Memory and the (Post) Colonial Archive: Spanish discourses on Imazighen´s linguistic diversity (Rif, Ghomara, and Senhaja de Sraïr)

Abstract

In the north of Morocco, different Arabic and Berber linguistic varieties are spoken. Our current knowledge of linguistic diversity owes much to many descriptions published by European researchers in the times of the European Protectorates. In this paper, I address how the Spanish colonial agents built memories on linguistic diversity in the territories under the Spanish Protectorate in the period 1912-1956. In this presentation, I will examine some archival materials preserved at the Archivo General de la Administración (AGA), in combination with other textual sources, most of them published books and press articles, dating back to pre-colonial and colonial times. I will examine Spanish attitudes towards Berber varieties, and I will explain how discourses evolved during the period.