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Chergui (pronounced Shergi) is one of the hot winds that blown in Morocco,
coming from the South, and bringing from the Saharan dunes their burning
dryness. Like Sirocco, it can reach Mediterranean coasts, and that’s
why we chose it as a messenger to bring you regularly a flavour of Morocco.
You can find here topics and links from our newsletter. News regarding
this site, and our activities, and also, general information about Morocco,
tips for the organization of our travel, hints about hidden or forgotten
places, cultural news.
You would like to receive our newsletter ? Just ask us, by mail.
On the contrary, you don’t want to receive it anymore ? Just one
mail,
and we remove you from our lists.
Enjoy it.
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| Number two |
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A new logo |
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We added the transcription of our name in Tifinagh
fonts. After all, we're in Berber country, aren't we ?
Tifinaghs are very ancient fonts, originally more an abjad than
an alphabet, like arabic letters (means there are nearly no wovels,
mainly consonants). These ones were, and are still used by the Tuaregs,
and come from an ancient Lyrico-Berber script.
A new version of this script has been created in the sixties, a
real alphabet this time, with wovels. Unlike arabic, it is written
left - to - right. Slight variations exist. In countries like Algeria,
with a strong post-colonisation arabisation, choosing one script
or the other to write Berber was a strong political statement, and
political considerations came sometimes before real linguistic problems.
On Moroccan TV, 2M, daily, a 10 minutes show learns step by step
how to write Berber. May be tapes or CDs will be issued.
By the way, did you know our name refers to cattle ? That comes
from the time before the drought, when our oasis was a farm lost
among alfafa fields and palm trees. Many nomads came also to graze
their cattle, hence our name, combination of "Ezgarn"
(herd) and "Me" (the mother, the feeder).
And last... in moroccan arabic, alfafa is said alfasa ... words,
words, words ! |
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A blog for the Oasis |
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That's the biggest piece of news, that we created
a blog for our site. We needed a simple and flexible tool, to help
for quick updates, limited duration posts, like the date of a festival.
It's also a place where we can discuss with you, or bring you other
kind of information about Morocco, that don't fit easily in our
site structure.
For example, we intend to bring you a flavor of Moroccan music,
with young talents. The first group, Gawa
Diffusion, is from Casablanca, and belongs to Moroccan Fusion
trend, a kind of world music strongly influenced by gnawas. Other
groups will come later on.
When we're on the road, this blog is also a way to show you quickly
a new place, before making a real page on it, or just share impressions.
We hope it will be a meeting point for lovers of Morocco.
We have a rss
feed, which you can subscribe, and receive directly our news. |
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New pictures : M'hamid and Tazzarine |
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Our pages on M'hamid
and Tazzarine have received new photos. Tazzarine
is often described in the guides as having "nothing special",
or being "not interesting". It is a small town, with no
impressive monument, that's true. But there are two marabouts, that
are yearly painted anew for the festivals. There is a market place,
with everything that makes a small countryside market nice and pleasant
to visit. There are olb buildings of the time of the French colonies,
which have a special flair... Yes, you won't spend two weeks loosing
yourself in the "town center", but you can at least spend
a day walking in the old streets, among the high brick walls that
suddenly discover a beautiful henna garden. |
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Images of old Morocco |
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A site in French, where you can find old postcards
and photo of old Morocco. To enjoy, and try to recognize what became
what... And our contribution to this old nostalgy, an image of a
Berber woman in Saro, around 1930.
The old Kasbah of Agadir, destroyed
by an earthquacke in 1960
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A huge "thank you" |
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In August, nearly 12.000 visitors passed by our web
site. For a small activity like ours, not making any advertisment,
that's a lot. And that's thank to you, who visit our pages, give our
links, spread the word. Thanks for your support, "choukran bezaf"
we hope we'll interest you for a long time ! |
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