Africa Travel Association Magazine and Air HighwaysArchives home . Berbers have inhabited North Africa for centuries, some being of Caucasian ancestry, with fair complexions and blue eyes. Visitors may think of Berbers as exotic outsiders, yet they preceded the Arabs in settling Morocco, and they remain the country's main culture. Others on this web site are courtesy of my brother Maurice Goufrani of Georges Pompidou Center in Paris. While the Wedding Fair is key part of Berber marital custom, families usually arrange marriages in their home village.
Women are free to divorce and remarry.
At the moussem, divorced and widowed women form the majority, and are identified by their pointed headdress. The courtship is a family affair as I learned after accepting an invitation to drink mint tea in the goat hair tent of a Berber elder. His oldest daughter Malika, prettied up her divorced 18 year old sister Yasmina with traditional beauty aids - rubbing saffron colored powder into her sister's eyebrows, applying kohl to outline her eyes and carmine rouged to her cheeks. I gave Yasmina a silver chain as a wedding gift, since silver brings good luck. Many Westerners think that Moroccans purchase their wives at the fair, but in truth, marriage depends on mutual consent and family approval.