The story of El Karya

Kan 7ta kan (once upon a time), there were many Moroccans who lived all over the world. They had left their home and families to look for new opportunities. After few years, they found themselves adopting a new identity far from who they really were. They became old, selfish and stressed. They started to speak other languages, eat different kinds of food, dress differently and the worse part is: they started to resent their country, Morocco.

Then one of these Moroccans, asked questions about why he and his people were like that. Why were they slowly drifting away from who they really are? “Why?” he asked many times until he thought to him self “we must go back to find the answer”, “We must go back to our roots.”

This Moroccan left the modern city and went on a quest. After many months of traveling around the world and talking to many Moroccans, he came across an old 9arya in the deep mountains of Morocco. It was the perfect place! Everything was traditional about this 9arya. The people talked in Darija (Moroccan), celebrated Eid (Religious Holidays), ate tajines and meshwi (Moroccan Food), and the unique thing he noticed was that they had slogans like “Dima Dima Maghribiya” (Moroccan Forever) and “Maghribi 7ta Nmout” (Moroccan ‘til I die).

The people were very proud of whom they were and that gave that Moroccan an idea. He was thinking to himself “What if we all lived in this 9arya?” “What if I were to build bridges that will connect Moroccans from all over the world to this place?” “They would cross over anytime and live in it!” The idea was to help them remember their traditions. The Moroccan on a quest then bought the place from the locals. He called it El Karya and called him self El Mkadem.

Shortly after El Karya was built, he started telling people whom he referred to as “Fella7a” (Villagers). Week after week, El Fellaha started to move to El Karya. From 10 to 100 to 500… the numbers grew and El Karya became the destination for all Moroccans who wanted to re-connect with their roots. They met, talked, organized parties, even fought with each other… just like back home. “Ah 3la dak liyam” (Those were the days).

Months and years went by, El Karya grew but never lost its purpose. El Mkadem could’ve made it modern with his Fella7a but they decided that it was fine just the way it was. The old Fella7a grew older and new ones moved in. Generations after generations, they all still had a passion for El Karya. Bedtime stories were told about how it all started and they all lived happily ever after.

The End