[2] He was born in 1932 in Jajouka, a village at the southern end of the Rif Mountains near Ksar el-Kebir, in northern Morocco.

[8] Rolling Stones founder and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones met Hamri when he visited Morocco in 1967.

[citation needed][9] In 1975, Hamri's book Tales of Joujouka, which told stories from the village, including "The Legend of Boujeloud", the half-goat/half-man creature celebrated in the annual ritual, was published by Capra Press in Santa Barbara.

The show, a celebration of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and the Tangier beat scene, was documented in the documentary Destroy all Rational Thought, directed by Joe Ambrose and Frank Rynne.

[11] Hamri had over 50 exhibitions of his paintings in Morocco, Spain, Lebanon, Canary Islands, Germany, United States, UK and Ireland during his lifetime.

[12] He died in 2000 and is buried in the centre of the village, close to the tomb of the local Muslim saint Sidi Ahmed Sheikh.