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Constructing an Archival Cityscape: Local Views of Colonial Urbanism in the French Protectorate of Morocco

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Stacy E. Holden
Stacy E. Holden*
Affiliation:
Purdue University
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Extract

Existing studies of colonial architecture and urbanism in Morocco—much as in the case of France's other African holdings—usually highlight the political intentions of foreign administrators, not the local residents who lived and worked there. After three years of research in Moroccan archives, I came upon many primary sources that will allow historians to show Moroccans as energetic actors who shaped urban life in the French Protectorate (1912-56). The documents that I found hold significant potential for unraveling the social history of trades, neighborhoods, and institutions in the medina. The term “medina” designates the narrow streets and walled quarters of the premodern city, which colonial administrators kept distinct from the modern Ville Nouvelle built for European use. These sources make it clear that French administrators implementing urban policies in the medina faced the day-to-day responses of ordinary Moroccans of various social and economic classes. More importantly, they suggest that the colonial encounter played a secondary role in the quotidian choices of these residents, who worried more about relations with other locals, such as trouble-some neighbors or avaricious shopkeepers, than with French officers and civilians located in the Ville Nouvelle.

My own research focuses on the experiences of millers and butchers in Fez, but my insights into the archival treasures of this North African kingdom will help historians interested in other cities and socio-economic groupings. In this paper I will discuss five distinct types of documentation: archives of the municipality, archives of the Department of Fine Arts, documentation on religious endowments, land titles, and transcripts of judicial proceedings. By exploiting these sources, historians can begin to reconsider how and why Moroccans shaped the physical and socio-economic development of their cities.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 34 , 2007 , pp. 121 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2007

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References

1 For a discussion of the municipality by a French administrator, see de la Casinière, Henri, Les Municipalités Marocaines: leur développement, leur legislation (Casablanca: Imprimérie de la Vigie Marocaine, 1924)Google Scholar. See also, Decroux, Paul, La vie municipale au Maroc (Lyons: Bosc Frères, 1932)Google Scholar.

2 Bibliothèque Générale et Archives (BGA), A719, Controle des Municipalités, Amenagement d'un Asile de Nuit, 1927.

3 BGA, A1765, Budget Ordinaire, 1915-1916.

4 For an inventory of Fez's municipal archives, see Yakhlef, Mohamed, “Les Archives du Protectorate de la Municipalité de Fès” (paper presented at the Colloque sur les Archives du Protectorate, Rabat, 05 1992)Google Scholar. The library La Source in Rabat holds a copy of this paper.

5 For a first-hand account of the establishment of the colonial Department of Fine Arts, see de Lunel, Maurice Tranchant, Au pays du paradoxe (Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1924)Google Scholar.

6 des Oudaias, Musée, Ricards, Fonds, no. 150, “Un type d'artisan marocain: Ahmed Bennani, menuisier-sculpteur, nd (1945)Google Scholar.

7 Luccioni, Joseph, Les fondations pieuses ‘habous’ au Maroc depuis les origines jusqu'à 1956 (Rabat: Imprimerie Royale, nd), 128Google Scholar. Luccioni was an administrator overseeing this Ministry in the Protectorate.

8 For an inventory of these manuscripts, see Dkhissi, Driss, Fès: references bibliographiques du patrimoine culturel (Rabat: Ministère d'Etat Chargé des Affaires Culturelles, 1980), 102–107Google Scholar.

9 Mabrouk, Ez-Zahara, Les habous au Maroc: étude du fonds d'archives du Service du Controle des Habous sous le Protectorat (Ph.D. diss., École des Sciences de l'Information, 1984)Google Scholar.

10 BGA, Hab. Cont. 40, Droits de Jouissance, Salvatore Gallos, Verification of Mill's History by Mouraqib Fez, 16 Ramadan 1336 (25 June 1918).

11 For a handbook on private property in Morocco, see Decroux, Paul, Droits foncier marocain (Rabat: Editions de la Porte, 1972; reprint with a new foreword by author, nd)Google Scholar.

12 Office of Land Titles (Fez), 2485F, Dar Slaoui.

13 Palais de Justice, alif-qaf, 96/100, Hadj el Mekki Ghaouit vs. Abdesselam ben Taieb el Marrakchi, 1925.