Christine Ochefu is an arts and culture writer who specialises in music coverage and artist profiles. Alongside Trippin, she writes for publications like The Guardian, W Magazine, GQ, The Fader, Rolling Stone, Nylon, i-D, The Face, Crack Magazine and more. She is particularly interested in covering emerging genres and undiscovered sounds, as well as exploring archival material and historical music scenes. Alongside strategy, consultancy, research and curation work, she is currently working on her first book amongst other projects.

Christine Ochefu

, travellers might be used to the usual cultural hotspots more known internationally: 

 and the capital of Rabat. But much less known is the city of Dakhla: a small territory on the coast of Morocco heavily influenced by its proximity to water.

It's also the site of a burgeoning music event headed up by creators native to the country. This autumn, we headed to Oasis Into the Wild Festival – a multi-day music event spearheaded by creator Marjana Jaidi. Into the Wild is the first of its type to hit the area; a boutique spin off festival making its launch after the pandemic, Jaidi launched the event with the aims of introducing festival attendees to more unique travel destinations in the country.

And in an area so linked to water it’s only natural that the region would have a unique food culture. Into the Wild teamed up with Moroccan chefs and restaurateurs – such as Yasmina Ksikes of

 – to bring Dakhla’s cuisine to festival-goers. “The local produce in Dakhla is mostly ocean driven, and the rest is brought from either Mauritania or southern cities like Laayoune or Agadir,” Yasmin explains. “The abundance of ocean produce is truly unique, and the flavours are wonderful.”

Read on for our main takeaways from Dakhla's food scene and Oasis Into the Wild.

In an area with an abundance of water it only makes sense to try the seafood. Seafood culture is a highlight of the area with many local places using Moroccan oysters sourced from Dakla farms, amongst other fish such as croaker. “If you are a traveller, I recommend you try Morrocan oysters,” Meski says. “Dakhla has a lot of fish and seafood to work with, that's why I used a lot of local products for the festival. Their lobsters are crazy good and really fresh!”

We got the chance to try other local delicacies in Dahkla such as m'semen – a form of flatbread – and other types of meat sources less popular abroad. Local food is largely influenced by the presence of the desert and its “nomadic style of cuisine”. Yasmina tells us, “Seafood culture is the highlight of Dakhla for sure, but what a lot of people don't know is the area is known for camel meat.” A native animal to the area, camel meat as well as its hump fat (referred to as daroua) are often used in local meals and cooking, such as camel tagines.

“Do not miss the tea ceremony. The tea is incredible and unique to the area,” she continues. “Dakhla people use the unique verb ‘to tea’, which means spending long hours making and drinking the very rich and sweet drink. I also love the very refreshing Bissap drink, which is a version of hibiscus, lime and mint iced tea.”

All in all, to get the best taste of Dakhla it’s important to be prepped. The area is largely remote and not without its caveats. Oasis Into the Wild Festival faced its own challenges in its launch with transport, and international travellers might struggle to gain internet access or source a local sim without speaking Arabic – or at least some conversational French. “Getting around Dakhla can be a bit challenging, as everything is really spread out,” Marjana admits. She advises to stick with hotels that arrange and source trips for you based around the seafront, or lagoons that might offer a range of activities.

Dakhla Club, where the festival was located, offers kite surfing, boat rides and quad biking, and many others may have the option to provide some or all of the meals as an in-house package. “Choose a hotel that you can use as your main base from which to explore everything that the region has to offer,” she continues. “Taxis can also be a good option if you’re staying in the city centre but they can be less reliable if you’re staying at a hotel on the water. You can also visit certain points of interest by boat that can be arranged through your hotel too.”

Exploring Dakhla’s Food Scene at Oasis Into the Wild Festival

Writer: Christine Ochefu
Photographer: Alondra Buccio
Creative direction: Savannah Blake, Alexa Venus, Wave Magazine
Art direction: Kesang Ball, Trippin
Producer: Martina Piazza, Trippin
Production Manager: Jessica Jimenez
Lighting: Jamie Amimoto
Photographer’s assistant: Shannon G
Stylist: Sam Woolf
Stylist's Assistants: Talia Garner, Juliette Hill

Keenon Jackson, the artist known as YG, is telling me about his wildest travel story. Touring the states between 2014 and 2015, it includes a tour bus, a gaggle of his boys, and strangely enough, his mother.


‘We on tour, my mom wanna hop on tour with us,’ he says. ‘I say “look mama. You don't want to come be on a bus with the homies, it get crazy.” And she like “nah... I want to come on the bus!" So she comes with us for some days’.

‘One night it get crazy. Her bunk is across from mine all the way in the back of the bus, by the back room. The back room is where we party at’.


It doesn’t take a genius to guess what happens next. ‘One of my homies is in the back room, and mama is trying to go to sleep. And all she hearing is…’. He makes three loud clapping sounds to illustrate what his friend had been getting up to, in between his raucous laughter now springing through our Zoom call. ‘She wake me up and she’s like “Keenon, what the fuck is going on?” I said “Mama, I told you, you don't want to get on the bus!” She was traumatised after that’.


YG is an artist who lives what he raps about, no matter where he is in the world. He’s known for waxing about coarse topics, and his songs aren’t shy in detailing a lust for the party lifestyle. He’s the West Coast figurehead that gave the world hits like Who Do You Love back in 2014, and then told a sitting president to go fuck himself a couple years later.

It’s a career that’s taken him worldwide. You get the sense that his wilder lyrics are a good snapshot of what it’s like for him on tour, but he stays tight-lipped on any intimate details.

 ‘I mean tours get crazy, it be a whole lot of crazy shit,’ he smiles. ‘I'm gonna tell you this though; they love us in Australia – oh, they love me to death! We have so much fun there, I'm just gonna say that’.

In his downtime, he still likes to get around. He spends his time hitting up casinos in Vegas and Palm Springs when he wants to chill with his guys, riding in his Maybach or bulletproof truck. A father of two, he tells me about flying his daughters out to South America, and even getting turned away at the US border on his first tour (‘none of the homies could get into Canada,’ he recalls).

But wherever he goes, he carries home with him. YG is Compton born and raised, and one of the city’s proudest ambassadors. It’s evident in his artistry; his thick, home-grown cadence is probably the best giveaway, the same effortlessly cool drawl he has when speaking. Then there are his songs; his tracks are constantly laced with heavy bass, G-funk synths and infectious hooks that are trademark of the LA rap sound, perfected by collaborators like DJ Mustard.

Compton has made him who he is today, something he repeats throughout our conversation. ‘The city got a lot to do with how I move and look at life,’ he says. ‘It gave me structure, morals and a code. It's a lot of shit that come with Compton on the other side of things we love; some motherfuckers make it out and a lot don't. But I love the city’.

YG doesn’t dismiss the mixed reality of his hometown. Compton is a place that gets a lot of stick; it’s undeniably a jewel of the West Coast, with a long-standing impact on music, fashion, sports, and contemporary culture. But it also has its thornier side. It’s an area struggling with problems of gang violence, a life he himself has been entwined in, and wider social-economic issues that have long marred its public image.

But he tells of a vivid life growing up in the area. Some of his earliest memories involve watching the Martin Luther King’s Day parades off El Segundo Boulevard from his aunt’s backyard, and listening to artists like The Game, another musical predecessor coming from L.A. But even his fond memories are interspersed with the threat of violence, and the artist still has his ‘head on swivel’ going back now due to ongoing tensions. But he's adamant that his experiences in the streets were formative, and gave him the moral codes he still lives by to date.

‘I've had to live my life a certain way because I was a part of a gang,’ he explains. ‘You turn into a man at a young age because you’re put in situations where you got to stick to the code of the streets. With that comes a lot of dumb shit. But you get taught things that apply later on in life, like being a man, a protector, a provider, standing on your word and respect’.

‘People talk about gang members like motherfuckers is stupid,’ he continues. ‘But really it's like a brotherhood, outside of all the criminal shit it's codes and morals that we live by. A lot of motherfuckers my age or older don't got a clue about certain things that I've been applying to my life for years. I just look at it like, see? I was a gang member. I got taught all that shit early, you still trying to figure it out’.

When he speaks of Compton, the main thing he holds in his mind is pride. Despite its mixed reputation, there’s an undeniable truth he says of the city: ‘Compton births superstars’. He reels off an endless list of peers; entertainers from Venus and Serena down to Eazy E and the late Nipsey Hussle. ‘Motherfuckers can think what they think – the ghetto, the slums, gangbanging and all that,’ he says.

‘It's true it is gang-infested. But roses grow from concrete. It's also a beautiful city, and a lot of good people in it’.