Morocco’s Bedouin Festival in the Sahara

In the western end of the Sahara desert adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, the sun rises east over the misty skies. Listen to the waves crash into the sand and peace will surely be with you. Three million acres of desert may seem overwhelmingly vast and deserted at times, but every year in December in its Moroccan town of Tantan, the Sahara is injected with the largest Bedouin (nomadic) gathering in all of North Africa. Make no mistake–Morocco is Africa.

Folklore songs beat to the sound of the drums while dances follow in sync. All traditional. All tribal. Moussem de Tantan is a celebration they wait for and prepare for every year. It is the Berber Bedouin equivalent of Brazil’s Carnival or New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. Tantan may just be a small desert town, but it welcomes thousands from within Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, among other neighboring countries.

Because of its access to water along the Atlantic Ocean, the area of Tantan and its surroundings have always attracted exhausted camels roaming wild in the largest desert in the world. But the tradition of the Moussem began in the early 1960s surrounding the tomb of Cheikh Mohamed Laghdaf who resisted against the Franco-Spanish occupation of North Africa. The Tomb, just outside Tantan, became a meeting ground for tribes where they would race and trade camels, share stories and remedies, and display their skills.

The attraction for the Moussem continued to grow for years, but in 1979 due to regional instability, the cultural and traditional excitement was put on hold.

In 2004, King Mohammed VI of Morocco restarted the festivities giving the Bedouins, once again, a venue to hold onto their heritage and share it with their neighbors. In 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized Moussem de Tantan as “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” honoring the event’s ability to promote living expressions, “inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants.”

For the Bedouins, Moussem de Tantan is not just a festival; it is a way to preserve their traditions in a very challenging time. With nation-states and borders, they no longer have the ability to freely move around the African continent’s ground. Many are forced to settle in towns losing their nomadic ways. At the Moussem, they relearn their histories from one another and strengthen their bonds, especially of the indigenous Berber tribes.

For the Kingdom of Morocco, Moussem de Tantan is also not just a festival. Most of the Arab world is inflicted with conflict, instability, or under harsh repression. Morocco doesn’t shy from its Arab identity, but makes a clear distinction from Iraq, Palestine, or Egypt and wants the world to know Morocco is a safe peaceful place with rich ancient living cultures and traditions.

At this year’s Moussem de Tantan, internationals from around the world were invited by the Kingdom of Morocco to witness the diversity of Africa’s Morocco. In rows of camel-wool tents, tribes sang their folk songs and danced a show. Others displayed delicious cuisines, demon-fighting incense, and beautifully finished handcrafts. Camel and sheep wool-woven quilts, Qur’an writings on oak tablets, and hunting tools were just few amongst the many handcrafts in display. Women in colorful traditional thobes lined up on one side while the men in white wearing turbans on the other welcoming the guests with rhythmic chants. Among the many guests in attendance were the Princess of Bulgaria and King of Benin giving the tribes a real sense of pride for their centuries-long heritage.

Once the guests were finally relaxed and situated in their seats, they watched spectacular camel and horse shows that lasted for a couple of hours with each tribe displaying their best performances.

Beyond the show, guests were given a real sense of tribal culture through great hospitality. Each meal consisted of at least three different meat dishes, fruit, dessert, and sweet Moroccan tea, of course.

The guests ate like royalty, but lived like locals. Instead of staying at hotels, they stayed in a tent town off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Such an experience may be difficult to adjust considering the camel-wool drapes as doors had no locks on them and there is little privacy from one tent to the next. Nonetheless, each tent did have a bit of electricity and a bathroom with “running” water. Even the Princess of Bulgaria and King of Benin stayed in the tent city, but their tents were more extravagant.

The guests mixed with the locals of Tantan getting to know more about the people behind the festivities. At night, they sat by a burning fire relaxing under the darkest skies, experiencing ancient African-Arabian-Berber-Bedouin traditions will surely remain with each of the guests. As for the Bedouins, they hope their traditions will live on year after year. From the Kingdom of Morocco…Ahlan wa Marhaba Bikum.