I am embarrassed to admit that I knew remarkably little about Western Sahara until recently. I knew it was occupied by Morocco, against the wishes of the native Saharawi people, the majority of whom now live in exile in refugee camps. However I didn’t know anything about the historical context of the occupation or the [...]
The Tizi n’test is what I had been looking forward to perhaps more than anything else in Morrocco, a famously dizzying, heart-stopping road through the High Atlas mountains towards Marrakesh. Fortunately it did not disappoint. We set off from Oulad Berhil, a small village around 10km west of the turnoff for the Tizi n’test. The [...]
From Dades, we headed South, towards the desert. On many of the hillsides were crumbling ksar’s (fortified towns). They appeared to rise straight of the rich ochre ground from which they were made. The buildings looked just like sandcastles, the same colour and shape, even their crumbling battlements reminded me of the way the sand [...]
From Fez we drove to Midelt, a small town remarkable for its location on high plains between the Middle Atlas and High Atlas mountain ranges. On the way we passed through Ifrane, an alpine-style mountain resort. Usually at this time of year the whole area would be covered in thick snow but as we were [...]
When I was a child I had The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho on tape and I used to listen to it on repeat. In its opening chapters it contains a vivid description of how Santiago, the Andalusian shepherd boy sells his entire flock of sheep and uses the money to take the boat from Tarifa [...]
The first person who told me about Ceuta was from Cameroon, I will call him Samuel (that is not his real name). Samuel fled Cameroon because of the persecution he suffered due to his sexuality (homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon and punishable by death). I was the immigration lawyer who represented him in his asylum [...]
