Who has a right to land that ought not to be owned? In Hoe zeg je “kom terug”?, Hannah Zaouad explores the impact of mass migration and return in the Moroccan Rif region, a transit zone between Europe and Africa. A poignant reflection on land, identity and the traces of history in the present.

I’m going on a journey and I’m taking myself with me. Most people love to travel, but what does your presence mean in the landscape you’re visiting? What impact does it have on the local population? How do you set out on a journey to the land of your ancestors?

The poetic documentary theatre piece Hoe zeg je “kom terug”? explores the tourism industry in the Rif region of Morocco, a transit zone between Europe and Africa. On the one hand, the region has been deeply marked by the mass migration to Europe in the 1960s. On the other hand, the tourism industry is now flourishing there, fuelled by the ‘return’ of the children of those former migrant workers.

Hoe zeg je “kom terug”? explores what we have lost, what we are in the process of losing, and what we are fighting to win back, through the lens of tourism, migration and language. Who has a right to land that ought not to be private property?

Hannah Zaouad is a theatre maker, spoken-word artist, dramaturg and documentary filmmaker. Their work often centres on themes of labour, migration, intergenerational memory and urban transformation. For instance, they co-organised the We Buildt This Festival (2023–2024), a nomadic cultural festival that highlights the often-invisible contribution of migration. In the poetic documentary Gent:Rificatie (2024), Zaouad gives voice to the changes taking place in their hometown.

In their work, personal history is never merely autobiographical but part of a larger collective narrative. Zaouad invites people to see connections: between the past and the present, and above all between individual lives and structural systems. The pitch for Hoe zeg je “kom terug”? won the Roel Verniers Prize in 2025.