Po(o)pular culture: measuring the ‘shit’ in Moroccan music festivals

Abstract

Marginalized groups and individuals in Morocco are subject to modes of representation, in which the images and symbols of dirt used to describe/treat them as bouzebal (Bouzebal is derived from the Standard Arabic word 'Azbal' (trash) and the darija term 'zbal' (also trash). Azbal is a plural word for zibala. It is usually used to refer to literal waste and things that are no longer needed. Zbal is polysemic in that it can also be employed to indicate junky beings (no longer needed in society) or people with low moral standards. Bouzebal, however, is a strictly pejorative word used to denote a person with a lowly social status. It is also used to label members from the same social class whom one deems to be inferior to oneself.) loom large. The label bouzebal (meaning social junky) is a complex term that was initially meant to pin down socially disadvantaged people as trashy types that are deeply entrenched in filth. This article studies these and similar modes of representation in relation to the culture of festivalization in Morocco. The underrating of local artists at the expense of Western superstars, for instance, has prompted heated debates in Morocco about how festivals are maintainers of such unhealthy acts of separation. Festival agents are young and active festival practitioners who find in the festival an opportunity to negotiate power and make hints at tabouzabalit (the state of being bouzebal) by way of discussing serious local plights (i.e. corruption, poverty, unemployment, and tyranny). We will also see how cartoonists articulate this lowliness through images of dirt, waste, and excrement to underline the decadence underneath the images of majesty promoted by the state's 'spectacles of joy'. IntroductionFestivals in Morocco transfuse a glamorous image about Morocco as a seat for modernity, openness, multiculturalism, and tolerance. However, while it is easy to comprehend the role of festivals in achieving the scheme of splendour as meta-events, it remains hard to observe the symptoms, stories, and sceneries of tension permeating them that reverberate with the anxieties of the people. The presence of marginal audiences and actors within elitist festivities results in the generation of unpredictable and non-homogeneous theatrical situations that reflect the interests of the people. I suggest that by analysing the above, we can come to grips with the schemes marginal subjects contrive to rise beyond passive consumption, while negotiating the legitimacy of the state and its elitist cultural products from within.Despite the seeming majesty of the festival, festival agents sometimes purposely put on lowly looks, and make sure to be spotted everywhere. In so doing, they realize a twofold goal: to strategically essentialize themselves as junkies and to activate the imagination of the onlooker so s/he associates these symptoms of decadence directly with the rottenness of the system. As we are going to see, these political messages and acts of sociocultural mobility are usually raised within an air of theatr...

Moroccan City Festivals, Cultural Diplomacy and Urban Political Agency

“…The current ‘culture of festivalization’ (El Maarouf 2016 ) is both a product and a reflection of the myriad changes that have occurred in Moroccan politics and society. Under the helm of King Mohammed VI, who succeeded to the throne in 1999, the Moroccan state has embarked on a lengthy and carefully controlled programme of democratization, ostensibly guided by a commitment to human rights and greater social justice and marked by a desire to project the image of a modern, politically stable and culturally and economically dynamic nation in the global arena.…”

“…The often ostentatious and smooth-working displays offered by the festivals contrast starkly with the country’s severely under-funded cultural sector, manifested by the paucity of public cultural facilities outside the central districts of major cities, and by the fact that in 2013, there were only 45 operating cinemas in the entire country, compared with 265 in the late 1970s (TelQuel 2013 ; for an overview of the evolution of Moroccan cultural policy, see Touzani 2016 ). Organizers of large free festivals in particular have had to fend off public criticisms of the co-optation of cultural expression and political dissent (Boum 2012 ), the squandering of state funds (El Maarouf 2016 ) and, specifically from the Islamist PJD party, accusations of immoral impropriety and material excess, which points to the tensions between secular and religious definitions of culture during the reign of Mohammed VI (Graiouid and Belghazi 2013 ). Already in 2008, Deborah Kapchan noted that festivals in Morocco were at the ‘center of moral, political, religious scrutiny’ (Kapchan 2008 , p.471), and yet the number of new events continually rose thereafter, and this onward march would only meet its match during the 2020 lockdown when all festivals scheduled between March and September were abruptly cancelled.…”

“…It is notable that these subsidies were eliminated during the year of the Arab Spring, when pro-democracy protests in Rabat singled out Mawazine as a symbol of Royal extravagance and, according to public rumours, led the King to briefly consider cancelling the 2011 edition (TelQuel 2012 ). Furthermore, the idea that Mawazine embodied the democratization of music has been regularly censured and lampooned in online social media and has been supplanted with representations of the event as a modern-day, Moroccan version of bread and circuses (El Maarouf 2016 ). Numerous musical performers, especially in the rap community, have also disputed the claim that the festival functions as a springboard for new Moroccan talent because the palace-endorsed individual responsible for the line-up has persistently invited the same famous artists who guarantee large crowds and tend to indulge Moroccan patriotism (Moreno Almedia 2017 ).…”