Sunday, October 23, 2011

Habiba El Madkouri is dead


الله يرحمها ويغفر لها ولنا ولجميع المسلمين

Habiba EL Madkouri, a voice of romance and tenderness by Allal El Alaoui

As she was preparing to enter to the stage of the Royal theatre in the sixties in the Capital of Morocco , Rabat, she sighed a deep breath heavily making a gentle wave and a courageous moving head shake to her master , AbdelKarim Follouss . She stepped in dressed like a fairy queen ,stared willingly at her audience . Among them, there were resistance nationalists disguised like theatre-goers . In the center of the stage , this woman stood confidently uttering the first theatrical word to the audience that felt menaced by her heavy presence and consenqueltly it rewarded her with a long silence.

She was not disturbed by the front spot lights nor the flashing lights that came out swiftly from journalists and cameramen . With a magical move towards the audience , she impressed theatre-goers with her dramatic secret words of life using her soft and sweet voice.

As soon as she finished her lines , everybody stood up plausing her heartedly especially the way she said her soliloquy . They knew then that a star was born , and she was a promising actress. Some saw in her Greta Garbo, others Vanessa Redgrave ,But that lady was only Habiba El Madkouri . It is a name that is engraved eternelly into Moroccan memory.