As I first visited Oujda I was keen on discovering the famed music life of the city. Supposedly, every corner should have its own musicians, but as I was walking through the streets on this cold winter evening, there was no music to hear anywhere. I tried every street that radiated out from the main centre of such activities: Bab el-Wahab.



It wasn't until the next evening that I heard the first sounds of instruments coming out from a clearing between the houses. The show performed there was of the very simple type with nothing fancy except a cane used in the dance. A compère with a loudspeaker on full kept the show running until the dancers entered a stage of near-trance.



The music heard here is far, far away from most European music, despite the fact that this is in the very north of Morocco.