صورة المغرب في مرآة الرحلة الكولونيالية : شارل دو فوكو نموذجا

Abstract EN

European journeys to North Africa during the 19th century and the early 20th century were a rare opportunity to embody the interaction between the self-describing (travellers) and the other described.

It was an important occasion for gathering a number of public impressions and imaginations, and an opportunity to picture the other (Maghreb), which has been the source of excitement and imagination, in a delicate historical context replete with political and military events.

Moroccan space has not been clearly inserted into French literature only after its increasing political and strategic factors.

These reasons were triggered by the accelerating events of the 19th century, beginning with the defeat of Isley in 1844, and then the defeat of Tetouan in 1859.

These events transformed Morocco into a laboratory of research and studies of various disciplines in order to know the nature of its political, economic and social patterns, its tribal formations and its relations with the Makhzen.

The journey to Morocco was one of the mechanisms of research and writing about this space.

It was also means of identifying Moroccan mysteries and ancient builders.

These research and writing explained the influx of many pilgrims loaded with ambitions that were not devoided of colonial dimension.

One of the most famous travellers was Charles de Foucauld, played the role of a Jewish traveller, infiltrated into the most remote areas and wrote a book named “Reconnainssance au Maroc”.

In this book he gave a detailed and different information about the places he had passed by and he also gave a detailed account about the inhabitants' behaviours and morals.

Many other travellers who had the same ambition of fame and exploration were the first vanguard of French campaign against Morocco.

They not only produced irrelevant pictures and descriptions that did not reflect the Moroccan reality, but also they started a strong campaign against Morocco planning for a colonial project which undermined Moroccans and aimed at attacking them and considered them barbaric, dump and primitive.

All these efforts had been done just to justify all the military operation to be organized afterwards.