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.