد سالم عماكي إن
من شأن مثل هذه التظاهرات إنعاش السياحة بالمغرب موضحا أنه تم عرض مجموعة
من المطبوعات حول المغرب وتوزيعها على زوار المهرجان .
وقد حضر المهرجان أعضاء سفارة المملكة المغربية بواشنطن ونائب القنصل العام
المغربي بنيويورك والقنصل الجديد للمغرب بواشنطن وشخصيات أخرى.
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Finding Magic in Morocco
Moroccan festival hopes to dispel myths
By Meredith Billman-Mani
September 30, 2004
The
Moroccan Festival being held this weekend at the McLean Community Center is
being touted as an opportunity for cultural understanding and healing. "I'm
committed to fostering understanding. These are the types of Americans we want.
With the world climate what it is today, I want to do whatever I can to bridge
misconceptions," said festival organizer Annalisa Assaadi.
The organizers of the event are stressing the cultural, racial and religious
diversity of Morocco to give the community an insider's look at Morocco and its
people.
Dris Behnmend is a Moroccan who has made McLean his home for seven years. "I'd
like people in my community to know the real Morocco, with its ancient, rich
culture and hospitable, peace-loving people," said Behnmend. The festival, he
said, can "clear up any ideas people may get from the news" about that area of
the world.
Morocco is a country roughly the size of California with much of the same
topography. It has both fertile farmland and desert oasis within its boundaries.
"Even though it's a small country, it has a lot of ethnic groups, with their own
customs, food and religions. They get along. That's the Morocco I know," said
Behnmend.
Annalisa Assaadi said, "I am concerned about the fairness of how we portray
Muslims and Arabs in our community. Morocco has a long history of peace and is a
wonderful example of how different cultures and religions can come together."
INVASIONS, WARS, travel routes and expanding Western empires have all left an
impression on Morocco throughout its history. Sociocultural mutations have
occurred through the influence of the Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, French,
Spanish and Arabs, as well as the omnipresent influence of Morocco's native
people, the Berbers. African, Arab, Berber, European, Jewish and Muslim cultural
influences are all apparent in Morocco today.
Nasir Assaadi, a McLean Moroccan, said his countrymen here who are working on
the festival want to impart a sense of the richness of the culture to their
neighbors. "As a Moroccan I would hope people get a clear idea about the culture
and see the different and new face of the Moroccan community and see the
similarities we all have as a community.
Annalisa Assaadi said,
"I
hope that people will walk away [from the festival] with the sense that
Moroccans are gentle, compassionate people whose culture can complement our way
of life."
Nasir Assaadi estimates there are around 10,000 Moroccans living in the
Metropolitan area with a high concentration in the Falls Church area. "There are
a couple hundred families living in McLean," said Nasir Assaadi.
The diversity seen in Morocco mirrors that of McLean, according to Behnmend. "I
chose McLean for its ethnic diversity. My neighbors are from all over. My
neighbors are French, from Brazil, Arab, from all over," said Behnmend.
THE MCLEAN COMMUNITY CENTER mounts the fall cultural festival each year to bring
the traditions of other cultures to the community. This year's festival, Magical
Morocco: Sahara to the Sea, will feature several native illustrations of the
culture. These include food, music, clothing, rugs and pottery. "We picked the things
that are particular to Morocco. If you go to Egypt, you'll find rugs, but they
will be totally different," said Behnmend. He credits the difference in style
and pattern to the influence of many different cultures on Morocco over many
generations. "We felt people would be interested in know about Morocco, but we
only have five hours to do that. It doesn't show everything about Morocco, it
couldn't, but it gives you an idea," Benmhend said.
"People here in McLean are well-traveled and well-educated, but we need to do
whatever we can to bring understanding," said Annalisa Assaadi. "The top
Moroccans in the community, who are passionate about creating the array of
sights and smells of Morocco, are working on this. It is being displayed through
the food, the pottery, rugs and fashions. Morocco is the smell of mint tea,
fellowship and brotherhood."
One of the more unique elements of the festival will be the re-enactment of a
traditional Moroccan wedding by a local couple who visited the country last
year
and became so enamored of the people and culture they are returning in a few
weeks to get married there. "They've picked up on what Morocco is. They have
experienced the joy and the open arms of Morocco," said Annalisa Assaadi. "We
hope everyone who comes will experience this for themselves."
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