The Storyteller of Casablanca (48)
Josie’s Journal – Monday 30th June, 1941
Papa announced today that he is planning another lovely family excursion for us all. I saw Maman shoot him an anxious glance and she looked as if she was about to say something. He reached over and took her hand reassuringly, though, and said, ‘Don’t worry, ma chérie, this will be a very pleasant and relaxing trip, I promise you.’ I raised my eyebrows a little at that, thinking, more promises? He went on, ‘We’re going down the coast to stay in a nice hotel at the seaside. It’s getting so hot in the city now and the incessant blowing of the chergui is wearing us all out. Won’t it be wonderful to be on a beach where we can enjoy the sea breezes instead?’
Apparently the nice hotel is in a town called Mogador. It also has another strange name – Essaouira – which has all of the vowels and almost no consonants, but as Miss Ellis says, that’s the Arabic language for you.
We have been studying the Portuguese empire a bit in my history lessons. Portugal started trying to invade Morocco about 500 years ago and occupied various places, building forts to defend them. There’s not much left now except a few place names here and there, and some of the forts including La Sqala in the medina here in Casablanca with its cannons pointing out to sea to defend the old port. Miss Ellis took me to see it one afternoon. Those are the kind of lessons I enjoy the most. She teaches me about history and geography at the same time. She had given me a question sheet with various things I had to do, like sketching a map of the fort and the harbour, noting down the approximate size and number of ships the port could accommodate, and thinking about why the harbour is here in the first place. The Portuguese built forts in strategic places along the coast so they could defend their colony, but in the end the Berbers were too fierce and the Portuguese left again.
That’s a bit of a shame because now we want to get to Portugal ourselves since it’s a neutral country and there are boats from there to England and America. If Morocco was a Portuguese colony instead of a French protectorate it might be easier, but then I suppose if it wasn’t a French protectorate we might not have been able to get in in the first place but have been stuck in Algeria instead, which definitely wouldn’t have been a good thing.
Morocco’s history is quite complicated with all these invasions. I asked Miss Ellis why the Moroccans don’t just keep their country for themselves and she said, ‘Their day will come.’
Once we have our American visas then Papa will have to go to the Portuguese consulate and join more queues to get our papers for passing through there too. I hope we won’t be passing through Portugal for quite such a long time as we’ve been passing through Morocco.
Actually, a holiday by the sea will be very nice (or agreeable, pleasant, lovely and wonderful, as my thesaurus suggests). It really is getting very hot in the city and the beaches around Casablanca are not as good for sea bathing as those further down the coast. Papa thinks it would be a good opportunity to follow the road that runs along the coastline and explore the towns there along the way. He says we will see some more of those old Portuguese fortresses, which will be good for my education. I noticed that he squeezed Maman’s hand after he said that, and that gave me a suspicion as to what this trip is really about. I shall be on high alert again in case any more Monsieur Guigners creep out of the woodwork. I won’t bring my journal with me but will leave it safely in its hiding place. However, Miss Ellis was delighted to hear we will be doing a tour of those old coastal fortifications and has given me quite a lot of work to take with me – so much for it being a holiday! I’ll have to bring my schoolbooks and she has written out questionnaires for me to fill in at each place we visit. It’s becoming quite a project. My books will be useful for taking notes, though, and then I can write everything in my journal properly later.
We leave on Saturday. Annette is already wondering whether she can persuade Maman to let her buy a new two-piece swimming costume. She’s wanted one ever since she saw a picture of Ava Gardner wearing one in Movie Life magazine. They are all the rage in America apparently, although as I pointed out to her, it may be a different kettle of fish entirely on the beaches in Morocco.
I wish there was more room in the Dodge Sedan so that Nina could come. That would make the trip a lot more fun. But by the time Annette’s suitcases (containing several changes of clothes for every possible social eventuality), plus her vanity case, (aptly named!), full of all her cosmetics and hair-styling things, have been accommodated, I shall count myself lucky if there’s enough space for me.
Josie’s Journal – Sunday 20th July, 1941
As Lord Peter Wimsey so wisely says in Gaudy Night, ‘The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.’ This turned out to be a piece of very good advice and one that helped me to save Papa’s bacon on our trip down the coast. But I’m getting ahead of myself again and had better start at the beginning as I write up everything that happened so that I don’t miss out any important details . . .
Our first port of call was El Jadida. The Portuguese were there for 200 years and built walls to enclose the streets of the town beside the harbour. We climbed up on to the ramparts and walked around them, admiring the views and the fortifications. At the Bab el Bahr (which means the Sea Gate) there was a very good viewpoint from which I was able to sketch the harbour and fill in some of the answers to the questions Miss Ellis has set me. The fortress is very impressive and solid looking, and the Bab el Bahr forms a narrow entrance from the harbour to the town. You could see how easy it would be to defend El Jadida from an invasion: those Portuguese knew what they were doing.