Existential questions

What is the meaning of life? Where does purpose come from? Do we have a soul and if so, where does it go after we die? These are important questions almost all of us encounter within a lifetime. To the best of my belief our own conscience of being alive forces them upon us, and it is what separates us utterly from other species. But only few people actively seek contemplation like this, or talk about their thoughts to other people. Especially not to strangers. What I have found in Morocco though, is a totally diffferent habit of contemplating.

Since I have arrived I've had the opportunity to speak to many different people from different backgrounds and education. But no matter the personal interests or discussion topics, with each and every one of them I discussed some kind of philosophical idea as soon as they felt they could open up to me. Of course I have had similar conversations in Europe because I like deep talk and care for philosophy, but these topics have always been restricted to a certain crowd: students, liberals, activists, travelers and generally open minded people. Here it seems no matter your social or economic status, everyone wants to discuss. And everyone has a lot of questions for me as well. 

One big conversation starter to get to those topic is of course religion. Religion plays an important rule for almost everyone, even non practicing muslims. The culture evolved around the tales of the Koran and the societies values are guided by the pillars of Islam. So other than in secular countries, you can learn a lot about the moral code by reading just one book. Especially less educated crowds don't question the existence of god and I have also learned not to tell them that I am an atheist. I just let them assume I'm Christian most of the time, because they can not imagine a reality with no ultimate judgement. However though the mere existence of god is not questioned, they do wonder a lot about the afterlife, and what it means to be a good Muslim. And I believe that's the question that leads them to contemplate about their ways the most: how can I be a good person ?

Whenever I tell people that to me, the existence of god is just as ungraspable as his absence is for them, I am confronted with a huge amount of curious questions. I imagine it's because they almost never meet an atheist, I know I haven't since I'm here. But the fact that there is so much curiosity and interest for my opinion really is inspiring to me. 

Furthermore a lot of people seem to have a really impressive reading record. Throughout every age group and social class people have read Nietzsche, Hegel or Wittgenstein. Psychoanalysis, political science, economics and various philosophers are widely discussed or sited on fitting occasions. This is often confusing, because personal political views and ethics tend to differ greatly from the viewpoint of those works. It's very strange to discuss the communist manifesto with someone who lives in a country where there is virtually no communist scene or movement, or discuss Nietzsches God is Dead texts with a deeply religious Muslim. But it certainly is some kind of a new experience. 

It is hard to tell though whether people actively looked for these intellectual books though, or if it is just due to the limited book availability that they chose to grab existentialist western philosophy works. There is a strong book censorship to be found here. Since I arrived I have hardly seen any new books appear on the street markets, let alone in the libraries. The older works though have been translated to Arabic and French and are therefore available to the broad majority of Morrocans. It is hard to tell though if the book shops just follow demand. 

It has been a very inspiring experience to talk to well read people in this country and it is enriching my knowledge on a daily basis. And  most importantly it shows me once again that Europeans are constantly underestimating the intellectual capacity of people in Africa and their will to improve. Moroccans work so hard tu study languages and science, literature and philosophy and I am confident that social and economic growth will result from it.