Voices from North Africa field trip

Students at the Morroccan Embassy

History student, Nuha Tabassum, reflects on the recent field trip to London organised by Dr Tarik Oumazzane.

Assistant Professor in Middle East and North African Studies, Tarik Oumazzane, and his class organised a field trip to London in May as part of his Special Subject, Voices from North Africa. They visited a variety of places including the Moroccan Embassy and Al-Hasaniya North African Women's Network. The trip was part-funded by the Student Experience Fund alongside the Department of History. 

Nuha Tabassum says:

Being able to visit the Moroccan Embassy and gain key insight into their policies regarding foreign affairs, migrants, and economic development was truly a privilege. We were able to ask direct questions to senior members of their diplomat network, and understand how British-Moroccan, and indeed, Moroccan-African relations have developed in recent years. They were incredibly warm hosts and treated us as though we were their own. This visit linked very nicely with our module Voices from North Africa’s key themes of decolonisation and state-building and rounded our module off fantastically.

We were also incredibly lucky to visit Al-Hasaniya North African Women’s Network. The work they have been doing for almost 40 years is truly inspiring and helped us to conceptualise Moroccan history from an alternative perspective. Being able to listen to the stories of the women they help was powerful and we hope to stay in contact with them and support their work. As a non-profit organisation, their work is essential in supporting North African women, and what they do truly changes lives. They very kindly took us to a Moroccan secret garden where we engaged with even more of their culture.

While near ‘Little Morocco,’ we were able to visit the site of Grenfell Tower. This was an undoubtedly sobering experience for all of us, and we were able to pay our respect to not only the lives lost, but the entire community.

We finished our day by having dinner together at a fantastic Moroccan restaurant, Le Rif, in our attempts to immerse ourselves within the culture. The food and Moroccan tea were great, but the people were even better!

Each location we visited tied together nicely. At the Embassy, we learnt about history from the top. At Al-Hasaniya, we were able to understand history from below. At Grenfell Tower, we could tie this to the history of a community. Overall, this trip was a fantastic way for our class to conclude what has been an exceptional module. All of us have learnt a great wealth of information over the course of this year about North African state-building, and this trip has helped to foster this interest massively. We’d like to thank the university, and most importantly, Dr. Tarik Oumazzane, for the work they’ve put into arranging an experience we won’t forget!