An Afternoon with a Berber Family
Nigerian photographer Chika Okoli documents a Berber family at their charming Berber-style home in Imi n’Tanout, Morocco.
Mohammed Elhansali runs the Berber Cultural Center — a 14 bedroom bungalow nested in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in Imi n’Tanout, Morocco — with the help of his small extended family.
While visiting Marrakech, I was fortunate enough to find this center which also doubles as his family home as part of a tour experience. For a small fee, he immerses travelers in what I’d imagine is a tiny fraction of the Berber way of life. A fraction that very well sufficed for me as a first time visitor in Morocco.
I was ushered into a huge courtyard with a sun roof, welcomed with a cup of mint tea as is custom in Morocco for house guests and was introduced to his family who seemed warm and accommodating. Mohammed would later explain to me that the courtyard was used mostly for communal gatherings and dining.
After the introduction, I was taken out back to the kitchen which was semi-detached from the main house — to learn to cook a traditional Berber cuisine, Beef Tagine with Semolina bread made from scratch and baked in an earthen oven.
Mohammed spoke passionately about the work he does at the Berber Cultural Center and is fully convinced that hosting this experience is an effective way of cultural preservation — I am inclined to think so too. He encouraged me to look around his home and document as much as I wanted to and so I did.
The architecture is a mix of both traditional and contemporary features. The interior of the main house has a warm undertone of reds and yellows.
Mohammed’s home is characterized by earthy tones and texture, muted colors and accents significant to the Berber culture positioned in specific places.
When lunch was ready, we all gathered in the courtyard and broke bread.
Chika Okoli is a content producer and founder of For Africans. Follow her journey here
