life of a four old men
This picture was taken in one of Moroccan villages, where time is normally very slow. It shows a group of men who look very old and very tired..Their clothes are worn out by the massive usage and cleaning, their corpus are very skinny and weak..They lost the flash of youth that was one day in their eyes. Those men can no more fight back the waves of life; they were never sitting under this wall waiting for lunch times. But rather, they were playing there, when they were children, waiting for their moms to call them to eat. After teen-age, everyone toke his path in life, some of them travel to big cities to work in stores or in coffeehouses…some of them travel to other villages to work in building… but some prefer to stay in their villages to work their own land in the rainy years. They had so many dreams to achieve, but the ups and downs of the real world stroke them to return to the reality land. They found themselves working just for eating and supporting their poor families…
With no retirement, they rely now on others to support them in what they need …in life necessaries. But, this is Moroccan’s villages where almost people help each other’s… this is why the people there know they are always in economic crises but the effects are rarely obvious –as it should be- due to the charity and strong relationships between them. Although they do no activities to gain money, they are still respectful in their land…they are not called without adding a respectful nickname to their names. Now they have the chance to meet their childhood friends and remember their youth with some grief but with a lot of delight.
They have a huge experience in what they have witnessed, that’s why young people go to them sometimes asking and seeking advice…everyone of them is at the top of a family tree, they have so many children and grandchildren most of old men in Moroccan villages have up to 10 children and maybe two wives..When their children grow up everyone of them should have his duty to do. When the grandfather is alive nobody can leave the family house and build his own. So, you can find many uncles and aunts living under the same roof, everyone is responsible for educating the young children, whether they are their own children or their belongings’ children.
Hicham Ibaakiline
