Si-Hmad Derhem (1909 -1982)

Si-Hmad Derhem (1909 -1982) A native of Taloust, a village in the Aït Baamrane Anti-Atlas Mountains, Si Hmad Derhem made his fortune in commerce early in his life. Around the end of the 1930s, his enterprise and commitment contributed significantly to the growth of his native region, despite a difficult political climate. The founders of Dar Si Hmad took inspiration from the moral principles of Si Hmad Derhem, a gifted, inquisitive, and self-taught individual. He had a strong sense of solidarity and facilitated access to and diffusion of knowledge among his people. With his force of character, he initiated and developed a system of mutual and communal aid which improved the living conditions for, and with the participation of, the peoples of Aït Baamrane and the Sahara. Si Hmad Derhem’s successors created the Derhem Foundation, Dar Si Hmad’s major trust-fund, in order to promote his values and pass on his precious legacy. The life of Si Hmad Derhem was largely determined by the major events that left their mark on the history of the region. Having actively shaped this history himself, his life and legacy live on in the memory of the people of southwestern Morocco. Si Hmad was born in 1909 in the mountains of the Aït Baamrane, he was a member of a large household as was typical of the era, a family descended from ancestors affiliated with the Zaouïa of Abdellah Ben Sassi in the Haouz of Marrakech who originally journeyed to the Aït Baamrane th to combat the Spanish incursions in the 16 Century. He was given a traditional Islamic education, through learning the Quoran by heart he acquired the title of Si-Hmad (the “Si” prefix in the Souss region being a distinction traditionally given to literate individuals). Around the age of 16, Si Hmad migrated to the North of Morocco, to the Spanish occupied region of Tangier – Tetouan. He worked hard for several years and amassed a considerable amount of money which he took back with him, sewn in his clothes, on his return to his native southern Aït Baamrane. In 1932, Si-Hmad relocated to Terfaya where he set up a small commerce. Terfaya, Cape Juby at the time, was the experimental testing ground for the Aeropostale Company (the air transport company which would later become Air France); adventurers and visionaries like Saint Exupery and Mermoz were among the pioneering pilots of the day. In the 80s of the XIXth century, Donald MacKenzie had founded in Cape Juby the North-West Africa Company (1875-1890), modeled after the famous East-India Company, with grand agricultural projects in the Sahara. An entire zeitgeist of adventures and possibilities were present, even if, in the end, none came to fruition. The Sahara fell under Spanish occupation in 1934 and, after the victory of Franco in 1939, the biggest concern of the fascist regime was security. While the anti-Franco movement was actively attempting to destabilise the regime, military forces based in Spanish West Africa were preoccupied with their surveillance of the Canary Islands. This same colonial regime encouraged local families established in commerce to create a company in order to meet the food, clothing and other needs of the region. The Bouaida, Derhem, Aregrag and Rezma families allied themselves to form La Compañia. La Compañia prospered and came to be considered not only a hallmark of merchant achievement but also an example of success within a social system heavily stigmatised by the colonial reality. On the other hand, the directors of La Compañia were not preoccupied by generating financial gain purely for the sake of it, far from it – they financed the Armée de Libération (Army of Liberation) and they played key roles in the clandestine anti-colonisation movement in Morocco. Cue the course of events of 1958: The Armée de Libération was by now a growing force, having gained mass support from the people of the Atlantic Sahara and Mauritania. It was at this time that France, and Spain mobilised together in accordance for Plan Ecouvillon in a move to obliterate the Armée de Libération, who took refuge in the liberated Northern Aït Baamrane Moroccan territory (Morocco having become independent in 1956) and in Goulimine where they kept their headquarters. The remaining Armée de Libération suspects were banished to the prisons of Fuerteventura where they endured terrible punishment and repression. La Compañia was made insolvent by Spanish public decree. Whereas Si Hmad found himself safe in the newly independent Morocco, his brother Faïdul was taken prisoner along with the other known members of the Saharaoui resistance. After the defeat of the Armée de Libération by what became known as Operation Ecouvillon in 1958, Si Hmad travelled within independent Morocco, moving between Casablanca, where he settled his family, Tangier and the South. In 1963, Si-Hmad ran for election in the region of Goulimine and the Aït Baamrane but he was fraudulently defeated. This period was notorious for the numerous witch-hunts which pursued political opponents of the state. To protect himself, Si-Hmad took refuge first in Algeria and subsequently in Spain. He would not return to Morocco until 1967. Meanwhile, the Spanish consented to Si Hmad’s return to the Sahara where he began anew trading as a merchant. During the various dealings for the return of the Sahara to Morocco, Si Hmad exercised pressure for the restitution of the Sahara, he always believed in its Moroccan identity because of its historical roots and ties. It was at this time that Si Hmad and other partners acquired Atlas Sahara from the Spanish, a distribution company for petroleum products in the Sahara. Si Hmad managed Atlas Sahara with diligence and care until his accidental death in July 1982. .

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