10 April 2008

Greetings Family, How goes it? Brother Runoko is doing well. I am nottired, I have not been sick for one minute and havenothing to complain about. I am in Saharan Moroccoand will be heading to Marrakesh, god willing, in twoor three hours. It is early here and the sun has justcome out. Anyway, I am writing to you this morning because I amseeking possible contacts for some of my internationaltravels next month. God willing, next month I willvisit Portugal for the first time, Peru for the secondtime, and Bolivia for the first time.

Of course, asyou should know by now, I am in search of the Africanpresence. Anybody got any good contacts or leads thatI should pursue? Please get back to me. And, in the meantime, probably later tonight when Iget settled in Marrakesh I will post you an updateabout my travels here in Saharan Morocco. This is thearea that I think of as African Morocco and I haveidentified, I believe, at least three distinct groupsof Black people here. Indigenous Africans (BlackBerbers and Black Tuaregs), the descendants ofenslaved Africans and African soldiers brought toMorocco in the seventeenth century, and recent Africanmigrants from Senegal, Mali and Nigeria attempting topass through Morocco on their way to Europe.

It istruly a fascinating story which I suppose I will betrying to sort out for some time to come. And I havetaken a lot of photos with my new digital camera! And just to arouse your interest let me tell you thatdeep on the edges of the desert two days ago I visiteda purely African community and listened for the firsttime to the African musicians known as Gnawa. I willdescribe the encounter in some detail later tonight,god willing! Stay strong sisters and brothers! And let me knowabout those contacts in Portugal, Peru and Bolivia. It looks like I will be lecturing in Martinique nextmonth also. God is great! In love of Africa, Brother Runoko, writing from Saharan Morocco