6 Te Travel Guide


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Desert escapes


No visit to Morocco is complete without witnessing Gnawa, a soul-shaking blend of music, dance and poetry, or venturing into the undulating, orange dunes of the Sahara Desert – fireside feasts and star-speckled skies await. Words: Emma Gregg


Young Tuareg with camel on Western Sahara Desert in Africa. PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY


Riveting rhythms Spend more than a night or two in any Moroccan city and you’re sure to encounter a Gnawa band, playing at restaurants or busking in the squares. With castanet-like krakebs setting the tempo, performers pluck out bluesy tunes on guembris — three-stringed lutes with elongated, drum-like bodies of wood and camel skin — then layer on rallying call-and-response vocal melodies in Darija Arabic, Amazigh and Bambara. Tere are distinct roles, too, including maâlems (master musicians), kouyous (dancers), mqadmats (mistresses of ceremonies), portes-drapeaux (flag bearers) and mbakhrats (incense bearers). Exuberant entertainers, Gnawa


bands are compelling to watch. Tey take turns to dance, their flamboyant dress including tunics, babouche slippers and caps embellished with cowrie shells and topped by long tassels. As their songs get faster and faster, they launch into dizzying spins and cossack-like knee-bends, moving their heads in time until their tassels whirr like helicopter blades. But behind the apparent jauntiness, there’s a serious, spiritual side. Traditionally, Gnawas specialised in expelling evil spirits by performing lilas, dusk-to-dawn sessions of trance-inducing music and dance. Most people in this scattered


community can trace their ancestry back to the medieval Sudanic Empires — the part of West Africa that now includes Senegal, Mali and Guinea — and were ethnically marginalised as a result. But things are changing: in modern, increasingly multicultural Morocco, their sub-Saharan origins are celebrated. Essaouira, the diverse city they’ve adopted as their capital, is the best place to catch an authentic Gnawa performance. Time a visit with the Gnawa World Music Festival, a mostly free event usually held in June, with stars from Morocco, West Africa and beyond. festival-gnaoua.net


Stories from the sands I appear to have chosen the bumpiest camel in the herd, but there’s not much I can do about it now. I hold on tight and peer around. We’re adrift in a sea of apricot-coloured dunes, a scene more magnificent than I’d ever imagined. But our host seems decidedly anxious. Moments after we depart at a


steady lollop, I discover why. Up ahead, the sky is darkening from a milky fawn to a thundery, hematite grey. “Any minute now,” says the camel handler, doggedly leading us on. Lightning suddenly rips through the clouds. When we planned this short camel trek across the Sahara’s northwestern fringes, the last thing we expected was a storm. Deciding to ignore the bumpiness


and the unpromising weather, I instead settle into the experience. Neon-lit dune buggies from another tour come into view and zoom away. I feel quietly smug; proceeding at a peaceful plod seems a far better way to bond with this silent wilderness. By the time we pause for mint tea by a campfire with wraparound views, I’m convinced I’ve made the right choice. Our camp in Erg Chebbi — a


dunescape of windblown sand, some distance north of the Sahara proper — is spacious and comfortable, though not as wild as some might expect. When guides from the Aït Atta tribe promise a trip to visit their nomadic family in the Sahara, what they inevitably have in mind is a journey to a place like this: a semi-permanent, off-grid camp, created purely for tourists. Climate change has made traditional desert lifestyles increasingly precarious for the Maghreb’s nomadic communities, so many have turned to hospitality and entertainment instead. Tere are several neighbouring


camps, and until recently, there were even more unlicensed tourist sites here, raising concerns about their impact on the environment. In 2019,


Madfouna, the ‘Amazigh pizza’, Morocco PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY


local authorities cleared some of them by force. Controversial though that was, it has safeguarded those that remain, which offer something special: a taste of the desert, within reach of a main road. Tere are plenty nearby, too: Khamlia, a hamlet with an upbeat Gnawa music venue; the small town of Merzouga, a meeting point for astrotourists; and the lively market town of Rissani. In other words, there’s considerably more to see here than endless dunes. Legend has it that the land-based


civilisations featured in the Star Wars films were inspired by Maghrebi towns such as Rissani, an ancient Saharan caravan staging post where desert tribes mingle. On the way there, we stop at panoramic viewpoints, manned by hawkers selling fossils, minerals and crystals. I ask one, jokingly, if he’s found any meteorites lately. “If I had, you wouldn’t find me here!” he laughs. It’s Sunday, and Rissani’s souks


Musicians at the Essaouira Gnawa/Gnaoa music festival, Morocco PHOTOGRAPH: ALAMY


are in full swing. Spices scent the air and sellers tend stalls piled high with potatoes, peppers and bunches of dewy coriander. At a bakery, we order medfounas, Rissani’s signature treat: flatbreads stuffed with herbs, spices and meat or vegetables. Traditionally, they’re cooked in a firepit in the sand for a distinctively smoky flavour, but in town they’re baked in huge wood-fired ovens, a sort of Amazigh calzone. While we wait, I buy dates: huge and sticky, warmed by the sun. On our way back to camp, our driver


takes a detour through the dunes, and there it is: a table set for lunch under what must be the only tamarisk tree for miles. As we tuck into our fresh medfounas, my thoughts turn to what lies ahead tonight: drinks by the fire, rhythms being beaten out on Sahrawi drums and an immense desert sky, scattered with a billion stars.


First published in the April 2022 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).


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