BOU ARFA
Act 1 Scene 1 A private house
Isaac: We are safe. The King will protect us.
Mikhael: Like he has so far?
Isaac: What do you mean?
Mikhael: I mean the camps.
Isaac: What camps?
Mikhael: Oh come on now.
Isaac: I am serious what camps are you talking of.
Mikhael: Where have you been? This country is abusing Spanish and Jewish refugees through forced labour. These Nazis won’t take no for an answer.
Isaac: But the King has sworn that no Moroccan Jews will be deported.
Mikhail: That hides the fact that rather than deport them, the Nazis force them to work themselves to death here.
Isaac: Doing what? I don't understand.
Mikhail: Building a railway for the Nazis and their damn expansionism.
Isaac: A railway to where?
Mikhail: The Sea Niger of course. The Sahara route. That old colonial exercise is now revived and of course man power is needed to make it a reality.
Isaac: Why do they want a railway here?
Mikhail: Where have you been? The Nazis are invading Africa, they need supply lines and we have at the beginnings of such a line here in Morocco.
Isaac: That makes sense.
Mikhail: The Jews and Spanish refugees are a perfect ready made work force.
Isaac: People need work to survive.
Mikhail: There is no pay. It is forced labour.
Isaac: No that cannot be. In this country?
Mikhail: Things have changed my friend. It is time to wake up.
Isaac: What do the elders say about it?
Mikhail: They are managing it.
Isaac: What? Don’t they know what is happening? How can they be sanctioning this.
Mikhail: They have no choice. They are as trapped by the Nazis as the men working the railway are.
Isaac: What can we do? There must be something to help those poor souls.
Mikhail: Can you use your connections to affect some change for these wretches?
Isaac: The council will have to decide and then we must make detailed plans.
Mikhail: They had better act soon or the Nazis will come for them also.
©Simon O'Corra. 2019