Paper 4, Work in progress, Contraband Modern in the Fes Medina Project

The black market of music CD's in the Old Medina of Fez -

By Naoual Chihi

Introduction

My research paper deals with contraband of music CDs in Fez Medina. This paper was by no means done from personal opinions instead depending substantially on responses to questionnaires distributed among forty consumers as well as on interviews made with seven sellers.

The interaction with the sellers was not at all smooth. My dealings with them were shot though with numerous disappointments for they are engaged in illegal transactions that require constant vigilance. They frequently threw me behind bars of suspicion and misgiving, doubting my possible involvement with the authorities, especially at moments when I resorted to my tape recorder and camera for documentation.

In spite of these difficulties I have enjoyed this work in the face of all hazardous perils. It offered the happy instance of encountering different kinds of people and mindsets.

I have divided my work into two parts: The first one is entitled Music in Fez and its present situation. Here I introduce my topic that gives space to a discussion of the contraband of Music in the old Medina of Fez. A discussion of Music in Morocco in general and Fez in particular and its specialty (Andalousian Music) is also presented. Additionally, I try to comment upon how contraband is influenced by the modern through interventions of both mass media and globalisation as well as the effect of this music under the title: contraband and piracy. In this part I also endeavour to forge a definition of contraband and piracy.

The second part of my research paper includes an analysis of the interviews I have made with the sellers. I have also tried to make several crisscrossing comparisons between piracy-bound sellers in shops and the simple salesmen as well as between legal and illegal CD’s and the prices they bear. It was vitally relevant to linger on the difficulties that pervade this trade as well as those the interviewed sellers encounter in the tough process of sustaining a living together with many other issues.

In this part an analysis responses of forty consumers to the questionnaire I have prepared shall be incorporated. Here my aim was to examine the views of different categories of peoples, questioning the amount of awareness they entertain with reference to the existence of the two phenomena, namely, contraband and piracy that are sweeping across the market. 
I have also tried to ascertain whether the individuals I questioned are responsively aware of the potential threats of the two phenomena, if there really were any, and whether they can relate them to the causes underlying smuggling.

In addition to all this I have sought, in ways large and small, to bring the authorities into active play to find solutions, if any are to be found, to the problems of contraband and piracy.

Part One: Music between Art and Trade in the Old Medina of Fez and its Present Situation

1) Music In Morocco

Before invoking the issue of Music CDs contrabanding in the Old Medina of Fez, we might rather fashion a discussion about music in Morocco in general and in Fez in particular.

Morocco is culturally rich and diverse, and so is its music. We can site the Gharnati music, the Malhoun and Andalousian Music which is well known in the region of Fez. Anadalousian music for instance is one of the aspects of Fassi culture; it is also called Ala music, and it is an art that reflects a taste, high level, refined and distinguished, spread within the high ranked classes of Fassi culture in the days of yore. Andalousian music is a sign of genteel taste even now in spite of the diversity of musical styles known in our era. Older generations gave it a name to dissociate it from the Samaa, which is based on the voices of the Moussamiin who chant in a chorus without the use of musical instruments. It was relevantly named Ala music.

It must be pointed out that the name “Andalousi music” was unknown among Moroccans until the protectorate period. For researchers in music, the name Andalousian is suggested because of some immediate connectedness between this music and Al-Anadalus.

The “Ala music” is a music marked by the gift of containment. Here we may understand that it originated from the East in the company of a variety of cultural and civilisation-related elements. It found a welcoming space here just as it did in Andalousia. In the face of the distortions exerted by this relatively long trip it tried to protect the names of its special tunes and instruments which are principally a mix of Persian and Arabic music. This is the reason why it was judged to be a great form of musical expression in Morocco. It is equally related to the social life of Morocco since it is vigorously and dynamically in attendance during all religious and national festivals as well as during its celebrations, private and public.

Nowadays, Ala Music or the Andalousi Music tries to defend itself against the new trends of music which are seen as presenting a parasitic danger not only to the authenticity of Andalusian music but also to Moroccan national identity. These new trends intimidate, in more ways than one, Moroccan patrimony and authenticity. Recently, many European musical instruments have been used in Andalousian music, including the piano which was firstly used by El Haj Abdelkarim Bennouna, who belongs to the Tetouani families. There is also the inventive and all the more intrusive use of the violin (Al Kaman), initially used by Aralli Aljamal Alfassi, who was skilfully versed in this instrument.

Recently, and through pirated CD’s, western music has flooded the music market on a huge scale and new kinds of music and new rhythms have been incessantly introduced. These influences are considered by many as doing harm to the authenticity of Moroccan music and its original specificity. The availability of such music and its popularity among the youth has led conventional Andalussi artists to incorporate foreign airs in their music. For example, in Bajeddoub and Swiri Flamenco music is conspicuously present.

2) Contraband and Piracy

What stirs my enthusiasm to invoke the mechanisms of both Contraband and Piracy are primarily the enthralling responses to the questionnaires and interviews I have thoroughly carried out. Being involved in intimately relevant questions about contraband, sellers and consumers could by no means avoid talking also about piracy and its implications.

a) Contraband

Contraband is “a term of an Italian origin denoting prohibited goods.”[1] In other words, it is the act of smuggling goods from one place to another without respecting laws or paying tariffs.

First of all, I deem it significantly practical to look up the definition of contraband in Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, which describes it as being an “Illegal or prohibited traffic; Goods or merchandise the importation or exportation of which is forbidden, also smuggled.” Basically, there are many types of contraband. For example, the market would illicitly display the contraband of weapons, the contraband of medicines, the contraband of alimentary products and the contraband of CDs of movies and music.

Mass media keeps haunting us with the advancement of contraband, persistently referring to its negative impact on the local economy. As a case in point, it is described by many Moroccan newspapers as a cancer that is impossible to cure. However contraband is also seen for the underprivileged classes as a democratic entrance to globalization. Contraband goods have rapidly spread in Morocco and have even become a part and parcel of the local economy. Authorities crack down on contraband; the repressive endeavours are by no means fruitful and per se the authorities are in a way being led to coexist with it. Contraband represents a genuine danger for the Moroccan economy because it marginalises, paralyses and destroys it.

I came to realize from some sources that the whole machinery of contraband is based on uncompromising profitability. Indeed, personal interests are highly regarded in the multiplicity of transactional dealings and interplays within contraband society. In the course of purchasing smuggled products the local actants within contraband prioritise their personal concerns and care little about the Moroccan economy thus engaging in a festivity of parsimonious gestures characterised by self-centredness and greed. This leads, by default, to an exceptional surfacing of piracy, a vibrant marker of modern Moroccanness. Piracy is mechanically related to contraband since both of them are declared illegal trades in that they, as the authorities maintain, destroy our economy. So what is piracy?

b) Piracy

If one is going to hunt for the definition of piracy in the dictionary, one might learn that ‘piracy is the practice of robbing ships at the sea’ as well as an ‘illegal copying or broadcasting’.

According to this definition, we might forcefully be inclined to understand that piracy is a factual predicament in Morocco given all its setbacks. It tarnishes the image of the nation abroad. It destroys the sense of creativity in terms of production. For example, one would certainly come across some CDs of local music and movies, the circulation of which are normally unauthorised to be put in display since they are still too new to be circulated in the market in these forms. However, the kings of piracy have the aptitude to injecting the market with these products high in quality and priced cheaply. This is one of the end results of both globalisation and the development of technology. This is the ugly flip side of modernity.

We find these CDs in various places in Casablanca, in Oujda and in the Old Medina of Fez. It is believed that bands of pirates unlawfully fabricate and distribute audio-cassettes, CDs, VCDs and VHS cassettes and have the capacity to produce about 400,000 audio-cassettes and 600,000 CDs weekly through many companies and partners[2]. The loss that is caused because of the piracy of CDs and audio-cassettes is more than 200 million Dirham.

As regards Moroccan Music, we shall arrive at the shores of certain ominous inevitabilities: piracy ruins any enterprise to promote Moroccan Music and songs. In other words, no single Moroccan singer can reap fair returns from his or her musical contributions. No sooner do their CDs come into being in their chic envelopes than they readily find the equally unceremonious envelopes of piracy in wait for them. This would generously explain why many of them linger eternally in poverty.

Data analysis in the next part discusses the questionnaires and the interviews I have worked on to study ‘Music in The Old Medina of Fez’.

Part two: The Analyses Of interviews and questionnaires done in the Old medina of Fez Bab Boujloud

1) The Seller Between Contraband And Piracy

I have tried to interview as many sellers as possible in the Old Medina, especially in the close proximities to Bab Boujloud to unravel their attitudes towards and conceptions about contraband and piracy. This task was fraught with difficulties because once you engage sellers in discussions of this sort, parallel discussions of the law, the police, money, and other potential sellers come in the way. However, a handful of sellers accepted with munificent readiness to answer my questions.

The reason behind highlighting the sellers as active agents in this research paper is partly pertaining to their ability to offer clarifications about the more incomprehensible aspects of this trade that neither consumers nor authorities can provide. The persons I have interviewed urged this paper to tackle the politics of contrabanding which come under illegal headings. They rarely shy away from airing controversial views about piracy and contraband although knowing that they are both premised on illegal grounds. First of all it is convenient to decipher the confusion between in-shop sellers and street traders.

Before loosening the threads of the discussion about the sellers in this part, I would like to familiarize you with the seven sellers I have interviewed in the following table:

Introducing the seven Sellers of the Old medina:

No. Gender Origin Educational level Familial situation 01 female Fez Baccalaureat single 02 male Fez University married 03 male Oujda Primary school married 04 male Tawnat Bacccalaureat single 05 male Fez High school single 06 male Tawnat Primary school married 07 male Agadir University single

Contraband, piracy between legal and illegal shops

During my various trips to the Old Medina, I made an important discovery. There are in point of fact two kinds of sellers: in-shop sellers and street vendors. In other words, the black market gives a space for both sellers who possess shops where they sell their CDs and cassettes, and sellers who energetically perform in the open. They allocate for themselves ‘comfortable’ places in the streets as well as in the corners of the Old Medina. This is why they merit the title of “street sellers” par excellence.

When I was carefully examining the CDs of each shop (legal and illegal), given that my attention in this research paper is paid to CDs of Music in the Old Medina, I discovered that not all the CDs and cassettes put up for sale in the legal shops are original nor are they ‘legal’ as some people prefer to call them, and vice versa. If this was to be an illuminating insight it threw the shops-with-locals-sell-legal-products belief in disarray. (see the picture below).

Image 3: A well organised Illegal street shop in Talaa Sghira

I was also careful to ask the sellers about their activities and careers prior to selling CDs and cassettes. I wanted to interrogate the whys behind this job especially those that are related to choosing this kind of trade. I have discovered that almost most of them were involved in dissimilar jobs (factory workers, for instance) before directing attention to contraband to make ends meet or to earn their bread, as the Moroccan expression goes.

The sellers and the merchandise

We shall now go into more details concerning the variety of products in exhibition, the agents who sustain the provision of raw material, the nature of these products (legal or illegal), the consumers and other issues.
To begin with, while visiting music shops (legal and illegal shops) in the old medina. I have found that all the shops have two kinds of products: CDs and cassettes. But there are some who buy other materials that are related to music like Walkmans and Radio-Cassettes. What interested me most is the presence of some sellers who are drawn into the business of mobile phones. Customers visit and revisit them to buy cards or to reload their mobiles. I look upon this commerce as an intelligent trade, smartly run by traders, because it works well not only in Fez but in Morocco at large. Thus far from simply depending on a one-way income from CDs or cassettes, the trader fetches other resources to sustain a more tenable source of revenue.

The second aspect I wanted to investigate was the source of these products. One of the sellers I interviewed told me that CDs and cassettes were currently bought from companies that exist in Fez, while in the past they were brought from Meknès or from the south by means of contraband.

Image 4: A street vendor at the “Errcif”

A seller from Oujda staked a claim as to the diversity of his sources, emphasising that his material comes not exclusively from Fez but also from Casablanca and other cities. According to him, the leaders of piracy and contraband are not individuals but massive companies that distribute products throughout Morocco.

The pricing of CDs and cassettes are to some extent standardized. For cassettes, it varies between 10DH and 13DH, and for CDs it reaches 15DH. The following table clarifies this idea:

Prices of CDs: legal and illegal according to the inquiry done in the old medina in 2006 in DH:

CD legal CDs illegal The amount of difference% 15 DH 3DH 80%

At this point, we should remark that prices of legal and illegal CDs are hugely dissimilar. Given their low prices, illegal CDs are much sought after by people. The same argument can be applied to audio cassettes. The question of prices brings me to a further question: Who fixes the prices of the products? The sellers did not give the same answer for this question. The answers that came were as diverse as the sellers themselves. One of the sellers, for instance, affirms that “it is the seller who fixes the prices of his products”. Another seller claims “it is the companies who distribute the products that fix the price.” Another seller attributes the intermittence in prices to the market seasons. Another seller explains that “It is since two years that there is no exact season of demand because of reasons related to the intrusion of piracy and the internet.” According to him, it is a period of crisis that will effect the destruction of the music industry jointly with the traders who are decently trading in original products.

People prefer to buy illegal products: “People prefer to buying illegal products, he complains, because a pirated CD not only costs just 3DH but it also contains the equivalent of 20 songs of music while an original CD can be bought at 15 or 20DH while containing merely 8 hits.” Accordingly, people are in the look out for the product that is both cheap and quantitative. In addition, one CD may contain a variety of musical tracks: Chaabi, Charki, Hindi and the like.

Image 5: An Illegal street vendor in Fez Medina

Another seller elucidates that pirated CDs are so much popular among tourists too. They are interested in Aissawa Music, Ala music and all that is traditionally tuned. People buy a lot of CDs and cassettes during the summer and the holidays since Morocco in this period is charged with marriages and familial celebrations.

As I was trying to find possible connections between the consumption of particular genres of musical CDs and cassettes and some social categories, I came to the conclusion that connections are almost unfeasible, given that an assortment of people consume an assortment of musical products. According to the interviewed sellers, we cannot recklessly pin a category of young people under the category of Charki music. Youth nowadays listen to music in all its variety. But we can venture a claim as to the big difference in percentage in listening to music between the category of youngsters (girls and boys) and that of adults and old people. The latter category is less given to the wholehearted consumption of music.

A seller told me that sellers offer the happy luxury for the consumer to examine their products at home and return it if they malfunction. In general, what satisfies the consumer is not so much the quality of the product but the price, their slogan being “the cheaper the better.”

The Sellers and their Financial Problems

I have tried to come to grips with the obstacles the sellers encounter during their buying and selling. One seller asserted that their trade lacks organisation. In other words, the companies that deal out the CDs and cassettes distribute to both small and big shops (Marjan Market being a stark example of a big market). The big market also engages the tiny piracy units into tough competition as it provides the same product at prices as low as that of the street vendor. This act may oblige small sellers to withdraw from the market as they get devoured by the substantially gigantic dealers. This exploitative competition is very easily pushed underneath the carpet.

In relation to taxes, the sellers disclosed that the amount of taxes they pay is decided by the authorities according to the sales. These taxes are compulsory irrespective of whether business was thriving or not. Besides, the authorities come to the shop and examine the pricing given to each product. On the basis of this operation they come to fix their taxes. One of the sellers protested about the oppressive harassment that the authorities frequently exercise upon them. This indicates that the authorities, far from facilitating the trader’s job, keenly bring about their ultimate destruction as they mercilessly place them under prohibitive rates of taxes. When the traders complain, they are asked by the authorities to “pay the tax first and then complain.”

I was enthusiastic to ask street sellers if they also pay taxes. They do not. One of the traders said: “It is impossible for me to pay taxes since I have no shop. I am literally displaced. Today finds me here and I know not where I am going to be tomorrow. Tax in my case hence is a real oppression.” When the authorities frequent similar sellers, they are not interested in talking about whether they have shops. What they most want to know is whether the merchandise is pirated or not.

On the whole one can deduce that the sellers, be they legal or illegal, undergo tough conditions. They are in a ceaseless marathon to simply feed their families. No luxury is sought.

2) Consumers between contraband and piracy

At this juncture, we would have a glimpse into the viewpoints consumers perpetuate with regard to contraband and piracy, to see whether these activities strike any alarming chords within them, if they were at all alarmed. Once again, I am going to introduce the consumers I have questioned in the following chart before I move on into the discussion:

Gender No. Male 20   Female 20   Total 40 Origin No. Fez 20 Outside 20 Total 40 Age       16-20 7     22-30 20     31-40 10     40+ 3     Total 40 Educational level No. Primary school 2 High School 2 Bac 6 University 30 Total 40 Marital status No. Single 27 Married 13 Total 40

I have tried to collect the viewpoints and judgments of as many consumers as I could during my visits to Old Medina. In the course of this inquiry many questions cropped up touching upon different concerns such as whether people have sensed any change in the Old Medina in the midst of the coming of contraband and pirated music. The answers I received varied. Primarily, some consumers claimed that since the arrival of contraband products there has been a change in the visual format and arrangement of the Old Medina.

According to the consumers, contraband has allowed them to have access to a variety of goods and products particularly as regards clothes and cosmetics. If there were no contraband, the people would be denied such a happy access.

Other consumers demonized contraband, arguing that it has been working in wicked manners to damage the traditional shape of the Old Medina as a historical and a cultural space.

Image 6: Craftsmanship shop in the Old Medina Bab Boujloud

Craftsmanship and contraband business survives side by side in a disharmonious coexistence, a sore sight which affects the space and visual harmony of the Old Medina.

Image 7: Music and Movie CD and DVDS inthe old Medina

As I was distributing my questionnaire to diverse categories of people I wanted to interview, I noticed that many of them do not think much about the causes of piracy and contraband. Such questions throw them into awkward confusion. Therefore, the second point I shall undertake, as I have pointed out in my introduction, is associated with the causes of contraband and piracy as the consumers come to imagine them.

The causes of Piracy and contraband according to the consumers and sellers

At this stage I will try to flesh out the foundations of contraband and piracy as the consumers envisage them in their answers to my questionnaires. The majority of people I interviewed consume illegal CDs. For them, everything is secondary to the price: “I buy what is conveniently cheap. It doesn’t matter for me whether it is legal or not or whether it belongs to contraband products”. The consumers and products are divided as follows (see the table below):

Consumers and kinds of products consumed

Illegal/Legal products Number of consumers % Illegal products CDS and cassettes 34 85 Legal products CDs and Cassettes 6 15 Total 40 100

While consumers located the cause of contraband in cheap prices the sellers had a different story to tell. According to the answers to the questionnaire, informants maintain that contraband will never cease to exist as long as the problem of unemployment persists. Among the jobless I found appallingly shocking cases (holders of university degrees). Instead of passively resting at home, they energetically search for a way out to support their families. As one of the sellers put it: “It is bitterly sorrowful to invest all your life studying to eventually find yourself betrothed to a business that markedly operates against the law. Life is no means trouble-free and the diploma I have got was not useful. It was all a waste of time and money, an obliteration of life. Contraband is the sole solution to helping my parents.”

Conclusion

Both sellers and consumers are aware that they participate in illegal transactions and tacitly criminal gestures, yet it is a trade which provides unemployment with breathing spaces, the miserable with happy moments, the hungry with frequent sensations of fullness, the desperate with sentiments of accomplishment. Similarly, it democratically provides a huge number of people admittance into products which legal trade would certainly disallow.
On the other hand, contraband and pirated music CDs are seen as impairing Fez, cultural city as it is, unconstructively affecting the traditional Fassi music and sense of locality.

Endnotes
[1] John M. Gover, “Comparative views of contraband,” Newser, 2: 1 (1900), p118-130.
[2] See www.menara.com, 9 ma/piratage au maroc 12/05/2000.

Bibliography

Primary Sources
The interviews with the sellers of CDs of music in the Old Medina: Bab Boujloud in Fez.

The questionnaires distributed in Fez to consumers and contrabandists

Secondary Sources
Elabiad, Hamid. “280 Companies of Production and Distribution Closed Their Doors because of Piracy,” Newspaper Assabah, N°. 1970, 8 July 2006.
Elkasri, Mustapha and Squalli, Hassan, 'La Grande Encyclopedie du Maroc, Culture, Arts et Traditions', V. 2. 1987.
Gover, John M., “Comparative Views of Contraband”, Newser, vol. 2, N°. 1, 1900.
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth ed., G. and C. Merriam CO., 1936.
Rachid, Tarik,“Pirates; Fini le Temp du Laxisme.” Newspaper Le Matin du Sahara et Du Magreb, N°.12863, 10 April 2006.

Electronic Sources 
Encarta Encyclopedia.
http://yp38.unesco.org/index.php?id=11.98.
www .menara9ma/piratage au Maroc2OOO/O5/12.