Le Kif au Maroc - Kif in Morocco (2024)
Doctor Mustapha Akhmisse
An incredibly complete book exploring Cannabis culture, history, production & challenges in Morocco.
« Kif » is how you call the Cannabis plant in Morocco.
Moroccan Doctor Mustapha Akhmisse, offers to explore not only its history, economy and impacts on health, but also its culture and its representation in visual art, poetry & literature, as well as discussing the political aspects of the plant, ranging from its cultivation to its prohibition.
What an interesting read.
I think it’s quite rare to read a book that will treat its subject in such an exhaustive way.
Despite being a Doctor, Akhmisse juggles with sociology, anthropology and more psychological & economical aspects of the subject, to speak about the real consequences of the practice and culture of Cannabis in Morocco, never diabolizing it nor ignoring the challenges, negative effects or problems it poses - a quite balanced and informed approach to a culture, product and historical object that is way too often treated in a partisan, not to say ridiculously one-sided way.
Let’s dive in a few notable points.
Morocco is the World’s leader in Cannabis production, despite it being illegal in the country. Most of the agricultural production is happening in the Northern Mountain chain called the Rif.
Even though the Kif had been known in Morocco since it was brought by the Arab invasions of the 7th century, it really took off with the waves of Moriscos expelled from Al-Andalus by the Spanish Reconquista in the 15th century. Sufi confraternities, very influential in Morocco, discovered the effects of the plant and spread its usage for their mystic rituals.
The use of kif quickly surpassed this esoteric frame to become a social practice. In the XVI century, le consumption of Cannabis will provoke strong reactions from the country’s religious authorities that will qualify in their preachings and in their juridicial opinions users of « khabait » (disgusting) eaters. (…) But in the XVII and XVIII centuries, kif production will spread again and its consumption as an entertaining means will take off in the entire country, in the cities as well as in the countryside.
Paradoxically, it is the French colonizers (« protectorate ») that will officially prohibit Cannabis in Morocco. As for the Rif, in the Northern parts of the continent, they benefited from a more « tolerant » regime under Spanish rule, which will sediment the already strong culture of the plant in the region.
Akhmisse goes on to give a detailed history of the culture surrounding the Kif usage in Moroccan society, and even beyond.
On a side note, it notably talks about the Club des Hachichins, a private Parisian club where Cannabis enthusiasts could discover this new plant brought back from Egypt by Napoleon’s army, discuss its effects, and get inspired. Théophile Gautier, Baudelaire, Balzac, Victor Hugo, Delacroix, Alexandre Dumas & Gustave Flaubert were all members of the club, if you can imagine that. The more you know. Anyway, back to Morocco.
The book describes quite extensively the place Cannabis had in Moroccan oral literature, accompanied by many poems sometimes to its glory, or on the contrary, sometimes cursing it. Here's one of them.
"This Haschich made my time pleasant Ah ! If only it could make me happy in the World ! Maybe you see me running dizzy in the middle of the market, moving like a drunk, because I’m under its effect. Brother with me the high and the low and mixed up, this Haschich made my time pleasant. Ah ! If only it could make me happy in this World ! As you can see, I’m a vagabond. The Haschich we own never suffice Without scorch nor head nor root." Ibrahīm Al-Amā Al-Bagdadi
The chapter about the place Cannabis holds in Islamic (& Judaic) faiths is also fascinating. If the Sunni & Maliki doxa states that the usage of the plant, because of its inebriating properties, is forbidden, the relations between Islam & Kif is more complex.
Until the beginning of the first millennia of our times, in the Islamic World, we only knew the industrial, medicinal & technical virtues of the Cannabis plant. (…) It was the Sufis, nomadic ascetics that spread the psychotropic side of the plant with their pilgrimages. They used pressed Cannabis resin as a catapult towards the divine ; it helped to liberate their minds on their celestial ascension for their long meditations & their long fasting periods.
It became so popular it started to have their own patrons, their own Saints, especially in the Rif region. Akhmisse tells the story of Sidi Heddi, a XVIth century Sufi Saint that
smoked Kif with its adepts in the goal of stimulating his mystic consciousness and his group’s to be in a closer relationship with Allah.
Closer relationship which is described as a dance, a trance-like dance, still practiced today.
He relates the interview of one of his modern disciples, Khalid Mouna, asked about the relationship between them and the Kif as Muslims, that says :
« And why are we getting asked this question ? It looks like we are a group of criminals. The plant, we found it here. We didn’t do anything else than following our ancestors. If it was Haram, you believe that our ancestors were infidels ! The Kif is a plant like many others, created by Allah, we thank him for this; Without her, there would be no one in this village. Also the fiqh (judge) cannot say anything, it is thanks to this plant that he gets paid. If he wants to forbid it, he has to forbid first his salary and the food he gets from us. »
Akhmisse also reproduce various poems and paragraphs talking about the nuanced effects - sometimes positive, sometimes negative effects of Cannabis throughout Classical Arab literature, and even paintings, foreigners like Matisse or Jacques Azema, but also Moroccan painters like Nouredinne Benouakas & Abdelak Salim.
He also points out to the role that various Anglosaxons writers & bands had on the international image of Morocco with regards to Cannabis - The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jac Kerouac, the « Beat Generation ».
The authors of the Beat Generation found a refuge in the Tanger Medina, where they went to find life in the Kif, Jazz and Love beyond Good or Evil. They made poetry their expression, their religion with its paradise and its hell.
It is with all of that in mind that Akhmisse discusses the socio-economic impact and transformations of the Cannabis production & consumption in Morocco.
And he does that in a particularily nuanced way, hence the title of the book : Kif, a gift, a malediction, to hope.
Agriculturally speaking, the production in the Rif changed in major ways since Spanish rule and since independence.
The revenue from illegal exportation of Haschich has somewhat improved the lives of the Riffan farmers :
Cannabis has been used by the Northern populations to fight against poverty & ameliorate the living environment (television, fridge, construction of mosques, roadwork, to put in place a transportation system…). Persons interrogated think that the Cannabis economy, even if illicit, stimulates investments, especially in the construction and commerce sectors. That being said, Cannabis is still considered « haram », and stays a lesser evil that is the only subsistence mean for a majority of Riffans.
We see that if there are economic opportunities to be found in the Cannabis production for a pauperized fraction of the population, it is no paradise, and the intensification of the cultures has also provoked changes in the farmers’ lifestyle, and the region’s social structures & demography.
(…) the demand, usage and practices relative to the Cannabis culture changed. Before, it was a production destined for a local market, sometimes national, and its culture was practiced in small « Rabta » next to small lots of tobacco or parsley. It was sold in the « Souk » (market) by mint sellers & herbalists. The evolution of the market demand and its size participated in the transformation of the very way the production line happened. (…) It requires consequent financial means to finance the intensive plowing necessary to prepare the soil, the fertilizers, the frequent phytosanitary treatments at precise moments during the plant’s development, and the intensive labour force needed to clear the weeds, treat and harvest the plants. Furthermore, we observed a large development of monoculture which is susceptible to erase the ancient agrarian practices as food crops, shepherding and fishing.
The Kif plantation is worth 7 to 8 times as much as cereals, and even 12 to 16 times, if the plantation is irrigated. The farmers progressively abandoned food crops and preferred to buy them on the market. But because they lacked local offer, vegetable, cereal and legume prices ended up rising, which grew the debt of farmers towards traders.
Akhmisse notes as well that the ancient ways of transforming the products (from the Cannabis plant to the Hashish paste, for example) used to be done directly by the farmers, yet it has shifted towards a transformation by & under control of the buyer.
In other terms, he describes an intensification of the production & a growing alienation of the producers taken in an ever increasing specialization in the production process.
And there has been a change in the very plant themselves, as the demand shifted from local, relatively soft products to new varieties of genetically modified plants that « hit harder », yet require special care and treatment, notably more water and more fertilizers, to grow.
Farmers replaced the mother plant, said « el beldia », with hybrid varieties, which produce more, yes, but require more water and enormous quantities of seeds and phytosanitary products. The costs grew so important that many farmers’ incomes drastically diminished and now most of them live under poverty level.
This nuanced view of the productive regions and their dynamic history is really quite interesting.
Akhmisse also explains that the intensification of Cannabis production in the region had other sociodemographic effects :
The intensive culture of Cannabis has had other negative sociodemographic consequences in the Rif which knows overpopulation and registers the highest levels of analphebetism in Morocco. The intensive culture of Cannabis requires many more arms that the region can procure. The local youth prefer to sell Chira or Haschich and leave harvesting to an immigrant labour force, as well as the transformation of Cannabis into Haschish resin, building wells or other construction work. Young Riffan massively left schools, which means that scholarisation in the region is under 50%. Occupied with commercializing the product that their parents harvest, the young Riffan don’t either acquire the traditional know-hows. Worse, we observe a consumption more and more important of alcohol, but also other drugs, notably cocaine & even opium - locally produced on small farms.
Other problems in the region are underlined by Akhmisse, most notably corruption and the judicial problems. As a doctor, he also underlines some health problems linked with Cannabis consumption & addiction, especially with younger people : higher chances to develop schizophrenic troubles, memory loss, risk factor for road crashes, this kind of things.
Yet to counter these problems, he advocates, in a frankly courageous way, given the moral, legal & religious interdiction in his country, for the legalization of Cannabis.
He reminds the long history of Cannabis as a healing plant, known for its therapeutic properties for thousands of years by many civilizations, from the ancient Chinese to the Vedic texts mentioning it, and places the development of Medicinal Cannabis production as one of solutions for many of the problems posed in the production end.
Cannabis has been a known anesthetic for thousands of years, but has been proved to help in situations of Epilepsy, Arthritis, appetite stimulant which helps alongside other cures for Cancer, amongst many many other things. And we’re not speaking about CBD yet.
And we're not speaking either about the role that Hemp fibers had in history and the role they could play in the future, in terms of isolate, in terms of bio-combustible, as a weaving fiber, this kind of things.
Funnily, the conclusion of the book is, in a radically different context, very similar to the conclusion of many work we see in Europe (I will link for French speaker to the work made recently by Member of Parliament Antoine Léaument on the subject).
The reason of our interrogation is that our prohibition system is not working. Despite a repressive policy, Moroccans keep on being listed as the largest consumers of Cannabis. The legislation on recreative Cannabis would have as a goal the control of its culture, its offer, its production and its market. There are different possible ways to legislate, but all of them agree on the regulation and control role of the State, that would oversee its production, its distribution and its market. The act of buying, consuming and possessing would also be regulated, as is the case for alcohol and cigarettes. Furthermore, recreative Cannabis legislation would also allow the State to control the quality & purity of the products on the market and fight against dealers mixing dangerous substances in their products. It would put an end to the underground Cannabis economy and lower the labour required by the police and justice system. The vast majority of consumers would not be obliged to buy with criminals, and would therefore not put themselves in danger by breaking the law. Finally, by legalizing, the State would save on its repressive budget, all the while seeing its revenue rise by installing a new tax, as there is on alcohol or cigarettes, which is by the way very lucrative for public accounts.
This was a very interesting book, probably the most thorough read I had on a contemporary political subject in a very long while. Good luck finding it. Probably somewhere in Marrakech. If you read French. Also, if you've been confused by some terminology used in this article, or maybe you're curious about what is Sufism, or what is Maliki Islam, maybe you would like to have a look at this other article we wrote about John Tolan's New History of Islam.