Near Boumalne Dades
We’d been driving in the desert looking for nomads to photograph when we found this woman and her family. They were breaking camp, well, she was. She was rushing around, her long skirts flying, as she gathered her goats and chickens. She set the goats in baskets strapped to her donkey. The chickens were simply placed atop the pack saddle. They seemed to know that they were to roost there until she took them down again.
Her baby, about 1 year old, was held in place atop the pack saddle by her husband. Her husband looked less worn than she did. He wore a navy blue suit and a rather casually tied chech (turban). He did nothing to help her, so if she looked worn out, she had a right to. (I would guess that she was in her 30’s FYI.)
Beautiful and Shy
This is a mountain Berber girl. We spotted her as she was washing clothes in a stream. Naturally, she was not alone. Most women in Moroccan society do not go about alone, not even to wash clothes in a stream. Her mother and children were with her. She was so young that I thought the children were her mother’s. And her mother may well have had toddlers herself.
She was dressed in her best, her necklaces in place, her earrings, her eyebrows outlined in liquid kohl and her colorful clothing fresh. It was as if she had expected her portrait to be taken on that morning. The two women were not shy about speaking to my Berber guides. Berber women are not so ‘cloistered’ as Arabized Berber women. Berbers still recall their old ways before Islam. In the past, many Berbers were Jewish.
- A Woman with Style
This woman was also a mountain nomad. Her home was a tent in the High Atlas mountains. It had been a drought year, so the family had set its tent near a rough track traveled by tourists in 4×4’s. There were several families living in the tent. Most likely all were related.
As we passed in our vehicle, the oldest woman in the group ran out barefooted, over sharp rocks!!, to flag us down. She wanted us to take tea in her tent in hopes that we would leave some Dirhams (the Moroccan money). Ever eager for a photo, I said yes to the driver despite the hesitancy of my companions. They refused to enter her tent, but I wanted to see how they lived.
Her tent was not very clean…there was a drought, remember. There was a woman sitting with something on her lap. She sat as still as a statue, not looking at me nor greeting me. Later I found out she had a newborn baby on her lap and was carrying out the traditional confinement, but did not have a private room to repair to.
The woman, who had flagged us down, hurried to make tea. She was anxious for fear that we might refuse, which the others did. The women kept talking in low voices to each other as the tea was being made. I am certain that they were asking each other if I’d give money or not. (I did.) Her tea glasses were dirty, but she made an effort by sloshing a few drops of water on them before pouring the sweet tea. No way was I going to be rude and refuse. I used my ‘patented’ technique by placing my thumb on the rim of the glass and placing my mouth on my thumb.
The tent smelled of smoke and goat fat. The children had wrenching coughs and mucous ran down their little faces . They huddled as close as they could to their mothers. They were most likely horrified at my my white skin and uncovered hair, my pants and my camera which I kept pointing at everyone.
Oh, yes. Our woman in the photo. She kept her eyes averted the entire time I was in the tent and although she let me photograph her…she could have covered her face…she was extremely uncomfortable with me in the tent. I like the way she has tied her head covering. It looks as if she is wearing a hat, but I doubt she has ever seen a hat. How she got that roundness to her head covering, I don’t know. I have never seen another Berber woman wear anything like it. She had style. She was unique.
Today’s blog is long because I didn’t blog yesterday. Not my fault!! My web host was down. I worried that you would miss me, so here is an extra long blog.
Rosemary
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Hello,
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And you told it lovely !
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Thank you for your note. You told it lovely, too. I hope that you will find other stories that you will enjoy as well. I appreciate you taking the time to email me.
Rosemary
I think I know way the head looks so big. She has Henna in her hair, you can see the henna spots on the headscarf. I am origanaly berber but not born there and my mother use to do henna in my hair when I was young and my head would look the same as the woman in you picture. I like your pictures. 🙂 But do you know what the Facial tattoo means? My mother use to say that the reason they did the facial tattoo is to identify if you are a muslim or jew. In the time of war, this was the only thing they could use to separate the muslim and jew bodies found after battle. Now its more a tradition I think. Thanks for sharing!
Hi, Fatima.
Thank you for your comment. You are very observant! I hadn’t noticed those stains on her scarf before. Berber women do use henna, so maybe you are correct about that giving her hair all that volume.
Your mother’s statement about facial tattoos is interesting. Perhaps it is true for some areas. Before Islam, there were many Berber Jews. I’ve visited kasbahs where the Berbers who live there today, showed me what they said were Jewish paintings and there is a synagogue at Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou.
Thank you for visiting my site. I have many photos of Berbers and I’ll be adding them now and then. If you are interested, please check back.
Best,
Rosemary