The Gunpowder Games: Traditional Equestrianism as Moroccan Invented Heritage Tourism

Abstract

Under King Hassan II’s reign (1961–1999), the Moroccan state recognized the traditional equestrian display of tbourida or fantasia [1], as a symbol and sport of Morocco. Historically, the games once played a fundamental military, social, and communal role in the lives of Moroccans. Contemporarily, tbourida exhibitions are now organized competitions, or heritage displays at local festivals. The equestrian practice has even extended to sparingly include women riders and groups. By examining the emergence of tbourida as a performance of heritage, this research sheds light on advances in the conceptualization and development of a “cultural heritage tourism industry” within Morocco. The main driving research question is: How does tbourida as a case study fit into Morocco’s national heritage tourism? Thus, this chapter explores the ways in which the tbourida evolved from cavalry charges and celebratory displays on local saint’s days, or moussems, how the French usurped and absorbed these practices into the French colonial agenda, and how tbourida was rearticulated under the French colonial government (1912–1956). It also considers tbourida in contemporary society of Morocco as a state-regulated heritage sport, emphasizing how the state creates a national and tourist identity around this performance.

This chapter is a shortened version of my thesis written for the completion of a Master’s in Anthropology. The language study required for this project was funded by UCLA’s Center Near Eastern Studies 2014 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) summer fellowship for Arabic and the 2012 Great Plains National Security Education Consortium study abroad scholarship. For this research project, the fieldwork was funded in part by the National Geographic Young Explorers Grant, UCLA Department of Anthropology summer 2014 funding, UCLA 2014 Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, and the generosity of my grandfather Dr. F.J.E. Purdie.