Nation, Society and Culture in North Africa (Cass Series--History and Society in the Islamic World)

194 Pages·2003·2.23 MB·English

by  J. Mcdougall

Nation, Society and Culture in North Africa
CASS SERIES: HISTORY AND SOCIETY IN THE
ISLAMIC WORLD
ISSN 1466–9390
Series Editors: Anoushiravan Ehteshami and George Joffé
Contemporary events in the Islamic world dominate the headlines and emphasise
the crises of the Middle East and North Africa, yet the Islamic world is far larger
and more varied than we realise. Current affairs there too mask the underlying
trends and values that have, over time, created a fascinating and complex world.
This new series is intended to reveal that other Islamic reality by looking at its
history and society over the ages. It will also reach far further, bringing in Central
Asia and the Far East as part of a cultural space sharing common values and
beliefs but at the same time manifesting a vast diversity of experience and social
order.
1. French Military Rule in Morocco: Colonialism and its Consequences
by Moshe Gershovich
2. Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco
by David M.Hart
3. The Walled Arab City in Literature, Architecture and History: The Living
Medina in the Maghrib
edited by Susan Slyomovics
4. North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean World: From the Almoravids to
the Algerian War
edited by Julia Clancy-Smith
5. Technology, Tradition and Survival: Aspects of Material Culture in the Middle
East and Central Asia
edited by Richard Tapper and Keith McLachlan
6. Nation, Society and Culture in North Africa
edited by James McDougall
Nation, Society and Culture in North
Africa
Edited by James McDougall
FRANK CASS
LONDON • PORTLAND, OR
First published in 2003 in Great Britain by
FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS
Crown House, 47 Chase Side, London N14 5BP
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
and in the United States of America by FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS
c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Avenue, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97213–3786
Website www.frankcass.com
Copyright © 2003 Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Nation, society and culture in North Africa. —(Cass
series. History and society in the Islamic world; 6)
1. Nationalism—Africa, North 2. Popular culture—Africa,
North 3. Politics and culture—Africa, North 4. Africa,
North—Civilization 5. Africa, North—Social life and
customs
I.McDougall, James
306′.0961
ISBN 0-203-50351-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-58339-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0 7146 5409 4 (Print Edition) (cloth)
ISBN 0 7146 8337 X (paper)
ISSN 1466 9390
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Nation, society and culture in North Africa/edited by James McDougall
p.cm. —(Cass series-history and society in the Islamic
world, ISSN 1466–9390)
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN 0-7146-5409-4–ISBN 0-7146-8337-X (pbk.)
1. Africa, North-Politics and government-20th century. 2.Africa,
North-Civilization-20th century. 3. National state-Africa, North.
I. McDougall, James, 1974–II. Series.
DT176.N38 2003
961′.03–dc21
2002155478
This group of studies first appeared in a Special Issue on ‘Nation, Society and Culture in North
Africa’ of The Journal of North African Studies (ISSN 1362-9387) 8/1 (Spring 2003).
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.
Contents
Map of North Africa vii
Foreword viii
John P.Entelis
Introduction: History/Culture/Politics of the Nation 1
James McDougall
Algeria/Morocco: The Passions of the Past. Representations of the 14
Nation that Unite and Divide
Benjamin Stora
Ideologies of the Nation in Tunisian Cinema 34
Kmar Kchir-Bendana
Stories on the Road from Fez to Marrakesh: Oral History on the 42
Margins of National Identity
Moshe Gershovich
Echoes of National Liberation: Turkey Viewed from the Maghrib in 58
the 1920s
Odile Moreau
Libya’s Refugees, their Places of Exile, and the Shaping of their 71
National Idea
Anna Baldinetti
Martyrs and Patriots: Ethnic, National and Transnational Dimensions 85
of Kabyle Politics
Paul A.Silverstein
Moroccan Women’s Narratives of Liberation: A Passive Revolution? 110
Liat Kozma
Citizens and Subjects in the Bank: Corporate Visions of Modern Art 129
and Moroccan Identity
Katarzyna Pieprzak
vi
The Nation’s ‘Unknowing Other’: Three Intellectuals and the Culture 152
(s) of Being Algerian, or the Impossibility of Subaltern Studies in
Algeria
Fanny Colonna
Abstracts 167
Notes on Contributors 171
Index 173
vii
MAP OF NORTH AFRICA
Foreword
It is with pride and honour that I introduce this volume on Nation, Society and
Culture in North Africa edited by James McDougall which appears both as a
book and as a special issue of The Journal of North African Studies that I edit
with my colleague George Joffé. The study of North Africa or the Maghrib in the
English-speaking world has expanded rapidly in recent years as reflected by the
quality and quantity of original scholarship being produced, so well represented
by the contributors to this collection.
History, geography, politics, and economics have long combined to explain
the domination of French-language research and writing on the Maghrib. Yet,
even during the most active period of Francophone scholarly production, English-
language writers published some of the most intellectually stimulating,
theoretically innovative, and empirically enriching scholarship ever produced
which continues to inspire the work of younger researchers. Select
representatives of these earlier writings are such distinguished intellectual path-
breakers as Ernest Gellner, Clifford Geertz, David Hart, John Waterbury, Carl
Brown, Charles Micaud, Bill Zartman, Charles Gallagher, John Ruedy, Clem
Moore Henry, and Terry Burke, among others.
This is not at all to suggest that separate disciplinary traditions were being
pursued, ones which divided Francophone scholars from their Anglophone
counterparts. Indeed, from the outset there was an extensive cross-fertilisation of
ideas and frameworks of analysis between French, British and American
academics each using the others’ language along with that of Arabic and Berber
to deepen and extend the understanding of the North African state, culture, and
society. James McDougall and his colleagues represent the best in this cross-over
tradition integrating as they do different generational cohorts and disciplinary
perspectives. What is particularly enlightening in this collection is the strong
representation of women’s scholarship with six of the nine substantive articles
being written by female scholars.
While the first generation of modern English-writing on the Maghrib was
dominated by men, subsequent generations have included a plethora of highly
productive female writers within and outside North Africa including both senior
and junior authors like Lisa Anderson, Melanie Cammett, Emma Murphy, Julia
Clancy-Smith, Claire Spencer, Mounira Charrad, Boutheina Cheriet, Elaine
ix
Combs-Schilling, Laurie Brand, Eva Bellin, Susan Slyomovics, Alison Pargeter,
Marnia Lazreg, and Susan Ossman.
This collection also continues in an impressive intellectual tradition of multi-
authored volumes covering a wide-ranging cross-disciplinary landscape first
initiated by Carl Brown at the time of North African independence (Leon Carl
Brown (ed.), State and Society in Independent North Africa, 1966) and then
continued by Bill Zartman covering the post-independence periods (I.William
Zartman (ed.), Man, State, and Society in the Contemporary Maghrib, 1973 and
I.William Zartman and William Mark Habeeb (eds.), Polity and Society in
Contemporary North Africa, 1993).
The volume’s lasting contribution, however, lies in the methodological rigour,
theoretical focus, and sharp empirical insights provided by this impressive
amalgam of multinational researchers directing their attention towards the
Maghrib’s representation of nationhood. In an age and in a region where political
violence, civil unrest, and economic hardships occupy the headlines, close and
careful attention to the historic roots of identity-formation, nation-building, and
cultural construction as understood and lived by the people themselves are too
often lost, ignored, or bypassed. The authors of this volume refocus our attention
to the ways in which Maghribis have sought to define their existences through
culturally-specific frameworks of analysis that transcend the bounds of
colonialist constructions and imperialist designs. It is this shared concern of all
the contributors with the ‘lived realities of North Africans’ contemporary
historical experiences’ that so impresses the reader of these chapters.
James McDougall must be given exceptional credit for initiating this scholarly
enterprise and gathering such an impressive array of established and younger
scholars across different disciplines. Specialists and lay readers alike will benefit
greatly from this effort which brings knowledge about the nation, society and
culture of North Africa to the English-speaking world at a time of great global
anxiety and uncertainty. The timing of this publication is fortuitous as is the
careful selection of topics and scholars.
John P.Entelis
Fordham University, New York
January, 2003