As the site of the Peace Corps Morocco training center in the 1970s, and as home to the Legation's "Cistern Chapel" of Peace Corps disco fame, TALIM is happy to help spread the word about the "Call for Memories" project below. Gerald Loftus
Note: In our continuing series of posts touching on the long history of Moroccan-American relations, we reproduce below the text of a passport issued to the “Prince Among Slaves,” Abd al Rahman Ibrahima Sori. Passports in those days were not what we think of today; they were basically safe conduct letters. The President at whose … Read more His Emancipation From Slavery Would Be Agreeable To Morocco’s Emperor
Breaking news from the graphic design world: Graphic Design USA presents a 2011 AMERICAN GRAPHIC DESIGN AWARD to Studio Schaad Design for Enchantment Book Cover and Spreads. We are very pleased for Cathleen Schaad of Studio Schaad, who has designed a beautiful book, beautifully written by Boston University professor Diana Wylie. Ever since its publication … Read more Judged For Its Cover: Enchantment Wins Design Award
Samuel R. Gummere, First American Minister to Morocco (Tangier, 1898 – 1909) Note: This guest post by Mehdi Zainoune, summer intern en route to studies at Sciences Po in Paris, is part of our series of vignettes from the history of Morocco-United States relations. Samuel René Gummere (February 19, 1849 – May 28, 1920) was … Read more Minister Gummere & Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick In Morocco
TALIM's Fatima Benguerch with CLS students and women's literacy group As the State Department funded 2011 Arabic Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) program in Tangier draws to a close, it's time to reflect on what makes Tangier a special place to learn Arabic. Tangier is but one of several sites for CLS Arabic programs; there is … Read more CLS Tangier: Language, Culture & Heritage
Photo by Rachid Tefersiti Perhaps I should say Ramadan Notes 1432 (A.H., not A.D.). We marked Ramadan in the traditional ways the Legation has ever since my predecessor Thor Kuniholm established the pattern. We started the week with our Moroccan NGO partners FTAM (the Fondation Tanger al-Madina) and the distribution of foodstuffs to needy families … Read more Ramadan Notes 2011
The Wall Street Journal tells us that some Americans suffer from "sidewalk rage," which sometimes triggers "intermittent explosive disorder." Well, they better stay away from Morocco, or at least Moroccan cities. Better to stretch out on some secluded beach in Agadir than get stressed out walking from A to B in downtown Tangier. In the … Read more Sidewalk, Street, Souk: It’s All the Same
(click on picture to enlarge) Among all the documents that are squirelled away in odd corners of the Legation's research library or administrative files, every so often an item of more than passing interest surfaces. What we're looking at here is the unmistakable pink of the State Department "airgram" announcing in June 1956 that the … Read more Legation, Consulate, Diplomatic Agency: Tangier’s American Presence
"Shnoo the Hell is Going on H'naa?" – the subtitle to Aaron Sakulich's book Moroccan Arabic (Collaborative Media International) – probably captures the bewilderment of many a foreign student of darija or Moroccan colloquial Arabic. For modern day students trying to fathom how to transition from what they learn in Modern Standard or classical Arabic … Read more Deciphering Moroccan Arabic, 1911 – 2011
When (or if) I get to be his age, I want to be at least half as creative as Harold (Hal) Malt. This World War II veteran (he was a fighter pilot), who has been spending good parts of every year in Tangier for upwards of a decade, appeared last night at the Librairie des … Read more The Tangier Option
