Friday, September 12, 1930…Our way crossed camel-caravans…the shouts of the drivers…camel screams…weird…
-Smara: The Forbidden City, from the chapter “Disguised as a Woman”, Michel Vieuchange, 1932
Vieuchange was the quintessential Saharan flâneur, dressed in native costume, joined to a caravan of women, worried that his falling face veil and bare ankles would betray his identity before reaching Smara, and when he did, so overwhelmed by its shabbiness, he stayed only three hours before turning around, and, hallucinating a visit from Arthur Rimbaud, died three days later. As Rabih asked me, O Khawaja, Why do such things?