Avuncular American

Tangier Inaugurations: From Steam Train to TGV

First train arrives in Tangier's Charf Station, 1920s

Print from Donald Angus Collection of glass negatives, No. 86

TALIM library, Tangier American Legation

Yesterday's ceremony to mark the start of construction of Africa's newest TGV or high speed train line brought French President Nicolas Sarkozy and King Mohammed VI to Tangier.  As a relatively frequent client of Morocco's ONCF, I welcome the chance to shave hours off what can be a slow train ride to the capital Rabat or commercial center Casablanca.

The new TGV will be revolutionary, getting travelers to Tangier from Rabat in well under two hours.  That will help us here at TALIM, making our research center more accessible to scholars who also conduct their work in the capital city.

Morocco was not Africa's first country to build a train line, but in 1938 an English traveler like Winifride Wrench, writing in the Journal of the Royal African Society, could marvel at the change since her first visit to Tangier in the early 1900s, when foreigners were still prey to kidnappers and she dared not venture to the outskirts of the city:

... I stepped aboard the train, leaving Tangier at 7:00 a.m. with a light heart.  At last I should be able to see what lay beyond.  Shortly after lunch the train steamed into a palatial station with a white marble staircase and I emerged into the sunshine, into a clean white Franco-Moroccan town, a little Paris in an African setting, all white and green and gleaming.

Wrench's colonial glee over the French Protectorate notwithstanding, there is still something reassuring about arriving in Rabat after a somewhat slow but entirely comfortable ride from Tangier.  Independent Morocco kept the French-built rail system, and now the latest move towards TGV shows that the country is committed to modernizing its infrastructure.  Rabat boasts a gleaming new tram network.

With two modern ports, autoroutes to the south and the east, and now the TGV, Tangier is set to capitalize on its expansion that started with the reign of Mohammed VI.  The trains already run on time, but now they'll run even faster.

Gerald Loftus

Freedom Riders at the Legation

Freedom Riders premieres in the Arab world.  At TALIM.

In partnership with the American Embassy in Rabat and the Sundance Institute, last night the Legation hosted a showing cum discussion of the award-winning documentary "Freedom Riders" in the presence of the film maker, Stanley Nelson.

I do not say award-winning lightly.  Stanley Nelson, already a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellowship, just picked up three Emmy Awards for Freedom Riders (Nonfiction Filmmaking - Best Documentary, Editing for Nonfiction, and Writing for Nonfiction).

With the additional draw of Nelson, we had a capacity audience of students, academics, interested citizens, and friends of the Legation.  With the good vibes still resonating from last week's Tanjazz and its African American jazz greats, perhaps the memory of the American civil rights struggle was even more topical.  And no one missed the obvious parallels between the American South of the Sixties and the current struggle for rights in the Arab world.

For those who don't know Freedom Riders, it tells the story

of a courageous band of civil rights activists who challenged segregation simply by traveling together on buses and trains through the Deep South in 1961. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, more than 400 black and white college students risked their lives—and many met with bitter racism, mob violence and imprisonment—sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.

Stanley Nelson's 35 years of documentary film making (Jonestown, The Murder of Emmett Till) have honed his narrative skills to perfection.  Moroccan audiences are known for their conducting full-blown conversations during lectures, concerts, films, but last night all were riveted to the screen, as septuagenarians told of their brushes with death at the hands of screaming mobs of Ku Klux Klan racists.

In the Q & A after the film, several of Tangier's film community peppered Nelson with "making of" questions, professional to professional, and many of the audience were impressed that he succeeded in getting the testimony of both sides of the racial and ideological divide.

Last night's screening and discussion shows, if anyone doubted it, that Freedom Riders plays well in the Arab world.  Coupled with the screening of Cherien Dabis' Amreeka earlier in the day at the Cinémathèque, the Sundance Institute's Film Forward program has gotten off to a great start in Morocco, and, we hope, elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East.

Gerald Loftus

Tanjazz and New Orleans' Musical Ambassador

Louis Armstrong and Lillian Boutté.

For a long time, they were New Orleans' only "Musical Ambassadors," though some other jazz greats have since joined their ranks.

So Tangier was honored to have Lillian Boutté & The Gigolos for the latest edition of Tanjazz, an annual festival that attracts a wide audience of Tanjawis and visitors from Europe, largely nearby Spain.

Lillian Boutté, despite her "ambassadorial" title, is anything but pin-striped.  A little dynamo of a woman, she can really belt out the classics and get the crowd moving.  Great fun, and a credit to her home town.

Too bad one of the local francophone/arabophone weeklies chose to trash the festival's organizer, with some xenophobic drivel about the festival being "imposed" on Tangier, saying that despite municipal subsidies, it failed to draw tourists to the city.

As I say, drivel: the place was packed with people, and the Europeans weren't all local residents.  On top of that, the poison pen journalist asked why Tangier should host a jazz festival, dedicated to a foreign music form: "since when has New York organized a gnaoua music festival?"

Well, precisely since May 21, 2011, with the Moroccan "Master Gnaoua Musicians" at the Florence Gould Hall.  But then, that's what cultural diplomacy is about.  And the New York gnaoua concert was sponsored by the French Institute.

Lillian Boutté and Philippe Lorin, the French founder of Tanjazz, are obviously above cultural chauvinism, and Tangier is the better for it.  Yes, Tanjazz may attract an elite crowd who can pay rather stiff (for Morocco) ticket prices.  But to the credit of the organizers, several free street concerts provide a taste of jazz to everyone passing by.

Maybe, for next year's Tanjazz, we can have a free jazz concert on our patio for everyone passing through the Legation's medina street.  Maybe a crooner, to bring back a flavor of Tangier, International Zone...

Gerald Loftus

Portugal, Morocco, and the Price of Glory

Thanks to a kind member of the TALIM board, I've been alerted to an exhibit in Washington's National Gallery of Art, "The Invention of Glory."  Subtitled "Alfonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries," the exhibit features "The Conquest of Tangier."  The exhibit is open through January 8, 2012.

Today's Washington Post, in an article by culture critic Philip Kennicot, provides excellent background on the ancient Pastrana Tapestries, including this description of The Conquest of Tangier:

[t]he last of the four panels, “The Conquest of Tangier,” feels very different, more orderly and restrained. Horrified by the fate of Asilah, and offered no hope of relief by local leaders, the people of Tangier abandoned their city to the Portuguese. The desolate Tangerines can be seen on the far side of the panel, making an orderly exit to the right, with babies slung over the backs of women and carefully tied bundles of possessions carried by the men. Over the ramparts of Tangier, a lone Portuguese soldier raises the victor’s flag. Otherwise, the city is empty and almost eerily calm.

The year was 1471, and Portuguese (or later Spanish, during the Iberian Union) rule was to last in Tangier for another 190 years.  A glorious time for Portugal.  Or was it?  Kenneth Maxwell, writing in the New Year's 1985 Wilson Quarterly, described the Portuguese in their colonial heyday as "Prisoners of Glory."

A century later, in 1578, the thirst for glory in Morocco was to be the downfall not only of Portugal's young king Sebastian but also of his dynasty, leading to Spanish dominion over Portugal.  The disaster was the Battle of the Three Kings, or Alcácer Quivir (the Spanish rendition of the Moroccan locality of Ksar el Kebir).

According to Comer Plummer in Military History Online, the Battle of the Three Kings was "Apocalypse Then" for Portugal:

For Portugal, the consequences of the defeat were immediate and far-reaching. Not only was her era as a great power abruptly ended, but her very survival was imperiled.

Between "The Conquest of Tangier" and the Battle of the Three Kings (the other two kings died there too), glorious Portugal suffered the fate of many a conquering power.

The Invention of Glory... I'm definitely going to see it when I'm next in Washington.

(Photos of the Battle of the Three Kings, from the Forbes collection of lead soldiers at the Tangier American Legation museum)

Gerald Loftus

Mapping Mittelmeerland - An Architectural Mediterranean

Mittelmeerland will investigate the future of the Mediterranean and research six different cities over three years. In the second workshop we will study the dynamic territory of Tangier and the mutual dependencies of land and water.

The Archictectural Association (AA) School of Architecture, London

Yesterday's final session of the 10-day Mittelmeerland workshop in Tangier featured impressively researched and presented studies of 5 different coastal sites in Northern Morocco.  The sites were well-chosen, ranging from the conversion of Tangier's city port (the subject of our TALIM April Seminar 2011) to that "other" port city on the southern Strait of Gibraltar coastline, Spanish enclave Ceuta, which all the roadsigns in Morocco call by its original Arabic name, Sebta - Morocco's way of contesting Spanish claims.

In between Tangier city and Ceuta, panel members critiqued the students' presentations on Tangier-Med, the huge new container port east of the city, the town of Ksar al-Seghrir, undergoing rapid change as a result of Tangier-Med, and finally the isolated village of Belyounech, wedged in between the border with Ceuta and Gibraltar's Moroccan twin, Jebel Musa.

The range of sites gave free rein to the students' curiosity, and showed how architecture is a discipline that is best practiced by those with a broad education.  One of the workshop's operative terms, "landscape ecology," captures the multidisciplinary approach nicely.  Beyond dazzling architectural and narrative mapping graphics, the students called on their economic, political, environmental, and cultural knowledge to craft intriguing presentations, though their visions for future directions sometimes bordered on the whimsical.

I was very impressed at their quick absorption of local knowledge, after barely two weeks in Tangier.  So much so that I truly believe that they should share their findings with Moroccan authorities, especially on ensuring that development does not come at the expense of local heritage and culture.  Wouldn't a maritime and terrestrial (inter)national park along the beautiful, wild border area between Morocco and Ceuta help defuse tensions?  And why not signpost a "scenic route" along the old coastal road to Tangier, instead of routing most Tangier-Med car ferry tourists onto a modern but banal autoroute which bypasses the city completely?

This group of students, largely continental European, with a strong Moroccan contingent and outliers from Venezuela and the UK, took their work very seriously and made the most of their concentrated program.  AA and the Mittelmeerland teaching staff are to be complimented on the quality of the program, and TALIM was happy to participate.

Gerald Loftus

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary in Morocco

As the site of the Peace Corps Morocco training center in the 1970s, and as home to the Legation's "Cistern Chapel" of Peace Corps disco fame, TALIM is happy to help spread the word about the "Call for Memories" project below.

Gerald Loftus

His Emancipation From Slavery Would Be Agreeable To Morocco's Emperor

Note: In our continuing series of posts touching on the long history of Moroccan-American relations, we reproduce below the text of a passport issued to the "Prince Among Slaves," Abd al Rahman Ibrahima Sori.  Passports in those days were not what we think of today; they were basically safe conduct letters.

The President at whose orders the passport was issued was John Quincy Adams, a tireless opponent of slavery, and the Secretary of State who signed it was Henry Clay (below photo of Clay's signature from Prince Among Slaves website).

I was not aware of the intervention of the Moroccan sultan to free Muslim slaves in America until reading Jonathan Curiel's excellent article in Saudi Aramco World Magazine in April 2010.

Prince Among Slaves, Terry Alford's 1977 book, was made into an award-winning film (whose website provides excellent historic background on slavery and Muslim slaves in America).  The book provides the text of Ibrahima's passport, which will become part of an exhibit here at the TALIM museum.

- - - - - - - - - -

                                                                Department of State, Washington, 17^th January 1829

            The President of the United States, having been informed that the bearer hereof, Abduhl Rahhahman, was held in a state of slavery by a citizen of the United States, that he was of Moorish descent, and a person of much consideration in his native country of Africa, and that his emancipation from slavery would be very agreeable to the Emperor of Morocco, the undersigned Secretary of State of the United States was directed by the President, to adopt measures for the liberation of the before-mentioned Moor, Abduhl Rahhahman, and for his transportation to his family and connections and native country.  His manumission was accordingly procured from the citizen of the United States who held him as a slave, and he came to this City, at the public expense, last spring.  It was the President’s intention to have him transported to Tangier, to be delivered to the Emperor of Morocco, but as Abduhl Rahhahman prefers going to the American Colony of Liberia, on the coast of Africa, from whence he expects to be able to reach his relations, the President yields to his desire, and accordingly he proceeds to Norfolk, in company of his wife, to obtain, at the expense of the United States, a vessel chartered by the American Colonization Society, which is preparing to sail for Liberia, about the 20^th of this month.

            In testimony of the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Seal of the Department of State this 17^th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1829.

                                                                                    H. Clay

Gerald Loftus

Judged For Its Cover: Enchantment Wins Design Award

Breaking news from the graphic design world:

Graphic Design USA presents a 2011 AMERICAN GRAPHIC DESIGN AWARD to Studio Schaad Design for Enchantment Book Cover and Spreads.

We are very pleased for Cathleen Schaad of Studio Schaad, who has designed a beautiful book, beautifully written by Boston University professor Diana Wylie.

Ever since its publication last fall, Enchantment: Pictures From the Tangier American Legation Museum has been a success at the Legation bookshop.  It's the only book which traces the story of the Legation and its art and map collection.  Most of the copies are available here in Tangier, but there is an Amazon connection too.

Proceeds go towards TALIM programs and towards the upkeep of this historic property.

Gerald Loftus

The September 11 Emergency Embassy Drill

There we were, gathered around the table for a long-scheduled emergency planning exercise.  It was September 11, 2001, and the American Embassy in Luxembourg was perhaps the only place in the world where one of these exercises was taking place.

The idea is to put Embassy staff through their paces, and a former diplomat who did this for a living had constructed a scenario which stretched elements of reality a bit to come up with a series of tests of our ability to deal with a crisis.

During an afternoon break, one of our people went back to his office, and phoning his wife, learned that there had been an incident in New York, something about a "small airplane" crashing into the World Trade Center.  When he told us this, we thought at first it was a "plant" by the scenario writer - something to distract us from the fictitious crisis brewing in our exercise.

Shortly thereafter, another report came in about a second plane, and it started to dawn on us that this was stranger and worse than anything in our exercise scenario.  We switched from exercise-land to the real world, and it was then that the Minister of Interior phoned me, to say that the Government of Luxembourg had dispatched armed police to augment our unarmed contract guards.  I looked through the curtains, and they were already on duty.

For several hours that terrible day, US embassies abroad were pretty much on their own.  The news said that the State Department had been evacuated, and there were rumors of a truck bomb hitting Foggy Bottom (unfounded, as it turned out).  We kept in close contact with the nearest larger US Embassy in Brussels, and told our staff to head home.

That evening, one of the communications staff phoned me at home about an urgent message, and said that it looked like there was a demonstration forming outside the Embassy.  That seemed preposterous, and it turned out that this was the first spontaneous outpouring of support that Luxembourgers showed over the coming days and weeks.  People were laying wreaths of flowers and lighting candles outside the Embassy gates.

That evening of September 11, 2001 was just the beginning of what became a national cause.  Within days, the entire government, including the head of state, gathered for a solemn, ecumenical memorial service in the national cathedral.  There was a similar gathering at the American military cemetery, where General Patton and thousands of his comrades-in-arms lie.  All over Luxembourg, used to honoring the Americans who liberated them (twice) in World War II, every town and village organized ceremonies over the following weeks.

And the emotional solidarity translated to political support.  Within weeks of September 11, we were hosting a conference on combatting terrorist financial flows.  On a number of fronts, including NATO, Luxembourg and other European allies joined the US.  When speaking to audiences of concerned youth, I told them to take heart in this solidarity.  It was the time of headlines "We Are All Americans."

What a difference a year makes.  In the fall of 2002, when I was preparing to leave Luxembourg and the US Foreign Service, the phrase of concern to America's friends was "You're either with us or against us."  The drums of war were increasingly audible: Iraq, which had had nothing to do with Nine Eleven, was in the US crosshairs.

What a difference a decade makes.  Yes, 2001 was the year of 9/11.  But it was also the year of the first Bush tax cuts, the ones that erased the Clinton budget surplus that was on its way to wiping out the US national debt.  It was also the year where Europeans said goodbye to their national currencies and introduced the Euro.  Ten years later, both decsions are the subject of much soul-searching.

That the intervening decade has been one of dysfunction is in little doubt.  Astronomically expensive wars of choice that are still unresolved.  The economies of nations at the mercy of financial institutions and firms that have little or no sense of loyalty to the countries that spawned them.

It didn't all start with Nine Eleven, but the body blow to once rock-solid institutions shook the confidence of the West.  We have yet to recover.