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Oujda is the capital of eastern Morocco, and it deserves to be visited f rom
reasons different than other Moroccan cities of about the same size: there are
few typical monuments here, but the the activity level, the friendliness, and
night life give it a distinct different feel. And not to forget that it also is
free from hustlers of any type.
Most
of Oujda is new, and owes both its existence and form to the arrival of the
French early in the 20th century. At first it was built as a military camp that
was involved in controlling the eastern part of Morocco. The city grew up along
the roads staked out by the French, and it now houses near half a million
inhabitants.
The gate to the medina with the name Sidia Aisha.
The medina of Oujda is not as traditional as medinas normally are in Morocco.
Instead of narrow streets and houses that almost fall all over you, Oujda offers
wide streets and fairly modern houses.
From the popular pedestrian area.
As
I first visited Oujda in January 1997, I was keen on discovering the famed music
life of the city. Supposedly, every corner should have its own musicians, but as
I was walking through the streets on this cold winter evening, there was no
music to hear anywhere. I tried every street that radiated out from the main
centre of such activities: Bab el Wahab.
It
wasn't until the next evening that I heard the first sounds of instruments
coming out from a clearing between the houses. The show performed there was of
the very simple type with nothing fancy except a cane used in the dance. A compère
with a loudspeaker on full kept the show running until the dancers entered a
stage of near-trance.
The
music heard here is far, far away from most European music, despite the fact
that this is in the very north of Morocco.
(Please
note that the quality is quite poor, something which has two reasons: The
circumstances were difficult, and the file is made for the inferior Real Audio
version 1-system.)
As always in Morocco, the food you buy in the restaurants where the patron, waiter and the chef is the same person, is the best. Delicious, fresh, clean, and skillfully spiced. In Oujda, fried small fish was a big hit, both among locals and foreigners.
I was not lucky as I looked around for open-air spectacles near the Bab el Wahab.
This guy was the only one putting up a show by telling stories. As far as I
could understand, he was not very funny.
The countryside around Oujda is far greener than what is normally found around
Morocco. Near Oujda, the mountains come to an end, and the landscape flattens
out until it reaches the sea — the Mediterranean Sea.
