Saadani

lundi 28 janvier 2008

Nadrani and « the Emir Ben Abdelkrim»

Nadrani and « the Emir Ben Abdelkrim»

Finally it is carried out; the militant Nadrani has given birth to his (BD) second Cartoon…

Initially, it was the journey through ordeals in the sadly famous “the Complex” with “the Sarcophagi of the Complex” and today his junior is Riffian. He is on “the Rif War” with the Great Ben Abdelkrim and his republic. This lawyer, man of a prominent family, were initially one of the first Moroccan journalists, before choosing the way of the free men and taking the weapons against the Spanish occupant.

The cartoon brings to mind pages of the History of resistance with the valiant Riffian combatants who were armed in first by their conviction and their determination not to be bent in front of an enemy (the Crown of Spain), a power imperialist come what may its force.

The author returns to us with the Rif War, with the epopee of “the Emir Ben Abdelkrim” who preceded the contemporary experiments of the anticolonialist armed struggle all over the world which was a spark which lit the battle fields and which radiated the firmaments above the universes populated by the resistance fighters who revolted against the colonialists enemies, it is what Nadrani calls a true legend by stressing that “the year 1920. Well before the war of Indo-China and that of Algeria, it was the beginning of a true legend that of the first liberation movement of the XX^th century”. (Drawing-board - p.10)

With “the Emir Ben Abdelkrim”, Nadrani shows us the extent of the work of a great leader who furrowed the region to and fro to carry out the dream of the convinced combatant: “From Aït Youssef, an influential family of the tribe Aït Ouriaghel, emerges the man known under the name of fqih Moulay Mohand. The man, who will be soon given the surname of the Lion of The Rif, decided to traverse the territory, from one village to another and from one hill to another, to put an end to the tribes’ rivalries and to unify them in a resistance movement. And it was the glorious epopee of Mohamed Ben Abdelkrim Al-Khattabi, known as Abdelkrim.”  (Drawing-board - p.10)

While being interested in the Rif War with a very clear and very attaching language, particularly the image and the simplicity of the style accessible to the people from any age, Nadrani paints the maquis, the landscape with an authentic decoration, and the men (Amazigh) who fight with roughness and endurance against the men of the General Manual Fernández Sylvestre. He opens to us the eye on our veracious history and in particular on this colonialist war which constituted a rich platform of lessons for the people in lack of freedom and which are not different from their grandfathers who fought against O'Donnell and Marco Blanco del Valle in the second half of the XIX^th century. On this subject, journalists, who covered the Rif War[1] during this period, did not seek words to describe the bravery of these Riffian people which are only the parents and the grandparents of the combatants of the Emir Ben Abdelkrim.

Indeed, several correspondents of newspapers such as “l’Indépendance belge ”, “Le Constitutionnel”, “La Patrie”, “La Iberia”, the “New York Daily Tribune” sent near the Spanish army which represented… followed very close these veterans and parents of militants. We quote, in this connection, the article of the New York Daily Tribune of March 17, 1860[2] when Friedrich Engels covered the stages of the war carried out by the Riffian people. He noted that the Spanish were in the height of their force and they face the Riffians who became, day after day, stronger.  He affirmed that the difficulties encountered by O'Donnell prove that this one did not expect such adversaries who fight extraordinarily well. On the behavior of these Moroccan warriors, Friedrich Engels announced:

[…] According to the Spanish, the Moors are very dangerous in the ravines and the undergrowth […] But, here in Ceuta, it is a state of topsy-turvy. Although they have the numerical superiority, the Spanish do not dare to advance […] it seems that there is an unusual proportion of hand-to-hand fighting and with the yataghan and with the bayonet. When the Spanish lines are sufficiently close, the Moors cease the shooting and spring dagger in hands, in the manner of the Turks, and this is felt with reluctance by the young Spanish recruits.”

This statement of Engels comes only to reinforce the remarks quoted in the name of the Riffian people facing the shootings of the soldiers who took shelter behind the flat roofs, Abdelkrim and its heroic combatants invaded the Kasbah very quickly […]  But, this resistance was without hope: the last struggle turned to hand-to-hand fighting with cold steel… (Drawing-board -p. 54)

The battle of Anoual (July 1921) made more than 20000 died in the ranks of the Spanish army. During two years, Ben Abdelkrim held the mountains of The Rif and set up a true “Republic of The Rif” (1921-1926) lived like a prelude to the release of all Morocco and according to Nadrani “It is the beginning of a new era, that of The resistance and fight against colonialism and of the emancipation of the peoples.”

Ahmed SAADANI

[1] The war took place on November 25, 1859, under the walls of Ceuta, on March 23, 1860 (the battle of Wadi Al-R aS). Merchant companies in Morocco from 1830 to 1912, SAADANI, AHMED, 2003, p.65.

[2] “New York Daily Tribune”, March 17, 1860.

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