Jamaa el-fna or the heritage misunderstanding

Introduction

“As Mikhail Bakhtin showed in his admirable analysis of Rabelais, there was a time when the real and the imaginary mingled, when names supplanted the things they designate, when invented words had their own existence : they grew, developed, mated and reproduced as beings made of flesh and blood. The market, the main square, any public space was the ideal place for them to develop: stories became mixed up, legends took on a new life, the sacred was subject to ridicule while never ceasing to be sacred, the most scathing parodies were reconcilable with the liturgy, the well-turned story kept the audience in suspense, laughter mingled with thanksgiving, and the juggler or the showman grabbed the opportunity to pass round the begging-bowl.
“This world of second-hand clothes dealers and water carriers, artisans and beggars, of horse dealers and thugs, silky handed thieves, the simple-minded, women of easy virtue, loud-mouths, urchins, hustlers, charlatans, fortune-tellers, hypocrites, doctors who know everything with no learning, all this colourful world, open and carefree, which back in the time of the poet Juan Ruiz (1283-1350), known as the Archpriest of Hita, gave its life-giving energy to both Christian and Islamic societies - much less differentiated one might expect – has been eliminated, gradually or dramatically, by the burgeoning bourgeoisie and the state, controller of towns and lives; now it is just a vague memory for technologically advanced and morally empty countries. The influence of cybernetics and the audiovisual flattens populations and minds, “Disney-ises” childhood and atrophies its imaginative abilities. One town alone retains the privilege of sheltering the otherwise deceased oral heritage of humanity, qualified by many with Third World contempt. I mean Marrakesh and Jamaa el-Fna, on the edge of which, for over twenty years and at regular intervals, I have written, walked and lived.”

The sons of Jama el-fna

Introduction

I. Jamaa el-fna, a market-place...

II. Jamaa el-fna: a theatre of ...

III. Jamaa el-fna Square: phant...

IV. The hardships of the story ...

V. The voices of Jamaa el-fna o...

VI. Archive something living, a...

Bibliography

Abstract

The square or market-place known as Jamaa el-fna is characterised by anger and exaggeration, essential ingredients for any theatrical show, also by the density of the crowds that swarm over it, moving from circle to circle and the energy of mass tourism and intense activity that keeps the square buzzing until very late at night. Jamaa el-fna is a public space of rich cultural and human interaction – unique in that since 2001 it has been classified by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity...

Author

Arrif Abdelmajid
Ethnologist, responsible for editing and digital resources, University of Aix-Marseille, MMSH