My paper deals with the way Moroccan colonial soldiers were represented in a colonial discourse that sought to appropriate them and how they were excluded from a nationalist discourse that sought to silence them. I use the oral accounts of these soldiers as narratives of contestation to both nationalist and colonialist discourses. I argue that the colonial history of Morocco in its official and codified version stands in contrast to memory in its personal and collective remembrance of the past. To fully understand the histories of Moroccan colonial soldiers, we must situate them in their local and communal context. By taking the example of these soldiers, this paper also seeks to explore the problematic question of history and memory within the context of colonial Morocco.
Last modified: 7 May 2001