The Moroccans use in the dish with the help of the bread called "fork of Adam"


Oral tradition remains dominant in Morocco. It is not easy to be a writer in a country where almost half of the inhabitants are illiterate. Among the most important Moroccan writers is Mohamed Choukri (1935-2003), author of the book Le pain nu, which describes in his work a life conducted in extreme conditions, without respect for the human being this shocking story is his: he talks about his childhood, lived during the Second World War.

His family fled the mountains of the Rif to escape the famine that tormented him to the point that little Mohamed had only his own fist to suck. In this book, Choukri also contradicts the myth of the protective Muslim father, a stable, good-natured man who watches over the well-being of his family. Here he presents his own father: a savage and brutal monster who, under the eyes of his wife and children, drunk or under the influence of the kif, breaks against a wall the head of his youngest son.

The bare bread is also the story of a little boy who survived without being infected by evil and knew not only to give meaning to his life but also to describe it. He managed to silence him by his meeting with the great protector of Moroccan talents, the American writer Paul Bowles (1910-1999), who lived in Tangier from 1947 until his death. It was he who encouraged Choukn, then aged 20, to learn to read and write.

Among the most interesting women writers is Fatim Mernissi, whose book The Woman's Dreams: A Childhood a Harem is at some point her autobiography (she writes only childhood). On the one hand it is the story of a woman who learns wisdom with the women of her family, listening to their narratives and songs, but on the other side is a narrative about the great inner women Berber.