Moulay Ismail and the Mumbo Jumbo: Black Morocco Revisited

Abstract

There is much to say about Chouki El Hamel’s Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race and Islam (2015), but I will focus the discussion below on six points: 1) the “ancient hatreds” argument he constructs to explain racism and slavery in Morocco, in particular the culturalist thrust running through the book, whereby complex economic and political processes are reduced to racist or theological beliefs; 2) El Hamel’s claim that much writing about slavery in North Africa claims the institution was benign; 3) how he categorizes Moroccans into three bounded categories—Black, Arab, and Berber; 4) his claim that the Gnawa Sufi order is a “diaspora” and a “distinct ethnic group” that longs for an imaginary homeland; 5) his questionable use of national archives, and selective rendering of classic writing on slavery and jinn belief in Morocco; and 6) his reluctance to address how colonial (and postcolonial) state policy affected ethno-racial politics in Morocco.