Shahrazād in transatlantic journeys: Moorish dancing entertainers beyond borders (1850–1912)

Abstract

The routes of travel started from the margins of the empire towards metropolitan centres of nineteenth-century Europe and America included Moroccan women travellers as acrobats and dancing professional artists. They crossed the straits of Gibraltar and journeyed through the Atlantic to visit western countries. Moroccan women travellers took part in various Euro-American theatre performances and in circus shows as early as 1850 according to newspapers archives and passengers shipping lists. These Shahrazāds, whose names are now lost to us, moved freely in various western capital cities to entertain nineteenth-century western audiences. This article attempts to reexamine the forgotten experiences and itineraries of Moroccan non-canonical voices beyond borders. Their routes and experiences of travel have been decisive in the shaping of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean systems and in turning them into an intriguing space of social interactions and cultural connections. Curiously, nothing is left in the accounts of history about their itineraries, experiences and stories in western lands except for a few scattered indications in newspaper archives and in magazines. The contesting beginnings of Moroccan professional entertainers in western show business in the nineteenth century witnessed intricate artistic, discursive and cultural junctures. I argue that Moroccan professional performances evolved in Europe and in America within a complex context marked by the rise of a racial consciousness that sought to authenticate ethnic discourses of power and exclusion. The ethnic taxonomies and hierarchies governed by ethnographic and anthropological documentation fuelled up entertainment venues and popular theatrical performances and helped in developing a distinctive view about Self and Other paradigms.