Wedding Celebration Protects Moroccan Village Locals From Earthquake

 

All of the inhabitants of a Moroccan town survived Friday's catastrophic earthquake, which devastated their stone and mud-brick homes as they danced to traditional music in an outdoor courtyard, thanks to a wedding celebration.

Habiba Ajdir, 22, and Mohammed Boudad, 30, a farmer of apples, were set to wed on Saturday in his hamlet of Kettou, but in accordance with tradition, the bride's family hosted a party the night before.

A visitor's camera captured the moment the 6.8-magnitude earthquake occurred, showing pictures of musicians performing with handheld goatskin drums and flutes before pandemonium, darkness, and screams suddenly took their place.

Boudad claimed the tremor had left him overcome with dread for her as he waited in his own hamlet. They were still wearing their wedding attire on Tuesday, nearly four days after the earthquake buried their belongings in rubble.

"We desired to rejoice. Then there was a quake. I wasn't sure if I should be concerned for her village or mine," he added.

Boudad clung to his wife's hand while speaking. When asked how they had met, he grinned and just said that they had "been brought together by fate." He claimed that Ajdir was so traumatized by the earthquake that she avoided speaking to outsiders.

Ighil Ntalghoumt, her tiny village, was destroyed and many of its residents are now homeless, but unlike other areas of the Adassil region, near the tremor's epicentre, there were no fatalities or significant injuries, according to locals.

More than 2,900 people died in the earthquake, which was Morocco's deadliest since 1960 and largely in isolated communities in the High Atlas mountain area south of Marrakech.

In the video, as mobile phone lights replace the overhead electric lighting, individuals panic and exclaim "earthquake" or call for family members.

The video shows Ahmed Ait Ali Oubella, an eight-year-old kid from Ighil Ntalghoumt, being carried to safety by his father after being injured in the earthquake when a boulder landed on his head and split it open.

The bride's family hosted the event as a customary pre-marriage celebration before the bride left the following day for the groom's residence, which was waiting in Kettou.

Despite the catastrophe, she left her wedding gifts behind and traveled to Kettou on Saturday with Boudad's brother and his wife who had attended the reception.

They had to travel the entire distance on foot due to the poor roads, and when they arrived they discovered extensive damage but no fatalities.

Similar to Ighil Ntalghoumt, where locals remembered a funeral in a house that stood erect, a collective event had saved many lives.

For the wedding celebration that afternoon, Boudad had purchased 150 chickens and 30kg (66 pounds) of fruit, but much of it has since rotted.

"There was no place to sleep when she came. Simply put, we're looking for a tent," he declared.

A few kilometers down the winding mountain road toward Marrakech, where the village of Tikekhte had been nearly completely destroyed, was where the residents of Ighil Ntalghoumt had narrowly spared a horrific fate. Out of the 400 residents of the community, 68 people died, and not a single house was left standing.

Although the residents of Ighil Ntalghoumt were saved, they still desperately needed assistance, and some of them were observed making their way down the mountain to the authorities.