Paper 2, Work in progress, Contraband Modern in the Fes Medina Project

Smuggled Commodities in the Fez Medina -

Mohamed Ahmed Gain

Introduction

Objectives

Contraband is a widespread phenomenon Morocco. One can easily notice the presence of smuggled products in most of the Moroccan cities. This phenomenon is rooted back to the first years of independence[1]. The study of contraband in Morocco needs the consideration of its historical, geographical, social, economic and ideological affiliations. There are also issues like modernity, fashion, and globalization, raised by the phenomenon of contraband. The impact of smuggling is far-reaching on different aspects of Moroccan everyday life. This complex multi-dimensional phenomenon can be conceptualized from different perspectives. However, my focus in this paper will be the analysis of the presence of contraband in the Old Medina of Fez.

I will be concerned with contraband commodities, their circulation, consumers, places where they are sold, and how they are sold. I will also draw a reading of consumer culture and its changes through time, in relation of course to contraband in the Old Medina of Fez.

To achieve this, I have relied on data collection using interviews and questionnaires. I interviewed sellers involved in such trades, trying to see how they themselves view contraband and what their motivation is to choose this work. I relied also on questionnaires. I distributed 80 questionnaires of which I received back 75. Of course, the data collected differs from one informant to another. Still, I tried to highlight the points where they intersect and where their views differ. I analyse the data collected with frameworks borrowed from literary criticism that would help to encompass my topic and come out with a meticulous reading of the phenomenon and its impact on the Old Medina of Fez.

Many types of smuggled products circulate nowadays in different sites of the Old Medina of Fez. These have a powerful influence on Moroccan lifestyles in general, and the Fassi ones specifically; and have far reaching impacts on society and culture.

The historical condition of the emergence of contraband, particularly in the Old Medina, is a point I will take into consideration in my investigation of the topic. I will also try to show how this kind of trade affects both culture and society, making use of the data I have collected. By ‘culture’ I allude to the fact that the Medina is one of the prominent Moroccan spaces that has great cultural significance. I also use the term to mean consumer culture and the ways in which it is affected by contraband.

I assume that there is a shift in the way the Moroccan views his/her culture of consumption, because of the intrusion of modern products in catching shapes and colors, though the illegal. Related to the Old Medina, I assume that it is no more viewed as an authentic space, with its cultural and intellectual weight. Rather, it is merely a place where people purchase what they need of smuggled objects, from markets like Rhabet Zbib, which in the past used to sell traditional objects.

Background

The Old Medina of Fez, like many other Medinas either in Morocco or in other North Africa in general, has been transformed in its shape and population, especially in the post-independence era. Before this period, and under the impact of colonialization, the French governor Lyautey’s policy was based on preserving the native space from new forms of architecture and European urbanism. This policy was to avoid any addition to the space which would affect its authentic image. However, one of the main changes this Medina has witnessed, in a subsequent stage, was demographic increase. Most of the ex-inhabitants of the Old Medina –the new Moroccan elite– moved to the new city. This shift of the Fassi elite away from the traditional Medina was accompanied by “a migration from the countryside to the Medina”[2]. This is when the Medina became a shelter for any newly arrived population from rural areas.

The new inhabitants of the Medina have brought with them a new regime of cultural practices different from what used to be here earlier. Because most of these inhabitants are from poor backgrounds, their modes of production would only serve their subsistence needs that puts the space under different pressures. The Medina of Fez is highly important for Morocco as a tourist site. However, the Medina, with its socioeconomic shift, has to serve a clientele different from that it was designed for[3]. The Medina, then, comes to accommodate an ‘urban proletariat’ which consists of families who migrated from the countryside to the city.

From this historical and social perspective, I see that the phenomenon of contraband in the Medina is something motivated primarily by the changes this space has undergone. These changes, I think, have contributed directly to the emergence of markets specified for smuggled products, products that suit the social status of the population in the Medina. This is something I will try to investigate in this research.

Part One

Data from Questionnaires and Interviews

1. Commodities and Consumption

My questionnaire begins with a question about age. 73% of the informants are between 18 to 25, 23% are between 25 to 40, and 4% are more than 40 years old. 63% of the informants are male and 37% are female. Among my informants, 56% are resident in Fez, and 44% are from outside Fez.

In the questionnaires I distributed amongst my informants, I included some questions related to smuggled commodities they see most consumed by Moroccans. As 76 % of my informants buy smuggled products, I was sure they would know about the kind of commodities that circulate in the Medina markets. As they are also a part of this consumption process, they would know the motivation of people to buy and purchase smuggled products.

The question I asked was “what kind of smuggled products you do think circulate in the Medina markets?” I gave the informants the chance to choose more than one kind. The higher percentage was given to audio-visual products, which reached 79%. 73% of them think that ‘clothes’ are also present in the souks of the Medina. ‘Food’ and ‘cosmetics’ were chosen by respectively 65% and 63% of my informants. The last possibility I provided was if there other commodities I didn’t include. 20% of my informants gave examples of smuggled products like cigarettes, mobile phones, drugs and others.

The second stage of my inquiry about smuggled goods was to ask my informants why they thought people consumed such products. Like the previous question, I provided my informants with different possibilities to choose from. 76% claimed that people buy smuggled products because they were cheap. 23% argue that it is because such commodities are not available in the Moroccan market. Those who thought Moroccans buy them because the commodities are from foreign countries, I mean here Europe, numbered 19%. Only 8% of my informants have no idea about the reasons.

1. Gender and Consumption

In this category, I tried to investigate the gendered patterns in the process of consumption of contraband. The first question I posed to the informants was who consumes smuggled products more: men, women or both? 68% of the informants think that both men and women consume. 23% of them chose women, and 9% percent chose men.

The second step was to ask why ‘men and women’ and ‘men or women’ consumed such goods. For the 68% who think that both men and women buy and consume contraband products, the reasons differed. “They are on the same path” was what one informant claimed, without further clarification. Another sees that both sexes are attracted by the forms and shapes of products (packaging). Fashion is another reason given, for “it does not distinguish between men and women”. Another informant relates his choice to family needs. For him, newly married couples consume contraband a lot. He adds also that even smugglers are aware of the consumers’ needs. They bring objects for both sexes.

For the 23% who thought women were prime consumers of contraband, the reasons differed as well. Some of them think that women are more interested in shopping in Morocco. Others claim that while men restrict their purchase to useful things, women consume more. Because women are not aware of the dangers of smuggled products, they buy impetuously. Furthermore, women think that “foreign products are better than ours”. And “women cannot resist buying from any place”.

Of the 9% who claimed that men buy contraband products more than women some accounts were as follows: “Religion is something important one should consider”, an informant says. He claims that “the Islamic background emphasizes the role of men to manage everyday life affairs”. Another sees that the available products concerns men more than women. For another, there are more men in markets than women, that’s why they consume more”.

2. The Impact of Contraband

In this category, I tried to study the impact of contraband on the different formations of Moroccan life in general. I started with a question whether contraband affects Moroccan life or not. 72% of the informants answer the question by ‘yes’, while 28 % see no change in Moroccan life because of contraband. This question was intended to be general to probe different interpretations.

The way contraband affects Moroccan life vacillates between being economic, social or cultural. For some, contraband contributes in changing the local consumer culture, in that it makes the consumer change his/her eating habits, and his/her ways of dressing. The kind of smuggled products that come to a middle class consumer changes his/her lifestyle. The idea of addiction is another point stressed by informants. For them people who consume contraband are compulsively hooked to such products, and do not look for any alternatives. “We are becoming more and more Westernized;” it is an unconscious intrusion of a new culture through these products which change our ways of living.

At the socio-economic level, contraband causes various kinds of influence. First, it dominates the local products. Contraband generates an “unfair competition to Moroccan products and producers”. It devalues local objects and leads to the increase of unemployment. It also weakens the commercialization of these objects. One informant claims that “contraband destroys the national economy and promotes a sense of individualism and selfishness among people. It kills nationalism in citizens.” Another contends that smuggled products are dangerous, in that they are not controlled by the authorities. Its impact on health is something many of my informants agree on. The emergence of many diseases is attributed to smuggled products which are usually past their sell-by date. They are repackaged for new dates. Contraband is a virus for the national economy, and has negative effects on society, newspapers write.

Against the people who think that contraband affects our life, there are others who see that it promotes social and economic conditions. Some of them think that contraband secures enough jobs for unemployed people. It also gives access to low-priced commodities for people of limited incomes. Moreover, the kind of competition contraband creates urges Moroccan producers to improve the quality of their products. Here, contraband becomes an opportunity more than a crisis.

3. Motives for Contrabandists

Contraband is a phenomenon that has emerged in the Moroccan society because of several reasons. Here, I attempted to look at these reasons through the opinions of my informants. The question was what pushes people to engage in contraband? The responses I received all share the idea that the motives are social.

Unemployment and poverty are the first that come to mind when thinking about the motives. People resort to contraband as a means of survival. One informant thinks that “contraband becomes legal when there is joblessness and social contradictions.” Contraband is considered by many as the only way to achieve a kind of financial stability. Contrabandists have no other options, for the state does not provide serious alternatives for them. The authorities should afford facilities for people and encourage them to engage in legal trade. The state, an informant thinks, is deliberately absent; it does not want to ban contraband. One dangerous point stressed by some informants is that even legal shops sell smuggled products. This is because of the huge incomes and benefits they gain from it. Because there are no taxes on contraband, smugglers gain much money in a short period. And there are no fixed prices for smuggled objects, which gives the dealers the chance to make profits through ‘price-play’.

4. Contraband in the Old Medina

The presence of contraband in the Old Medina of Fez must have an impact on the space. This impact might be approached differently by my informants. That is why I tried to include two questions related to the topic. The first was whether they do think there is an impact of contraband on the Old Medina or not. The second was “how?” 67% of the informants say ‘yes’. 21% argue against it. Only 12% have no idea about the issue.

The people, who claimed the contraband as having an impact on the Medina, approach the issue very differently. “The Medina is,” an informant says, “a patrimonial space that has to be kept and preserved. The presence of contraband is alarmingly threatening that space; something the authorities should not hesitate to fight.” For another, contrabandists work in secret and in disorganized groups, which affects the outward presence of the Medina. Contraband blurs the historical significance of the space. One informant adds: “It affects the Medina’s culture and traditions. We used to see people there buying Moroccan traditional objects. Now we see contraband as a sign of globalization in the heart of Fez.” The Medina has to contain only traditional products. But with contraband, we destroy its authenticity.

For one of my informants, contraband affects every place in Morocco, be it the Medina or otherwise, in that it unveils the corrupt side in Moroccans. For another, “The presence of contraband in every space generates a huge criticism of the socio-economic policies of the state. ‘Poor’ people who work in contraband are not to blame. Everyone knows that it is the state which failed in securing a stable social and economic situation for its citizens. For the contrabandeers, this work is only a way to overcome their hard circumstances.”

“There is no compatibility between the space and the smuggled products,” an informant claims “It violates and corrupts the image of the Medina. The dissemination of these modern products with modern cultural loads obliterates the cultural presence of the local traditional production.” Another informant says: “Smuggled products come from a place with a different culture and lifestyles. It brings with it new cultural forms, which does not reflect of course the authenticity of the Medina. It disfigures the cultural existence of the Medina.”

“The Medina is famous for its long and rich history. However, contraband endangers this history. The state relies heavily on the Medina to promote tourism in the country. Yet, contraband gives tourists the impression that Morocco is a country without law,” an informant says. “Tourists who visit the place see directly the kind of disorder taking place there. Moreover, the sellers who introduce their products in the crowded streets of the Medina hinder the circulation of people.”

For the informants who argue against this issue, the reasons they give seem to be debatable. One of them sees that “Smuggled products have no kind of power or weight to change the space.” Another thinks that “The presence of contraband in the Medina adds to its popularity.” The last one I chose from this group argues that “Western culture is something that lives with us.” He thinks that “We all now live western.” For this group, contraband in the Medina is not something to bother us.

I concluded my questionnaire with a question about the way to ban the phenomenon of contraband. 79% of the informants voted for the idea that the state should help smugglers get new jobs. 8% of them think that the state should punish them. 10% have no idea.

5. Transcripts of Interviews

Hamid, 29 years old, is a single man, born in Fez and stopped his studies in the first year of high school. He brings clothes from Nador, Titouan and Ouejda, and sells them in the Old Medina. He is working in contraband for four years. Before contraband, he had a small shop. Because this did not secure financial stability for him he resorted to contraband. For him, “contraband does provide him with enough money to live comfortably”. Yet, “it is an adventure”. One trip from Fez to the north and back to Fez again takes from 24 to 48 hours.

Hamid brings all kinds of clothes that concern both sexes and all ages. “Poor people” he says “buy more smuggled products.” “Now people consume more than before; for this, contrabandeers gain much from such trade” he adds. “Smugglers bring all kinds of products they see can be consumed in Morocco.”

“Contraband is a work of difficulties”, he says. For him, “Women suffer more than men in smuggling”. He gave an example of a woman who was stripped naked after the goods she was bringing were confiscated by the customs officials. Hamid says that “There are many families who live on contraband. There are even some smugglers who became rich because of contraband.” He himself dreams someday to earn enough money from it, and do his enterprise.

Hamid is aware of the illegal situation he is in. However, “there is no other good alternative”. Hamid claims: “We are always the victim. The state knows very well what happens in the north of the country. A legal job secures no good material conditions; and in contraband, we are in danger always. Anyway, we bribe to pass products so as to live.” I asked Hamid whether he works in a group or not. He answered that “There are people who work in groups.” He added: “The important thing in our work is to build a kind of confidentiality between you and the people you work with.”

Brahim is 24 and stopped his studies in the third year of high school. He chose to work in contraband directly after he left the school. He is working in contraband for two years and a half. Brahim thinks that contraband is the lonely way to earn a good living, without abiding by the laws of the state. This young man tries through contraband “to live a sort of material autonomy.”

Brahim sells smuggled clothes, which he himself brings from Nador. His clientele are most of the time women and children. He agrees on the idea that “women buy more than men.” According to his assumed statistics, “85% of his clientele are women.” He adds that “people from the middle and lower classes consume contraband more.” Brahim claims that “Contraband is not any more like before. Contraband witnessed a decrease in commercialization because of the Chinese products which overwhelmed Moroccan markets and because of the increase of the number of smugglers.” He adds: “Though it is a very dangerous adventure, but still there are opportunities in it.”

The trip to Nador takes from Brahim “like three days”. Seeking a more secure trip, he uses CTM (a private company of transportation) to move the goods from Nador to Fez. “One should be militant to continue in contraband,” Brahim thinks. I asked him what would be his future if contraband stops. He answered: “I have no option but to immigrate to Europe. There, far from these conditions I can do well. In Morocco, there is nothing to do but to live illegally”.

Hafida is a 29 year old divorced woman. She stopped her studies in primary school. After she was divorced, Hafida worked for one year as a servant in houses. With the help of one of her friends she engaged in contraband. Hafida distributes the products she brings on some shops in the Old Medina. She is working in smuggling for three years. After her divorce, Hafida went to work. But the work she had been in, before she resorted to contraband, did not provide her with enough money to live. Contraband for her “is a way to survive.”

Hafida brings in all kinds of products. This depends, according to her, on the needs of the market. She brings textiles, perfumes, clothes for women and children, foods (rice, dried milk, spices, coffee, honey), and sometimes she brings blankets. “The needs of the Moroccan consumer,” she says, “are seasonal.” The products she brings differ in seasons (Ramadan, the religious feasts, summer etc.). Hafida thinks that “Women buy more than men. They know what they, their children and their houses need.” “Only poor people buy smuggled products, because they suit their social status.” “Contraband is in the Old Medina because the population there consumes it more.”

“I know that contraband destroys the economy, but...we are in the hands of God,” Hafida says. Concerning the image of the Medina, she does not think that contraband affects it. “You should know,” she proceeds, “that all people are strongly fond of contraband.” Contrary to my expectations from her, Hafida is aware of the historical change of the Old Medina of Fez. She told me about how the ex-inhabitants of the place traveled to Casablanca and the coming of new inhabitants from the countryside. She also told me aboutRhabet Zbib, and how it used to be a market to sell second-hand furniture, before the emergence of contraband in it.

Part Two

Reflections and Analysis

1. Contraband as Circuits of Survival

The emergence of contraband worldwide has of course a basis determined by the very conditions it is born in. These conditions differ from one continent to another and from one country to another. Contraband in Morocco, for instance, has its causes, be it social, economic, cultural or even ideological. Since my case study concerns contraband in the Old Medina of Fez I consider heavily the social context of the phenomenon and its contribution to this emergence. Society, then, is an indispensable element in my discussion of contraband.

While going through the data I have introduced before I had a powerful feeling that it is the social factor which motivates the operation of contraband. It is the social constraints imposed on the individual which drive him/her to sell or buy contraband. Under the pressures of the unfavorable situation he/she lives, the individual exercises contraband as a form of resistance or opposition. The kind of exclusion he/she faces creates no other choice than contraband. Poverty, unemployment and other factors we probed in the questionnaires and interviews give a rational explanation of the contrabandist’s motivation:

“[It] is in a systemic condition marked by high unemployment, poverty, bankruptcies of large numbers of firms, and shrinking resources in the state to meet social needs that alternative circuits of survival emerge and can be seen as articulated with those conditions”.[4]

This is, I think, the rational basis one can attribute to contraband in Morocco. The large numbers of Moroccans, who work in contraband, are obliged to resort to this job. They are aware of the dangers of contraband. They are also aware that “they destroy their national economy.” Moreover, the smugglers know very well that smuggling is not a job to last for them. However, they see no other alternative to earn a living.

The smuggler is looking out for him/herself in such a job. (S)he locates him/herself in an illegal frame. (S)he tries “to fend for oneself” which “is the only way to survive.”[5] Excluded and deprived at home, the smugglers seeks to “become someone”[6] outside. It is a construction of one’s own existence in a world that excludes them. Through my experience in this research I felt that it is a matter of assertion of one’s presence. Maybe the state has no capacities to provide social stability for these people. Yet, they seem to defy their conditions and demonstrate their efficiency from a counter-locality.

The smugglers live in the world of contraband within specific relationships constructed through their experience in such trade. Smuggling is a second-economy-trade that plays an important role in the formation of these relationships. I give here an example discussed by Mike Crang in his book Cultural Geography and apply it to my study on contraband[7]. The smugglers build a sort of ‘trust’ in the deals they make with the first-hand sellers in the north of Morocco. The phrase “a man’s word is his bond” expresses the nature of these relationships. The smuggler should also engage in good relationships with his/her clientele, to guarantee a continuity for his/her trade. The fidelity of the client is a value developed by ways of good dealing:

“Value in the suq is not determined by commodities but rather by relationships”.[8]

The social factor explains the high degree of consumption of contraband in Morocco, as well. The 76% of the informants who agreed on the idea that people consume smuggled products because it is cheap are part of this consumption process. Being cheap, the smuggled products seem to be reachable for most of the Moroccan consumers of limited incomes. Yet, the bad effects of the outdated products are something really dangerous:

“Its alleged quality and exotic shapes attract largely the Moroccan consumer...This consumer trusts it so much.”[9]

The more dangerous fact about these products is the way the smugglers change its dates and packages to introduce it as ready-to-consume products[10]. The social pressures imposed on the smugglers, I think, blind them to these dangers. They neglect the bad effects of smuggled products on health, and legitimatize, in this way, an illegal but also dangerous practice.

2. Contraband and Spatial Transformations

“Spatial changes give a tone to a communication”[11]

One of my assumptions is that the Old Medina of Fez has witnessed a sort of change with the emergence of contraband in it. The Medina is a place of huge historical, cultural and social significance. The architecture, the traditional industries, trade and rituals, all these and others have contributed to the construction of the image of the Medina of Fez in local memory. My assumption goes hand in hand with my findings. 67% of the informants see that the Medina changes according to the contacts it makes with unfamiliar commodities.

The Medina is a place where populations dwell; where the consumer buys smuggled products; and where the seller introduces his goods. The Medina is a space with all kinds of affiliations assembled around it; created by ways of communication with these goods:

“The city is not merely a physical or even a verbal entity, but something more broadly semiotic as meaning embraces gestures, artifacts, and conduct all against a monumental backdrop.”[12]

Meaning changes through time as there is no fixed formation of knowledge about a particular space. The current signification of the Medina is not the same as before. The significance and signification has witnessed changes as well. The development of new forms of social conduct accentuates new readings of the space. I mean here by forms of conduct, commerce, traditions and relationships:

“The urban environment in Morocco is not simply a matter of ‘authenticity’; what may appear authentic to one individual may in fact appear artificial or irrelevant to another.”[13]

There is something more than just changes of the image. There are other transformations that take place together with the spatial transformation.

The Medina is an “arena of consumption”. It is an arena where people purchase various kinds of products.Rhabet Zbib is an element in this arena. It is a place from where people used to buy local home-made products like Lekhli'e (dried meat and grease)[14]. It is where people used to buy traditional products at auctions[15]. However, now the various markets of smuggled products in the Medina like Rhabet Zbib serve as ‘places of pilgrimage to the fetish commodities’[16]. The functions of these places change over time. What was used for producing and selling local products is now for the selling of diasporic products:

“The meanings of particular spaces change overtime, and what once may have been spaces for production become for consumption.”[17]

It is true that contraband is present in other parts of Fez. Yet, the Medina is a especially fetishized place for consumption. There are consumers who come to the Medina from the Ville Nouvelle. The Medina is a point to return to when they need to buy smuggled products of consumerism. Within the Medina itself, the historical change of population has thrown up a large number of new consumers. The inhabitants of the Medina are more in contact with contraband. Because smuggled products overwhelm most of the streets of the Medina these inhabitants find it easier to consume contraband goods.

3. Contraband and Cultural Identity Transformations

“The city is not simply the location for a battle of architectural styles. It is also a battle for the cultural landscape and the living order with the landscape”[18]

Contraband raises, I think, many questions about culture and identity constructed through consumption. I assume that in many ways culture and identity of consumers have been transformed by contraband products. Here, I attempt to investigate these transformations. Apart from the spatial alterations, I consider the ways in which Moroccan lifestyles and forms of conduct have been modified by the consumption of contraband.

Before contraband, the shift in the demographic profile of the Medina is the first factor to affect the make-up of everyday life there. This historical change is an element one should consider substantially in any study of the space. The relocation of new populations gives rise to the emergence of new social practices and a new organization of the place. It is a new conception of the spatial presence together with new systems of cultural conventions that take place within in the Old Medina. What happened is a substitution of roles of people and places.

Commodities are not ready-to-consume objects. They carry with them culture and lifestyles. They are produced in landscapes different from the landscapes they are consumed in; different in the sense that the smuggled products are accompanied by new traditions, ways of eating, ways of dressing and ways of thinking. The consumption of smuggled products marks a contact between two different cultures. And the dominant would affect the subaltern. “Commodities, in general, have identified the mingling of culture worldwide.”[19] One should investigate what commodities mean for their consumers:

“Commodities must be not only produced materially as things, but also culturally marked as being a certain kind of thing”.[20]

The contact zone of consumers and products raises questions of identity and identification, culture and cultural reproduction.

All the individual’s everyday acts are manifestations of his/her identity. Identity is constructed through human experiences, collective and individual. Commodities are part of this identity creation:

“Goods are constituents of self-hood: the practice of identity encompasses a practice of consumption”.[21]

Smuggled products are “exotic goods”; exotic in shapes, in constituents, and in ways in which they are consumed. Consumption does not honor traditional constructions of gender. Both men and women consume contraband. They find clothes, foods and anything they need provided by smugglers. However, what matters here is the way they consume. How do smuggled products create meaning for them? The idea is how

"The discourses and connotations...ascribe goods with meanings and the information these convey about places." [22]

Smuggled products are consumed because they are from a place most of the consumers and sellers dream of. They “mobilize images people already have about what is typical of that place.”[23] The Moroccan consumer has a lack that can be filled by these products. He/she buys a particular product into its associations[24]. He/she adopts these associations in totally different conditions. Cosmetics, foods, clothes and audio-visual products come to be adopted for local usage, in a space known for its cultural significance:

“People assemble around them goods with which they feel at ease, and which thus unselfconsciously communicate who they are.”[25]

They opt for these commodities; and they unconsciously live its lifestyles. As I have mentioned before, the smugglers and the consumers suffer from a kind of ‘lack’. They suffer from social elimination and depression. They fill this lack by opting for contraband:

“A culture and a cultural identity are formed around the experience of social exclusion, though this culture is the result of different activities and not the basis for them.”[26]

Modernity is an element I see relevant to study contraband in the Medina. An operation of modernization is taking place in this space, and affects all aspects of life there. The traveling smuggled commodities bring with them modern formations that transform the traditional and the indigenous. Mike Crang states in his book that

"Foods [for instance] are visible markers of the shifting cultures around the globe."[27]

A cultural modernization is exercised on people and spaces. It seems unconvincing, then, if we make claims for an authentic space. A visitor of the Medina will see much modernity in all parts of the place. This is a result of the legal and illegal importation of modern commodities:

“The consumption of so much westernalia, and the resultant decentering associated with it, has the effect of devaluing all things local.”[28]

Globalization reached for the Medina and generated big dichotomies between what is traditional and what is modern. There is a metamorphosis of the traditional locality. Something undoubtedly would transfigure the space.

Conclusion

My paper attempts not to find solutions for the phenomenon of contraband. It aims at unveiling the situation, and read it from various perspectives. Yet, there is no harm if I conclude it with some proposals taken from some Moroccan newspapers.

Given the current situation of the Medina, there are different points of view about how to ban contraband in Morocco. Some of them stop at the social factors:

“To ban contraband, the state should look for alternatives for thousands of citizens who consider this trade their only way to earn a living.”[29]

Some of them go beyond that and say:

“Moroccan society suffers from a very big disequilibrium. The current situation calls for a rethinking of education. To fight contraband of products, we have to fight the other forms of contraband.”[30]

The writer means by other forms of contraband, forms of indecent behavior in Moroccan society, bribery for instance.

Complex as it is, the phenomenon of contraband in the Old Medina gives voice to corruption in Moroccan society. It is a multi-dimensional situation that gives birth to smuggling.

Endnotes

[1] From an article by Mohamed Laasri entitled “Contraband as an economic and social phenomenon” in Al-yassar Al-mowahhad newspaper.
[2] Roger Joseph, “The Symbolic Significance of the Moroccan City”, p347.
[3] Ellen C. Micaud, “Urbanization, Urbanism, and the Medina of Tunis”, p438.
[4] Sassen, Saskia. “Counter-Geographies of Globalization: Feminization of survival”, p98.
[5] MacGaffey, Janet, and Rémy Bazenguissa, 'Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law', p53.
[6] Ibid, p55.
[7] Crang, Mike, 'Cultural Geography', p121.
[8] Joseph, Roger, 'The symbolic significance of the Moroccan city', p350.
[9] Hassan, Berriche, “Spain overwhelms the Cities of the North with Poisoned Honey”, in Al-bidawi newspaper.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Hall, E. T., 'The Silent Language', p160.
[12] Joseph, Roger, 'The symbolic significance of the Moroccan city', p349.
[13] Joseph, Roger, 'The symbolic significance of the Moroccan city', p352.
[14] I got this information from a short interview I made with an old hair dresser in Rhabt Zbib.
[15] Fejjal, Ali, 'Le Commerce Ambulant à Fès', p54.
[16] Crang, Mike, 'Cultural Geography', p123.
[17] Ibid, p128.
[18] Joseph, Roger, 'The symbolic significance of the Moroccan city', p351.
[19] MacGaffey, Janet, and Rémy Bazenguissa, 'Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law', p50.
[20] Ibid, p59.
[21] Ibid, p50.
[22] Crang, Mike, 'Cultural Geogrphy', p131.
[23] Ibid, p26.
[24] Crang, Mike, 'Cultural Geography', p136.
[25] Ibid, p138.
[26] MacGaffey, Janet, and Rémy Bazenguissa, 'Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law', p58. 
[27] Crang, Mike, 'Cultural Geography', p134.
[28] McMurray, David A., 'In and Out Morocco: Smuggling and Migration in a Frontier Boomtown', p141.
[29] Hassan, Berriche, 'Spain overwhelms the Cities of the North with Poisoned Honey', in Al-bidawinewspaper.
[30] Mohamed, Chawki, 'The Culture of Contraband', in Al-ittihad Al-ishtiraki newspaper.

Bibliography

Books
-Crang, Mike, Cultural Geography, London: Routeledge, 1998.
-Fejjal, Ali, 'Le Commerce Ambulant à Fès', in l’Emploi Invisible au Maghreb: Etudes sur l’Economie Parallèle, Rabat: Société Marocaine des Editeurs Réunis, 1991, p51-62.
-Hall, E. T., 'The Silent Language', NY: Doubleday, 1959.
-Joseph, Roger, 'The Symbolic Significance of the Moroccan City. From Connaissance du Maghreb: Sciences Social et Colonisation Conference at Princeton', New Jersy 24-26 April 1982. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche, 1984.
-MacGaffey, Janet, and Rémy Bazenguissa, 'Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law', African Issues Series 9. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
-McMurray, David A., 'In and Out Morocco: Smuggling and Migration in a Frontier Boomtown', Minneapolis: the University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
-Micaud, Ellen C., 'Urbanization, Urbanism, and the Medina of Tunis', International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 9, No. 4 (November 1978), p431-447.
-Sassen, Saskia, 'Counter-Geographies of Globalization: Feminization of Survival'. Feminist Post-Development Thought: Rethinking Modernity, Postcolonialism and Representation. London: Zed Books, 2002, p89-104.

Newspapers
-Hassan, Berriche, "Spain Overwhelms the Cities of the North with Poisoned Honey”, Al-bidawi, no 208, 22 July 2006.
-Laasri, Mohamed,“Contraband as an Economic and Social phenomenon”, Al-yassar Al-Mowahhad 12 March 2004.
-Mohamed, Chawki,“The Culture of Contraband”, Al-ittihad Al-ishtiraki No 4555, 30 January 1996.

Questionnaire on Contraband
By: Gain Mohamed Ahmed

Questionnaire for the Buyer 

1. Your age? between: 
18-25 
25-40 
More than 40

2. Your gender? 
Male
Female 

3. Your level of education? 
Primary 
Secondary 
Faculty 
High School

4. Is contraband present here in Fez? 
Yes 
No 
I have no idea 

5. Do you buy smuggled products? 
Yes 
No

6. What kind of smuggled products you think circulate in the market in Fez? 
Food
Audio-visual products 
Cosmetics
Clothes
Others: 

7. Why you think? Because they are: 
Cheap 
Not available in the Moroccan market 
Foreign products 
I have no idea 

8. Who buys smuggled products more? 
Men 
Women 

9. Why you think? In brief. 

10. Do you think that contraband affects consumer culture here in Morocco? 
Yes 
No 

11. If yes, how? In brief. 

12. What are the motives you think possible that push people to engage in this phenomenon?

14. Do you think that the presence of contraband in the Medina affects its image? 
Yes 
No 
I do not know 

15. If yes, how? 

16. What are the ways you think possible to ban it?
Help smugglers to get new jobs 
Punish them 
I do not know