Babi: "Since the second half of the 17th century, Morocco has been ruled by the Alaouite dynasty, originally from Tafilalet. Up until the beginning of the last century, certain powerful tribes, some distance from Fez, would occasionally rebel against the monarch.
To protect himself against these rebels, the sultan often appealed to his compatriots in Tafilalet. He would send a letter to his local representative asking him to send 100 or 200 young men to the capital to reinforce his army and palace guard. In those days, it was considered a great honour for a young Filali to come to Fez to work at the sultan's court.
Such a situation occurred around 1895. A draft lottery was done to decide who would go to Fez, and my grandfather, who must have been barely 16 or 17, was drawn together with a whole contingent of cousins and young people from the village. He was delighted. But his family was worried about letting him go alone, and decided that he absolutely had to get married. So they searched among the cousins on both sides of the family and found the woman who was to become my grandmother in Fez.
Dance at a wedding in Fez
And this is how my grandfather and grandmother, two strangers to each other, one from the country, the other from the city, got married in Fez in 1895. My grandfather's entire family had come to the capital to celebrate the wedding, and had bought a plot of land backing onto the palace rampart. The young couple soon had three children: first a son - my father - then two daughters.
Life went on quietly until April 1912, when two events occurred independently of each other, both of which changed my family's destiny. The first was the signing of the Act of Protectorate with France. The second was the sudden death of my grandfather, aged just 30, probably as a result of a heart attack. He died within 24 hours.
Almost immediately, the sultan who had signed the act of protectorate was rejected by the local population and deposed, and there was what was then euphemistically called 'unrest' ("des troubles"). The French, who had occupied Algeria since 1835 and were therefore experienced colonizers, had devised a plan to conquer the country.
First, they seized the entire Moroccan coastline, which was the most interesting part of the country for them because of the phosphate deposits and other valuable resources found there. They then laid siege to the "difficult" regions, notably Tafilalet, a mountainous region populated by independent and rebellious tribes. This siege lasted a long time, so much so that although colonization began in Morocco in 1912, it didn't really start in Tafilalet until 1935. It has to be said that, in the meantime, the first world war kept the French very busy and slowed down their colonization efforts.
And so, there was my grandmother in 1912, still very young, a widow with three young children, left to fend for herself in her house in Fez, unable to join her family who were under siege in Tafilalet. She lived the first years of the protectorate in poverty, but managed to bring up her three children, for she was a very tough and mentally strong woman.
Things improved a little when my father reached the age of 16. He joined the Fès hospital, first as a junior apprentice, then as a qualified nurse, until in 1924 he passed his driving test and became an ambulance driver. At the time, there were no more than 15 cars in the whole city of Fès. Having a driver's license was therefore something exceptional, like being an astronaut today!"
My father, Jelila Dahbi, on the right in the photo, in his hospital uniform