Review: The Moroccan Rif

Author(s): E. G. H. Joff
Review by: E. G. H. Joff
Source: The Journal of African History, Vol. 18, No. 4 (1977), pp. 626-628
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/180838
Accessed: 19-04-2016 12:20 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of African History

This content downloaded from 131.211.208.19 on Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:26 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

626 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY

THE MOROCCAN RIF

The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif: An Ethnography and History. By

DAVID MONTGOMERY HART. (Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology
No. 55). Tucson: University of Arizona Press, for Wenner-Gren Foundation,
I976. Pp. 556. $20-00.

The Mediterranean littoral of northern Morocco and its hinterland-the Rif

mountains-have generally been terra incognita to historians of nineteenth and
twentieth century North Africa, despite the region's close proximity to Europe.
Isolated events there-the Spanish-Moroccan War (I859-60), the Melilla
incidents in I893, the Rogui Bu Hmara (I902-9) and the Rif War (I92I-6)have attracted attention, and the literature is full of scattered references to
Rifian piracy and arms smuggling or European intrigues. Such detailed studies
of the Rif as there have been have concentrated on its relevance to events in the
wider arena of the Sharifian Empire of Morocco, the subsequent French and

Spanish protectorates or the Moroccan nationalist movement. In addition, they

have generally relied heavily on European sources, particularly for the period
of the Rif War.

Recently the picture has begun to change. Historians have begun to question
the established truths of the Protectorat period and earlier neglect has encouraged
anthropologists to fill the gap. The recent publication of the proceedings of a
colloquium held in I9731 illustrates the extent to which both historians and
anthropologists have accepted that the Rif and particularly its largest tribe, the
Aith Waryaghar, is a topic of common interest with relevance to the analysis of
indigenous response to European pressure and colonialism. David Hart, already
well known for his numerous articles on Rifian ethnography, has now provided
the first comprehensive study of the region in The Aith Waryaghar of the
Moroccan Rif.
As befits his primary concern as an anthropologist, fully three-quarters of
this massive work (over 540 double-column pages, including glossaries, appendices and index) comprises an ethnographic study of the Aith Waryaghar. As
sedentary agriculturalists, its members are typical of those of most tribes in
northern Morocco, although the Rif itself is heavily overpopulated and provides
a very inhospitable terrain for any agricultural activity. As a segmentary society,
it is typical of rural Morocco as a whole, although the extreme segmentation
and territorial discontinuity-itself a product of the poor resource base-shown
by the Aith Waryaghar and neighbouring tribes is highly unusual. In other
respects the central Rif tribes, the Aith Waryaghar in particular, are unique.
Although many of their political institutions are found elsewhere, particularly
in Berber-speaking mountainous areas,2 they are rarely developed to the same
extremes.

This is particularly true of the blood feud, which in the Rif, Hart believes,
almost became an unconscious form of population control (a function today
taken over by labour migration) and a political regulator in a fiercely egalitarian
society, mitigated only by the relative sanctity of the market place. In markets
1 Abd el-Krim et la Republique du Rif (Paris, I976).

2 Cf. E. Gellner, Saints of the Atlas (London, I969); J. Berque, Structures sociales du
Haut-Atlas (Paris, i962).

This content downloaded from 131.211.208.19 on Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:26 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

REVIEWS

627

there was a general agreement that feuds were in abeyance, an agreement which,
if contravened, resulted in severe fines or banishment. The fines themselves

strengthened the characteristic egalitarianism of Aith Waryaghar society as they

were distributed equally amongst its constituent clans, themselves organized
on the 'five fifths' principle. Yet, since Hart sees the essence of the political
system as 'disequilibrium in equilibrium', the blood feud although discouraged
through massive fines was encouraged by a variety of formal and informal
alliance patterns which usually conflicted with the basic segmentary structure.
It is in his discussion of these liff alliance patterns that Hart's ethnographical
conclusions are most useful for historians and sociologists. He shows very clearly
that in practice these apparently formal patterns involved a considerable degree
of choice, thus corresponding to the 'bet-hedging' that characterizes Moroccan
history and politics.3 He also shows how Rifian tribes were able to overcome their
habitual discords and unite through liffs to meet a common external threat.
The latter part of Hart's book traces the history of the central Rifian tribes
from the foundation of the Salihid kingdom of Nakur in about A.D. 760 to the
present day. Up to I898 he gives a very general review, being only concerned
with events that directly involved the Rif tribes themselves. Thereafter however
the emphasis shifts and the tribes-the Aith Waryaghar in particular-take centre
stage. Hart does not pretend to give a detailed objective account of the last
seventy years, but rather, through the immense amount of oral material and
local documents that he has collected, he attempts to present the history of
increasing Rifian involvement in the wider national and international field as

seen by the Rifians themselves: Bushta al-Baghdadi's manipulation of traditional

enmities during his I898 mehalla against the Ibuqquyen which backfired when the
tribes realized that the Sultan Mulai Abdel Aziz was forced to act by European
pressure; Bu Hmara's unsuccessful attempt to control the Rif in I908 which
met united Aith Waryaghar resistance and resulted in his own downfall a year
later.
Although the Rif ignored the formal installation of the French and Spanish
Protectorates in I9I2 and the subsequent pacification, by I92I the tribes were
fully aware of Spain's intentions towards them. Their resentments and fears
enabled Abdel Krim, a qadi from Ajdir and a Salafiyist with firsthand knowledge
of Spanish aims, to persuade the Aith Waryaghar to unite against Spanish
penetration into the Rif. Hart's description of how Abdel Krim mobilized the
central Rif tribes by exploiting and adapting traditional institutions to create a
force which shattered two Spanish armies and almost defeated the French Army
in I925 brings together the ethnographical and historical themes of his work. He
also describes the reforms that Abdel Krim made throughout Rifian society,
showing how they were achieved and the fundamental effects they had on traditional society. By the end of the Rif War, the Aith Waryaghar had lost many of
their heterodox features and were perhaps the most devout Muslims in rural
Morocco.

In his account of the Spanish Protectorate in the Rif Hart relies heavily on
work done by Emilio Blanco, for a long time the local interventor, who was an
excellent amateur anthropologist. He demonstrates how Spain wisely made use,
not only of Abdel Krim's reforms, but also of many of his erstwhile lieutenants
in administering the region and how the Rifians themselves adjusted to Spanish
3 Cf. J. Waterbury, Commander of the Faithful (London, I970).

This content downloaded from 131.211.208.19 on Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:26 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

628 JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY

control. The new administration instituted by independent Morocco in I956

was not so successful and by I958 the Rif was again in revolt. David Hart here
provides details of how traditional patterns of behaviour adapted themselves to

new circumstances4-as they had in I955, when the Rifian Army of Liberation was
created in the Spanish zone.

The great merit of David Hart's book is his ability to marry his ethnographical
studies to the recent history of the area-an area which after all provided one
of the greatest examples of indigenous resistance to the implantation of a colonial
regime. He has thus provided the most comprehensive explanation to date of
how the Rif responded to the increasingly obtrusive outside world as well as
clarifying how part of rural Morocco actually operated its complex systems of
acephalous segmentation and alliances.
Needless to say, Hart's explanations and conclusions may be controversial.
Indeed, in so far as they have appeared in his many articles on the Rif, they
have already generated controversy. Germain Ayache5 has made trenchant
criticisms of his claim that the blood feud is a centuries-old and integral part
of Aith Waryaghar society. Ayache, who has himself carried out extensive work
on the Rif, accepts the views of Rifians themselves that the blood feud was of
recent origin, as was their rejection of Sultanic authority. Indeed he claims that
both were the result of European penetration and intrigue aimed at taking over
the area peacefully, rather than by conquest.

Nevertheless, David Hart, by gathering a vast mass of ethnographic and

historical material into a highly readable and coherent account, has provided

a major contribution to an understanding of the Rif. Many of his conclusions,

controversial though some may be, contain implications that will undoubtedly
help to illuminate other neglected corners of the recent history of North Africa.
School of Oriental and African Studies, London E. G. H. JOFFE

The African Experience in Spanish America. By LESLIE B. ROUT, Jr. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, I976. PP. XV+404. ?I2.50 (paperback ?2.95).
The Atlantic slave trade drew its victims from a vast African catchment area.
It is often forgotten that they were then distributed over an even vaster American
reception area, stretching from Quebec (as Robin Winks's The Blacks in Canada
reminds us) to Valparaiso, including every European colony in the Americas,
irrespective of its climate or economy.

Leslie Rout's study covers the Spanish-speaking territories, island and mainland. A black American, teaching at Michigan State University, he has written
his book in a very personal style, but it is none the worse for it. His own observations of Spanish America today are amplified by extensive reading in secondary
sources, and make an enjoyable and moving work of scholarship, which compre4 E. Gellner, 'Patterns of Rural Rebellion in Morocco', in E. Gellner and C. Micaud
(eds.), Arabs and Berbers: From Tribe to Nation in North Africa (London, I973).
Germain Ayache, 'Societe rifaine et pouvoir central marocain (I850-I920)', Revue
Historique, 5I6 (Oct.-Dec. I975), 345-70.

This content downloaded from 131.211.208.19 on Tue, 19 Apr 2016 12:20:26 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms