NATURAL SCENERYNATURAL SCENERYART & CRAFT, CULTURAL CENTREherbal remedies and natural dyes for carpets.
Aït Bougomez is stunning but remote, and people here have to work hard to put food on the
table and send their children to school. To ensure the happiness of future generations, locals
have undertaken ambitious initiatives to end illiteracy, food insecurity and poverty – including
girls’ schools, organic farming cooperatives, woodworkers’ collectives and ecotourism ventures
– and they would be very happy indeed if you stopped by and showed your support – try the
Happy Valley Goodwill Tour.
AÏT BOUOULI VALLEY
From Azilal you’ll arrive at Aït Mohammed, where the road leads southwest, through hills
marking geologic time in red-, purple- and white-striped mineral deposits. Before you reach
Agouti, adventurers equipped with 4WD and steely nerves can detour south through a steep
red-clay gorge to the Aït Bououli Valley, which until a couple of years ago was inaccessible
even by mule for months at a time.
Sights
Sebt Aït Bououli
In the remote outpost of Sebt Aït Bououli, 14km off the main road, trekkers stock up on food
for their M’Goun traverse at the Saturday souq .
Some 2.5km beyond Sebt Aït Bououli you’ll have to squint to make out a picturesque trio of
villages built right into a two-toned purple and ochre bluff. Like chameleons, these villages blend
into the geologic formations immediately behind them. On green terraces are gambolling lambs
that are the valley’s claim to fame: Bououli means ‘Those who keep sheep’.
Petroglyphs
About 7km west of this triplet village, you’ll see Jebel Ghat (3797m) and the pass called Tizi
n’Tirghist . Around this area are petroglyphs some geologists estimate are 4000 years old;
ask a local guide to point out the enigmatic symbols, which local lore links to ancient rain-
making ceremonies.
Cooperative Feminin de Tissage Aït Bououli
( 0671 41 91 06; 8am-noon) Immediately below Aït Bououli’s trio of mimetic
villages is a stone-walled community association with a sign pointing visitors toward the Aït
Bououli women’s carpet-weaving cooperative. This 30-member cooperative take every aspect
of carpet-making into their own hands, tending and shearing sheep, carding and spinning fluffy
lambswool into yarn; and collecting plants to dye yarn fascinating tertiary hues. The members
also take turns minding the shop, so you’ll be buying carpets from the woman who made it, her
sister or her neighbour – no middlemen involved.
If you find the door to the co-op closed, just call Fatima, the dynamic director of the
cooperative, and she’ll come down from the village to open the co-op’s small storeroom,
packed with surprisingly soft, modern-art carpets. As Fatima explains, pinkish purple is from
madder root, henna yields golden yellow, chocolate brown comes from pomegranate and acid
green is from dyers’ rocket. Designs range from simple stripes and checkerboard patterns to
enigmatic geometry and Berber talismans, all at great fixed prices. If you buy multiple carpets,