Lessen die ik heb geleerd van de berbervrouw uit Marokko

In 2018 I was invited by Net-a-Porter to discuss “wellness” with their staff during the company’s “Wellness Week”. After giving it some thought, I decided to focus my discussion on the “Wellness Lessons I’ve learned from the Berber Women of Morocco”. These women have touched me deeply with their way of life, their strength and their creativity. I am celebrating the achievements of the Berber women of Morocco who have inspired me in creating the KAHINA™ brand.

The Berbers are the indigenous people of North Africa. They live in scattered communities across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, and Mauretania. The ones I have come to know and refer to here are a group of approximately 50 women who reside in a tiny village in the Anti-Atlas mountains 5 hours drive from Marrakech.

Life here is difficult. The mountains are rocky and arid and practically nothing grows. Most men leave for the big cities to find work leaving the women behind for 11 months out of the year. With little vegetation for farming, the Berbers of the Anti-Atlas depend on goats for milk, meat and wool. And Argan.

Illiteracy rates remain very high. Among girls, only 26% in rural Morocco continue their education beyond the third grade. The girls marry young, between the ages of 16 and 19 on average. With little access to hospitals and maternal healthcare, the infant and maternal mortality rate is high in the mountains.

Despite the considerable hardship, I am always left with the impression that these women are quite joyful. Without wishing to minimize the difficulty of life as a woman in rural Morocco or to glamorize extreme poverty, I have attempted to describe what I have seen and experienced over the course of my visits with them over the years. The following sums up the lessons I’ve taken away, albeit in a very simplistic form.
Women do the hard work in the fields. This woman is carrying a heavy load of hay that she has gathered to feed her donkey.

1.Slow everything.

Most everything is made by hand and there are few shortcuts. Wheat is ground by hand to make flour. Wool is spun to make thread. Clothes are sewn by hand. They exist without the constant distraction of email or pressures to meet deadlines or dread over daily news. There are extreme challenges and real problems, but, I would argue, less angst. Life takes on a rhythm of its own.

2. Find pleasure in work. The work is physically demanding. Women rise at dawn to gather and carry immense loads of wood to burn for cooking and hay to feed the livestock. They fetch water to boil and grind wheat to make bread while also caring for children and elderly family members. If they can, they will earn money by cracking argan nuts and weaving rugs. As a result, women are physically strong and healthy. The work seems to be made easier in the company of other women. I have frequently watched as they gather to crack nuts, laughing loudly, singing and telling stories. 3. Create abundance out of scarcity. They have few material possessions other than what they make from what they have at hand. From this, magnificent rugs are woven, beautiful scarves embroidered and homes embellished with bright colors and intricate symbols. They spend time expressing themselves creatively.
4. Live in harmony with nature, understanding the power of nature to heal and nurture. The Berber women heavily rely on the land and live closely connected to the changing seasons, and the rising and setting of the sun and the moon. They rely on plant knowledge for medicinal remedies. 5. Honor rituals and traditions Traditions are passed down over time, such as story telling and the extraction of argan oil. These traditions connect them to past and future generations. 6. The importance of community The Berber women of the village live in close proximity to each other and are a close knit community, working together, helping to raise each others’ children and to care for each other. Isolation in the village would be virtually impossible.

7. Inshallah

Like most Moroccans, the Berbers are Sunni Muslim. Among other things, their spirituality offers them a certain alignment to a higher power. The phrase “Inshallah”, translated to God willing, is commonly used as a way to express their belief in destiny and acceptance of what comes their way.

8. Celebrate!

Each time I have visited, the women of the village have made of point of celebrating with music and dancing well into the night. From what I can gather, these celebrations happen frequently – to mark a wedding, the harvest or the arrival of spring.

It would be impossible for an American woman with a husband and three children who runs a business out of a sixth floor Manhattan apartment to replicate the life I’ve described here, but I try to keep the Berber women in mind as I go about my daily life. I recall them as I stress about politics and deadlines, reacting to a barrage of emails and juggling school, family and work obligations. At the very least, their hard work puts my relatively small problems into perspective. Beyond that, I am reminded to forge deeper connections to community, family, the earth and to honor hard work, creativity, ritual and song.

KAHINA™ is my everyday touchstone. All photos were taken during my many trips to the Berber villages of Southwest Morocco.

THE SCIENCE OF ARGAN OIL

The raw argan oil found in Kahina Giving Beauty products is composed of a high percentage of vitamin E (more than three times as much as olive oil) and 80% fatty acids, including hard to obtain Omega 6 and Omega 9 acids. Other components key to promoting skin health include antioxidant polyphenols, phytosterol compounds, and squalene.

The antioxidants and fatty acids in argan oil work together to help stop inflammation and to protect and maintain skin elasticity, smoothness and radiance. Phytosterols help strengthen the protective skin barrier and are also antiseptic.

Squalene is a lipid that is naturally present in, and extremely compatible with, our own skin, which is why argan oil is so easily absorbed. Our body’s own squalene production declines starting at the age of 20 and replenishing helps skin retain its moisture, as well as supporting cell regeneration and oxygenation

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