Imilchil — the betrothal moussem

The Imilchil moussem is, at heart, a saint's-festival market on a remote Atlas plateau, held each September around the shrine of Sidi Ahmed Oulmghani. What makes it singular is the marriage custom attached to it: among the Aït Haddidou it has long been an occasion at which men and women who are widowed or divorced — and, by tradition, with a measure of choice not always granted at a first marriage — may meet, agree to a match, and have a betrothal recorded before the adoul, the religious notaries. Women attend in the distinctive striped handira capes and pointed head-dress, their faces marked with patterns; families gather and negotiate; agreements once made are formalised in the days that follow. Around the marriages the moussem is a full mountain fair — livestock and carpets traded, tents pitched in their hundreds, Amazigh music and the ahidous communal dance through the evenings, and displays of horsemanship. The gathering matters because the Aït Haddidou are scattered across hard high country for most of the year; the moussem is when the community concentrates, settles its commerce, renews its bonds and arranges its futures. It has also been strained by tourism, with the 'marriage festival' billing sometimes overplaying or staging the betrothals for outsiders — a tension the community itself has voiced. A visitor comes best as a guest of the market and the music, not a spectator of other people's marriages.