Toward the ‘Moral Conquest’ of Morocco: Hispano–Arabic Education in Early Twentieth-Century North Africa

Abstract

The Spanish colonial enterprise in early twentieth-century North Africa was coloured by ambiguous perceptions of cultural purpose and identity. Because Spaniards have tended to view their primary focus of recent imperialist activity, Morocco, as more of a historical frontier — or even as an extension of the metropole — than as home to a fully oppositional Other, they have not been able to place as much emphasis on cultural, historical, and racial distinctions between themselves and the colonized as have many other Westerners. On a practical level, the contradictions that underlay Spain’s ‘civilizing mission’ in the Maghrib left a clear imprint on the military-administered Hispano–Arabic schools, which eschewed any attempts to evangelize and instead sought to impart the teachings of the Koran and what it perceived to be true Muslim values to Moroccan children. The programmes of the Spanish schools for Moroccan children also illuminate the strong contrast between Spanish colonialist ideologies in North Africa and those of the French in Morocco and Algeria.