Background
Although Agadir has the relaxed air of beach resort, it has little that is distinctively Moroccan. The old settlement was almost totally destroyed in the earthquake of 1960, and has been rebuilt as an international beach resort.
Agadir’s rise and fall
Agadir first features in written history in the early 16th century, when a Portuguese noble built a fortress named Santa Cruz de Cap de Gué, somewhere close to the present city. The fort was sold on to the King of Portugal in 1513, and it became a further link in the chain of trading posts the Portuguese were establishing along the Atlantic coast of Africa. But not for long. The Imazighen of the Souss valley launched a jihad against the isolated fort, and the Saâdian Emir of the Souss, Mohammed Echeikh el Mehdi, captured it in 1541, heralding the Portuguese departure from most of their other Atlantic strongholds. His son, Moulay Abdallah el Ahalib, built the kasbah on the hill overlooking the city, the ruins of which still stand. As the Saâdians developed farming in the Souss valley, Agadir grew in importance, eventually becoming an big trading centre in the 17th and 18th centuries. Exports were sugar cane, olive oil, gold and spices, both from the immediate hinterland of the Souss valley, and further afield from the Sahara. However, Agadir declined during the reign of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah, who preferred to develop Essaouira, to the north, and closed down Agadir’s port. By the beginning of the 19th century, Agadir had all but disappeared.
In the early 20th century, Agadir hit the international headlines briefly. The European powers were running out of places to colonize, and Germany, under Kaiser Wilhelm II, was miffed at the growing influence of France and Spain in Morocco. (Germany had joined the scramble for Africa relatively late.) In 1911 an incident occurred in the Bay of Agadir when a German gunboat appeared ‘to protect German interests’, despite the 1906 Algeciras treaty. The crisis was settled by negotiations between the French and Germans which recognized France’s rights in Morocco in exchange for territorial concessions in the Congo. The French occupied Agadir in 1913. They constructed the port in 1914, and enlarged it in 1930 and 1953.
On 29 February 1960, disaster struck: old Agadir was completely destroyed by a terrible earthquake and newly independent Morocco faced the challenge of rebuilding the town. An entire new settlement was laid out south of the old centre and planned for development as a major tourist resort, with distinct functional zones separated by green swathes, and the large hotels carefully distanced from the local residential areas. The ruined kasbah was encased in concrete. Set in the wall are Mohammed V’s words, commemorating the dead: “If destiny desired the destruction of Agadir, its reconstruction depends on our faith and our determination.” More clearly visible, on an arid hillside, in giant Arabic letters, is the national motto: “Allah, Al Watan, Al Malik” (”God, the Nation, the King”). With reconstruction, the city gained some chunky functional buildings, all brutalist concrete, by the likes of star 1960s Moroccan architect Jean-François Zevaco. The port (which escaped total destruction) was developed as the base for a large fishing fleet and as the centre of an industrial zone.
Agadir today
In the 1990s, tourism in Agadir suffered from the impact of the Gulf War and the huge growth in popularity of Marrakech. Nor did Agadir develop nightlife to compete with the Balearics or the Canaries. Instead, the town became a destination for a wealthy Gulf Arab clientele seeking a discrete playground. From the town’s nightclubs, prostitution developed. Poor housing areas on the margins expanded, with rural people fleeing the drought-stricken countryside in the late 1990s. Thanks to this exodus, Agadir is now the largest Tachelhit-speaking city in Morocco, and its people, the Gadiris, are proud of their Amazigh origins. There is a dynamic local bourgeoisie with business interests across Morocco. Today, tourism in the city is attempting a move upmarket, with the Agadir Marina development at the northern end of the bay attracting yachts and Western clothes shops.
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