Yacout Info: What is the aim of this radio programme for BBC 3?

Tahir Shah: What we are trying to do is get under the skin of the Place Jemma El Fna and highlight things which the tourist may not have noticed, looking at the Place from the inside. What really strikes you if you spend more than a few minutes in the Place is how Moroccan it is and despite the fact that there are many tourists there, it has a deeply Moroccan charater as the people come to be entertained, for food and in some cases to be healed.

We saw a huge black man in Toureg robes. It surprised both of us that he was doing a great deal of business. In the West we might characterise him as an amateur practioner; he looked quite rough and had glass phials of cloudy liquids which people were snapping up. His sales patter encouraged the audience.

Q: What are the impressions you have gathered so far ?

A: This visit to the Place has emphasised to me how discerning and shrewd the Moroccan public are. If the performer hasn't got a sales talk which is sharper than sharp their audience withers away very quickly. It keeps the story tellers and salesmen on their toes and it is fabulous to see the sheer ingenuity of their act before the crowd. Every time one visits there is a new act being introduced. The latest entertainment I have seen that attracted substantial crowds is a set up similar to a fair gound stall where empty fizzy drinks bottles of fanta, sprite and coca cola are arranged and members of the audience rent these fishing polls with a ring on the end of the string to snare the bottles. This game was very popular and the latest sensation on the square. This salesman looked as if he was making real money, because everyone likes to test their skill and they have a good chance of winning a bottle of fizzy drink worth five or six dirhams.

Q: What brings the people to the square?

A: The people visit the Square because it is free and very varied entertainement. When a man comes round with his woolly hat seeking money from the crowd people look sheepish and no one wants to pay at first so tourists are a natural first target. People's readiness to pay depends on the skill of a story teller or an act such as a boxing match. The momentum has to be kept going to ensure the crowds attention.

Q: Has the Place Jemma El Fna changed during the time that you have been visiting it?

A: I was interested to see how the square is changing, I come down from Casablanca every so often to visit the Place and I hope it is not becoming too controlled and less spontaneous. It is becoming more organised in some ways, however it is still a place where ordinary Moroccans come for entertainment from the region and the outlying agricultural and mountain areas as they have always done and the square maintains its traditional character. This is real live popular enterainement which has always been self generating and a part of Morocco's constantly evolving oral history. The Jemma El Fna is a very real place and a great change from the very urban environment where I live in Casablanca.

Q: Does the Place change during the day?

A: What is wonderful is that if you look at it as a theatre it is a constant matinee performance in the morning and then in the afternoon more story tellers appear and the gnawa musicians and at night the food stalls open and it is always alive, late into the night. It really does change its nature during the day and one notices the different aspects of the light and shadows. Even the smells change. It is magical when the food stalls erupt in to the night with wraiths of smoke from the brochettes billowing across the square.

Standing there, what goes through my mind is the thought of all the people over hundreds of years who have come here and left their mark upon it. It is a very magical and raw part of Marrakech. It is wonderful to meet people as they are seeing it for the first time and we meet an American lady who also happened to be a BBC radio journalist who was profoundly touched by the raw energy of the place and the spectical around her.

Perhaps some of the people living in Marrakech may not go regularly to the Place or are blase about it. Coming from Casablanca I always appreciate it because we have no equivalent to this and it is unique in Morocco as well as the world.

Q: Do you think that tourism might intrude on the popular Moroccan nature of the spectical?

A: Perhaps Jemma El Fna cannot be controlled so much by tourists because they may take pictures and watch but they do not speak the language and therefore cannot influence or participate in the storytelling. My novel "In Arabian Nights" celebrates the story telling tradition in Morocco as a tremendous life force which is bound up with the Moroccan people and is so much a part of their character and history.

Tourists can listen to and appreciate the music and atmosphere but they cannot penetrate the depths of the cultural traditions of the Place. They are observers but not a central part of it. The performers are happy to earn some money but this is not their prime motivation which is to provide entertainment and to participate in and create their own reality.

Hopefully these traditions will always be preserved and the entertainment for the tourists will not detract from away the enjoyment and electric atmosphere created by the performers and their interaction with the Moroccan audience.

Q: How would you describe the essence of the Place Jemma El Fna?

A: It still has the local feel of people coming from the surrounding countryside to shop or sell in the souks and seeking enterainment as they have always done and I hope this will never be lost. You can see country people who have just arrived who are just as amazed as the tourists and we have to keep the excitement and the wonder of the Place alive. It is the essence of Morocco, Moroccans love entertainment and someone who is putting on a performance. Even the healers add to the magic with their performance, the sizzle and the energy of the act. Morocco is all about this energy and dynamism pulling the audience into the circle to watch. If I lived in Marrakech I would be at the Place everyday because it is constantly changing and reinventing itself.