Morocco - Honored Guest

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that Morocco is the Guest of Honor at the 2012 International Book Fair in Geneva.

As a result, in addition to several books, as well as other displays and exhibitions featured throughout the Palexpo center, the book fair program includes sessions about the place of books in Morocco, seminars on current political and cultural developments there and tributes to various deceased Moroccan writers. Special attention is being given to women and children in writings. There is also a workshop on Arabic calligraphy.

At the entrance to the Moroccan bookstore section, I was delighted to find a book that is a modern reprint of French Romantic painter Eugene Delacroix's sketchbook and diaries from his travels in North Africa in 1832, when he accompanied a diplomatic mission to Morocco and Algeria shortly after the French had conquered Algeria. The mission set sail from Toulon, France, landed at Tangier, Morocco and then traveled across Morocco into Algeria, returning to France via Oran and Algiers. Delacroix's artwork was profoundly affected by these travels and the colorful sketches from his journals served as inspiration for some of his most famous paintings. Delacroix would have been inspired by some of the exhibits, such as this display of a saddle, musket and riding boots, probably very like those he observed firsthand and painted.

Two young Moroccan women, dressed in kaftans, greeted visitors to the bookshop,

and two other kaftan-clad hostesses were ready to treat visitors to a tea ceremony with the tiny multi-colored glasses that are used to hold the very hot, very sweet mint tea that is served everywhere in Morocco,

while another display case featured sumptuous - and likely heavy - ceremonial kaftans and headdresses.

One display featured a selection of traditional musical instruments

while in another area, a musician enchanted several children by playing the oud.

There were examples of mosaics, crafts that North Africans carried with them to the Iberian peninsula,

copper worked receptacles,

and Berber jewelry,

as well as displays featuring the bounty of Moroccan agriculture, such as grains,

spices and scents.

All in all, my visit to the exhibits at the book far provided a lovely reminder of the beautiful and exotic country where I spent eight years of my adult life among lovely people and had many life-enriching and life-changing experiences, including the birth of my second son in Tangier some 135 years after Delacroix had first landed there. As it had with Delacroix and has with so many others before and since, Morocco also worked its magic on me.