It is time to revisit the history of Moroccan-French relations

This text was originally published in Morocco World News. You can consult it at the following link.

On 2 February, France's largest television channel, BFMTV, announced the opening of an internal investigation, confirming reports that it had suspended French-Moroccan journalist Rachid M'Barki for "suspected foreign interference" in the broadcasting of content. The BFMTV statement reveals that an internal investigation has been underway for more than two weeks to determine how to deal with what the channel's staff and management describe as unprecedented and unforgivable.

Of the " ten or so suspicious contents" that the channel's investigation had claimed to have identified, Politico reported after BFMTV's rather cryptic statement that "at least one content" referred to Morocco.
 
Thus, M'Barki is accused of overstepping his bounds and ignoring "the usual [editorial] validation circuits" during a report 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' dubious position on the Sahara dispute.
 
Although M'Barki's suspension comes in a context of growing diplomatic tension between Rabat and Paris over persistent differences, the affair has naturally led many Moroccans to wonder whether this BFMTV saga over 'possible interference by a foreign state' is not another extension of the diplomatic chill between France and Morocco.
 
Indeed, given the highly polemical and politicised content offered by most French channels and media in recent years when covering issues of paramount importance to France's strategic interests (particularly in Francophone Africa), only the journalist's use of the expression "Moroccan Sahara" seems to constitute a particularly "serious and condemnable" infringement of BFMTV's editorial practice.
 
But can French channels and media sincerely claim to be models of the journalistic virtues of impartiality and intellectual integrity when they regularly promote France's geopolitical interests?
 
There is certainly nothing wrong with media outlets such as Agence France-Presse, RFI or France24 defending their country's interests or promoting a narrative in line with their political agenda. After all, these news agencies are trying to do their duty.
 
And part of that duty in recent months has seemed to be the need to implement the recommendation of French President Emmanuel Macron, who in a speech to French ambassadors last September called for a "better use" of the public media network (France Médias Monde). Instead of dispassionate and objective reporting of geopolitical news, Macron urged the French media to strive to control the narrative in a way that benefits French interests.

Meanwhile, what is wrong and detrimental to Morocco's strategic interests and stability is that a considerable part of the Moroccan elite remains passionately attached to France and sees it as a loyal country that has supported Morocco whenever it has been in question. Bypassing cultural and linguistic alienation, this socially uprooted elite tends to believe that France is the ultimate source of cultural refinement and scientific or intellectual prowess.
 
Members of this rootless elite tend to forget that, whatever they do to adopt French culture, the French elite will continue to look down on them as the others, always despising them as those inferior Moroccans - or Muslims - who were once subjects of greater France and who, in fact, are expected to remain under the yoke of the metropole's cultural and political domination.
 
France's decision in September 2021 to impose unprecedented visa restrictions on Moroccans was a clear demonstration of this cultural arrogance. The fact that this decision did not even exclude former ministers, businessmen, doctors, students enrolled in higher education institutes in France, or even those who were to be treated in French hospitals, was very revealing of French contempt for Moroccans.
 
At this point, Moroccans should take a moment of reflection and introspection, learn from recent developments in Franco-Moroccan relations and put pressure on France to reconsider its behaviour towards Morocco. However, this can only be done if Moroccans make France and its political and media elite look into the mirror of their country's dark past, while showing determination to deconstruct all the lies and myths that the French cultural elite and ruling class have been propagating about Morocco for more than a century.
 
Most importantly, Moroccans of all persuasions should work together to shed new light on the untold story of the horrific history of the French colonial presence in Morocco. Only then can Moroccans lay the foundations for a relationship based on mutual respect and reciprocity.

Nations go through crucial periods that can have a lasting impact on their future. Morocco's modern history was marked by two decisive moments that had a catastrophic impact on the country's future: the defeat of Moroccan troops by the French army at the Battle of Isly in August 1844 and the Tetouan War with Spain (October 1859-March 1860).

These two events led to the dislocation of the Moroccan state, the collapse of its fragile economy and the spread of conflict and political unrest in the kingdom. European countries took advantage of these conditions to further weaken Morocco from within and subject it to occupation and colonisation.
 
Sixty-six years after its independence from France, Morocco is now going through a crucial period that, if managed with lucidity and foresight, could enable it to play a leading role at the regional level. Over the past decade, Morocco has made giant strides in preserving its territorial integrity. Equally important, Morocco has managed to diversify its strategic partnerships, and its diplomatic action is no longer limited to certain so-called traditional partners.
 
With its return to the African Union in 2017, Morocco has spared no effort to regain its regional leadership, be it political, economic, spiritual or sporting. Increasingly, Morocco seems determined to regain the role it has played throughout history as a bridge between Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas.
 
More importantly, given that Morocco possesses 70% of the world's phosphate reserves, it will play a central role in achieving global food security in the short, medium and long term. The growing demand for fertilisers will benefit Morocco not only economically, but also geostrategically, allowing it to strengthen its influence on the regional and international stage.
 
However, for Morocco to make the qualitative leap that will give it a voice in regional and global fora, it must urgently undertake a radical reform of its health, education and judicial systems. It must also combat the culture of corruption and the rentier mentality that has long plagued Moroccan society. Equally essential at this stage is the need to invest heavily in facilitating administrative procedures to attract foreign investment, as well as the capital - financial and human - of Moroccans living abroad.
 
That said, one of the main challenges Morocco must take on is to change the mentality of the Moroccan people. This can only be done by adopting an education system whose main objective is to train new generations of self-confident Moroccans, proud of their history, culture and identity, and open to others, to the world. No nation can build its present and prepare its future in a healthy way if it does not own and write its history, shape its own national narrative and make sure it learns valuable lessons from it.
 
An inferiority complex towards everything that comes from the West, especially France, has been a defining feature of the Moroccan mentality for the past six decades. Most Moroccans are unwittingly imbued with this inferiority complex, and suffer from a general lack of confidence in themselves and their ability to compete with or surpass the French.
 
Despite belonging to one of the world's oldest nation-states, despite having inherited a rich, sophisticated and diverse culture that is admired, if not envied, by many other nations, most Moroccans have internalised this inferiority complex and for decades have seemed unwilling to challenge it. One of the most important manifestations of this sense of inferiority is the preoccupation of a large majority of Moroccans with speaking French, being absurdly convinced that speaking French makes them sophisticated and refined.

Moroccans should take advantage of the current diplomatic tension between Paris and Rabat to rethink their perception of France and the legacy of their protectorate in Morocco. For example, they should question the validity of the dominant historical narrative surrounding the French colonisation of Morocco. This would mean confronting and deconstructing many of the historical fallacies and myths that have long served to conceal France's savagery and cruelty during the protectorate years.
 
Indeed, the dominant account of the history of the encounter - and then the relationship - between the two countries is the result of propaganda work carried out by French colonial missionaries to influence Moroccan minds and behaviour.
 
As authors such as Albert Memmi, Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon have brilliantly demonstrated, the coloniser's basic trick was to convince the colonised that they needed him, that their present and future well-being depended on their behaving and thinking like him. Thus, resigned to live forever in the shadow of their former masters, the former colonised seem content - and sometimes strive - to imitate the evolved habits of the metropolis.
 
In his book 'The Moroccan Drama', published in 1956, Rom Landau, the renowned British Arabist, diplomat and writer, explains how Moroccan admiration for French culture and the inferiority complex instilled in them by the French led many to strive to imitate European culture, habits and customs:
 
Imitation of the West has naturally weakened certain elements of Moorish politeness (.... ) The modern mania for shouting instead of conversing; for talking instead of listening; for rushing into a heated discussion and getting carried away at the slightest provocation; for thinking more about what pleases us than what might please others; for considering a polite approach and a low tone of voice as effeminate or "undemocratic"; all these are tendencies that make our social exchanges resemble encounters in the jungle. But because we are richer, better educated and endowed with "know-how", the simple Moor thinks that, in order to conquer our achievements, he must also adopt our ways. Casablanca is full of such deluded people, and the French call them "évolués".

In the case of Morocco, this self-alienation is reflected in the firm belief of many French-speaking Moroccans that it is in their and Morocco's interest to be closely associated with France, to adopt its language and to remain in its geopolitical orbit. On the diplomatic front, the 'Franco-Moroccan fraternity' is the name given to the deluded belief that France has been a close and loyal friend of Morocco for the past six decades.
 
Given the pervasiveness of this misleading narrative among educated Moroccans, it is crucial that Moroccan historians, journalists and other intellectuals aware of the tacit and true history of France's colonial presence in Morocco remind their compatriots once and for all that, since 1844, there has never been an equal relationship between France and Morocco. That Morocco has systematically been the victim of an asymmetrical relationship in which only France set the rules of the game. And that, instead of a reliable friend, France has always acted as a tyrant ruthlessly seeking to impose its agenda and satisfy its imperial ambitions in Morocco.

Moreover, France has, for most of its history, been an enemy that has sought to subjugate Morocco, destroy its cultural identity and keep it under its economic, political and cultural domination. Contrary to the dominant narrative, widely disseminated by the French for more than a century, France's colonial intervention did not contribute to maintaining Morocco's unity or perpetuating the Moroccan monarchical system.
 
Rather, the collapse of the Moroccan state in the early 20th century was the result of long French machinations to sow the seeds of division in the kingdom and weaken the authority and legitimacy of its sultans.

At a time when France was still struggling with the psychological and geopolitical shocks of its defeat by Germany in the 1870 war and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, French politicians saw the conquest of Morocco as a first step towards restoring France's greatness. For them, possessing and subjugating Morocco was a sure way to revive their ailing economy.
 
This sentiment is reflected in the letters Théophile Delcassé sent to his wife while he was a journalist, MP, Minister of Colonies and then French Foreign Minister. Bringing Morocco under France's imperialist yoke and enlisting the support of other European countries for his expansionist ambitions in the kingdom was Delcassé's main preoccupation throughout his time at the Foreign Ministry.
 
While Britain, convinced that Morocco's survival as an independent state served its strategic interests, worked during the second half of the 19th century to preserve the status quo in the country, Delcassé was determined to 'liquidate' the Moroccan question by trying to forge diplomatic agreements with Italy and Spain.
 
But it was not until 1903 that Delcassé sought a cordial agreement with Britain on Morocco and Egypt. Meanwhile, France worked tirelessly to prepare the ground for its later occupation of the country by fomenting conflict and unrest and inciting many tribes to revolt against the sultans' authority.
 
Long before Delcassé's appointment as Foreign Minister, one of the tactics used by France to undermine the sovereignty of the sultans was the abuse of the system of protection that European consuls and merchants had enjoyed in Morocco since 1863.
 
In order to create the conditions for political conflict and instability, France sought to extend this system to Moroccans employed by Europeans. There is a consensus among historians that the protection obtained by many Moroccan collaborators - which placed them above the country's legal and fiscal rules - was one of the main causes of the decline of the central state's control over the various regions of the country and the depletion of the national budget.
 
Realising the danger that the protection system posed to the country's stability and sovereignty, Sultan Hassan I enlisted the help of Britain and Spain to persuade other European countries to enter into negotiations to eliminate the system or at least limit its abuses. These negotiations led to the Madrid Conference of 1880.
 
However, due to French intransigence and Italian support, the Sultan's efforts proved futile. The protection system would now take on a more serious dimension. Not content with widening the circle of beneficiaries of its protection, France sought to support the chiefs of certain tribes in rebellion against the Sultan.
 
Thus, France granted protection to Sharif Wazan in 1884, using the fact that he belonged to the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad to create a counterweight to the religious and political legitimacy enjoyed by Sultan Hassan I as Commander of the Believers. This decision effectively revealed France's true intentions: to subjugate Morocco.
 
In addition to its eagerness to gradually encroach on Moroccan territories by using one of the provisions of the Treaty of Lalla Maghniya - which gave it the right to pursue tribes that attacked France on Moroccan soil - France intended to seize any opportunity that would bring Morocco to its knees and pave the way for its surrender and occupation of the kingdom. For example, France would force Morocco to submit to Spanish demands following the diplomatic and military crisis between Rabat and Madrid in September and October 1893.

Following the establishment by the Spanish military leadership of a military fort in Melilla on a site containing the tombs of two marabouts, military skirmishes broke out between the two countries. This provoked outrage among the inhabitants of the neighbouring regions, leading to military clashes that resulted in the death of General Juan García Margallo, then Spanish governor of Melilla.
 
The two countries were on the brink of a new war, especially as one faction of the Spanish government supported an all-out military confrontation. Under pressure to avoid war, Spain was finally forced to enter into diplomatic negotiations to reach a peaceful solution. After weeks of negotiations, Sultan Hassan I - who was supported by Britain - refused to give in to Spanish demands.
 
However, the Moroccan sultan soon backed down and was willing to meet the demands. Behind the Sultan's change of heart was a telegram from the French government demanding that he accede immediately to Spanish demands.
 
Among other threats, the telegram warned the Sultan of the dire consequences he and his kingdom would suffer if they persisted in rejecting Spanish demands. In particular, the telegram insisted that France would support Spain in the event of a conflict between the two countries, which would have disastrous consequences for Morocco's territorial integrity.

Thus, under pressure from France, Morocco was forced to pay indemnities that would further deplete its coffers, pushing it to borrow more money from abroad and impose additional taxes on an already overburdened and seething population. This policy provoked widespread discontent among many Moroccans, who resented the exemption granted to the many Moroccans who enjoyed the protection of European consuls and merchants. This would thus aggravate the impact of the political turmoil the kingdom was already facing.

It is therefore time for Morocco to change its rhetoric towards France and start talking about some of the darker periods of the complex relationship between the two countries. In this regard, Moroccans should no longer hesitate to say loud and clear that France played a key role in weakening Morocco and paving the way for its conquest and subjugation by European powers.
 
They should no longer hesitate to state loud and clear that France owes an apology for having stripped Morocco of large parts of its territory and annexed them to Algeria, which was then considered an integral part of French territory. In fact, after conquering and occupying Algeria in 1830, France set about dividing Morocco by creating inter-tribal unrest and differences between the Moroccan monarchy and various regions of the country.
 
France invaded much of the kingdom's territory, allowing Spain to occupy the Sahara. If it had not been for the secret agreement France signed with Britain and Spain in April and October 1904 respectively, whereby Paris granted Spain full sovereignty over the Sahara at a time when Morocco was still an independent country, Morocco would not have been obliged, since its independence, to focus all its foreign policy efforts on achieving its territorial integrity.
 
France is also the country whose elite has distorted important aspects of Morocco's political and social history. French explorers, military officers, merchants and writers who published propaganda books on Morocco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were responsible for the birth and propagation of the myth of the division of the kingdom into "Blad al Makhzen" and "Blad Siba".
 
To pave the way for their country's occupation of Morocco, the latter wrote hundreds of books aimed at proving that the areas inhabited by the Amazigh were outside the authority of the Moroccan sultan.
 
Between 1947 and 1955, when King Mohammed V and the Moroccan nationalist movement began to make clear claims to independence, France set about questioning their legitimacy. To this end, the colonial authorities tried to use the "Bilad al-Siba" theory with the help of Thami El Glaoui to keep Morocco under French sovereignty.
 
Moreover, France tried throughout this period to discredit King Mohammed V, to question his religious and political legitimacy and, with the complicity of El Glaoui and Abdul Hay Al-Kattani, to prepare the coronation of Muhammad bin Arafa.
 
If Morocco and France have enjoyed good relations for much of the past six decades, it is simply because Moroccans decided to put aside their resentment, believing that it was possible for the two countries to walk side by side and build a lasting relationship of equals, based on mutual respect and reciprocity.
 
However, one of the many myths of French authors that Moroccans must confront and deconstruct is the idea that before being subjugated by France and Spain in 1912, Morocco was divided into "Blad al-Makhzen" and "Bilad al-Siba".

This unfounded theory has been dismantled by Moroccan historian Germain Ayache and refuted by many other researchers. The other myth that needs to be confronted and dismantled is that France built modern Morocco, provided Moroccans of all origins with access to education and played a central role in the formation of the Moroccan elite before the country's independence.
 
In fact, there is a wide gulf between this watered-down image of France and its actual record in Morocco. In education, France did not concern itself with educating Moroccans, but rather with keeping them ignorant and illiterate.
 
Until 1950, 38 years after the beginning of the protectorate, more than 94% of Moroccans of school age were denied the right to education, while 94% of European children living in Morocco could enjoy this right. In 1954, the percentage of Moroccans enjoying the right to education was only 10%.
 
The French colonial authorities not only denied Moroccans access to public schools, but also closed many public schools founded by Moroccans and forced other schools to restrict their activities and to teach French rather than Moroccan culture.
 
Perhaps the best evidence of the injustice and discrimination against Moroccans in their own country is the 1951 education budget, which amounted to 1.92 billion francs for Moroccans compared to 2.29 billion francs for the French occupiers. In other words, the budget allocated to each Moroccan pupil (731 francs) was 23 times less than that allocated to French children (17,270 francs per pupil).
 
The reason why many French people worked in the Moroccan education system after Moroccan independence was the absence of schools in the country for four decades, as France did not build a single school to train teachers during this period. Worse still, France waited until 1950 to build the first school to train state employees and civil servants.
 
This policy was a serious violation of the provisions of the 1912 protectorate, under which France pledged to train Morocco's administrative elite to put the country on the road to modernisation. But instead of honouring this commitment, France, especially from 1925 onwards, began to impose a system of direct administration similar to the one that prevailed in French Algeria, a system in which Moroccans held menial positions - and their salaries were 20 times lower than those of the French.
 
Moroccans also suffered injustices and oppression in the health system. The overall mortality rate and the percentage of infant deaths at birth were three times higher among Moroccans than among French occupiers. This was because one third of the available hospital beds at the time were reserved for French colonisers, while the rest were allocated to Moroccans. In other words, there was one bed for every 1,720 Moroccans, compared to one bed for every 205 French.

According to statistics provided by the United Nations, the number of doctors working in the public sector in Morocco as a whole did not exceed 185 in 1948, meaning that there was one doctor for every 43,240 Moroccans. In contrast, there were 436 doctors working in the private sector in the cities, mainly serving Europeans.
 
On top of all this, there was systemic injustice at the judicial level. Colonial law enforcement agencies could arrest any Moroccan without producing any arrest warrant from the judicial authorities. A warrant from an official of the French residence, or a mole denouncing a Moroccan, was enough for him to be arrested and imprisoned.
 
However, the French authorities were only authorised to arrest any French citizen after a judicial decision or arrest warrant had been issued against him. Similarly, the colonial authorities denied Moroccans the right to create associations, clubs, political parties, trade unions and even sports associations without obtaining prior authorisation. In short, Moroccans could not hold any public meeting without the prior agreement of the French residence.
 
On the other hand, French nationals were allowed to hold public meetings, as long as only the French language was used during them. They could also form associations, clubs and trade unions. Moreover, during the entire period of the French protectorate, Morocco was under siege, so Moroccans could not 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 take ownership of their history and revise it. They should no longer let foreigners write Morocco's history according to their political, religious and ideological orientations and interests. More importantly, Moroccans must stop taking at face value the theories and concepts contained in books on Morocco published by the French in the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century.
 
As I said in a previous article, for historical and economic reasons, and because of the human ties between millions of Moroccans and the French, the two countries cannot continue to turn their backs on each other. However long this period of turbulence in relations between Paris and Rabat lasts, the French and Moroccans will have no choice but to reconcile and find a modus operandi to safeguard their common interests.
 
However, the desire to resume ties with France should in no way divert our attention from the more important task of telling the truth and confronting the history of relations between the two countries with courage, serenity, impartiality and determination to set the record straight regarding the misdeeds and aftermath of the French protectorate in Morocco.