Morocco continues its efforts to recover the rest of its archives from the colonial era, located abroad, which the government estimates at twenty million documents, after it succeeded in obtaining 4 million, in recent years.
As part of the “Recovery of the National Archives” program, launched in 2008, Rabat has recovered more than 3,952 thousand documents, dating back to the French and Spanish colonial period, as announced by the Moroccan government in the presentation memorandum to the draft finance law for the year 2023.
The recovered documents relate mainly to correspondence, reports, photographs and maps, belonging to a number of Moroccan cities that fell under French colonialism between 1912 and 1954, according to what was confirmed by the director of the Moroccan Archives, Jamea Beida.
Beida, who is primarily a historian, reveals that his country has obtained, in recent years, digitized copies of some documents belonging to him, from France and Spain, in addition to other countries such as the United States of America and Portugal.
In a statement to Al-Hurra, the Beida mosque highlights that the recovered documents belong to the Morocco Archives Foundation and the delegation of members of the Liberation Army, which is concerned with the history of resistance and the struggle against colonialism, and relates mainly to correspondence, reports, photos and maps of the cities of Rabat, Tangiers, Casablanca and others.
“The Pursuit of the Archive”
Morocco created the “Archive” Foundation in 2007 as a public institution, entrusted with the tasks of preserving the heritage of the National Archives, collecting, processing, preserving, and facilitating access to Moroccan archive resources located abroad.
Since its establishment, this institution has worked to retrieve thousands of assets belonging to Morocco from abroad. In this context, its director stresses that this process “was not easy, but rather takes place after a very large discussion and debate,” pointing out that the institution does not deal only with countries and governments, Sometimes even with NGOs that have private documents.
Jameh Beida explains that Morocco has the full right to retrieve these documents, either original or at least digitized, pointing out that what was produced in Morocco, even during the colonial phase, should have remained in Morocco, and since it shares it with the colonial countries, they are the ones who should It should demand copies of it, not the other way around today.
He states that the foundation’s work in obtaining these historical materials is to bring them closer to researchers, specialists in history, journalists and all citizens who wish to see aspects of this period, which spanned 42 years of their country’s history.
Khattabi Archive
Among the most important documents that the Moroccan authorities are asking for their return, is the archive of one of the most prominent Moroccan resistance fighters, Abdel Karim El Khattabi, which is in the possession of the French authorities.
A few months ago, several Moroccan institutions sent correspondence on the matter to the French diplomatic archive.
Regarding the developments in this file, Beidha believes that France “was intransigent in handing over the al-Khattabi archive” despite Moroccan and French demands as well, as French historians support the kingdom’s recovery of these documents, according to the spokesman.
The director of the Moroccan Archives adds that the claim for these assets goes back to the centenary of the Battle of Anwal in the countryside, in which Al-Khattabi led and defeated the Spanish army. She made excuses in the al-Khattabi archive case, as they are private documents she obtained after his capture.
The Moroccan official continues that his French colleagues in the French diplomatic archive are answering Moroccan demands that “the matter is out of their hands,” and that the decision is in the hands of the Presidency of the Republic.
In his answer to Al-Hurra’s question, the spokesman denied that the sensitivity of these documents was behind France’s refusal to hand them over, pointing out that they are not secret documents, but rather the nature of their sensitivity, according to him, that the French side considers that returning them may raise Moroccan demands to recover other documents.
The Moroccan historian states that solving the file of archival heritage is essential to turning the page on colonialism and looking to a better future, hoping that the wise politicians on both sides will find a compromise on this issue.
In the same context, Beida expresses his reservations about the figures revealed by the government regarding the presence of 20 million documents abroad, saying: “I do not know the source of these numbers and I do not comment on them,” adding that they may be more or less, and the number will not be resolved unless Morocco reaches agreements. with the governments of the countries concerned.
As for whether Morocco has priorities in documents that it wants to recover in the coming period, the Moroccan official says: “There is no. All archives in Morocco are important, and sometimes a small document that may not seem important to the general public, but it may change the view of major historical events.”