Paper long abstract:

Morocco boasts a long history of academic education and research, with institutions such as the Qarawiyyin University in Fez founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859, and scholars such as the historian and sociologists Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). These historical highlights figure prominently in the reconstruction of higher learning in Morocco after regained independence in 1956. The Protectorate authorities (1912-1956) restructured part of the educational system according to French and Spanish models. French and Spanish students, and some local young men learned new approaches to history and philosophy and to the understanding of contemporary society, culture, politics, economics, and law. These approaches were closely linked to the colonialist governance of Morocco and the project of “modernisation” together with reviving Moroccan “tradition.”

After independence in 1956 Moroccan and some French scholars strived towards decolonising this colonial knowledge. They criticised anthropology and preferred to call themselves “sociologists”, taking Ibn Khaldun as model. Many scholars looked towards leftist ideas for directions to understand the world and to reform Morocco into a new nation offersing social justice. France remained important as a cultural and linguistic model. At the same time nationalists declared themselves strongly in favour of Arabisation and a search for Islamic models. From the 1970s American academia gradually gained a foothold in Morocco through research projects and the distribution of scholarships to talented Moroccan scholars.

From the 1990s onwards civil society and academic life became more liberal, after decades of political repression of “critical” disciplines such as sociology and philosophy. Some scholars started to identify themselves as “anthropologists”, relating their work to foreign and national debates. Researchers in the humanities played an important role in the creation of a civil society by cultural critique. Nowadays, Morocco has a sizable community of scholars who contribute to public debates, occasionally under strained circumstances. Some of these intellectuals participate in international academia as well. A few members of the first generation of scholars after independence are still active, while their students who entered academia in the 1960s and 1970s are now retiring from their teaching positions. A new generation of post-colonial scholars is taking over, who next to Arabic and French also increasingly publish their contributions in English.

This paper offers an overview of the genesis of the humanities, with special attention to anthropology, in Morocco since independence. The focus is on the adoption by local scholars of European and American models to understand Moroccan society and culture. Through research and teaching these scholars educate new generations of Moroccan citizens, contribute to national and international academia, and to public debates which form part of an emerging civil society. It is a plea to take their work seriously as scholarship and as acts of citizenship.