Book contents
- The Invention of the Maghreb
- The Invention of the Maghreb
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Geographic Imagination and Cartographic Power
- 2 The Trace and Its Narratives
- 3 Language, Race, and Territory
- 4 Naming and Historical Narratives
- 5 Strategies for the Present
- 6 Cracks
- Postscript
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Cracks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2021
- The Invention of the Maghreb
- The Invention of the Maghreb
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Geographic Imagination and Cartographic Power
- 2 The Trace and Its Narratives
- 3 Language, Race, and Territory
- 4 Naming and Historical Narratives
- 5 Strategies for the Present
- 6 Cracks
- Postscript
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In this chapter, the author argues that despite the invention of the region as a single geographical unit, it is characterized by fissures born out of the very process of colonial invention. The author discusses three of them: the problem of borders, especially the thorny problem of the western Sahara; the problem of racial formations of population, especially the racial division of Arab versus Berber; and the linguistic problems that too oppose Arabic to Berber and not in a binary way, but in a trinary way, since French is a hegemonic language that governs both. These three major problems of the region, the author argues, cannot be properly debated, much less solved, without taking into account the colonial invention of the region.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Invention of the MaghrebBetween Africa and the Middle East, pp. 246 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021