Dueling banjos
July 18, 2011
While we tend to think of society in a conservative place like Morocco as restricting some of the things that people want to do, it’s surprisingly more acceptable to do some things here that you probably wouldn’t do even if you wanted to back in America. You’d stop yourself either to maintain an image, or possibly to respect the desires of the people around you.
Here in Morocco, it’s okay to pick your nose. It’s fine form to launch snot rockets, too. I always find myself wishing the people who do either of these would at least use their left hand. I cringe at times wondering how many right hands I’ve shaken in greeting, unaware that they’ve been used for less than clean things. Anyway, it’s true that the people who do either of these things (at least in public) make up a small minority. But while you’d never see someone in America launching a snot rocket walking down the main street in town, and you’d probably only see someone picking their nose if they’re hiding in their car or something, you’ll see both of these things at least once a week (or plenty more) here.
Those are the things people avoid doing in America to preserve their own image. Something that a lot of Americans avoid doing, to respect others’ comfort, is playing music off of their cell phones or radios while riding on a bus or a train. Of course there are a few people from time to time who break the clear cultural norm and insist on playing their music anyway. But that’s rare.
Not so in Morocco. Many Moroccans, male, female, young, old, take it upon themselves to help pass the time on public transportation by blaring music off of their cell phones. I admit I enjoy it about two-thirds of the time. I really appreciate the feeling music can give to a trip, especially as we roll along in a landscape so different from anywhere I’ve ever been before. I especially love it when it’s Berber music and I’m in a taxi with outrageous decorations, curtains, stickers, fruit hanging from the windshield. Anyway, I usually like it as long as it’s not in my ear and it’s not “music” consisting of women wailing. And as long as no one else is vying to be DJ themselves…
I had a bad case of this sort of DJ showdown on a bus recently. It was horrible. I had an obnoxious girl to my left who traded off talking loudly on the phone and playing bad music throughout the whole trip. The real trouble began when the lady sitting in front of me decided she wanted to have her time as DJ. The resulting cacophony was miserable. I felt a little bad for the girl in front of me as she finally, blessedly, turned her music off in defeat.
Tonight I had another encounter with dueling DJs. This time I thought it would be kind of nice as one man in my taxi started up with a Tashlheit band, some song full of a great banjo line. That’s the kind I like. Unfortunately the man to my right then started playing his own banjo-driven song as loudly as his phone would let him. And here we are sitting in a taxi that only has a front seat, a back seat, and a tight cargo area in the back. I had music from two feet to my right clashing with music from four feet to my left.
The real kicker, though, and something that I had never experienced before, was when the driver started searching through his cassette tapes, found the one he wanted, and slipped it into the player… and then we had THREE banjos battling it out. Oh man. As much as I love Berber banjo songs, it was a bit more than I could handle.
Alhamdulillah, the driver wins out in Morocco as he does in America. The man to my right gave up the fight, and then the man to my left gave up shortly after. The driver had some good music picked out and he could play it a bit louder than the other fellows. I couldn’t help laughing to myself as I thought about the experience the rest of the way home.
