Contesting, Constructing, and Mobilizing the Nation

CONSTRUCTING MOROCCO: THE COLONIAL STRUGGLE TO DEFINE THE NATION, 1912-1956 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Jonathan Wyrtzen, M.A. Washington, DC April 15, 2009 Copyright 2009 by Jonathan Wyrtzen All Rights Reserved ii CONSTRUCTING MOROCCCO THE COLONIAL STRUGGLE TO DEFINE THE NATION (1912-1956) Jonathan Wyrtzen, M.A. Thesis Advisor: John O. Voll, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Drawing on recent theories regarding social movements and contentious politics, this dissertation seeks to shed new light on the mobilization of anti-colonial nationalism in North Africa, addressing the core issue of how and why a particular dominant definition of Moroccan Arabo-Islamic “national” identity was forged during the Protectorate period (1912-1956). It argues that this identity, even for a centuries-old Muslim monarchy, was fundamentally reinvented in a struggle over control of the newly created bureaucratic state among French colonial administrators, Arab nationalist activists, and the Sultan. Focusing on the interactive process of constructing communal identity also highlights the fundamental connection between national and subaltern identities in the process of “nation-building.” This is the first history of Moroccan nationalism to focus specifically on how three marginal groups—Berbers, Jews, and women—played central roles at the nexus of conflicting colonialist and nationalist attempts to deny or assert Moroccan national identity. This case study focused on colonial Morocco addresses broader questions about how Islam, ethnicity, and gender were redefined by both colonization and decolonization in other parts of Africa and the Middle East. It also engages more general debates about iii nationalism by focusing on why specific national identities take shape in concrete historical cases, a question unsatisfactorily answered in the meta-theories of nationalism such as those proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson. In pursuing a methodology emphasizing the interactive nature of the process of constructing Moroccan national identity, the dissertation draws on a diverse array of primary sources to trace the multiple voices that shaped debates during the Protectorate period. These are comprised of Arabic and French printed materials including newspapers, pamphlets, petitions, administrative decrees, police- and military-intelligence files, and personal correspondence. Non-traditional sources are also incorporated including Berber poetry, nationalist songs, protest graffiti, photographs, and oral interviews conducted in Fes and the central High Atlas. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In late August 2001, my wife and I were driven in a van from the Casablanca airport and the heat of the Chaouia plain up to the relative coolness of the cedar-clad Middle Atlas Mountains to begin our new jobs teaching at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. As we headed south off of the autoroute near Meknes, three words were painted on the first foothill of the mountains at the town of El Hajeb: Allah, Al-Watan, Al-Malik (God, Country, King). This project’s origins lie somewhere on that road between the mountains and the plains, which we traversed countless times while living in Ifrane for three years. Many people have provided invaluable help on this journey since then, as I have set about exploring how God, Country, and King are interconnected in the construction of Moroccan national identity. Though the following words of thanks constitute a meager offering, I do want to acknowledge those that have been a part of this long journey that started eight years ago. On the financial side, I am very grateful for the support of fellowships to conduct field and archival research in Morocco and France awarded from Fulbright, Fulbright- Hays (Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program), and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies. The writing phase was made possible by a Georgetown University Fellowship and a Royden B. Davis Fellowship from the Georgetown University History Department. More personally, in Morocco, I owe a great debt of gratitude to numerous colleagues and friends currently or formerly at Al Akhawayn University including v President Driss Ouaouicha, Dean Mohamed Dahbi, Michael Peyron, Abdellah Chekayri, Said Ennahid, Jack Kalpakian, Driss Maghraoui, Peter Wien, Michael Willis, Eric Ross, John Shoup, Nadia Tahraoui, Mohamed Saber, Ben Cox, Kevin and Karen Smith, Peter Hardcastle, Paula Pratt, Bob Mittan, Peter Hardcastle, Bob Burgess, and Cate Owens. I also thank the staff of the Mohamed VI library at Al Akhawayn University for their kindness and assistance. In Fes, I would like to thank Ali Filali for his invaluable help and inside perspective on the medina. In Rabat, I would like to especially thank Mustapha Qadery at the National Library, Mohamed Moukhlis at the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture, Daoud Casewit and Saadia Maski at the Moroccan-American Center for Educational and Cultural Exchange, and Evelyn Early at the U.S. embassy. In Aghbala, I need to acknowledge the tremendous assistance and hospitality of Dr. Oudades and Taos Zayd. Additionally, I would like to offer sincere appreciation to the library staffs in Rabat of the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Hassaniya Royal Library (with special thanks to the the director), La Source, and the High Commission for the Resitance and Veterans of the Army of Liberation. In France, my heartfelt thanks go to Hassan Moukhlisse and Bérengère Clément of the MMSH library in Aix-en-Provence for their generous assistance with the Fond Roux and Amy Tondu, with the Fulbright Commission in Paris. The staffs at the SHD at Chateau de Vincennes, the MAE at the Quai d’Orsay in Paris and in Nantes, and the Académie des Sciences Coloniales in Paris were also extremely helpful. I owe much to everyone in the Georgetown history department whose support has made the completion of this project possible, including John Tutino, Kathy Gallagher, vi Djuana Shields, John McNeill, Alison Games, Judith Tucker, Yvonne Haddad, Richard Kuisel, and Amira Sonbol. This project grew out of conversations and discussions with several of my teachers, advisors, and fellow students in the department. I especially thank those who so generously gave of their time on my committee, including Osama Abi-Mershed, Aviel Roshwald, Elizabeth Thompson, and John Voll, who has been an exemplary scholar, teacher, and mentor to me over the past six years. In Arlington, I want to thank Dale Basten and all of the good people at Java Shack who provided a wonderful, caffeinated environment in which to write. Finally, I want to acknowledge the incredible support of both of our families. Thanks to my parents, Dave and Mary, and my in-laws, John and Lestra, for visiting your sojourning children and grandchildren so many times in Morocco and France. I thank my dad, Dave, for his insightful comments and needed corrections, as the first person to read completely through the manuscript. I am incredibly grateful for the encouragement of my daughters, Leila and Nora, who have basically grown up with this project on three continents; have given me incredible joy in the midst of my vocation; and who have prayed ardently for Baba to “finish his book.” While it would exceed the bounds of academic propriety to truly express my gratitude for her support in this long process, I will end by simply saying to my wife, Leslie—shukran. vii To Leila Amel, Moroccan by birth if not by nationality, Nora Elise, born in Virginia but “from Morocco,” And, most of all, to Leslie, who got us all there in the first place. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………...………………………………1 Defining the Nation: Arab, Berber, Muslim, Jew, Man, Woman?......................................1 Historiographical and Theoretical Context……………………….…………………….....8 From Ibn Khaldun to Ernest Gellner.......................................................................8 Bridging the Nation and the Subaltern…………………….…………………….17 Methodology and a Note on Sources…………………………………………………….20 CHAPTER 1 Constructing the Colonial State: The Reinvented Franco-Moroccan……..39 Makhzen Protector and Protectee: Colonial Nation-Building in the Name of the Sultan………….40 “A Tour of Morocco in One Hour” – The Sultan’s Visit to the Moroccan Pavilion…….45 at the 1931 Colonial Exposition The Hall of the Pacification: Conquering and Administering the Blad as-Siba…….......54 Du Maroc en 1912: The Morocco that Was……………………………………………..65 The Newly Constructed Colonial State………………………………………………….72 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….82 CHAPTER 2 La Montagne Berbère: Pacification, Dissidence, and Submission in…....84 Morocco’s Atlas Mountains Constructing La montagne berbère in French “Berber Policy”…………………………87 Imagined Communities in Amazigh Poetry (1907-1943)……………………………….94 The Performance Context of Berber Poetry………..……………………………96 ix Pacification, Dissidence, and Submission……………………………………...104 Apocalypse, Jihad, and the Last Stand…………………………………………120 Living under the Rumi………………………………………………………….126 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...131 CHAPTER 3 Contesting the Colonial State: The Moroccan Nationalist Movement…135 From Anti-colonial Reform to Anti-colonial Nationalism……………………………..135 Contentious Politics, Social Movements, and Framing the Moroccan Nation…………139 Anti-Colonial Reformism: A Protectorate, Not a Colony (1930-1937)………………..145 The 1930 Latif Protests: Framing the

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