new years in marrakech

new years eve in marrakech started off great. we were sitting on the roof deck having a mint tea and the staff were scurrying around getting ready for the party. you could tell they were excited. they were like kids before christmas. this was probably their first new years eve, as the hotel was only about a year old. the musicians started to arrive. 2 guys in african outfits started playing and they were fantastic. the type of music is called gnawa, which was brought up by the slaves from west africa. the main instrument was a three -string lute called a “hajhuj”. the musician played the strings and at the same time with the same hand, beat the instrument like a drum. the other musician played a cymbal like instrument. the music was beautiful and hypnotic, very similar to the music of “ali farka toure” which i think has the same roots. they were sitting on the ground and it was very cool. unfortunately, they then went into tourist mode and made the rounds to each group of people, putting their hats on guests and posing for photos. only later did i realize, they were looking for tips. then, there was another duet of musicians who played for most of the evening. there was a lute player and a drummer. they were a little more forthcoming in letting us know what they wanted at the end of the evening. they made the rounds and the lutist would open his hand holding the neck of the instrument, to flash the money he was holding. i was a bit resentful of the constant money grubbing we found in morrocco. we didn’t really want to have this expensive new years eve dinner, but were forced to if we wanted to stay at the hotel. all the other hotels that i called required the same. so the fact that these musicians were asking for more money sort of bothered me. we also had belly dancers, which are not at all morrocan. i imagined the marketing guy for morroco tourism saying, “i don’t care if they’re not morroccan, tourists want belly dancers!” in fact, wikipedia says that the belly dancing costume: “owes its creation to the Victorian painters of ‘Orientalism’ and the harem fantasy productions of vaudeville, burlesque, and Hollywood during the turn of the last century, rather than to authentic Middle Eastern dress.” and in the 20’s the costume was brought “to Egypt, because it was the image that Western tourists wanted.” it felt strange and very contrary to the conservative morrocan form of dress which covers everything including the head. i felt embarrassed. anyway, the dinner was drawn out for the whole evening. the food was better than the standard morrocan fair, but didn’t diverge too far from what we had everyday there. by the end of the evening, we were very ready to leave, especially since we had a flight early the next morning.

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