Residents bring colourful new life to old Tangiers

A Moroccan labrouer works on a house in the old part of the port city of Tangiers on September 28, 2016. The residents of Tangiers are working to bring new life to the neglected streets of the MoroccaShow more

TANGIERS // Wall paintings, colourful facades and flowery alleyways are brightening up the centuries-old Tangiers medina as residents bring new life to the neglected streets of the Moroccan port’s old city.

Standing on a hill overlooking the port and the Strait of Gibraltar, the old city of Tangiers has few green spaces.

But residents of 13 neighbourhoods have launched a campaign to spruce it up.

“The initiative came from the residents, without any intervention from political parties or associations,” said Rafih Al Kanfaoui, 33, of the old city’s Ibn Battuta neighbourhood.

“The neighbourhood has taken on a beauty that nobody imagined.”

Along the old city’s winding alleys, house fronts are decked out in different colours and pots of flowers sit outside doors and in windows.

The walls of Ibn Battuta – named after the 14th century explorer who was the city’s most famous son – have been daubed green and purple, and a wheelchair ramp has been fitted.

“We all worked together, men and women, children, young people, old people, to make the neighbourhood beautiful,” said Soufyane Abdel-Mottalib, 30.

The operation was funded by the residents themselves and now four neighbourhoods in Tangiers have won awards from Morocco’s Observatory for Environmental and Historical Monuments.

It is one of several initiatives launched by citizens as Morocco hosts the COP 22 climate talks in Marrakech from November 7 to 18.

Mohammed Salmoun, a local civil society activist, said the Tangiers project had changed the face of several marginalised parts of the city.

“This kind of initiative has shown its potential to make districts stand out both locally and nationally,” he said.

* Agence France-Presse