Berber
Wedding Fair
By Muguette Goufrani
My father,
who owned and operated a tour company in
Casablanca, Morocco and France for many
years, took me along with a group of German
tourists to visit a traditional "Wedding
Fair" at Hadiddou Imilchil, a Berber village
in southern Morocco. While I knew that many
Berber Fairs combine a local Saint's Day with
a regional market event, only at September's
'moussem' (pilgrimage) of Imilchil, have I
seen such a colorful pageant, with instant
engagement, and a mass exchange of marriage
vows. Berbers have inhabited North Africa for
centuries, some being of Caucasian ancestry,
with fair complexions and blue eyes. Visitors
may think of Berbers as exotic outsiders, yet
they preceded the Arabs in settling Morocco,
and they remain the country's main culture.
This is expressed by the phrase, "Morocco is
Berber - the roots and the leaves of
freedom."
A unique
experience
While the
Wedding Fair is key part of Berber marital
custom, families usually arrange marriages in
their home village. Women are free to divorce
and remarry. At the moussem, divorced and
widowed women form the majority, and are
identified by their pointed headdress. The
courtship is a family affair as I learned
after accepting an invitation to drink mint
tea in the goat hair tent of a Berber elder.
His oldest daughter Malika, prettied up her
divorced 18 year old sister Yasmina with
traditional beauty aids - rubbing saffron
colored powder into her sister's eyebrows,
applying kohl to outline her eyes and carmine
rouged to her cheeks. A wool cape, striped in
tribal colors, covered her white dress; then
a cone shaped headdress was assembled, held
on by loops of spangled wool.
I gave
Yasmina a silver chain as a wedding gift,
since silver brings good luck. Many
Westerners think that Moroccans purchase
their wives at the fair, but in truth,
marriage depends on mutual consent and family
approval.
Friends
get involved
The language
of gesture is as clearly understood by these
people as the spoken word. By having a friend
help him choose a bride (with often no more
than a silhouette and two dark eyes as a
clue) the groom gets overcomes his shyness.
All day long, in pairs, these men weave in
and out amongst a cluster of anxious brides.
Then, welcomed by a shy glance or a quick
nod, the suitor will stop to speak to the
lady, encouraged by a signal from his
friend's reassuring hand.
Once this
happens, the newly acquainted boy and girl
unite, holding hands as a sign of intent.
Male relatives who accompany the bride-to-be
lend advice, often making snap judgment calls
at first sight. If rejection is signaled by a
broken handclasp, it's time to look
elsewhere.
When a bride
does give consent, she may speak the magic
phrase," You have captured my liver." Since a
healthy liver aids digestion and promotes
well-being, in Berber culture it's the liver,
not the heart that's considered the location
of true love. Might one say, "Darling, my
liver pines for you?" Often snowbound behind
village walls for up to six months a year,
the new couples must learn to live in
harmony. Despite those old Foreign Legion
movies from the 50s, which showed Berbers as
being fierce, hot tempered and warlike, they
believe in "paix chez eux" (peace at
home).
Moroccan
food
Who wouldn't
enjoy steamed semolina, topped with a meat
and vegetable sauce called couscous? Or
tajines, a vegetable stew that contains
rabbit, lamb, goat or chicken meat, combined
with prunes, apricots or raisins. Pastilla
(baked pigeon pie) is made of layered filo
pastry, with nuts and spices, and coated with
sugar. With your morning coffee, try a light
deep fried Spanish doughnut, we call sfinj,
or cornes de gazelle pastries.
Berber
history and culture
Most of the
27 million Moroccans are Berbers, Arabs or
Moors (people of mixed Berber and Arab
descent), whose ancestors built the mighty
Moorish empire that once ruled Spain,
Portugal and most of Northern Africa. Most
Berbers dwell in the mountains, while the
Arabs and Moors live on the
plain
and desert. Most cities have a European
section a Jewish enclave, and a Medina
(Arab-Moorish section). Over the past 3,000
years, its geographic location has given
Morocco a strategic importance far beyond its
small size. The country has taken the best
from the Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Berbers,
Portuguese, Spanish and French.
For
more information visit:
www.africa-ata.org/morocco.htm
