The next book up for review is Behind the Courtyard Door : The Daily Life of Tribeswomen in Northern Morocco, by Ursula Kingsmill Hart.
The author lived in Morocco as a child, but she wasn’t able to visit the more remote parts of the country until she married anthropologist David Montgomery Hart – and then she ended up living among the Aith Waryaghar, a Berber tribe from the Rif area. The book is an absolute joy to read – Ursula is down to earth, funny, and made a real effort to connect with the women from the tribe. She learned their language so well that her husband even complained that she should avoid “yakking” sessions and help him more! A photo in the front of the book shows her dressed in traditional married womens’ clothes, and my husband thought she was Berber, saying “She looks like my Mom!” Out of the dress, though, she was a very chic American blonde.
At the time of their stay in 1959-1965, many of the old traditions were still in place in the tribe, and Ursula describes them with sensitivity and humor, while still admitting her frustrations with some of the restrictions and mindsets. I enjoyed all of the little trivia she related, mostly gleaned from the women, such as what she discovered during a frank discussion on traditional birth control methods.
“…Rwazna intercepted smoothly : ‘In Si ‘Abd ar_rahman’s community the women talk about a strange fruit, hantit, that they buy in the women’s markets.’ (These are markets from which men are rigidly excluded, and they survive only among Rifians of the Aith Waryaghar.) ‘It is very expensive, but then only a slither is needed. Do you know it arrests a pregnancy that has already started for as long as the woman likes!’ … Later on, when I was talking all this over with Dave, who had heard all about hantit from Muhamed-he told me that this fruit with such allegedly amazing properties was called colocynth. It resembles a small cantaloupe melon attached to sturdy tendrils creeping across the ground. It grows profusely in the arid, stony belt of the pre-Saharan oasis region of Southern Morocco. (I tasted it once and found it extremely bitter-sharp, it left my mouth puckered tight for hours.)”
When I read this, a huge “A-ha!” light went on above my head, and I raced over to my husband to read the passage aloud to him. I can’t tell you the number of times that we’d be driving along the road from Tinerhir to Ouarzazate, and I’d say to the driver, “What is that thing that looks like a lemon by the side of the road?” (I know she said melon, but the ones I see are lemon-sized and bright yellow, and Wikipedia agrees with me.) One person told me it was very bitter and sometimes used as a traditional remedy for headache. I wanted to point them out to my husband, but I never saw them when he was driving (so irritating!), and he never knew what I was talking about – but once I read this description to him, he immediately said, “Taferzist.” Eureka!
I can’t recommend this book enough, anyone the least bit interested in Moroccan culture will enjoy it.