South African newspaper highlights example of Essaouira as a city of tolerance, coexistence between Muslims and Jews

South African newspaper “Daily Maverick” highlighted the many assets of the Moroccan city of Essaouira, which has become over time an example of tolerance and a city where Muslims and Jews have always lived together.

In a story titled “Morocco’s Essaouira: The tolerant city where things have always been done differently,” journalists Ray Hartley and Greg Mills underlined that “even as the great schism between the Muslim and Jewish religions deepened, Essaouira became the only Muslim city with a majority Jewish population, totaling 16,000 Jews.”

The story published on Friday and illustrated with photos of the old medina (Mellah) of Essaouira, recalled that the Jews of Morocco had always enjoyed the protection of the Moroccan Kings.

“As sub-Saharan Africa struggles to find a formula to better access investment from 88% of the global economy which lies outside the sub-continent, it might do well to look at what has been achieved in the ancient and modern versions of this Atlantic city”, the journalists stressed.

The daily paper recalled that the walls and city gates have been recognized by the UNESCO as “an exceptional example of a late-18th-century fortified town, built according to the principles of contemporary European architecture in a North African context” and declared a World Heritage Site.

Bayt Dakira, a Jewish heritage house, was built at the initiative of Royal adviser André Azoulay to honor the historical role of Jews in Morocco — the only museum of this kind in the Muslim world, the authors of the story noted.

“Among Essaouira’s economic advantages are its fisheries and its unique Argan trees, which produce oil and cosmetics. At the Beni Antar Cooperative outside Essaouira, 200 women are employed extracting the seed from the Argan nut. The industry survived the Covid-19 lockdowns by allowing women to crack the nuts at home,” the daily added.

The revival of Essaouira and Morocco’s economic resurgences are evidence of how, then as now, policy and leadership matter, the journalists pointed out in conclusion.