It was our last day in Casablanca.

We were not supposed to go anywhere and do anything but get ready for our trip to another interesting city in Morocco – Fes. Since it was still early to go packing because we will be leaving in the afternoon, we decided to just wander around our hotel for the last time. Luckily, we stumbled upon a culture and society seminar for Moroccan students in one of the hotel’s conference rooms. Our show of interest to the event caught the hotel manager’s attention. After having a brief talk with the organizers, he led us inside the room and gave us seats on the front row!

The topic that was discussed at the time was about the Casablanca history. This seminar was not one of those boring lectures where most members of the audience fall asleep in the middle of the talk. The lecturer managed to deliver a lively discussion on Casablanca’s history by adding a dash of wit and humor to his stories. Here are the things I learned about Casablanca history:

During the 7th century, the Berbers reigned over Anfa. Anfa was the original name of that area which we now call Casablanca. It also became a territory of the Merinid dynasty in the 14th century. When the Portuguese arrived, they turned Anfa into their military fortress and named it Casabranca, which means “white house” in their language. However, in 1755, after an earthquake damaged Anfa, the Portuguese deemed it useless in their military operations so they abandoned the place. Sultan Sidi Mohammad III rebuilt Anfa and bestowed an Arabic and Spanish name for it, which are Dal el Belda and Casablanca. Casablanca achieved its independence on March 2, 1956 after a series of violent uprising against the French rule.

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