Location: Merzouga, Morocco
Published: The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
We settled atop pillows spread on the floor inside a rammed earth structure. Then we sipped sweet mint tea from delicate glasses as the men played the music of ancestors who had arrived in Morocco as slaves from what people in this part of the world call black (Sub-Saharan) Africa. The castanets that Ahmed held in his hands symbolized the chains and suffering of his people, and the large goat skin drum driving the rhythm represented the well where they had labored hauling water to the fields.