Reframing race in the Maghreb

Abstract

Clandestine migration across the Mediterranean is often discussed for its agitating effects on Europe’s racial anxieties; less acknowledged is the growth of intra-African racism in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Officials in these countries have increasingly demonised sub-Saharan Africans who arrive in the Maghreb en route to Europe, and now even black North Africans describe a climate of heightened racial tension. This article analyses the ways in which black Africans are represented in the contemporary Maghreb. Specifically, I look at print and on-line journalism, novels and films that foreground questions of race to argue that Maghrebi journalists, social media activists, authors and filmmakers are critiquing racism and exposing its neo-colonial underpinnings. Their work is calling for a disciplinary realignment in North African cultural studies that focuses the field as much on ‘Africa’ as it does on ‘North’.

Reinventing Hybridity in a Globalized Context: The Case of Turkish Soap Operas and Their Reception in Morocco

“…However, what needs to be underlined is that in Morocco, there is a clear feeling of not belonging to Africa, and a rejection of "African-ness, " observed by Corbin Treacy. 43 The work of Frantz Fanon, 44 and particularly his influential book Black Skins, White Masks effectively explains this trend. Indeed, Fanon 45 describes the interiorized feelings of inferiority of colonized people and their inherent desire to elevate their status to that of white people.…”