In this book, published in three languages (Arabic, French and English) and which will be presented on Friday as part of the 29th edition of the International Book and Publishing Fair (SIEL) in Rabat, the author retraces the life of his father, the late Faraji Ben Lahcen Ben Bourhim Ben Boum, who was probably one of the last Rekkas of Morocco, these messengers who carried letters on foot before the arrival of the post office.
1- How would you present your book “The Last Rekkas”: a family story, a documentary or both?
“The Last Rekkas” is a family biography and a narrative of historical events from the perspective of an ordinary villager in southeastern Morocco. Together with Majdouline, my daughter who illustrates the book, we use the ethnographic voice of Faraji – my father and his grandfather – to tell a local story that has been silenced or neglected. Faraji and the Tata region become, in this way, anchor points of our story to tell the story of Morocco.
2- Beyond the homage paid to your father, his profession of rekkas and his (and also your) native region, we have the impression that the idea of transmission is central in this work… What can you tell us about this?
I am an educator who believes in the importance of the message and the means of transmission for a successful transmission of knowledge. As a Moroccan residing in the USA, I also believe in the importance of staying in touch with the Bled, parents and family. As a father, I am convinced that it is important to maintain a link between my daughter and my native oasis.
“The Last Rekkas” is a literary and artistic exercise of transmission not only of family memory but also of national history. The use of illustrated books or comics is today a requirement to be able to involve the young generation largely connected to images and visuals.
3- Through this family story and Faraji’s travels, the book reads like a revisit of the great History of Morocco, its colonial past, the evolution of the Moroccan post office, Independence, the epic of the Green March… How does this passage from an individual story to a national story take place in your story?
My father was illiterate. He never went to school, but he witnessed many local, regional and global events in person. What Majdouline and I tried to do is to tell this global story from its ordinary perspective, of course contextualized in an academic way.
We have chosen to tell the story as that of a simple villager from the South of Morocco, precisely from the region of Tata, who was part of the local, colonial and then national administrations. We end with his participation in the Green March.
Basically, “The Last Rekkas” is the story of a messenger who lived Moroccan history from the 1930s to 1975. It is a micro-history that goes against the normal tradition of historical writing that does not focus on ordinary people. The historical text is accompanied by Majdouline’s illustrations and my own photographs of Faraji to capture his indigenous historical vision.
2024-09-13 23:43:53