A Foreigner in Morocco – Alex Frumkin

Aerial view of Fes, Morocco. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fes_(5364182941).jpg

Aerial view of Rabat. https://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=Rabat-Morocco

Disregarding the one Moroccan who claimed he was surprised that I wasn’t Moroccan and even said that “[I] look Moroccan,” I’m confident that everyone in Morocco sees me as a foreigner – someone who is simply not native to Morocco, no xenophobic implications attached (interestingly I think I’m frequently assumed to be European first; while I don’t have a “reason” why, my guess is that it’s largely based on an availability heuristic because Morocco has far more tourism from Europe than from the US).

No matter where you are in the world, you’re treated differently dependent on how you’re perceived by the population; it’s simply human nature for us to perceive distinctions between other human beings, and these distinctions often lead to variation in human interactions.  Perception of foreignness, or rather the perceived degree of human separation between yourself and someone else, is perhaps the single most important factor that contributes to distinctions in human interactions. Though I’ve only been in Rabat for a week, I can already tell that the city has a weaker perception of foreignness than Fes, and this results in a big difference between my human experience in these two cities.

In Fes, even as tourism continues to grow, foreigners are anomalies. Ville Nouvelle (the French section of a Moroccan city, specifically the one from Fes in this case), despite being built by the French to accommodate its own nationals in Fes, still feels like a place where foreigners really aren’t meant to be. And this lack of belonging is much stronger in the old medina (Fes el Bali). A way of life that has been sustained for 1,000+ years is by no means accommodating to people for whom the city was never built. Meanwhile, Rabat’s history is rooted in European involvement in Morocco, so Rabat is by nature far more experienced with white people whom are less perceived as foreign in this city. Rabat actually has a pretty old history itself, created by the Almohad Caliphate during the 1100s, but because the city was so much smaller than Fes, it would eventually be defined by its European intervention – unlike Fes where it’s hardly part of the city’s identity. Fes was actually originally intended to be the capital of the French protectorate (as it was the capital for most of Morocco’s history and the current capital at the time of invasion), but because of the city’s strong sense of history and its resentment of the invading European powers, Rabat was chosen instead – the weather was better there, too. Fes held its ground, but Rabat became a byproduct of France and lost much of its strictly Moroccan identity, paving the way for Europeans and other foreigners to feel far less “foreign” today.

As for how life is different based on the perception of foreignness, it mostly boils down to the principle of treating people better if you’re closer to them and more connected to them. Overall, Moroccans are very hospitable and friendly, largely as a result of their collective identity. Foreigners will be able to get a sense of that, but they will never have the same benefits and social capital as Moroccans do when visiting the country. The difference in this treatment is fairly subtle and difficult to elaborate on, but the best example of this phenomenon would be business transactions, specifically taxis and shopping in the souks of the old medina. Regarding taxis, drivers in Fes are very eager to try and make several extra draham (plural of dirham, the currency of Morocco, with one worth approximately $0.11) by charging an upfront fee higher than what taxi users are supposed to be charged based on the distance driven. For example, a metered taxi from my home to my school should have been around 12 draham, but since it was slightly out of the way, drivers in my neighborhood would insist on my roommate and I paying 20 draham to go there or paying 10 draham to go somewhere else that was an 8-minute walk away from school. While the money isn’t much (it does add up over time), I was most bothered by the principle of having to pay a tax of sorts because I wasn’t from Morocco; the attempt to overcharge customers is not something limited to foreigners, but from what I’ve observed, foreigners are way more likely to be exposed to this reality. In regard to the souks of the old medina, whenever asking how expensive something is, it’s almost a guarantee that you’re being charged too much. This is true for foreigners and Moroccans alike, but foreigners are still charged more upfront. And no matter what, foreigners will never be able to achieve the “local price,” settling for what is most likely a good deal but still at least somewhat unfair. Rabat, on the other hand, seems to have a much weaker perception of foreignness within the business realm. I cannot speak from personal experience in this department because I live walking distance from my school now, so I have no need for taxis, and I haven’t had a chance to shop in the old medina yet. However, at least concerning taxis, I’ve heard every group member that’s taken taxis in both cities say that taxis are better in Rabat and that none of them have been scammed here. If there’s no “foreign tax” on taxi rides in Rabat, I think it’s safe to assume there is a smaller, if any, foreign tax when shopping in the souks of Rabat’s old city; other reasoning to support this hunch is that – once again – people in Rabat are much more accustomed to Europeans so they are less likely to perceive white people as foreign, and also, because the medina is more spread out than Fes el Bali, the souks are much smaller, and the medina is much more accessible to the European part of the city, the medina has a greater general sense of openness. Regardless of the reason for the difference in treatment, foreigners pay a smaller price for their foreignness than in Fes, but Moroccans themselves have to pay a greater price in the form of culture and identity as a result of its exposure to colonialism and capitalism.

With my understanding of Morocco, I came to believe that Rabat would have virtually no culture; while I was exaggerating, I have been pleasantly surprised with the culture intact regarding Rabat’s medina. But despite this, my general presumption has still shown to be largely correct: the medina of Rabat is smaller than that of Fes in terms of size, culture, population, and history. When France decided to make Rabat the new capital, there was simply less culture for the city to hold onto. Even though the medina was preserved, the Ville Nouvelle clearly became the most important part of the city because it has been home to essentially all of the city’s governmental operations and modern business enterprise within the past 100 years; prior to the creation of the French section of the city, the French census placed Rabat’s population at around 25,000 in 1912, while the whole city’s population is almost 600,000 people today. During the French protectorate, foreign nationals constituted around 30% of the city’s population; now, that number is much less since there are less than 100,000 foreign residents in all of Morocco. While colonialism has ended, the central force holding onto the Ville Nouvelle as the center of Rabat is arguably capitalism. When the French protectorate ended, the Alaouite dynasty decided that Rabat would remain the capital and the royal family, whose palace was in the European section of the city, would stay there. The family could have returned to the historical capital or any other city, but it stayed in Rabat; that suggests the royal family found French development appealing and/or desirable, and that development is inseparable from capitalism. As Mohamed VI continues to modernize both Rabat and even his own institution of monarchy, one thing remains clear: capitalism is the strongest force driving Morocco today, and the economic theory certainly isn’t foreign to Europeans or Americans. France may have been the initial cause for Rabat’s weaker perception of foreignness, but as the city modernizes – it eventually plans to complete the tallest skyscraper and largest opera house in Africa – and attempts to implement itself into both the Western and global world, foreigners will only become less foreign. Fes, too, will become more modern over time as tourism and industry increases, but because Rabat is the capital and center of the king’s plans, it will also be Morocco’s least foreign city for the indefinite future.