Lola Lee

AFRICA'S FUTURE Unlike the heartbreaking images of the severely malnourished, this healthy family represents the future of Africa. With clean water, education and healthcare, their future holds promise. This adoring mother nestles her youngest of three. Somehow you know the doctor is smiling, enjoying a shared moment of understanding with another parent. ... read more

SERENITY Winston Churchill famously advocated that if travelers had but one day to experience Morocco, that one day should be in Marrakech. This metropolis, used for one thousand years by southern tribes and Berbers socializing and trading, likely began as most desert meeting places, a higgledy-piggledy collection of blanket-tents situated around an oasis. Several unique architectural creations dominate the ancient stone-walled medina, a vibrant city-centre bounded on the north by sprawling souks offering a multi-coloured cornucopia of leather and sheepskin, wood, jewellery, copper, and textiles. Just inside the city’s southern walls, the intricately carved white columns inside the once-forgotten crepuscular Saadian Tombs contrast with the soaring Koutoubia Minaret, dominating the incomparable Plaza Djemaa el Fna, the “assembly of the dead”. Without this plaza festoo... read more

ALGERIA, BEYOND THE DUNES Leaving my B&B Riad Dar Kamar concealed within the tangled lanes of Kasbah Taourirt in the village of Ouarzazate, I boarded the local bus, filled with Moroccans. Drawn irresistibly to the vast panoramic potential of the desert, I began my second foray on dromedary into the Moroccan countryside, the Western Sahara. Without prior arrangements, I planned simply to arrive at Rissani, an implausibly conservative village. Meandering tortuous sandy lanes, dodging horse-and mule-drawn carts and black ghosts - women cloaked in the abaya, with only hands, feet, and the occasional face visible, a statement underlining their modesty not their religion - I would be sought and hailed by hawkers bidding desert safaris. A lanky black-leather-jacket-clad traveler wearily slouched upon the seat opposite me, gazing outward. A stark white Moroccan turban accentuated... read more

SOLITARY CAT, CHEFCHAOUEN, MOROCCO Admiring this surreal image, viewers first think that the extensive Delft Sky blue has been achieved with a computer-generated program, realizing quickly that the cat’s fur, although not as white as it could be, certainly is not blue. Chefchaouen, the name itself extraordinary, is unlike anywhere else in the world. Although the blue is not restricted to Chefchauoen (also called Chaouen, Xaouen), nowhere else in North Africa is this dreamlike colour given such prominence, with such impact. The entire residential area of the medina, a walled city section featuring constricted labyrinthine lanes, displays spectacular hues of blue, a shadowy dark shade nearest the earth, fading in phases, with the upper walls a powdery blue-white. Sheltered by steep hills, Djebala tribespeople settled in this remote, isolated area in 1471 A.D. welcoming only Mu ... read more