Morocco offers shining beaches, lush gardens, exquisite architecture, and a modern Islamic state, side by side with ancient marketplaces and donkey carts on interstate highways. How did this grow out of 1800 years of violence, foreign domination and betrayal after betrayal after betrayal? Once it seemed that the only way to preserve Morocco’s sophisticated culture was to export it to the Moorish Kingdom in Medieval Spain, where its advancements in medicine, hygiene, agriculture and architecture became a model for the rest of Europe. Then came eviction, chaos, infighting, and finally a French protectorate that yielded real independence only in 1956. Since then, education and legal rights have moved steadily forward, but the social price has been veiled in secrecy. Joyce Johnston will guide us through the open question: what is really going on now in this supposedly most moderate of Islamic states?


LLI Coordinator: Craig Johnston