Constructing an Archival Cityscape: Local Views of Colonial Urbanism in the French Protectorate of Morocco

I

Existing studies of colonial architecture and urbanism in Morocco—much as in the case of France's other African holdings—usually highlight the political intentions of foreign administrators, not the local residents who lived and worked there. After three years of research in Moroccan archives, I came upon many primary sources that will allow historians to show Moroccans as energetic actors who shaped urban life in the French Protectorate (1912-56). The documents that I found hold significant potential for unraveling the social history of trades, neighborhoods, and institutions in the medina. The term "medina" designates the narrow streets and walled quarters of the premodern city, which colonial administrators kept distinct from the modern Ville Nouvelle built for European use. These sources make it clear that French administrators implementing urban policies in the medina faced the day-to-day responses of ordinary Moroccans of various social and economic classes. More importantly, they suggest that the colonial encounter played a secondary role in the quotidian choices of these residents, who worried more about relations with other locals, such as troublesome neighbors or avaricious shopkeepers, than with French officers and civilians located in the Ville Nouvelle.

My own research focuses on the experiences of millers and butchers in Fez, but my insights into the archival treasures of this North African kingdom will help historians interested in other cities and socio-economic groupings. In this paper I will discuss five distinct types of documentation: archives of the municipality, archives of the Department of Fine Arts, documentation on religious endowments, land titles, and transcripts of judicial proceedings. By exploiting these sources, historians can begin to reconsider how and why Moroccans shaped the physical and socio-economic development of their cities.

II

The French administered Morocco through municipalities, which exercised a modicum of fiscal and political independence from the central government in Rabat.¹ Given this jurisdictional organization, ordinary Moroccans exercised influence more effectively at the local level than at the territorial level, where French officers micro-managed centralized departments. A French Chef des Services Municipaux administered the city, but the Protectorate also established offices and institutions for local residents. In Fez, for example, a Moroccan basha, or governor, assisted the Chef des Services Municipaux, while the Mejless Musulman and the Mejless Israelite, or the Muslim Council and the Jewish Council, played a consultative role in the policy-making process. The Moroccans incorporated into this system of municipal government consisted of a local elite, often wealthy merchants, but these notables represented the concerns of their social inferiors. Municipal archives are housed both at the national library and at city halls throughout Morocco, and they help orient initial research by identifying specific issues of contention, as well as groups of local residents who organized in pursuit of their interests.

The Colonial Archive at the Bibliothèque Générale et Archives (BGA) in Rabat holds correspondence between municipal administrators of a given city and the capital's central offices. The documents are in French, and they are cataloged according to city of origin, date, and document type. Each month a French Chef des Services Municipaux sent a report of about four pages to the central office that summarized conditions in the medina. For my own research, these reports provide information about the price of staple foods, the rate of unemployment among certain trades, and the funding and management of social welfare programs. The reports also include descriptions of health and hygiene in Moroccan neighborhoods, as well as the restoration of historic monuments and the repair of roads.

There are also special dossiers on public works and programs implemented in the medina with municipal funds. Fez's administrators, for example, constructed a homeless shelter in 1927, when drought brought rural migrants into the city.² Since the Protectorate vested municipal administrators with responsibility for balancing a budget, municipal tax records provide fiscal evidence of the operation of the colonial city. In the course of my research, for example, I found that Moroccan butchers, though representing only .001% of the population, provided 10...