To the east of Casablanca, in the working class neighbourhood of Hay Mohammadi, lies an enormous, dilapidated set of buildings. The yellow paint is peeling off their monumental facades, decorated with green ceramic tiles and patterned windows. Casablanca's abandoned 20th- century slaughterhouse is an immense and surprisingly attractive architectural complex. Built in 1922 by Georges-Ernest Desmarest, a Parisian architect, in the so-called Neo-Mauresque style, which combines clean Art Deco lines with traditional North African motifs, it was one of the great public works of the French protectorate in Morocco.
Today, a collective of Moroccan artists, architects and activists are trying to fashion a new future for the space, one in which it would be the site of an entirely different sort of production. "We call it a culture factory," says Abderrahim Kassou, an architect who is leading the effort, "because we're in a city with a great industrial tradition, in a neighbourhood with some of the biggest workers' housing projects. And because we want to get out of this mentality of just consuming culture made elsewhere and into one of producing our own culture."
Yet the transition hasn't been easy. Despite organising nearly 50 cultural events in the space in the last year and half, the art collective has yet to consolidate either official status or institutional funding. "We've bitten off a lot," admits Kassou, a tall, imposing man with a wry sense of humour. Kassou and Aadel Essaadaani, his friend and collaborator, who is an expert in art and event management, took me on a tour of the site recently. The slaughterhouse's past function and its current vocation overlap in startling ways. The ceilings of the rooms are crisscrossed with the rails and pulleys that used to transport livestock, but the large airy spaces are perfect for performances. One of the huge stables is still home to a few sheep and donkeys; the other, across the way, is dedicated to visual art exhibitions. A courtyard has been turned into a skate park. Everywhere, the crumbling walls are decorated with graffiti, wall paintings, torn posters, the remains of film shoots and art installations.
Many still "don't understand the dimensions of the project," says Kassou; "they think it's just some kids having fun." On the contrary, Kassou and his collaborators hope to fill an institutional void by offering young artists and would-be culture professionals the chance to meet, get training, rehearse, create and exhibit; and to make art accessible in a neighbourhood not usually targeted by cultural initiatives, by offering free, open-to-all activities and shows.
The kind of space envisaged in the old slaughterhouse is the natural result of the cultural effervescence of the last decade in Casablanca, during which a new generation of artists, filmmakers and above all musicians has animated the city. The phenomenon has even earned its own name, "nayda," a word derived from the Arab verb "to rise" and lifted from Casablanca youth slang. When I visit again a few weeks later, one of the slaughterhouse's cavernous halls is filled with the sound of voices, laughter and power drills. About 20 people are at the venue, attending a workshop run by the artist and designer Khadija Kabbaj. "We realised there isn't really anywhere to sit down," says Kabbaj.
Today, participants are building chairs and whimsically decorating them to reference their surroundings. One is covered in flakes of paint gathered from the slaughterhouse walls; another is painted to look like cow hide and has weeds sprouting from its armrest. One chair is even set aflame — a nod to the fire that demolished part of the slaughterhouse in 2004. The group includes art students, middle-aged women, and the young Mohammad Safsaf, who volunteers at a neighbourhood association for children. Before the slaughterhouse was opened to the public, says Safsaf, "we never imagined it was like this. Now we can see it. It's a beautiful place." Safsaf and his friend Rachid have decorated their chair in the in the colours of the neighbourhood's beloved football team Raja.
Meanwhile, the sound of an electric keyboard wafts through the immense building, accompanied by guitar chords and an ethereal female voice. A trio are rehearsing in a nearby building, in a dark room plastered with music posters and graffiti. Above their heads, someone has written on the wall in Arabic: "Together in defence of freedom and dignity and the right to create." Beyond lies a large esplanade in which Casablanca's popular hip-hop, rap, reggae and heavy-metal groups have played open-air concerts to packed crowds.
The decision to close the slaughterhouse - and replace it with modern municipal facilities elsewhere - came in 2000. Local artists immediately suggested turning the space into a cultural site, but their negotiations with the city led nowhere. It was only in 2009 that a dozen Moroccan civil society groups managed to sign an agreement with the city to use the space for a year. The CasaMemoire group - an association dedicated to educating about and preserving the city's 20th-century architecture, which Kassou heads - took the lead.
In the spring last year, 250 artists and 30,000 curious visitors converged on the space for its inaugural weekend, which featured continuous screenings, concerts, installations, dance recitals and more. It was by all accounts a riotous success. "We had no idea how it would go," says Kassou. "We let everyone in for free. There was a really mixed audience: families from the neighbourhood, kids with long hair and piercings, ministers, my mom."
Since then, the old slaughterhouse has hosted nearly 50 cultural events. The space is dedicated to contemporary and urban art, meaning anything from conceptual art to graffiti, from dance to hip-hop, from fashion to film. Many emerging and well-established artists have exhibited, partly because, says Kassou, they have "a freedom here that they don't have in a conventional gallery." Kassou and his colleagues have kept the events coming at a sustained pace largely because, he says, they want to make the slaughterhouse's transformation into a cultural landmark "irreversible."
Their urgency is understandable, given that the agreement with the municipal authorities expired last January. Kassou and his colleagues have asked for, but not yet signed, a new, long-term agreement. In the meantime, everyone at the old slaughterhouse is, technically speaking, squatting. The space is running on "a lot of energy and no money" says Kassou. A committee of volunteers from the groups involved handles everything. Kassou's association, CasaMemoire, is running a 300,000 Moroccan dirhams (Dh133,000) deficit just to keep things going.
Eventually, Kassou figures it will cost 10 million dirhams (Dh4,400,000) a year to put in place a permanent administration and, above all, launch the kind of ongoing exchanges, artists' residences, workshops, neighbourhood outreach and training programmes envisaged. But it's impossible to raise funds until the space's cultural vocation is made official. Meanwhile, the Casablanca city council continues to drag its feet - the Minister of Culture has never visited.
In Morocco, as in many other Arab countries, the state's cultural policy is largely limited to supporting official institutions, prizes and festivals, high-profile events meant to present the country in a good light, and to attract tourists and positive press. A cultural centre in a low-income neighbourhood, run by a loose coalition of independent groups that targets local audiences and groups and features avant-garde and street art doesn't quite fit with the vision of "culture" most government agencies and municipalities are eager to promote.
The project also faces the general lack of interest in preserving 20th century buildings (which are not yet seen, in most of the Arab world, as having any architectural value) and the unease of public officials with any truly grass-root initiative. In theory, Moroccan law allows associations to take over unused public space for cultural purposes, but in practice, this would be a first. And that not just here, but across the Arab world, where the idea of repurposing large abandoned industrial spaces into art venues - something that's become quite common in Western cities - is still unheard of.
Kassou and his colleagues are well aware of the ground-breaking nature of what they have already achieved. The takeover and subsequent makeover of the city's old slaughterhouse is, as far as they are concerned, a fait accompli. "We'd like a much more solid support from the city," says Kassou. But "we're not waiting for them to organise things." And they're not going anywhere. Sooner or later, they are sure, the new agreement will be signed. Because "there's no possibility," says Kassou, matter-of-factly, "of stepping back."
Ursula Lindsey, a regular contributor to The Review, lives in Cairo.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
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RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
More coverage from the Future Forum
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Juliet, Naked
Dir: Jesse Peretz
Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke
Two stars
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Warlight,
Michael Ondaatje, Knopf
UAE players with central contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Adnan Mufti, Mohammed Usman, Ghulam Shabbir, Ahmed Raza, Qadeer Ahmed, Amir Hayat, Mohammed Naveed and Imran Haider.
