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Morocco
The Facade of Political Crises in Morocco
![[King Mohammed VI receives the Istiqlal Party's leader, Hamid Chabat, following his election as the head of the party. Image from Lakome.]](/content_images/3/sm_photochabatm6640.jpg "[King Mohammed VI receives the Istiqlal Party's leader, Hamid Chabat, following his election as the head of the party. Image from Lakome.]")
This weekend, the conservative nationalist Istiqlal Party announced it will be withdrawing from the government coalition, led by the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), and will take its place in parliament's opposition. Its reason, according to the party's press release, was to "avoid being complicit in the scheme against the Moroccan people." Additionally, the party will maintain its cabinet positions until further notice, and the party has written a formal letter to King Mohammed VI detailing its reasons for withdrawing from the coalition and to "guarantee" the execution of its withdrawal. This move will undoubtedly place further ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: Chouki El Hamel, Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam
Chouki El Hamel, Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Questions by Brahim El Guabli Brahim El Guabli (BEG): Why Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam? Chouki El Hamel (CEH): Written history about Morocco is generally silent regarding slavery and racial attitudes, discrimination, and marginalization, and paints a picture of Morocco as free from such social problems. Such problems are usually associated more with slavery and its historical aftermath in the United States. Slavery and racial questions are issues that were previously taboo in academic work on Morocco. The objective ...
Keep Reading »Altérité, interculturalité et marginalité dans la littérature francophone marocaine : Entretien avec El Hassane Aït Moh
![[Quelques œuvres par El Hassan Aït Moh.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-04-16at10.30.36AM.png "[Quelques œuvres par El Hassan Aït Moh.]")
El Hassane Aït Moh est l’un des nombreux écrivains marocains, voire maghrébins, résidants à l’étranger et qui ont adopté la langue française comme langue de production littéraire. Après un long parcours dans l’enseignement public, El Hassane a rejoint la mission culturelle marocaine en France pour continuer son métier de toujours : l’enseignement et le dialogue interculturel. Il vient de publier son troisième roman, intitulé Les Jours de Cuivre, chez L’Harmattan. Dans ses ouvrages, Aït Moh, ce berbérophone natif de Ouarzazate, une ville moyenne incrustée au pied du Haut Atlas au sud-est du Maroc, qui maitrise aussi bien l’arabe que le français, ...
Keep Reading »François Hollande au Maroc : plutôt les affaires que les droits de l'homme
![[Image de François Hollande et Mohammed VI à Casablanca. Image d'une vidéo sur Youtube.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-04-03at7.02.05PM.png "[Image de François Hollande et Mohammed VI à Casablanca. Image d'une vidéo sur Youtube.]")
C'est un Président français sévèrement diminué politiquement qui s'apprête à se rendre en visite d'Etat au Maroc, les 3 et 4 avril. Battant des records d'impopularité, François Hollande n'a cessé, depuis le début de son mandat, de chuter dans les sondages, où il a encore perdu cinq points, cette semaine, pour s'établir à trente six pour cent d'opinions favorables. Sa dernière prestation sur la deuxième chaîne française, n'y a rien changé. Peu ou prou de ses compatriotes ont été convaincus de sa capacité à relancer la machine de la croissance et résoudre le problème du chômage. Trente deux pour cent seulement, d'entre eux l'ont trouvé «convaincant» et trente pour ...
Keep Reading »Celebrating El Haqed’s Freedom: Soundtracking Resistance
![[Mouad Belghouat, also known as El Haqed, gives a press conference in Casablanca following his release from prison. Image via Dire Li Bghiti Facebook Page.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-04-01at9.40.19PM.png "[Mouad Belghouat, also known as El Haqed, gives a press conference in Casablanca following his release from prison. Image via Dire Li Bghiti Facebook Page.]")
After being arrested twice and serving a one year jail term for his critical lyrics “Dogs of the State,” Mouad Belghouat, whose alias is El Haqed, is finally free. His outspoken lyrics are known for critiquing corruption, clientelism, the monarchy’s excessive wealth, and oligarchy. El Haqed’s trial attracted huge crowds and brought international and national scrutiny on the supposed new reforms and freedom of expression in Morocco. Under the new constitution, article 25 states: “Freedom of thought, opinion and expression in all its forms are guaranteed. Freedom to create, publish, and display literary and artistic materials and scientific and technical research are ...
Keep Reading »Violence, Vulnerability, and Migration: Trapped at the Gates of Europe
![[Doctors Without Borders logo. Image from doctorswithoutborders.org]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-03-17at5.55.11PM.png "[Doctors Without Borders logo. Image from doctorswithoutborders.org]")
[The following report was issued by Doctors Without Borders on 14 March 2013.] Violence, Vulnerability, and Migration: Trapped at the Gates of Europe A report on the situation of sub-Saharan migrants in an irregular situation in Morocco. Executive Summary Over the last ten years, as the European Union (EU) has tightened its border controls and increasingly externalised its migration policies, Morocco has changed from being just a transit country for migrants en route to Europe to being both a transit and destination country by default. MSF’s experience demonstrates that the longer sub-Saharan migrants stay in Morocco the more vulnerable they ...
Keep Reading »Assarag: Habitat and the Imazighen of Morocco
![[Rachida Arbuz is still living with her family in Tagharghist but when she’s old enough she will most probably be sent to Marrakech to work as a domestic helper. Photo by Bart Deseyn.]](/content_images/3/sm_Morocco-High-Atlas-Agoundis-Tagharghist-young-Berber-girl-c-Bart-Deseyn.jpg "[Rachida Arbuz is still living with her family in Tagharghist but when she’s old enough she will most probably be sent to Marrakech to work as a domestic helper. Photo by Bart Deseyn.]")
(If the photo slide show does not appear above, please click here.) [The photos and text presented here are the result of my work in five Amazigh (also known as Berber) communities or distinct architectural ensembles in the south of Morocco.] My work in Morocco began in May 2002 when I was invited by a former high school friend of Moroccan descent to photograph his father's native village, Timkatti. This place of mud and stone is located in the Ida Ou Tannane region about forty miles north of Agadir. Like most Westerners invited into a traditional community, I was overwhelmed by all that appeared exotic and as a photographer I was drawn to it. In no time I was snapping ...
Keep Reading »Poems from the Maghreb: Introduction and Selections
[To celebrate the publication of Poems for the Millennium: Vol 4, edited by Pierre Joris and Habib Tangour (University of California Press, 2013), a comprehensive anthology of the written and oral literatures of the Maghreb, Jadaliyya is publishing the editors' introduction and a selection of poems (Mehdi Akhrif, Omar Berrada, Ahmad Al-Majjaty, Djibril Zakaria Sall, and Cheikha Rimitti. For more information and to purchase the book, click here] Introduction This book has been incubating in our minds for a quarter century now, and we have been gathering material for even longer—with the aim of assembling and contextualizing a wide range of writing from North ...
Keep Reading »Positioning Gender Fluidity in Francophone Maghrebi Literature
![[A screenshot from Tahar Ben Jelloun's film, La nuit sacrée. Image from Universcine.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-02-17at10.44.15AM.png "[A screenshot from Tahar Ben Jelloun's film, La nuit sacrée. Image from Universcine.]")
The journey of self-discovery is a recurring theme in Francophone Maghrebi literature and film. Authors and directors place characters in a struggle against forces in both French and Maghrebi society, evoking various themes through which characters define themselves. While these characters embark on different paths in terms of their search for self-discovery, they prove that identities are not rigid. A multitude of factors contribute to the formation of these identities, illustrating a fluidity that breaks down common perceptions and narratives. One common way characters embark on this journey of self-discovery is through gender identification. Two such characters are ...
Keep Reading »Mohamed Majd
The great Moroccan actor Mohamed Majd passed away last Thursday, at the age of seventy-three, at a clinic in Casablanca. He was admitted the week before for respiratory problems, following a short stay in Dubai to promote Noureddine Lakhmari’s latest feature Zero (2012). Majd plays one of the lead roles in this film about police corruption, social exclusion, and an anti-hero's redemption through love found in the film-noirish streets of downtown Casablanca. The renowned actor was laid to rest in Casablanca, where he was born in 1940. His death follows the recent loss of many figures of Moroccan cinema's first generation of directors (Ahmed Bouanani), actors (Hassan ...
Keep Reading »A New Revolt in Morocco?: An Interview with Mohamed El Marouani
![[Mohamed El Marouani. Image from Demain Online.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-01-16at7.47.27PM.png "[Mohamed El Marouani. Image from Demain Online.]")
[Mohamed El Marouani is the author of Abdessalam Yassine's funeral oration, who died on 13 December 2012. Sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for "conspiring against state security," El Marouani was released during the wake of the February 20 Movement. He is the founder of the Al Umma, which he hopes to transform into a political party, however, he has been barred from doing so. The following interview was orginally published in French on Salah Elayoubi's blog and translated to English by Allison L. McManus.] Ahmed Benseddik and Salah Elayaoubi (AB and SE): We remember the eulogy that you gave at the funeral of Sheikh Yassine. Those of us ...
Keep Reading »Mohamed El Marouani: « Les ingrédients d’une nouvelle vague de révolte, sont désormais réunis »
![[Mohamed El Marouani. Image de Demain Online.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-01-16at7.03.08PM.png "[Mohamed El Marouani. Image de Demain Online.]")
[Mohamed El Marouani est l'auteur de l'oraison funèbre de Abdessalam Yassine. Condamné à une peine de vingt-cinq ans de prison, pour complot contre la sureté de l'état, il est libéré dans le sillage du mouvement du 20 février. Il est le fondateur de l'association Al Oumma qu'il aimerait transformer en parti politique, mais pour lequel il a essuyé un refus.] Ahmed Benseddik et Salah Elayoubi (AB et SE): On se souvient de l’oraison funèbre que vous avez prononcée aux funérailles du Cheikh Yassine. Ceux qui vous ne vous connaissaient pas ont pu apprécier vos talents oratoires, alors que vous meniez une violente charge contre ceux que vous qualifiez de ...
Keep Reading »Le Sahara, l’identité et l’africanité dans la littérature francophone du Sud-est: Moha Souag s’exprime
Moha Souag est un écrivain francophone qui a gagné une place prestigieuse dans le paysage littéraire francophone au Maroc grâce à sa persévérance, à l’abondance des ses écrits et à son style d’écriture innovant ; « polygraphe confirmé, il a touché/visité (tâté de) tous les genres littéraires, la poésie, la nouvelle, le roman, le conte. Il a obtenu des prix littéraires tels que le grand prix Atlas, le prix de la nouvelle octroyé par RFI. » Moha n’est pas uniquement une figure de proue de la ...
Keep Reading »Beyond the Western Saharan Debate
Following the French military intervention in Mali earlier this year in January, and the hostage crisis in Algeria that soon followed, major world powers briefly oriented their regional focus towards the Maghreb and Sahel regions. In the midst of the escalating conflict in Mali, pundits pointed to Morocco’s geopolitical position as an ally of France and the United States for a source of stability in the Maghreb and its neighboring regions. For example, in an op-ed in the New York Times, Anouar ...
Keep Reading »World Social Forum Highlights Shock Doctrine in Tunisia
An estimated fifty thousand people from five thousand organizations in 127 countries spanning five continents participated in the World Social Forum (WSF) in Tunisia over the past week. By choosing to come together in Tunis, this year’s Forum evoked the sprit of the 2011 revolt that inspired uprisings around the world. The WSF also focused attention on the complicated status of that revolt, which in Tunisia has not brought the political or economic changes many hoped for. Conversations with local ...
Keep Reading »Morocco's Justice and Charity Party and the Left: A Critical Reflection
There has recently been controversy regarding the Democratic Path Party’s position concerning Islamist movements, particularly the Justice and Charity Party (Al Adl Wal Ihsane) following an article that appeared in Lakome. In reality, it appears that the position was not meant to be a call for an explicit alliance with Al Adl Wal Ihsane. It was rather recognition that the crux of the conflict is not between “modernists” and “dogmatists” and that there is necessity for a large opposition to counter an ...
Keep Reading »Melancholia and the Possibility of a Geopolitics of Mourning
Nouri Gana, Signifying Loss: Toward a Poetics of Narrative Mourning. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2011. In the preface to his recent book, Signifying Loss, Nouri Gana argues that “[i]n a world marked by the swift and sanitized infliction of loss and suffering, especially as a result of the insidious banalization of global warfare and everyday violence,” “signifying loss is crucial to adjusting to a persistently mutating and alienating reality and, simultaneously, to carrying out sociopolitical ...
Keep Reading »Morocco's 20 February Movement: Two Years Later
Two major protests were planned within the period between 20 and 24 February. On 20 February 2013, members of the 20 February Movement planned to commemorate their two year anniversary with a march in front of the Parliament building in Rabat. Unaffiliated with the movement and less than a block away in front of the Rabat Ville train station was a separate protest that a group of unemployed college graduates organized. Despite the similarity in chants, riot police had a clear target for their repression, ...
Keep Reading »February Culture
Jadaliyya's February Culture Bouquet is our most colorful so far! Our new series Visuals in 1500 returns with contributions by artists Doris Bittar and Sundus Abdul Hadi. Pierre Joris and Habib Tangour share their introduction and selections from their massive anthology of written and oral literature of the Maghreb. Emily Drumsta translates a poem by the pioneer Iraqi poet Nazik al-Mala'ika. Sebastian Anstis translates Libyan writer Omar Al-Kikli. Nicole Fares translates an excerpt from a novel by ...
Keep Reading »سلا، مدينة الحمق والقراصنة
[مدن، زاوية جديدة على "جدلية" يكتب فيها الكتاب والكاتبات عن مدنهم المفضلة ] ولدت في مستشفى حكوميّ بمدينة طيّبة اسمها سلا، هي مدينة عتيقة وغير مدعية، مصابة بضيق مزمن بسبب التصاقها المحرج بمدينة مشهورة ومعتدّة بنفسها اسمها الرباط. كان يروق لي في مراحل متعددة من حياتي السابقة التنقل بين المدينتين بواسطة المراكب الخشبية التقليدية التي كانت تحمل العابرين بين ضفتي نهر أبي رقراق الذي خلده عبد الهادي بلخياط في أغنيته الشجية "القمر الأحمر". كنت أجد متعة في تأمل مشهد المدينتين العدوتين ...
Keep Reading »HRW Report on Repression and Reform in Morocco and the Western Sahara
[The following report was released by Human Rights Watch on 31 January 2013.] Moroccans still await tangible improvements in human rights a year after the adoption of a progressive new constitution and the election of an Islamist-led parliament and government, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013. Even as government ministers talked of reform, the courts imprisoned dissidents during 2012 under repressive laws curtailing free speech, and after unfair trials. The police ...
Keep Reading »Mali in Focus, Part Two: A War That Threatens the Entire Region
[This article is the second of a three-part series featuring different perspectives on the recent developments in Mali. Previously published: "Mali in Focus, Part One: The Jihadist Offensive Revisited"] "...This conflict is legitimate and vital to the security of the French. We can not expect to maintain our lifestyles and our prosperity if we do not go outside our country to participate in the stabilization and resolution of crises, eradicating threats that could inevitably threaten us ...
Keep Reading »قراءة هادئة في نداء 13 يناير
منذ شهور انطلقت على الفايسبوك نداءات تدعو للتظاهر في المدن والقرى المغربية، بل وفي العواصم الأجنبية من أجل المطالبة بالتغيير الجذري للنظام السياسي في المغرب. فبعدما كانت حركة 20 فبراير تطالب بالملكية البرلمانية كحل للأزمة التي تمر فيها البلاد وفاء لشعار اليسار القديم تحت حكم الراحل الحسن الثاني، تحول المطلب اليوم، في ظل حكم ابنه محمد السادس، إلى "إسقاط النظام" في تحول نوعي وغير مسبوق. وقد شق هذا الشعار طريقه إلى الشارع المغربي حيث دُوِّن على جدران بعض الأحياء الشعبية، كما أورد أكثر من مصدر ...
Keep Reading »Raped, Without Justice, and Without Hope
Last year, Moroccan civil society was highly mobilized around the case of Amina Filali—the young Moroccan girl who committed suicide after having been forced to marry her rapist. Ten months later, article 475—the article that absolves a rapist of his crimes if he marries his victim—remains in place, despite the fact that calls for its removal were a central part of the mobilizations. Today, the tragic story of another Moroccan girl—who in 2010 was raped by a stranger during her commute to Marrakech—is ...
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