by Laura Diaz
Moroccan author Jamila Hassoune, also known as ‘The Bookseller of Marrakesh,’created The Book Caravan to reach the underprivileged who reside in remote areas
Jamila Hassoune strives to overcome the challenges set upon access to education in remote Moroccan areas with The Book Caravan, a mobile library and education centre.
The poor distribution of education throughout our world is a secret to none. Millions of children and adults worldwide live their lives submerged in illiterate darkness. These unfortunate circumstances are prevalent in several areas of the Middle East. In 2006, a Moroccan bookseller took it upon herself to battle the status quo people in remote areas face daily.
Hassoune created The Book Caravan, a mobile educational resource, and began travelling through villages located in the High Atlas mountains of southern Morocco. The purpose of The Book Caravan is to not only serve as a mobile library, but also as an educational centre in which women and young people can learn how to express themselves through literature and cinema. Hassoune’s Caravan also holds workshops and seminars specialising in reading, writing and theatre.
Following her father’s example by opening her own bookshop in Marrakesh, Hassoune noticed there were very few avid readers since many viewed books as sacred objects and reading as a duty. That was the moment the bookseller decided to take her shop on the road. She sought to take books to those who could not go to them. Thus, The Book Caravan was born.
The Caravan is staffed by various authors, artists and journalists from Moroccan cities as well as from abroad. Each year, Hassoune recruits different intellectuals to assist in her humanitarian task, which has taken an importance unprecedented by many.
Hassoune is extremely vested in providing education and a voice to those who do not usually have such opportunities. She treats education as it should be treated: as a right and not a privilege. “Here in the Arab world,” she explains, “we are talking about citizens, but we don’t give to young students. We have to give them something. We have to teach them if we want them to participate in the decisions of the country, in cultural decisions…For me it was necessary to put those books in the places where you can’t find them. So The Book Caravan, it was like a trip, a mobile cultural space.”
The bookseller became an author with the publication of her book,The Bookseller of Marrakesh. Hassoune’s literary work recounts the tales behind her path to becoming a nomad bookseller, as well as her experiences with The Book Caravan.
The team at CaravanTimes is beyond pleased to see how these beloved vehicles are being used to bring education to so many. Hassoune’s project is of the utmost humanitarianism indeed.
