Artisans Warn Morocco Losing its Tourist Appeal as More Businesses Close

Agadir – Forty years ago Abdelkabir Errazki of Marrakech was a teenager learning his family’s ironwork trade. A hand injury forced him to turn to tailoring instead. For several years he worked under tailors of all sorts, learning to work with a variety of fabrics, including leather. Eventually, he would begin his own leather shop in Souk Talaa in the heart of Marrakech’s medina.

Just as when it opened, the shop is still just 1.5 by 2 meters square and contains just one industrial sewing machine. The shop is so small that Errazki does most of his pattern cutting at home where he has more space.

Errazki slowly built up his business, creating the artisanal leather goods commonly found in Moroccan markets, as well as creating custom work for clients, and working towards specializing in making leather jackets. Over time his skills became known well enough that he was asked to help designers with leather pieces for their clothing brands.

New family business

Reda Errazki designing at home during lockdown in Marrakech

Errazki’s nephew Ahmed began working with him about twenty years ago. They erected a table outside the shop for Ahmed to work on and to this day they bring it in every night. Errazki’s son Reda would frequently visit his father’s leather shop as a child, and loved the work his father did.

Sometimes when Reda stopped by his father would be collaborating with designers who also appreciated Errazki’s talent. Still, these designers “sell things my father made for a lot of money, but he did not get enough pay for what he did.”

This reaffirmed for Reda how wrong it is that the Moroccan market does not value artisanal work. It fuelled his interest to do something about improving the view of all the overlooked “treasures” Morocco has.

Reda also began to enjoy making things for himself, but his family preferred that he not continue in the artisanal sector. Reda says, “They wished I followed any government jobs or anything to just secure my monthly salary. Because they do not feel financially secure and do not want the same for me.”

As with many creative people with entrepreneurial tendencies, while studying economics and management at university, Reda could not resist pursuing his passion for “photography, design, customization, graphics, web design…” and he is “still digging” for other untapped outlets.

Reda still had the outlet of making his own bags in his father’s shop. Then thinking of ways to make pocket money, he “had an idea to use bags that people are making in the market and open a website.” When he had time to make them, his original designs were also listed.

Reda did all the work of curating his fathers’, his own, and others’ high-quality products, taking photos, writing the product descriptions, uploading the items, and providing customer service.

As it goes with many first attempts at anything, Reda says “of course, it didn’t work because it wasn’t great. It was my first experience with trying to sell online, so I saw that I need a lot of things for this.”

As soon as he graduated university in 2018, the young Errazki threw himself back into the designing and selling game. Reda went back online, able to better present his product, but struggled to have enough product made to present. With the help of community, family, and a loan, Reda opened a physical store where he learned more about the entire producing and selling business from the ground up.

While it is flattering to constantly sell out of all the things you make, Reda continued to struggle with meeting customer demands. He also learned about how quickly original ideas can be copied, with his original designs popping up in other nearby shops.

Hard times

By the time Corona caused the Marrakech medina to completely shut down, the Errazki family had a combination of skills that kept them from entirely leaning on their savings, charity, or debt.

Suddenly everyone needed masks in Morocco and tailors like the Errazkis were ready to make them.

Stuck at home in lockdown, consuming their savings, the Errazkis could not sit still for long. Abdelkabir began calling contacts seeking some work he could do from home. A friend connected him to an association that needed someone to sew masks. The association gave Errazki material to make 100 fabric reusable masks.

With the help of his wife Najat they quickly made the masks and had an order for 200 more. Then 300. When the orders reached 500, they brought the sewing machine home and everyone in the family began helping to make masks.

When Erraki’s wife, three sons, and two nephews were all helping to finish the product, count, and package them, the family was “like a little factory of masks making 1000 masks a day.” At the wholesale price of one dirham ($0.10 US) per mask, this little factory-supported four generations of an extended family.

Before the mask business came along, Reda was “on my laptop learning new things about business and making money on the internet. I was working on design platforms and learning more about selling online.” As his family was making more and more masks, Reda saw another skill set to jump at. “When I saw that my father needed help, I went to sew as well. That was my opportunity to improve at sewing,” he says.

When Reda’s cousins joined in the mask making business, he had the chance to turn his attention back to being a digital artisan. He began another business selling rugs and interior decor online. As soon as he was able to, Errazki reopened his shop serving the few people who needed a tailor.

Reda is still young in his career. Whereas some families oppress their children’s work choices and others ignore the next generation’s input into family practices, the Errazkis are adapting in the field right along with Reda.

But so many other small family businesses throughout Morocco have not survived the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The World Health Organization recognized Morocco for immense financial support in wage subsidies, but many businesses are still permanently closed in Marrakech now. Reda warns that such a loss could deter tourism.

Many tourists flocked to Morocco in large part for the aesthetic vibe created by artisans and other workers, yet the creators were already grossly undervalued and now many’s skills and work are lost.

The young Errazki’s vision is to go further with the field of Moroccan artisans, bringing them up to the level of being recognized as the skilled professionals they are. Reda plans to combine his digital skills with activities such as travel exhibitions. Using a combination of events and digital platforms, people can share information to encourage respect and support for Moroccan artisans.