Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Testimony and Journalism: Moroccan Prison Narratives

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Social Life of Memory

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict ((PSCHC))

Abstract

In this chapter El Guabli discusses intersections of journalism and testimonial literature in post-1999 Morocco. Through an analysis of print media’s engagement with memories of state violence during the Years of Lead, he theorizes a “wide-dissemination period” and a “reflective period,” in respect to the publication of mnemonic themes. These themes, he argues, were energized by the print media’s serialization of prison narratives and other mnemonic topics. El Guabli demonstrates how this helped Moroccans discover the hidden atrocities in their past, contributing to a public capacity to discuss memory of state violence. Focusing on the way in which print journalism’s publication of prison literature shapes memories of the Years of Lead, the author further argues that the “reflective period” is dialogical, which allows mnemonic transformation through mnemonic actors’ myriad disagreements and contestations (Unless otherwise specified, all translation of the Arabic and the French are the author’s).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Works Cited

  • Aferki, Abderrahim. 1982. La parole confisquée: Textes, dessins, peintures de prisonniers politiques marocains. Paris: L’Harmattan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ahiati, Mahmoud. 2004. Al-Ribāṭ: al-Khaṭīb yanqalib ‘alā ḥizbihi wa yuṭālib bi waqf jalasāt al-istimā‘ ḥawla intihākāt huqūq al-insān ‘alā al-television. Al-Riyadh, December 28.

    Google Scholar 

  • al-Shāwī, ʿAbd al-Qādir. 2010. Kāna wa-akhawātuhā. Casablanca: Nashr al-Faynīq.

    Google Scholar 

  • Al-Raissūnī, Sulaimān. 2012. Al-Ḥassan al-thānī lam yakun ya‘rifu shay’an ‘an mu ‘taqal tazmamart. Al-Masāʾ, April 16. http://www.maghress.com/almassae/154816. Accessed 15 June 2016.

  • ———. 2013a. Al-Shāwī: al-kumisīr al-Khulṭī ṭalaba minnī an aṣfaḥa ‘anhu. Al-Masāʾ, February 8. http://www.maghress.com/almassae/173601. Accessed 15 June 2016.

  • ———. 2013b. Al-Shāwī: ‘indamā ishtadda l-ya’su bil-Raiss qāla lī ‘kān ‘līk tkhllinī mḥkūm bil-i‘dām.’ Al-Masāʾ, February 12. http://www.maghress.com/almassae/173920. Accessed 15 June 2016.

  • ———. 2013c. Burekāt: awwalu man tuwuffiyya fī Tazmamart kāna ṭayyāran ʿalā ʿalāqa bi-raʾīs ūghandā. Al-Masāʾ, May 23, 2013. http://www.maghress.com/almassae/208453. Accessed 15 June 2016.

  • Al-Sakt, Yūssuf. 2012. Ziane yuʿīdu milaffāt Tazmamart ilā l-wājiha. Al-Ṣabāḥ, April 24. http://assabah.ma/34393.html. Accessed 15 June 2016.

  • Amnesty International. 1993. Morocco: The ‘Disappeared’ Reappear. Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/188000/mde290051993en.pdf‬‬‪.‬ Accessed 16 Dec 2015.‬‬

  • Assmann, Jan. 2008. Communicative and Cultural Memory. In Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, eds. Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning, 109–118. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bencheikh, Souleiman. 2012. Et si … Youssoufi avait dit non à Hassan II. Zamane, December 13. http://zamane.ma/fr/tag/roi-hassan-ii/. Accessed April 2016.

  • Beverley, John. 1989. The Margin at the Center. MFS Modern Fiction Studies 35 (1): 11–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BineBine, Aziz. 2009. Tazmamort: Dix-huit ans dans le bagne de Hassan II. Paris: Denoël.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borneman, John. 2011. Political Crime and the Memory of Loss. Indiana: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chāwī, Abdelqāder. 2010. Kāna wa akhawātuhā. Nashr al-Fainīq: Al-Dār al-Baiḍa’.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chberreq, Driss T. 2014. Le train fou, mémoires d’un rescapé de Tazmamart. Rabat: Imprimerie El Maarif.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conseil National des Droits de l’Homme [CNDH]. 2015. L’enfermement et le partage: lieux et mémoire. Casablanca: La Croisee des Chemins. cndh.ma/sites/default/files/cndh_-_lenfermement_le_partage_monte_-.pdf. Accessed 26 July 2016.

  • Daoud, Zakya. 2007. Les années Lamalif: 1958–1988, trente ans de journalisme au Maroc. Casablanca: Tarik Éditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daure-Serfaty, Christine. 1992. Tazmamart, une prison de la mort au Maroc. Paris: Stock.

    Google Scholar 

  • El Bouih, Faṭna. 2001. Ḥadīth al-ʿatama. Casablanca: Le Fennec.

    Google Scholar 

  • El Guabli, Brahim. 2014. The ‘Hidden Transcript’ of Resistance in Moroccan Tazmamart Prison Writings. Arab Studies Journal 22 (1): 170.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2016. Cette Aveuglante Absence de Lumière: The Politics of Novelizing Human Rights Violations in the Former Colonizer’s Language. Francosphères 5 (1): 59–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • El Kably, Mohammed ed. 2011. Tārīkh al-Maghrib: tarkīb wa-taḥyīn. Rabat: Manshūrāt al-Maʿhad al-Malakī li-l-Baḥth al-Tārīkhī.

    Google Scholar 

  • El Ouafi, Ahmed, and François Trotet. 2004. Opération borak F5: 16 août 1972, l’attaque du Boeing royal. Casablanca: Tarik Éditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • El Ouazzani, Abdesselam. 2004. Le récit carcéral marocain; ou, le paradigme de l’humain. Rabat: Imprimerie la Capitale.

    Google Scholar 

  • ERC. 2009a. Verité, equité et réconciliation. Rabat: Conseil National des Droits de l’Homme. http://www.cndh.ma/fr/rapport-final-de-lier/volume-1-verite-equite-et-reconciliation. Accessed 26 July 2016.

  • ———. 2009b. Truth, Equity and Reconciliation. Rabat: Conseil National des Droits de l’Homme. http://www.cndh.org.ma/sites/default/files/ier_final_report_volume_1.pdf. Accessed 26 July 2016.

  • ———. 2010. The Organization of the Work and the Activities of the Commission. Final Report, vol. 5. Rabat: National Council for Human Rights. http://www.cndh.org.ma/sites/default/files/ier_final_report_volume_5.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec 2015.

  • Erll, Astrid. 2011. Memory in Culture, trans. Sara B. Young. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erll, Astrid, and Ann Rigney. 2006. Literature and the Production of Cultural Memory: Introduction. European Journal of English Studies 10 (2): 111–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fakihani, Abdelfattah. 2005. Le couloir: bribes de vérité sur les années de plomb. Casablanca: Tarik Éditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l’Homme [FIDH]. 2004. Séminaire régional Les commissions de vérité et de réconciliation: l’expérience marocaine Rabat, Maroc, 25–27 mars 2004. https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/Ma396f.pdf. Accessed 1 Aug 2016.

  • Garçon, José. 2004. Les ‘années de plomb’ exorcisées à la télé au Maroc. Libération, December 24. http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2004/12/24/les-annees-de-plomb-exorcisees-a-la-tele-au-maroc_503959. Accessed 15 June 2016.

  • Glacier, Osire. 2013. Universal Rights, Systemic Violations, and Cultural Relativism in Morocco. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Houzal, Abderrahim. 2008. Al-Kitāba wa-l-sijn. Casablanca: Ifriqiyyā l-Sharq.

    Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights Watch. 2005. Morocco’s Truth Commission Honoring Past Victims during an Uncertain Present. November 27. https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/11/27/moroccos-truth-commission/honoring-past-victims-during-uncertain-present. Accessed 25 July 2016.

  • Jlid, Mohammed. 2013. Mohamed Raiss… ʿishrūn sana dākhli jaḥīm Tazmamart. Alyaoum24.com, August 28, 2013. http://www.alyaoum24.com/164035.html. Accessed 29 July 2016.

  • Kansteiner, Wulf. 2002. Finding Meaning in Memory: A Methodological Critique of Collective Memory Studies. History and Theory 41 (2): 179–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kenbib, Mohammed. 2006. Ecriture et réécriture de l’histoire contemporaine du Maroc: acquis, interrogations et perspectives. In Du protectorat à l’indépendance: Problématique du temps présent, ed. Mohammed Kenbib, 133: 19–46. Rabat: Publication of the Faculty of Literatures and Human Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. A propos de l’histoire contemporaine du Maroc. Perspectices Universitaires 1: 99–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendall, Elisabeth. 2006. Literature, Journalism and the Avant-Garde: Intersection in Egypt. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitch, Carolyn. 2008. Placing Journalism Inside Memory—And Memory Studies. Memory Studies 1 (3): 311–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laâbi, Abellatif. 1982. Le chemin des ordalies. Paris: Denoel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lachkar, Mhamed. 2012. Courbis: Ṭarīqī naḥwā l-ḥaqīqa wa-l-ṣafḥ. trans. Abdellatif al-Bazzi. Rabat: Dār Abī Raqrāq li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lahlali, Yusuf. 2009. Ḥiwār Aziz BineBine ʿan kitābihi Tazmamart. Al-Ittiḥād al-Ishtirākī, April 9. http://www.maghress.com/alittihad/88518. Accessed 1 Aug 2016.

  • Lang, Kurt, and Gladys Engel Lang. 1989. Collective Memory and the News. Communication 11 (2): 123–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laroui, Abdallah. 2005. Le Maroc et Hassan II: Un témoignage. Cap-Rouge: Presses Inter Universitaires.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magouti, Mofadal, and Bilal Talidi. 2009. Wa-yaʿlū ṣawtu al-ādhān min jaḥīm Tazmamart. [And the Call to Prayer Rises From the Hell of Tazmamart]. al-Ribāt: Manshūrāt al-Tajdīd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marzouki, Ahmed. 2000. Tazmamart: Cellule 10. Casablanca: Tarik Éditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Union of the Moroccan Press. n.d. Dalil al-‘amal al-naqabi fi l-sahafa wa l-I ‘lam [Guide of Unionization in the Press and the Media]. http://www.snpm.org/archive/article.php?id=330&fid_cat=60&fid_rubrique. Accessed 25 July 2016.

  • Olick, Jeffrey K., and Joyce Robbins. 1998. Social Memory Studies: From ‘Collective Memory’ to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices. Annual Review of Sociology 24: 105–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paravy, Florence. 2003. Espace Carcéral, Espace Littéraire. In Littérature et Espaces, eds. Daniel-Henri Pageaux, Juliette Vion-Dury, Jean-Marie Grassin, and Bertrand Westphal, 149–155. Limoges: Presses Universitaires de Limoges.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker, James W., and Becky L. Banasik. 1997. History as Social Psychology. In Collective Memory of Political Events: Social Psychological Perspectives, eds. James W. Pennebaker, Dario Paez, and Bernard Rimé, 3–19. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrault, Gilles. 1990. Notre ami le roi. Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raiss, Mohammed. 2001. Min Skhirāt ilā Tazmamart: tadhkirat dhahāb wa-iyyāb ilā l-jaḥīm. With an introduction by Abdelhamid Jmahri. Casablanca: Afrique Orient.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rigney, Ann. 2010. The Dynamics of Remembrance: Texts between Monumentality and Morphing. In Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, eds. Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning, 345–353. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schudson, Michael. 1993. Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebbar, Mohamed. 2007. La lutte contre l’impunité. In Mehdi Ben Barka en héritage: de la Tricontinentale à l’altermondialisme, ed. Bachir Ben Barka, 77–82. Casablanca: Tarik Éditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebti, Abdelahad. 2006. Histoire et Présent: Interrogations sur la distance et la proximité. In Du protectorat à l’indépendance: problématique du temps présent, ed. Mohammed Kenbib, 133: 47–54. Rabat: Publication of the Faculty of Literatures and Human Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sefrioui, Kenza. 2012. La revue Souffles: Espoirs de révolution culturelle au Maroc (1966–1973). Casablanca: Éditions du Sirocco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serfaty, Abraham. 1998. Le Maroc, du noir au gris. Paris: Syllepse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slyomovics, Susan. 2005. The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Stephen. 2000. Des vies de revenants. Libération, October 5. http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2000/10/05/des-vies-de-revenants_339598. Accessed 15 April 2016.

  • Smolin, Jonathan. 2013. Moroccan Noir: Police, Crime, and Politics in Popular Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoll, David. 2014. Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. With an Introduction by Elizabeth Burgos. Boulder, CO: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tenenboim-Weinblatt, Keren. 2013. Bridging Collective Memories and Public Agendas: Toward a Theory of Mediated Prospective Memory. Communication Theory 23 (2): 91–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Underwood, Doug. 2008. Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vairel, Frédéric. 2004. Le Maroc des années de plomb: équité et réconciliation? Politique africaine 96 (4): 181–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warner, Michael. 2002. Publics and Counterpublics. Public Culture 14 (1): 49–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winter, Jay, and Emmanuel Sivan. 2000. War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century, vol. 5. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yúdice, George. 1991. Testimonio and Postmodernism. Latin American Perspectives 18 (3): 15–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, Barbie. 1995. Reading the Past against the Grain: The Shape of Memory Studies. Critical Studies in Mass Communication 12 (2): 215–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. Why Memory’s Work on Journalism Does Not Reflect Journalism’s Work on Memory. Memory Studies 1 (1): 79–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. On the Shelf Life of Democracy in Journalism Scholarship. Journalism 14 (4): 459–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelizer, Barbie, and Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt (eds.). 2014. Journalism and Memory. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Princeton University, Princeton, USA

    Brahim El Guabli

Authors
  1. Brahim El Guabli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany

    Norman Saadi Nikro

  2. Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany

    Sonja Hegasy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

El Guabli, B. (2017). Testimony and Journalism: Moroccan Prison Narratives. In: Nikro, N., Hegasy, S. (eds) The Social Life of Memory. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66622-8_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation