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Casablanca- Ain Chok faculty of letters and Humanities hosted on Friday a conference under the theme “The Spanish Colonial Legacy and The representation of Moroccans”.
The conference was delivered by Mr. Samir Bennis a political analyst, PhD in International Relations and the co-founder of Morocco World News.
In his lecture, Mr. Samir Bennis addressed the main historical events that shaped the relations between Morocco and Spain. He pointed out that the tensions that arise from time to time in the relations between Morocco are partly imputed to the Spanish colonial enterprise in Morocco and the way Spanish intelligentsia misrepresented this dark part of the relations between the two countries.
“The most pervasive feature of the way Spanish literature depicted these relations is that Spaniards have never done any harm to Morocco, and that Moroccans are the ones who have always inflicted great pain on their northern neighbors. The most cited examples to support these claims are the crushing defeat of the Spanish army in the Battle of Annual in July 1921, as well as the participation of Moroccans in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939),” he stressed.
He argued that the successive Spanish governments have not shown any sign of remorse for the use of toxic gas against the Rif population during the Rif war. Moreover, the Spanish right wing party the Popular Party often eulogizes the ruthless crack down on Moroccans by the Spanish army during the Spanish protectorate.
“This was in display when Spanish Minister of Interior, Jorge Diaz Fernandez, during a trip to the enclave of Melilla in early July, expressed his admiration for Spanish soldiers who fought against the Moroccans during the Rif war between 1921 and 1926, especially during the Annual battle,” he said.
He added that the Spanish army has used its defeat in Anoual battle and the participation of Moroccans in the Spanish civil war to forge a degraded image of Moroccan in the minds of the Spanish public opinion. As a result, Moroccans were often portrayed as bloodthirsty, savages and backwards in Spanish literature and historical accounts.
“Several decades after the Spanish Civil War, large sectors of Spaniards still put the whole blame on Moroccans for the suffering inflicted by the Franco’s followers on the republicans, when many studies conducted whether in Spain or abroad shows that without the help provided by Italians and Germans, this fratricidal war could have had a different outcome,” he said.
Mr. Bennis added also that the misrepresentation of Moroccans or the “Moors” in Spanish textbooks has also perpetuated this kind of prejudice and continues to nurture feelings of antagonism towards Moroccans.
On the other hand, he emphasized that we can’t expect the others to improve our image among them and that it is time Moroccans started doing their part of the job to reach out to Spaniards to redress the deformed the image the latter inherited about their southern neighbors from generation to generation.
In this regard, he deplored the lack of studies led by Moroccans that would try to shed light on this chapter of the relations between Morocco and Spain and work towards educating Moroccans and foreigners alike about what really happened during Spain’s protectorate over Morocco.
As a political analyst, Mr. Bennis cautioned Moroccan diplomats to deploy more earnest efforts to defend the Sahara and to lobby for Moroccan interests using all the channels available including diplomacy, mainstream media and social media.
“Moroccan public opinion does not need to be convinced of the fact that the Sahara is Moroccan. Those who need to be convinced are these large sectors of public opinion in many countries where Morocco suffers from a deficit of image, such as in Scandinavian and in many Latin American countries,” he said.
“It is there where we should focus our efforts to reach out to this public opinion and counterbalance the propaganda being spread there by the Polisario and its backers,” he added.
