CAES Morocco: Advanced Leadership Theories, Ethics, and Culture

          The nomadic communities in the Sahara Desert are resilient groups despite their life circumstances. Unlike other citizens, the mostly native Amazigh people suffer from resource scarcity, lack of access to healthcare, and now, the effects of climate change. Traditional nomadic communities are groups of small families that have no permanency. Given their frequent travel and movement, there are no designated schools or educational interventions for these individuals. There is no infrastructure in the desert, and Amazigh families often send their children away to the closest towns for formal schooling. There is no hospital or traveling clinic to treat the sick. Though these families have roamed the sand dunes for centuries, due to Morocco's conflict with Algeria, their land access has been restricted. These days, full access to the bordering Atlas Mountains, where water and forage are in abundance for the region, has been denied.     ...

 One thing that has stood out to me on the numerous visits to cooperatives and agricultural farms and facilities is the separation between women and men working. Most of them have boasted of how they have more women than men working in their facilities and there have been some entirely female cooperatives. However, if you listen closely, there is a difference in how the work women participate in and men participate in is described. As one shop owner in Fes said, men run the large standing looms because women cannot stand for as long and cannot work as long. At IBERRY, women are set to sorting and picking, the delicate and detailed work that goes in their processing facility. The saffron co-op also said that they use women for the delicate work of picking out the saffron threads from the flowers. On the other hand, men's jobs have been dealing with heavy machinery, working in the fields, and running larger companies and farms. It was nice to see so many women working at all these pl...

 Like many other countries, Morocco has a significant nomadic population. Nomadism has been prevalent for over a 100 years, with the tribes moving from one region to another periodically based on the weather and as needed. In their culture, this type of movement is believe to be a true form of freedom. In Morocco, the nomadic population has declined over time with some choosing to maintain a more sedentary lifestyle. However, several of these small communities still exist in the Atlas Mountains and near the Sahara desert. In recent years drought and development has led to the nomadic population in Morocco moving less and less.  After spending time in the Sahara, we went to visit a nomadic camp on our way out of Merzouga. It was super interesting to hear about their lifestyle and see their homes and how they live their daily life. Similar to other trends, the nomadic families we saw had been in the same area for quite awhile due to weather like drought conditions or other. Whil...

I found a journal article that speaks a bit about the discourse around people with disabilities in Morocco. Within the article, Ouknider et al. (2022) discuss the ways in which disabilities have been portrayed throughout Moroccan culture in the form of proverbs, literature, and policy. In old Arabic proverbs, disabilities such as blindness or small stature, are considered punishments from the divine and deserved. Therefore, proverbs say to beat or mistrust individuals with disabilities (Ouknider et al., 2022). Within the article, Ouknider et al. (2022) present a 2014 novel about a Moroccan child with down syndrome and say that family members see the child as a gift from God. However, the family members recognize the challenges the child will face within cultural norms with Morocco and even suggest taking him to France. Finally, within the policy realm, Ouknider et al. (2022) raise the point that the first census of people with disabilities (PWD) was held in 2004 and defined PWD as thos...

     During the trip to the Sahara, I noticed that all the guides were people wearing very traditional clothing with very long headscarves. It turns out that many of these people are descendants of the Berber people. The term Berber stems from the Greek barbaria (or barbarian) and refers to many different tribes of people in northern Morocco. These people call themselves the Amazigh (which translates to free people). Many of them are nomadic pastoralists or operate small subsistence farms. In this blog, I would like to explore some of the socioeconomic challenges that these people have faced in the past and the challenges that they face today.       Go to nearly every city in Morocco and you will see the Berber language written on official buildings such as schools, police stations, and bus stations. Many people who live in Morocco are considered Arabized Berbers. The people who I saw in the desert living in tents and moving sheep are Berber, but more ...

        One of the most exciting activities of the program so far was the time spent in the Merzouga. I have always wanted to experience the silky smooth dunes of the Sahara Desert in person; a sight I had only previously encountered via elegant desktop wallpapers. Although the images of the Sahara are beautiful to the novice eye, they do not capture the beauty that I witnessed in person. After seeing the sunrise over the majestic dunes at dawn, we ventured toward Ouarzazate. We stopped along the plains where a group of nomadic people were settled not far from the dunes; the Blue Men of the Sahara Desert (Tooplate & Mtg, 2022). In the U.S., a settlement resembling that of these nomads might be referred to as a camp for people experiencing homelessness. While the people we interacted with outside of Merzouga did not have a specific location to call home, I would not equate their way of living as an existence defined by being without or having less than. ...