Rabat workshop

A one-day workshop was held in Rabat, Morocco in May as three of the Moroccan particpants had been unable to attend the March conference in Paris - Lahcen Qasserras, Youssef Arrouss and Moulay Idriss El Maarouf. They were joined by Professor Andrew Hussey and fellow Moroccan participants Abdelkader Hamouchi and Touria Nakkouch.

Lahcen wrote the following:

'... the local workshop we had today with Andrew Hussey was a great success. The main theme of the workshop was 'Tales from the city. Place, Self, Text'. There was theory and practice as well... We watched an American film portraying American travelers to the Moroccan city Tangier, where they got lost as a result of their ignorance of the culture of the new land they had come to. There was a lot of Arabism in the film and Mr Andrew seized the opportunity to have us discuss the purpose behind using those Arabic words in the film. By the end of the workshop, we were assigned to write a piece of writing, either an introduction of a novel or film to write about a place we know to introduce it to a stranger who does not know that place. All the participants produced good pieces full of creativity and good quality of English. Further, the interaction between the Moroccan participants and Mr Andrew was very rich. Indeed, this workshop has given me a fresh start again. Further, Mr Adam [Ladbury - Director British Council Morocco] displayed a great deal of hospitality. I have just got back from Adam's villa, where all the Moroccan participants as well as many other members of British Council were invited to have dinner... [where] we met very intellectual individuals. As a case in point, I had the pleasure to met Leila Abouzeid, who is well-known writer in Morocco. We also had the opportunity to talk with other university teachers here in Morocco and some Western people interested in literature. The meeting was very fruitful, indeed. I could not expect more.'