Theorizing Intergenerational Trauma in Tazmamart Testimonial Literature

FOCUS 120 Introduction The creation of Tazmamart secret prison Theorizing Intergenerational Trauma camp in Morocco was a direct response to in Tazmamart Testimonial Literature the failed consecutive coups d’état against King Hassan II’s regime in 1971 and 1972. and Docu-testimonies Sentenced by a military tribunal to serve prison terms ranging between three years and life for allegedly participating in one of the coups, sixty-two officers and soldiers were serving their jail time in an offi- cial maximum security prison when they were kidnapped and taken to an unknown location in August 1973. Thanks to the combination of the disappeared soldiers’ agency and the bravery of some sympa- thetic guards, both the location of Tazmamart secret prison and the inhu- mane conditions of the soldiers’ detention Brahim El Guabli were only revealed to their families months later. However, the Moroccan state would Drawing on testimonial writings by the words in the presence of the children and continue denying the prison’s existence wives of Tazmamart prisoners and two during which Tazmamart was not a matter for nearly twenty years until the release of documentary films (docu-testimonies) of public discourse in Morocco. This theo- the twenty-seven survivors in 1991. about this notorious disappearance camp, rization of intergenerational transference Symbolizing Morocco’s collective memory I argue that Tazmamart-induced traumas of traumatic experiences will shift schol- of the Years of Lead (1956-1999), are intergenerational. Approached as a arly attention from individual experiences Tazmamart disappearance experiences continuum, Tazmamart-induced traumas to the collective memory of the “Years of would later shape the development of reveal the intergenerational transference Lead” in its intergenerational dimensions.1 Moroccan testimonial literature (El Guabli). of trauma from mothers to children in the pre-discursive period. In this article, I spe- Keywords: Trauma, Tazmamart, Inter- I argue that testimonial literature (particu- cifically focus my analysis on the pre-dis- generational, Memory, Transmission, larly prison literature) and docu-testimo- cursive period—a time when families did Years of Lead, Women, Children nies (testimonial documentary films) not articulate their traumas in spoken reveal the intergenerational transmission Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 11–2018 FOCUS 121 of Tazmamart-induced traumas between generations of its victims. I begin with the Tazmamart. Aïda Hachad’s half of Kabazal, the mothers’ and the children’s genera- sudden eruption of the coups d’état in which I analyze here, is a first-person nar- tions in pre-adulthood years. Analyzed 1971 and 1972 and conclude with the lib- ration of the brutal unraveling of her fam- from an intergenerational perspective, eration of the disappeared soldiers from ily’s life in the aftermath of Colonel Tazmamart ceases to be the story of the their protracted disappearance in Amekrane’s coup against Hassan II in fifty-eight soldiers who ended up in the Tazmamart. Here, I will investigate the August 1972. Opération Boraq F5: 16 août Saharan jail for eighteen years. It rather ways in which Tazmamart-induced trau- 1972, l’attaque du Boeing royal (Opération emerges as a traumatic experience that mas were passed on from mothers to chil- Boraq), also a mixed memoir, carries the has deep intergenerational and even dren in the period before this transference names of Ahmed El Ouafi and his wife transgenerational ramifications visible in was articulated or discussed in the wider Kalima El Ouafi. Kalima El Ouafi’s half of testimonial literature and docu-testimo- society. This, in turn, lays the groundwork the memoirs recounts the dramatic turn nies. Because Morocco has not witnessed for a substantive engagement with this her family life took after her husband’s the formation of organized second-gen- intergenerational transmission of trau- arrest and disappearance to the secret eration memory stakeholders’ groups, matic memory, occurring and developing Tazmamart prison camp. the study of intergenerational trauma as these children come of age. articulated in testimonial literature and Tazmamart’s fascinating cinematographic docu-testimonies is even more crucial for Tazmamart Testimonial Literature and potential has also drawn the attention of our understanding of the intergenera- Docu-testimonies documentary filmmakers. Leïla Kila’s Nos tional dimensions of the Moroccan Years The professionalization of Tazmamart tes- lieux interdits brings out the complexities of Lead. timonial literature between 2003 and of Tazmamart from the perspective of a 2005 resulted in innovative writing strate- mother (Rahma), her son (Saʿid), and their Taking into consideration the Freudian gies, including the publication of women- unnamed uncle. Filmed as part of Leïla concept and its discontents, I use trauma authored memoirs as well as mixed mem- Kilani’s commission to archive the work of in this context to refer to a continuum of oirs. Tazmamart côté femme: Témoignage, the Equity and Reconciliation Commission psychological, somatic, social, and spatial Rabea Bennouna’s woman-only memoir, is (ERC) and released in 2008, Nos lieux consequences of a transformative, over- a third-person narration in which she tells interdits documents conversations with powering, and sudden accident that dis- of her long journey from the arrest and different generations of victims of the rupts the normalcy of the traumatized sub- disappearance of her husband, Abdellatif Moroccan Years of Lead. Juxtaposing ject’s life and disintegrates their lifeworld Belkbir, to her filing for financial repara- memories of different generations of (Caruth). In theorizing Tazmamart-induced tions from the state in 1999. Kabazal: Les Moroccans, Nos lieux interdits is a rich trauma as a continuum, I open up the pos- emmurés de Tazmamart (Kabazal) by embodiment of the intergenerational sibility of analyzing the embodied trans- Salah and Aïda Hachad is a mixed memoir memories of the traumas caused by state mission of Tazmamart trauma among two recording its co-authors’ experiences of violence. Although technically less sophis- Middle East – Topics & Arguments # 11–2018 FOCUS 122 ticated than Nos lieux interdits, Yunus political context that has consequences even beyond Tazmamart survivors—whose Jannuhi’s documentary film Al-Ṭarīq ilā for Moroccan collective memory. Third, identities were shaped or re-shaped by Tazmamart focuses exclusively on the experiences recounted in these Tazmamart-induced traumas and the inter- Tazmamart victims. Al-Ṭarīq ilā works reveal the necessity of rethinking generational transference of its memories. Tazmamart’s features three wives of for- and expanding the notions of victimhood Within each Tazmamart familial unit, there mer Tazmamart detainees: Sharifa and disappearance to other categories are three generations: the grandparents, Dghughi, Rqiyya al-ʿAbbasi, and Halima of Moroccans who had survived a related who mainly accept Tazmamart as fate, the Bin Bushta. While their husbands were de facto disappearance even as they parents, predominantly the mothers who imprisoned, each of these three women lived in society. were left to struggle alone after the hus- eventually migrated elsewhere—the for- band’s disappearance, and the children, mer to Libya and then the U.S., the second Tazmamart Families as Loci of Inter- many of whom were too young to grasp to Italy, and the third between different cit- generational Trauma the gravity of the changes that occurred in ies in Morocco. Unearthing a new aspect Arguing for the intergenerational nature their lives. of Tazmamart’s traumatic effects, Jannuhi’s of Tazmamart-induced traumas requires docu-testimony places geographical dis- a distinction of the different genera- Grounded mainly in Holocaust studies, placement at the heart of this traumatic tions involved. German sociologist Karl intergenerational trauma scholarship experience. Jannuhi’s film thus has a fun- Mannheim developed three crucial criteria examines the passing down and inheri- damental role to play in the revelation of to determine what constitutes a genera- tance of older generations’ experiences the gendered nature of Tazmamart- tion: first, the members of a generation marred by violence, genocide and repres- induced trauma and its fuller, intergenera- share a “generation location,” which means sion (Schwab; Hirsch; Achugar; Atkinson). tional implications. that—to varying degrees—constituents of While much research has focused on sto- the same generation share the same his- rytelling and discursive practices as media Viewed together, these testimonial writ- torical experiences; second, people form- of transmission (Fried; Achugar), Daniela ings and docu-testimonies share three ing a generation have a conscious aware- Jara underlines the fact that, in the inves- important traits. First, these works record ness of their shared culture as a generation; tigation of intergenerational transmission and illustrate traumatic experiences that and third, generations come in “genera- of memories of political violence, a focus were not articulated in spoken words tion-units,” which are groups of individuals on the family shows that “the passing on within the family unit, thus inciting us to who belong to the same generation and of such experiences is not necessarily con- investigate the transmission of intergen- whose shared identity as a generation is nected to speaking” since transmission erational trauma within the family

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