Socio-legal practices and the end of domestic slavery in Morocco

• Author: Prof. R. David Goodman
• Pages: 450-474

450

SOCIO-LEGAL PRACTICES AND THE END

OF DOMESTIC SLAVERY IN MOROCCO

PROF. R. DAVID GOODMAN

UNITED STATES

Introduction1

There was never a clear historical end to slavery in Morocco. The struggles of slaves,

their complex contestations of identity and their collective actions never came to be

-

curred in many other contexts. During the French Protectorate over Morocco (1912-

1956) the largest single slave owner was the Moroccan monarchy (the Makhzan), and

other Moroccan elites also kept slaves, largely in the domestic sphere. Colonial poli-

cies and royal decrees proclaimed that slavery had ended, but these statements, such

as the 1923 Protectorate Circular and several Moroccan Dahirs (decrees) of that era,

were limited by design and remained unenforced.2 Ending the ongoing clandesti-

ne slave trade never became a French administrative priority, and domestic slavery



1 This article, intended for translation into Spanish, is based upon original research represented in

the publication “Demystifying “Islamic Slavery”: Using Legal Practices to Reconstru ct the End of

Slavery in Fes, Morocco,” Africa in History, vol. 39, Summer 2012.

2 Circular 17 S.G.P., 21 september 1923, Bibliothèque Générale et Archives du Maroc (BGA). Hand-

       -



caused by poor handwriting in memos concerning the circular, it has erroneously been cited as 1922,

both by some subsequent Protectorate administrators and scholars in general. Also see: Comman-

dant Noël Maestracci,

(Paris, Charles-Lavauzelle & Cie, 1928),

p. 164.

451

Socio-legal practices and the end of domestic slavery in Morocco

   -

blic sale of slaves while not interfering within Moroccan households. Nevertheless,

over time domestic slavery became an anomaly and ended as a social institution in

the decades following independence.3

Critical analysis of Moroccan legal practices helps document this ambiguous history.

Moroccan legal authorities in shari a courts shaped the complex contours of slave

status and its transfor mation over time. In discussing slavery and abolition, this ar-

ticle focuses on evidence in Muslim court records and consciously avoids the ter m

“Islamic slavery,” a notion that resonates closely with colonial representations and

obscures more than it reveals. Instead analysis of legal records uncovers an era of

emancipation without public historical watersheds but rather with a subtle, gradual

accumulation of changes in social processes. This ar ticle begins with background

on slavery in Morocco and moves to discuss the term “Islamic slavery” and its li-

mitations. Then it examines legal actions containing references to domestic slaves

for nearly six decades (1913-1971) in Fes.4 These notarized family court records

      

(French or Moroccan), nor through masters granting their slaves legal manumis-

sions: domestic slavery ended at a stag gered pace amid social, familial and personal

changes more observable through attention to the dynamics across households and

generations than to administrative policies or external legal forces. This use of legal

evidence may offer an approach to constructing an historical framework from which

to interpret the lives and experiences of slaves and their children within and beyond

comparable Atlantic, Islamic and African worlds.

Situating the End of Domestic Slavery in Morocco

A prevalent historical schema of the end of slavery posits an anti-slavery strug gle

     

        -

odization and induction into international conventions rejecting slavery; and a legal

context of mandated state intervention and enforced adherence to new standards of

freedom and equality of for mer slaves and their descendants. In our context, and in

3 This history is examined in my book manuscript, “The Ambiguous End of Domestic Slavery in

Morocco: Households, Families, and Social Change in Fes”.

4 Striking an arbitrary balance between convention and consistency with darijah (Moroccan Arabic),

the place name Fes has been used (rather than Fez), while the term Fasi has been used for its inhabit-

ants (rather than Fesi).