As Morocco tries to rebuild after the earthquake, tradition is the main priority for many
Boujemaa Kouti still remembers the screams of his neighbors trapped under the rubble of their homes, calling for help that horrific night 63 years ago.
He was only 8 and slept when he grew up An earthquake struck Morocco in 1960wiping out entire neighborhoods in the coastal city of Agadir, near the Atlas Mountains, and killing at least 12,000 people.
“I saw stars when I woke up,” Mr. Kouti said, and then he heard “people screaming ‘Save me’ – crying out for their families.”
Mr Kouti’s older brother died and the Kouti family lived in tents for almost a year while Agadir was largely rebuilt in a nearby location considered safer.
Debris was bulldozed and cleared, and large amounts of concrete were poured as buildings with stricter seismic standards went up.
The Agadir Oufella, a 16th-century fortress partially damaged by the earthquake, was eventually restored and a memorial erected atop a hill where many died.
Now Moroccans face a new challenge in the nearby Atlas Mountains: how to rebuild the once picturesque villages and towns that dot the powerful earthquake that destroyed the region on September 8, killing about 3,000 people.
Agadir was largely spared this time, but possibly hundreds of thousands of people, according to estimates the Moroccan news mediastill live in tents in destroyed villages in the Atlas Mountains, waiting for reconstruction to begin; countless others have sought shelter with relatives. Recent rains and floods have further exposed them to vulnerable living conditions as they wait for authorities to take action.
The government has committed will spend approximately $11.8 billion over the next five years to rebuild and repair the homes of an estimated 4.2 million Moroccans. At the same time, officials are weighing how best to restore the cultural heritage of a region that is also an important part of the country’s tourism industry.
In the Atlas Mountains, traditional architecture had long endured, with picturesque flat-roofed houses built with mud and stone mixed with straw, clustered in spectacular landscapes that attracted visitors.
Many of those structures collapsed, partly due to the enormous force of the earthquake, but also because the seismic standards introduced two decades ago were often not adhered to.
Experts, like Amine Kabbaj, an architect from Marrakech, says it is difficult to enforce regulations in rural areas where people rarely have the opportunity to hire architects or engineers. This can lead to a lack of foundations and insufficient protection.
Salima Naji, an architect and anthropologist who led the project to restore the Oufella fortress in Agadir and has also been at the forefront of efforts to promote traditional ways of building in the Atlas Mountains, agrees.
“The recent hasty constructions do not respect any rules; the companies, contractors and builders are working fast and poorly,” she said.
Dr. Naji is also a strong advocate of using materials and techniques that reflect local customs and address climate challenges. While modern methods of earthquake-proofing buildings are necessary, she said, they can be combined with more established ancient techniques.
She says traditional architecture is durable, can withstand earthquakes if standards are respected, and is adaptable to the mountain environment: warm in winter and cool in summer.
Dr. Naji has long been involved in heritage conservation in the Atlas Mountains, including fortified villages.
During anthropological fieldwork from 1999 to 2006, Dr. Naji high mountain valleys, focusing on the collective granaries where villagers stored their crops. She said she felt a strong bond with the region and was indebted to the villagers. As a child, she regularly accompanied her father, a Moroccan topographer, to the region. There weren’t many hotels at that time, so the villagers welcomed them into their homes, she said, and she grew fond of the buildings where they stayed.
“I loved this architecture, made of stone and mud,” she said. “It was the joy of my entire childhood.”
So far, Moroccan authorities seem open to requests from architects like Dr. Naji.
The Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, a national cultural scientific reference institutehas consulted several experts from different disciplines on how the use of traditional materials in reconstruction can help preserve Morocco’s heritage.
According to the experts consulted, the highest authorities of the country seem to be aware of the need to draw up a plan that can be a starting point for the preservation of the cultural and architectural heritage of the Atlas Mountains, while at the same time building houses that will withstand against natural disasters.
Still, Abdeslam Maghraoui, a political scientist at Duke University warned that the recovery process would be long and difficult.
“The earthquake epicenter and surrounding mountain areas are extremely poor, difficult to access and have been neglected by the state for decades,” he said. “So collective healing, trust in authorities and material reconstruction will take time.”
As winter approaches and temperatures continue to drop, many residents’ first concern is getting back home. Some avoid them for fear of aftershocks.
Rim Rami, 18, a university student in Marrakech, lost her family home in Moulay Brahim, near the epicenter of the earthquake. She commutes to the city to take classes while her family camps in the mountains. She is afraid that historic buildings will be given priority.
“It’s scary to sleep outside,” she said. “They have to rebuild houses first.”
Many experts are also concerned about the fate of precious and precarious architectural gems in the mountains.
Abdallah Fili, archaeologist and professor at Chouaib Doukkali University, led the restoration of the Tinmel Mosque, which dates back to the 12th century. The work was almost finished before it was severely damaged by the September earthquake.
Despite the disaster, he sees some advantages.
“Destruction has a meaning because it gives access to parts of the buildings that we have never been able to analyze,” Mr. Fili said.
But he worries about what will happen to the site. According to him, authorities started removing rubble from the mosque without consulting archaeologists. He does not know whether he will be asked for the next restoration.
Whatever the fate of the villages scattered across the Atlas Mountains, the example of Agadir shows how difficult it is to recover from the trauma of a devastating earthquake. Every year around the end of February, the anniversary of the disaster, a commemoration takes place.
And a sentence from a speech by the then King Mohammed V still adorns a wall in the city center of Agadir: “If fate has decided on the destruction of Agadir, its reconstruction will be due to our will and our faith.”
Mr Kouti, 71, who survived the 1960 earthquake, is now the custodian of the cemetery of Ihchachwhere many victims were buried.
The cemetery is located on a hill that was once a neighborhood of Agadir. There is not much left from that time: a few trees, a disused hospital and the ruins of collapsed houses. Sometimes visitors come to him asking for help in locating the grave of a loved one.
Many come to inquire about the unidentified bodies that were quickly buried in a mass grave when authorities feared epidemics, hoping to find lost relatives.
Mr Kouti said he had been asleep when the earthquake struck in September.
“I wasn’t scared,” he said. “I’ve experienced that before.”
Youssef Boumrek contributed to the reporting.