How and why to remember the Rif War (1921–2021)

Abstract

The centenary of the Rif War in Morocco (1921–1926) has nearly arrived. This article considers how accounts of the war have been transmitted as acts of memory. It surveys European and American publications on the war from the early military histories through to political accounts explaining the war from imperialist and anti-imperial perspectives. It then examines the first general histories and academic accounts, by anthropologists and linguists, both American and Moroccan. The release of the Spanish Army and French Foreign Ministry archives opened discussion up to historians trained in the western tradition. At the same time the first Arabic-language accounts were published by Moroccan local historians. Finally, it discusses use of the Rif War in modern Moroccan politics, particularly during the truth and reconciliation hearings at the beginning of the 2000s, and later during popular protest movements in the Rif. It concludes with an examination of how Islamists have used the war and compares the Islamist foundation documents of Islamic State with those of the Rifi state. When the centenary of the war comes round in 2021, the commentators and historians and politicians and polemicists will have to integrate all those perceptions.

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