Sahara Desert – surviving and making music

Date farm

We began our second day in the Sahara with a visit to a date farrm. This farmer has just the number of trees he can service by himself until harvest when he calls his son to help him. All but two of the trees are female. The male trees are needed only for pollination as they don’t bear fruit. To pollinate the female trees the farmer climbs the male trees and cuts the “flowering” stems, then ties them to the fruit bearing branches on the female trees. The wind shakes the male stems releasing the needed pollen. As you might imagine, many jokes were made about males not producing anything!

Farmer demonstrating his climbing technique

Next up was a visit to some Gnaoua (pronounced Gan-ow-wa) musicians. This music came from Ghana which long ago included the areas of Niger and Tahomey and other west African countries; it migrated to Morocco with roaming musicians in the Alaouite dynasty (1666-1957). The instruments and music have been passed from father to son. Modern day jazz finds its roots in Gnaoua music.

Each year there is an international Gnaoua and world music festival in Esssaouira which I will visit in a few days. The festival will not be on at the time.

The family home

Following lunch and a snooze we travelled to the home of a nomadic family. An elderly father, his two sons and their wives and children live together in an adobe home. They have several goats that roam free to graze. I asked if they had to go out and search for the goats every evening, but no – in fact the goats came back on their own while we were there. The family also has chickens and rabbits. We toured their small home and drank tea under an outside tent made of animal skins.

Taking tea under the tent

The discussion this afternoon was mainly about lifestyle. The family has a solar powered battery that will run a few lightbulbs (but not all at the same time) and charge an old Nokia cell phone. The young grandson who is now 6 years old, will travel to the nearest village with a school starting this fall. He will come home only for school holidays.

One of our group brought a frisbee with him which he gave to the young boy. There was great fun had by both the boy and many of the grown men while teaching the finer techniques of frisbee throwing. While that was going on, I asked the shy daughter-in-law if I could take her photo. She agreed to half a photo which I was delighted to shoot.

Frisbee lesson!

A modest portrait

The day closed with a beautiful sunset. The fronds of the palm tree are tied up to keep them from requiring as much water as they normally would. The tree has recently been planted; by tying the fronds more water is available to help the root become etablished.

Sunset behind a new palm tree

Note to Dennis S: Yes, this is an Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) trip. https://www.oattravel.com/trips/land-adventures/africa/morocco-sahara-odyssey/2018/itineraries