The Last Storytellers: Tales from the Heart of Morocco

This collection features five storytellers found in the Jemaa el Fna of Marrakech. The site is the square of the city, historically a crossroads market place and entertainment venue for street performance of which storytellers are one attraction.The Foreword and Introduction provide a history of the site and its changing character, especially over the last 70 to 80 years. It provides a brief but entertaining history of storytelling before introducing the storytellers providing the stories.How the stories got into this text form was a process which has been used with varying success for collecting tales and music from folk and oral performers in many areas. A recording was made as the teller spoke with an interpreter making a simultaneous translation. A transcript was them made of the translated portion and the “edited.” This seems to make the reader three generations away from the teller. The reader has to trust that the person in each phase is both trustworthy and competent to do justice to the tales.On the positive side, the process seems to have worked as intended here and this method eliminated the need for a glossary and extensive footnotes.The stories were collected between 2006 and 2009. Five tellers are presented in the collection with the stories spread to emphasize the story rather than as blocks by a teller. Two of the tellers died prior to the bool publication.The stories are set in the “long years ago” of stories with exact times and place unneeded to understand meaning or morals of them. The reader can easily wish for the tales to be longer, but then one realizes that the story is as long as it needs to be to present its message. It should be obvious I enjoyed the book in its method and stories told. While saddened that some of the tellers have passed, the impact of the lost od storytellers is one of the main messages of the book. The size of the book is comfortable, the type style is eye friendly. It has all the characteristics of a book to be enjoyed again – but a warning – if you loan it out, you won’t get it back! Did I have a favorite story? Well, yes, 39 of them!

"The Last Storytellers" is a collection of 37 oral tales from five storytellers in the main marketplace in Marrakesh. They were collected by BBC Correspondent Richard Hamilton between 2006 and 2009 and cleaned up and are now presented in written form for your amusement.The stories cover a lot of ground, from literary tales to fantasies, and some of them are a lot like Western tales (like a Cinderella story) while others feel much more like the Middle East. Many of the stories are quite short, just a few pages, though there are some longer tales as well. A number of the stories are quite grisly, so they would not make appropriate reading to children, though most would. If you're going to read these tales to children it would behoove you to read ahead to pick appropriate stories.Hamilton said in an interview that his translator had sketchy English skills and that he had to clean up the stories a good bit, and I have to say that the tales as they are presented are quite smooth and well-told. That said, I am also reading "The Arabian Nights" right now, and I find the Nights to be better stories. They evoke more of a sense of wonder and have a sense of timing which Hamilton's tales do not do as well at. I also thought that Hamilton's tales give in to a malicious sense of justice a little too often (like an evil stepmom who is served the chopped-up body of her daughter for a snack) for my tastes.Overall, however, Hamilton's stories are an enjoyable read and serve as an excellent introduction to the current oral storytelling in Marrakech. I often found myself chuckling as I read these stories, and I finished the collection with the feeling of having learned something about the state of modern Arab storytelling, which was valuable in itself. For the most part these are stories in the classical tradition, Once Upon A Time-type tales, and they hold up well to the modern reader. They are a good companion to "The Arabian Nights" and an enjoyable read. Get them, and enjoy!

I purchased this book in preparation for a trip to Morocco...which, thanks to COVID-19, didn't happen. Roberson did a great job of re-telling these stories. While chopping off heads, or skinning a young dead maiden's skin to repair a drum seems barbarous, it was repeated enough times (chopping of heads, any way) to get a sense of its acceptance as appropriate punishment. The tales were short, entertaining, a few even thought-provoking...it would be interesting to hear it being told firsthand in Darija. I thank Rogerson for preserving these tales as a couple of the story tellers have since passed on.

I lived in Morocco for a year, so spent a lot of time with my nose in books about the country. This is my favorite one for it's readability and accessibility to Moroccan culture, especially if you are going to Marrakech - and if you want to have even more understanding on this lost art form, I recommend a perfect complement to this book called "Al Halqa: In the Storytellers Circle" (Vimeo: On Demand, $1.99).

It’s a fine collection of old stories. As I’ve read it, I’ve been enchanted by them, because they’re not mimics or made to sound old, they really are old stories talking about the lives of others in that time. I will say there is suggestive content in this book and, lite homosexual content in the intro, but some of these stories are really good. You could say there are really good and really bad stories in here. I say there are ten good stories in here, but you decide. If you screen this book, it will be a great, fun, and, amusing encounter.Note the history of storytelling in the introductory is very insightful.

With the advent of technology, glad these oral stories, which have been told for millennia, are recorded for their historical and entertaining value.

The 'most Moroccan book' in English language you can find today. Hamilton has compiled what might truly be last of the ancient oral tradition in Morocco. The stories in this book have been around for centuries and have been passed from generation to generation. The myth, the magic, the atmosphere transport the reader to the very heart of Marrakesh. You can smell it, you can hear it.I have read quite a bit about Morocco, I have visited the country and I am familiar with the culture and the tradition, however no title out there can compete in accuracy, quality and magic with The Last Storytellers. Without a doubt this is the essential read about Marrakesh. Enjoy it.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. It was like being back in Morocco again and experiencing the strange way of life that makes this country such a fascinating and wonderful place to visit. I decided to plan another trip back to the land of the Atlas mountains and partake of that sweet contrast between the cities, the palmeries and the desert that I've never found in any of my travels.The author has expressed a great love for this country in his introduction if only in the determination he felt necessary to put this priceless set of stories together in order to preserve them for future generations of Moroccans as well as anyone interested in learning the rich cultural heritage offered to the world by the shoulder of Africa.

`The Last Storytellers' is a book that puts into print stories from the Moroccan tradition of oral storytelling which goes back almost a thousand years and is now in danger of becoming extinct. Assisted by his guide, Ahmed Tija, Richard Hamilton, the BBC's Moroccan correspondent, sought out in Marrakech five authentic storytellers. Typically they are men who followed what they saw as their fate despite the disapproval of orthodox Islam and opposition from their families, who regarded storytelling as little better than begging.The last storytellers may be aged, poor and frail, but their stories are rich in detail and full of vitality. In his excellent introduction Richard Hamilton tells of some of their accomplishments. One learned most of the Old Testament and all of `One Thousand and One Nights'. Another studies classical Arabic texts at night and recites them next day in Darija, the dialect his listeners can understand. The youngest, who was born into an extremely poor family and had to leave school so that he could help his father at work, is exceptionally well read and can introduce material from Cervantes or Jorge Luis Borges into his tales. The oldest, going deaf and already blind, remembers when, during the time of the French Protectorate, storytellers, speaking in the Berber language, used stories to pass messages to one another in code.Since the men who tell them are no strangers to poverty and oppression, it is not surprising that these thirty-seven stories show sympathy with the underdog and a subversive glee when he succeeds where others have failed. Sons of black slaves inherit a kingdom and marry a Sultan's daughter; respected magistrates turn out to be crooks; barbers are promoted to the rank of Vizier; and a Sultan sacks all his sycophantic viziers because none will tell him the truth.This is a very entertaining collection and a book I intend to keep. To write this review I read the stories more quickly than I would have liked; but I hope to return and read them at a more leisurely pace. All good stories have depths which do not reveal themselves immediately, and these are no exception. Richard Hamilton has done us all a service in recording what he describes as `a priceless treasure, as precious as mankind's greatest artefact or the planet's most endangered species, and of immeasurable importance to humanity.'

A fascinating look into a world of live-action story telling. Richard, the author, has extensive experience in Morocco and tracked down the last members of a dying profession, storytellers who entertained their customers in the market squares of Marrakesh. These stories remind me greatly of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, but set in the Muslim culture of Morocco. Some of the tales are very similar to their European counterparts and have obviously travelled the trade routes of the Mediterranean for many centuries. I liked best the lead story, 'The Red Lantern,' an extended parable on what is truly valuable. Every merchant and buyer should read it! Other tales reminded me that every culture has convenient scapegoats who can be toted out for shame and abuse. In the Grimm brother's tales, a witch is always so evil that she can be killed without mercy. In Marrakesh, Christians and especially Jews were the butt of ridicule and stern justice by wise Imams and Sultans. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Well worth reading for anyone interested in Morocco and Muslim culture.