Two Film Industries (Separate, Not Equal) It would seem that there are two very distinct film industries in Morocco: the films produced by Moroccans, and the films produced by foreigners. In fact, they are linked to one another by political economy. Consider the following scene. Moroccan filmmaker M. A. Tazi was trying to reconstruct a…
This mini-series consists of two posts. The first provides a historical introduction to the film industry in Morocco. How did it get started? What are the big issues that shaped, and continue to shape, this industry? The Foreign Origins of Cinematography in Morocco Both domestic and foreign production are best understood in the context of…
This series seeks to map shifting levels of language dominance in Moroccan history in order to investigate contemporary developments in government policy. The previous post focused on Colonial Language Policy. Nationalist Language Policy of Arabization The Moroccan constitution of 1956 names Arabic as the sole official language, and by the end of the 1950s, a…
This series seeks to map shifting levels of language dominance in Moroccan history in order to investigate contemporary developments in government policy. The previous post presents a Brief Linguistic History of Morocco. Colonial Language Policy French Morocco’s first resident-general, Hubert Lyautey, relied on ethnological research to guide Protectorate policy. Georges Hardy, head of the educational…
Introduction This series seeks to map shifting levels of language dominance in Moroccan history in order to investigate contemporary developments in government policy. The debate over language policy is closely connected to Moroccan history. Language represents an important site of contestation in most modern states, and especially in post-colonial nations. In Morocco, the nationalist project…
This post presents a new translation of an old poem, a qaṣῑda from classical Arabic literature. The poet is Abu Nuwas (who lived c. 757-814), but this is not a typical Abu Nuwas poem. Instead, it provides a nice example of a standard and celebrated praise poem (essential for poets to make a living in…
If you teach anything related to the region of Middle East/Southwest Asia and North Africa or you want to learn more yourself, this post is for you! My colleague Christine Baker assisted with the design of the course outline provided here. Intended for an Introduction to the Middle East course, it provides many sources for…
