The Overdue Need to Tell the True Story of French-Moroccan Relations

Washington DC – On February 2, the leading French television channel BFMTV confirmed reports that it had suspended French-Moroccan journalist Rachid M’Barki over “suspicions of foreign meddling” with broadcast content. BFMTV’s statement revealed that an internal investigation had been ongoing for over two weeks to determine how to deal with what staff and management at the channel described as unprecedented and unforgivable.

Of the “dozen suspicious pieces of content” the channel’s investigation had claimed to have identified, Politico reported on the heels of BFMTV’s rather cryptic statement, “at least one piece of content” had to do with Morocco.

M’Barki thus stands accused of overstepping and ignoring “proper editorial channels” while reporting on the Dakhla Forum in June 2022. In particular, the journalist had referred to “Spain’s recognition of the Moroccan Sahara,” an intolerable description in the French media landscape, given Paris’s dubious position on the Western Sahara dispute.

With M’Barki’s suspension coming against the backdrop of a growing diplomatic rift between Rabat and Paris over lingering, unresolved divergences, the case naturally led many in Morocco to wonder whether this BFMTV saga over the “possible interference of a foreign state” is yet another extension of the discernible diplomatic cold snap between France and Morocco.

For starters, given the highly contentious and politicized content pushed forward by most French channels and news outlets over the past years when covering topics of paramount importance for France’s strategic interests (especially in Francophone Africa), only the journalist’s use of the expression “Moroccan Sahara” seemed to be a particularly “grave and condemnable” breach of editorial practice for BFMTV.

But can French channels and media outlets sincerely claim to be paragons of the journalistic virtues of impartiality and intellectual integrity when they routinely promote France’s geopolitical interests?

To be sure, there is nothing wrong with media organizations like Agence France-Presse, RFI, or France24 defending the interests of their country or promoting a narrative that is in line with their political agenda. After all, these news agencies work towards fulfilling their duty to the fullest.

And part of that duty over the past few months has seemed to be the need to implement the recommendation of French President Emmanuel Macron, who, in a speech to the French ambassadors last September, called for making “a much better use” of the French public media network (France Medias Monde). Rather than dispassionately and objectively reporting on geopolitical news, Macron argued, French media organizations should be aiming to set or control the narrative in a way that benefits French interests.

Morocco at a Crossroads

Meanwhile, what is wrong and damaging to Morocco’s strategic interests and stability is that large segments of the Moroccan elite continue to be passionately enamored with France and regard it as a loyal country that has stood by Morocco in times of need. Living in cultural and linguistic alienation, this socially detached elite tends to believe that France is the ultimate source of cultural sophistication and scientific or intellectual prowess.

And so, members of this uprooted elite tend to forget that no matter what they do to adopt French culture, the French elite will keep on othering them, always looking down on them as those (inferior) Moroccans – or Muslims – who once were under their control and are indeed supposed to remain so permanently.

France’s decision in September 2021 to place unprecedented restrictions on granting visas to Moroccans was clear evidence of this cultural arrogance. That this decision did not exclude even former ministers, businessmen, doctors, students enrolled in higher learning institutes in France, or even those seeking medical treatment in French hospitals, was very telling about French disdain towards Moroccans.

At this juncture, Moroccans should pose for a moment, draw lessons from the recent developments taking place in French-Moroccan relations and push France to wholly reconsider its behavior towards Morocco. This will not be achieved, however, unless Moroccans put France and its political and media elite in front of the mirror of the dark past of their country, while showing determination to deconstruct all the fallacies, lies, and myths that France’s cultural elite and governing class have told about Morocco for more than a century.

Most importantly, Moroccans from all walks of life should work as one to shed a new light on the untold story of the horrendous record of France’s colonial presence in Morocco. Only then can Moroccans lay the first building blocks for a relationship based on mutual respect and reciprocity.

Nations go through epoch-making periods and events that can have a long-lasting impact on their future. Morocco’s modern history was marked by two defining moments that had a catastrophic impact on the country’s future: French troops’ defeat of the Moroccan army at the Battle of Isly in August 1884 and the Tetouan War with Spain (October 1859-March 1860).

These two events led eventually to the demise of the Moroccan state, the collapse of its fragile economy, and the spread of strife and political unrest. European countries took advantage of these conditions to further weaken Morocco from the inside to subject it to occupation and colonization.

Sixty-six years after achieving independence from France, Morocco is now going through a defining moment that, if handled with clear-sightedness, could enable it to carve up a position of leadership at the regional level. Over the past decade, Morocco has taken steady steps to end the Western Sahara dispute. Equally critical, the country has also managed to diversify its strategic partnerships, with its diplomatic outreach no longer limited to some so-called traditional partners.

With its return to the African Union in 2017, Morocco has left no stone unturned to restore its regional leadership – whether at the political, economic, spiritual, or sporting level. Increasingly, Morocco seems determined to reclaim the role it played throughout history as a link between Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Most importantly, because Morocco sits on 70 percent of the global reserves of phosphate, it will, in the near, medium, and long term, play a pivotal role in achieving food security worldwide. The growing demand for fertilizers will not only benefit Morocco financially, but also at the geostrategic level, enabling it to strengthen its influence on the regional and global stages.

However, for Morocco to achieve the qualitative leap that will enable it to have a say in regional and global fora, it should urgently undertake to radically reform its health, education, and justice systems. It should also combat the culture of corruption and the rentier mentality that have long rotted the Moroccan society. Equally essential in this phase is the need to invest colossally in facilitating administrative procedures to attract foreign investments, as well as the capital – financial and human – of Moroccans residing abroad.

Yet one of the major challenges that Morocco should address head-on is that of changing the mentality of the Moroccan people. This could only be achieved by the adoption of an educational system whose main purpose is to build new generations of Moroccans who are self-confident; proud of their history, their culture, and identity; and open to others. No nation can build its present and prepare for its future in a sound way unless it owns and writes its history, shapes its narrative, and ensures that valuable lessons are drawn from it.

An inferiority complex towards everything that comes from the West, particularly from France, has been a defining feature of Morocco’s mentality over the past six decades. Most Moroccans, without knowing it, are imbued with this inferiority complex, and are afflicted with a widespread lack of self-confidence in their ability to compete with or outstrip the French.

Though they belong to one of the world’s oldest nation-states, have inherited a rich, sophisticated, and diverse culture that elicits the awe and admiration of many other nations, most Moroccans have internalized this inferiority complex and have for decades seemed unwilling to ever challenge it. One of the most important manifestations of this sense of inferiority is the keenness of large segments of Moroccans to speak in French in the unfounded and absurd belief that speaking this language makes them look sophisticated.

Confronting the Myth of French-Moroccan Brotherhood

Moroccans should take advantage of the ongoing diplomatic rift between Paris and Rabat to rethink their perceptions of France and the legacy of its protectorate in Morocco. For example, they should question the validity of the dominant historical narrative surrounding France’s colonization of Morocco. This would mean confronting, deconstructing many of the historical inaccuracies and myths that have long muffled the savagery and cruelty of the Protectorate years.

Indeed, the dominant history and story of the encounter – and then relations – between the two countries is the offspring of the propaganda work carried out by French colonial missionaries to influence the minds and behavior of Moroccans.

As authors like Albert Memmi, Aime Cesaire, and Frantz Fanon have compellingly argued, the defining ruse of the colonizer has been to have convinced the colonized that they need him, that their present and future well-being depends on behaving and thinking like him. And so, resigning themselves to eternally living in the shadow of their former masters, the erstwhile colonized appears satisfied with – and sometimes strives to – emulating the habits of the metropole.

In his book “Moroccan Drama” published in 1956, Rom Landau, a renowned British Arabist, diplomat, and author explains thus how Moroccans’ awe with French culture and the complex of inferiority instilled in them by the French led many to strive to emulate European habits and manners:

“Imitation of the West naturally weakened some elements of Moorish courtesy (…) The modern mania of shouting instead of conversing; for talking rather than listening; for rushing into heated argument and losing our temper at the slightest provocation; for thinking more of what pleases ourselves than what might be agreeable to others; for considering a courteous approach and a subdued tone of voice either effeminate or not “democratic;” these are tendencies which make our social exchanges resemble encounters in the jungle. But because we are richer, better educated and blessed with the “know-how,” the mode simple-minded Moor believes that, in order to acquire our attainments, he has also to adopt our manners. Casablanca is full of people thus misled, and the French call them evolués,” Landau said.

In the case of Morocco, this self-imposed alienation can be seen in many French-speaking Moroccans’ belief that it is in their interest and that of Morocco to be closely associated with France, adopt its language, and remain in its geopolitical orbit. On the diplomatic front, “fraternité franco-marocaine” (French-Moroccan brotherhood) is the name given to this ahistorical, misleading claim that France has been a close and loyal friend to Morocco in the past six decades.

Faced with the pervasiveness of this deceptive narrative among educated Moroccans, it is crucial that Moroccan historians, journalists, and other intellectuals who know about the untold, hidden facts of the real story of France’s colonial presence in Morocco urge their fellow Moroccans to come to terms with the fact that since 1844 there never existed a relationship of equals between France and Morocco.

Instead, Morocco was systematically on the receiving end of an asymmetrical relationship where only France called the shots. Rather than a reliable friend, France acted as a bully who sought callously to impose its agenda and quench its imperial ambitions in Morocco.

What’s more, France has for the most part been a foe that sought to subjugate Morocco, destroy its cultural identity, and keep it under its economic, political, and cultural sway. Contrary to a widespread claim propagated by French publicists for over a century, France’s colonial intervention did not help maintain Morocco’s unity nor the sustainability of Morocco’s monarchic system.

What France Has Always Wanted is to Subjugate Morocco

The collapse of Morocco’s state at the turn of the 20th century was rather the result of France’s long-term schemes to sow the seeds of division within the country and weaken the authority and legitimacy of its Sultans.

At a time when France was still grappling with the psychological and geopolitical shocks brought about by its defeat against Germany in the 1870 war and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, French politicians regarded Morocco as a gateway to restoring France’s greatness, but also reviving its reeling economy.

This sentiment was unmistakably on display in the letters that Théophile Delcassé wrote to his wife during the period when he was journalist, member of the parliament, minister of the colonies, and then France’s foreign minister. Bringing Morocco under France’s rule and obtaining other European countries’ acquiescence to its imperial ambitions in the country was Delcassé’s chief concern throughout his tenure as foreign minister.

While Britain, believing that Morocco’s survival as an independent state served its strategic interests, worked during the second half of the nineteenth century to preserve the status quo in the country, Delcassé was single-mindedly determined to the “liquidate” the question of Morocco by seeking to forge diplomatic arrangements with Italy and Spain.

It was only in 1903 that Delcassé sought to achieve an entente cordiale with Britain over Morocco and Egypt. Meanwhile, France worked tirelessly to prepare the terrain for its eventual occupation of the country by fomenting strife and unrest and inciting many disgruntled tribes to rebel against the authority of the Sultans.

Well before Delcassé’s appointment as foreign minister, one of the tactics France used to undermine the Sultans’ sovereignty was the abuse of the system of protection that European consuls and merchants enjoyed in Morocco since 1863.

To create the right conditions for political strife and instability, France sought to expand this system to include Moroccans employed by Europeans. There is a consensus among historians that the protection obtained by broad categories of Moroccan collaborators, which put them above the country’s legal and fiscal regulations, was among the main causes that led to the decline of the central state’s control over the various regions of the country and the depletion of the country’s budget.

After Sultan Hassan I realized the danger the system of protection posed for the country’s stability and sovereignty, he sought assistance from Britain and Spain to persuade other European countries to enter into negotiations in order to eliminate this system or at least limit its abuses. Those negotiations resulted in the organization of the 1880 Madrid Conference.

Because of French intransigence and Italian support, however, the Sultan’s efforts came to naught. The system of protection took on a more serious dimension from then on. Not satisfied with expanding the circle of beneficiaries from its protection, France sought to provide support to the heads of some tribes that were in rebellion against the Sultan.

France granted its protection to Sharif Wazan in 1884, in a bid to use his direct lineage to the Prophet Muhammad to create a counterweight against the religious and political legitimacy that Sultan Hassan enjoyed in his capacity as the Commander of the Faithful. This move effectively exposed France’s intentions to subjugate Morocco.

In addition to the policy that France pursued to gradually encroach on Moroccan territories through the use of one of the provisions of the Lalla Maghniya Treaty, which gave it the right to prosecute the tribes attacking France from within Moroccan soil, Paris keenly took any opportunity it could to strike painful blows to Morocco, paving the way for the kingdom’s eventual surrender and occupation. For example, France played a major role in forcing Morocco to bow to Spanish demands following the diplomatic and military crisis that arose between Rabat and Madrid in September and October 1893.

Military skirmishes between the two countries broke out as a result of the establishment by Spain’s military leadership in Melilla of a military fort in a site hosting the tombs of two marabouts. This step aroused the indignation of the residents of the neighboring regions, leading to military confrontations that resulted in the death of General Juan Garcia y Margallo, then the Spanish governor of Melilla.

The two countries were on the verge of a new war, especially since a faction within the Spanish government supported an all-out military confrontation. Having been subjected to pressure to avoid war, Spain was eventually forced to enter into diplomatic negotiations to reach a peaceful solution. After weeks of negotiations, Sultan Hassan I – who had the support of Britain – refused to bow to Spanish demands.

However, the Moroccan Sultan was soon to make a volte-face and express his willingness to meet those demands. Behind the Sultan’s change of heart was a telegram from the French government demanding that he immediately comply with the Spanish demands.

Among other threats, the telegram warned the Sultan of the heavy consequences he and his kingdom would incur should he persist in rejecting Spain’s demands. In particular, the telegram stressed that France would stand by Spain in the event of a conflict between the two countries, which would have a dire impact on Morocco’s territorial integrity.

As a result of France’s pressure, Morocco was forced to pay compensation that would further deplete its coffers, pushing it to borrow more money from abroad and to impose additional taxes on an already overburdened populace. The policy caused widespread discontent among large swathes of Moroccans who already resented the exemption granted to the many Moroccans who benefitted from the protection of European consuls and merchants. This exacerbated the impact of the political turmoil the country was grappling with.

The Need to Confront French Fallacies about Modern Morocco

It is therefore high time that Morocco changed its rhetoric vis-à-vis France and started evoking some of the darkest periods of the complex, disturbing relationship between the two countries. In this regard, Moroccans should have no qualms about saying out loud that France played a major role in weakening Morocco and paving the way towards its subjugation to European rule.

Nor should they shy away from loudly stating the need for France to issue an apology for despoiling Morocco of large swathes of its territory and annexing them to Algeria, which was then regarded as a full-fledged part of French territory. After it conquered and occupied Algeria in 1830, France worked to divide Morocco by creating civil strife and divergences between the Moroccan monarchy and various components of its dominion.

This carved out large parts of the kingdom’s territories, enabling Spain to occupy the Sahara. Had it not been for the secret agreement France signed with Britain and Spain in April and October 1904 respectively, under which Paris granted Spain full sovereignty over the Sahara at a time when Morocco was still an independent country, Morocco would not have been forced since its independence to focus all its foreign policy efforts on completing its territorial integrity.

France is also the country whose elite has distorted major aspects of Morocco’s political and social history. French explorers, military officers, merchants, and writers who published propaganda books about Morocco at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century were the ones who propagated the myth of the division of the country into “Blad al Makhzen” and “Blad Siba.”
To pave the way for their country’s occupation of Morocco, they authored hundreds of books in which they tried to prove that the areas inhabited by the Amazigh escaped the authority of the Moroccan Sultan.

Between 1947 and 1955 when King Mohammed V and the Moroccan nationalist movement began to clearly demand independence, France strove to challenge their legitimacy and tried to use the theory of “Bilad al-Siba” by relying on the assistance of Thami El Glaoui to keep Morocco under its sovereignty.

Furthermore, France sought throughout the period to discredit King Mohammed V, challenge his religious and political legitimacy and, with the complicity of El Glaoui and Abdul Hay Al-Kattani, prepare the way for the coronation of Muhammad bin Arafa.

If Morocco and France enjoyed good relations for much of the past six decades, it is simply because Moroccans decided to set resentment aside, believing that it was possible for the two countries to walk side by side and build over the long run a relationship of equals based on mutual respect and reciprocity.

Yet one of the many French-authored myths and fallacies that Moroccans have to confront and deconstruct is the notion that, before it was subdued by France and Spain in 1912, Morocco was divided into “Blad al-Makhzen” and “Bilad al-Siba.”

This unfounded theory was shattered by Moroccan historian Germain Ayache and refuted by many other scholars. The other myth to confront and uproot is the one that says that France built modern Morocco, enabled Moroccans of all walks of life to access education, and played a pivotal role in training the Moroccan elite before the country achieved independence.

Indeed, there is a large gulf between this sugarcoated image of France and its actual, historical record in Morocco. Regarding education, France did not bother to educate Moroccans, but rather worked to keep them in ignorance and illiteracy.

Until 1950, 38 years after the beginning of the protectorate, more than 94 percent of school age Moroccans were denied the right to education, while 94 percent of European children residing in Morocco were able to enjoy this right. In 1954, the percentage of Moroccans benefiting from the right to education stood at merely 10 percent.

Not only did French colonial authorities deny Moroccans access to public school, but they also closed many private schools founded by Moroccans and forced other schools to restrict their activities and teach French culture instead of Moroccan culture.

Perhaps the best evidence of the injustice and discrimination Moroccans faced in their own country is the 1951 education budget, which amounted to 1.92 billion francs for Moroccans and 2.29 billion francs for French occupiers. In other words, the budget allocated to each Moroccan student (731 francs) was 23 times less than that allocated to French children (17,270 francs per student).

The reason why many French people worked in Morocco’s education system after Morocco’s independence is the absence of schools in the country for four decades, for France did not build a single school to train teachers during that period. Worse still, France waited until 1950 to build the first school to train state employees and civil servants.

This constituted a serious breach of the 1912 Protectorate provisions, under which France pledged to form the administrative elite to put the country on the right path towards modernization and self-rule. Instead of honoring its pledge, France, especially starting in 1925, began to impose a system of direct administration similar to the one prevailing in French Algeria, where Moroccans held subaltern positions, and their salaries were 20 times lower than those of the French.

Moroccans were also subjected to injustice and oppression in the health system. The death rate in general and the percentage of infant deaths at birth were three times higher among Moroccans compared to French occupiers.

This was due to the fact that a third of the beds available at that time in hospitals were reserved for French colonizers, while the rest was allocated to Moroccans.

In other words, there was a bed for every 1,720 Moroccans, compared to one bed for every 205 Frenchmen. According to statistics provided by the United Nations, the number of doctors working in the public sector throughout Morocco did not exceed 185 in 1948, meaning there was one doctor for every 43,240 Moroccans. By contrast, there were 436 doctors working in the private sector in the cities, who dealt mainly with Europeans.

Morocco was also subjected to systemic injustice at the judicial level, as colonial law enforcement officers could arrest any Moroccan without showing any arrest warrant from the judicial authorities. It was sufficient for an order to be issued by an official in the French residence or for there to be slander emanating from a collaborator for any Moroccan to be arrested and imprisoned.

On the other hand, French authorities did not have the right to arrest any French citizen until after a judicial decision or warrant was issued against them. By the same token, colonial authorities denied Moroccans the right to form associations, clubs, political parties, trade unions, and even sports associations without obtaining prior approval. Moroccans could not hold any public meetings without the prior consent of the French governor-in-residence.

Meanwhile, the French were the only ones allowed to stage public meetings, provided that only the French language was used. They could also form associations, clubs, and unions. Furthermore, throughout the period of the French protectorate, Morocco was in a state of siege, so that Moroccans were not entitled to move from one city or region to another without obtaining a visa from the French authorities.

For all these reasons, the time has come for Moroccans to own their history and be in the driving seat in shaping it. They should no longer leave the field empty for foreigners to write Morocco’s history in line with their orientations and political, religious, and ideological interests. Most critically, Moroccans must stop believing at face value some of the theories and concepts contained in the books published by the French at the end of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century.

As I said in a previous article, for reasons related to history, to the economy as well as to the human ties between millions of Moroccans and French, the two countries cannot keep turning their back to the other. However long this period of turbulence in the relations between Paris and Rabat may be, there will come a time of reckoning and reconciliation.

However, the desire to mend ties with France should by no means deviate our attention from a task of paramount importance: speaking truth to each other and confronting the history of relations between the two countries with courage, impartiality, and determination to set the record straight about France’s misdeeds and crimes in Morocco throughout the protectorate years.

Samir Bennis is the co-founder of Morocco World News. You can follow him on Twitter @SamirBennis.