A Berber Village

We left Mirleft and traveled to the interior of Morocco about 30 km. Our destination was a small Amazigh (Berber) village where we were invited guests and we would spend our last night in the south of Morocco. The name of this village is Ahlou. Here are some pictures of the views from the village that I took in the evening as we arrived:

Like many villages in Morocco, there has been a flight of people from the villages toward the city to look for work, so rural ways are changing and the character of these small villages has been drastically affected. The women are more isolated, because it is often the men who leave to work in the cities. Communities used to offer each other support and share in activities such as harvests, holiday celebrations, and dealing with community needs in times of crisis. This is still the way of life here, but now these communities have dwindling numbers and the sense of isolation felt by those left behind is a growing concern.

The home we visited is part of a thriving and working farm. Haj Brahim is the father of the family and he runs the farm. He and his wife have six sons and one daughter. The two oldest sons (in their 20's) have left to work in Agadir. The third son, Rachid, has been traveling with us for the past five days and he is a Chemistry student at the University of Agadir, so he is home when classes are not in session. Here is a picture of Rachid in his village:

Right behind Rachid is a "wall" of thorns --- Berber barbed wire! You can also see fog in the mountains. It was a cool and misty morning when I took this picture...Notice the argan trees in the distance behind Rachid. They grow vegetables for their own needs, and they have fruit and olive trees, but their real "business" is making argan oil. Nothing is wasted with the argan tree: The fruit and of the argan tree is used to feed the livestock. The shells of the seeds inside the fruit are used for fires for warmth and cooking, the nut inside the shell is used for making argan oil. The tree is used for carpentry and fuel. The leaves and fruit also have medicinal value. These trees can only be found in the Sous Valley region of Morocco and in the Tindouf region of Algeria, not that far from here.

The three remaining brothers and the one sister are all living at home with their mother and father. They built the house they live in. It was built right next to the family's ancestral home, which is now used as a barn for their farm animals: a donkey, a cow, chickens, goats, and sheep. Haj Brahim was born in his ancestral home.

In this picture you can see their ancestral home on the left and their newer home on the right:

The lane our group is walking down is also used by herds of goats and sheep as they are led to and from the hills where they graze. It was very interesting to arrive in the early evening on Tuesday and hear the herds in the street. I was able to watch them from an upper window overlooking the lane. It was too dark to get pictures, but here is a view from that same window:

[Note: Please forgive me for not including more pictures of the people in this village. Many of them do not want their pictures taken and they especially do not want their pictures on the internet. At other times when I might have been able to get pictures of them, I did not want to be rude or stand out as a tourist.]