Sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast

March 23, 2012

Where in the world is the Diva?

Morocco. . It’s part of what’s called The Maghreb, the portion of northwest Africa that also includes Algeria, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania, as well as some disputed part of the Sahara. It used to be called…BARBARY. From “Berber.”

Ring a bell?

The Barbary Coast?

Pirates, American slaves…when people talked about being kidnapped and sold into white slavery, that’s what they meant.

Quite a colorful history. We’re in Berber country right now, the south part of Morocco, near the border with Algeria.

Morocco been inhabited since the year 200,000 BC or so and way back then it was a lot less arid than it is today. Much dryer today. Why? Because of…climate change.

Still astounds me that some refuse to believe climate change is real. Even when historians and scientists can clearly see what’s happened over thousands of years.

Thousands of years. The U.S.A is such a young country compared to some of these ancient places, where the old and the new both hit you squarely in the face. I’ll have more to say on that soon.

Now, we’re heading out to see some fossils, and then straight into the Sahara to our tented encampment and our camels.
Our camels.
I’ve avoided thinking about it except to visualize a smooth mount and dismount, and an undulating ride across the dunes.
Florence. If not of Arabia, certainly of San Jose.
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  1. […] Beautiful.  San Francisco’s waterfront has a history and we often hear old tales of being sold into slavery on the Barbary Coast. I didn’t know what that really meant until I went to Morocco and discovered THIS. […]

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