Morocco: A land of diversity
By: David Balgley, U.S. Fulbright student researcher alumnus
After my Fulbright experience in Morocco, I got my M.A. in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, and I will be starting a PhD in Development Sociology at Cornell in the fall to continue my research on land and water governance in the Gharb region of Morocco. While I had been hoping to travel to Morocco over the summer to visit friends and brush up on my Darija skills, one of the many ways in which I count myself fortunate during these strange and turbulent times is that the proliferation of WhatsApp and social media has allowed me to keep in touch with friends abroad.
People in the US often ask me what Morocco is like, and I struggle to provide an answer that captures even a portion of the complexity of the country and the warmth and generosity of Moroccans. I think back to a conversation I had with a government official while doing my Fulbright research about stakeholder perspectives on titling and privatizing collective land. He told me, “Morocco is a land of diversity, and we have multiple diversities.” He chuckled, continuing, “We have diversity of the environment: forests, desert, beaches, mountains, and plains. We have diversity of peoples and languages: Arabic, Hassaniyya, the Amazigh languages, Darija, French, and Spanish. And in this same vein, we have diversity of land tenure: private property, state land, Islamic endowments, and collective land.”
