Images and ambivalences of Spanish policy toward slavery in Morocco (1880-1930)

Abstract

In this study I show the racialist images that Spanish Africanism built about the Black-Africans in Morocco between 1880 and 1930 and the ambivalence of colonial policy toward that population, who mostly lived in a subordinated position or in slavery. The main sources used in this exercise of anthropological history are the Spanish colonial archives. The prevalent stereotype during this period was based on a hierarchical classification system that naturalized the subordinate position of Black-Africans and place them on a lower scale of civilization as compared to other North African populations. The slave trade and the social position they occupied in Morocco led to diversity of opinion among africanists. One the one hand, there were abolitionist views that considered slavery intolerable, while others defined it as respectable, for pragmatic reasons or through a relativistic and comprehensive exercise toward some forms of servitude that were presented as milder as compared to other colonial situations. Following the instauration of the Protectorate in 1912, the colonial administration preferred to adopt this strategic respect of servility in order to not antagonize the local elites; so this administration resisted the pressures of the League of Nations in the early 1920’s and never abolished explicitly slavery, or just hid its presence from the public sphere.