Continental Drift
Think you know Tangier, think again. This multicultural city has got its mojo back
Tangier, Tingis, Tanja, Tanger – this storified city is Morocco’s most edgy in more ways than one. Walk up to the Kasbah district and you’ll find yourself at the northwestern tip of Africa, staring out at the Atlantic and Mediterranean, with Europe just nine miles away across the Straits of Gibraltar. It is a perfectly poised metropolis set on ancient maritime routes between North and South, East and West.
Stand awhile at the sun-struck ramparts and you’ll experience a sense of total suspension. This feeling of in-betweenness is a core characteristic of the city. Only here could the Rolling Stone’s conjure their otherworldly 1989 track Continental Drift with a trance troupe called the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Likewise, Beat Generation giants Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin and William Burroughs produced their most edgy work in the International Zone of the 1950s. And, today, contemporary artists such as Yto Barrada still probe the multiple identities of this shape-shifting city.
Hicham Bouzid, co-founder of the cultural non-profit Think Tanger, reflects on this outlaw originality. “Tangier is a very vibrant place,” he says. “It is a true crossroads, not just internationally, but between the surrounding rural region with its deeply rooted traditions and the energy of the city’s multiculturalism. This creates a unique space.”
Transformation is evident everywhere in Tangier these days. Since 2003, when King Mohammed VI announced his national development plan, US$10 billion has poured into the region, expanding the Tanger Med port into the largest in the Mediterranean, upgrading infrastructure, and adding a high-speed rail link connecting the city with the capital Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech. Cruise ships dock at the centrally located Tanja Marina Bay, which has 1400 yacht berths, while property investments in the city now yield average rental returns of 10%.
Trade deals have been signed with more than 60 countries including the U.K., E.U. and U.S. while the freeport offers attractive investor benefits. According to fDi Intelligence Tangier is now Africa’s leading free zone and placed second globally in 2020. Inward foreign investment has risen from $8.8 billion in 2000 to more than $66 billion in 2019. Siemens’ Tangier wind turbine plant is the first in Africa and the Middle East; Renault’s carbon-neutral car factory is the continent’s largest; and, 30km away, renewables giant ACWA Power has invested in a 120MW wind farm.
Socially, the city is also evolving into a contemporary cultural hub. Emblematic of this is the active arthouse Cinémathèque de Tanger, which Yto Barrada established at the iconic Cinema Rif. The Kasbah Museum has been renovated to showcase artists of the Northern School such as Mohamed Melehi and Mekki Meghara; the critically-acclaimed Tanjazz festival takes place in the lovely garden of the Moulay Hafid Palace; and, at the Tangier American Legation (the only US Historical Landmark in a foreign country) you can gaze at the Moroccan Mona Lisa painted by Scottish adventurer and artist James McBey.
Think Tanger also hosts regular residencies and workshops that gather together designers, thought leaders, city council members and citizens to ensure that creativity and community remain central to Tangier’s evolution. They recently included Mouna Ennajar, editor of the smart literary magazine I Came for Couscous. Bouzid also points to Kenza Bennani’s brand New Tangier, which reimagines traditional crafts as enviable modern caftans and accessories, and recommends the Haraka Contemporary Dance Festival in December.
This cultural blossoming has caught the eye of canny investors such as British designer Jasper Conran. “I really feel that the city is at the dawn of a new era, and we are very happy to be part of it,” says Conran. In June he opened his second Moroccan hotel, the gorgeous Villa Mabrouka, previously the home of couturier Yves St Laurent. “I will never forget that first sensation of coming off the narrow Tangier streets and into the villa’s green and shady courtyard, full of banana and palm trees, before emerging into an oasis of big sweeping lawns and an incredible garden looking out to sea,” he says.
Other big names are soon to follow: a W Hotel is planned for the marina; and, a Waldorf Astoria will open near the scenic Cap Spartel Reserve in 2025. Local and regional entrepreneurs are also contributing. A case in point is Hicham’s favourite eatery Alma Kitchen & Coffee, owned by Casablancan transplants Lamia Skalli and Seif Kousmate, while the new five-star Sabah House was renovated by Tunisian émigré Roya Lamine.
Perhaps the biggest signifier of Tangier’s transformation are the Master Musicians of Jajouka. In June, they descended from their tiny village of Ahl Srif in the Rif Mountains, where they perform their ecstatic music at the shrine of Sidi Ahmed Sheikh, to play the opening set on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury.
