Search

In this paper we provide a linguistic analysis of a recently digitized Luso-Moroccan correspondence corpus kept in the Portuguese National Archives of Torre do Tombo. All these documents date back to the first half of the tenth/sixteenth century and stand out for their being written in Middle Arabic, a language register which is characterized by the use of features from both classical and colloquial Arabic. The ultimate aim of this study is to find some clue to enable us to trace the history of present-day Moroccan Arabic dialects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers using khettaras, which are underground galleries draining the water table and providing a collective access to groundwater, are faced with a dilemma. The khettaras are drying up under the combined effect of groundwater pumping for drinking water and irrigation of recently installed farms, and the reduced recharge of the aquifer. Since their khettaras were threatened, some collectives chose to install wells or boreholes to supply pumped water to these khettaras. This increases the discharge and saves their collective access to groundwater, while at the same time it contributes to a further drop in the water table. In this paper, we discuss this Cornelian choice of oasis communities in southern Morocco. Field observations, satellite image analysis and surveys with farmers made possible to understand the emergence of an irrigation system combining the khettara with solar pumping, to analyze its technical design, and to highlight the capacity of collectives to intervene on the management rules to adapt the technical and institutional system of the khettaras to new conditions. This article contributes to a reflection on the sustainability of access to groundwater in this pre-Saharan context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The embassy report of the Moroccan Idrîss al-Ğu‘aydî in France, Belgium, England and Italy during the summer of 1876, Ithâf al-‘akhyâr (Of the curiosities of Europe which amaze honest people) is important in several respects. After its recent translated into French, this paper tries to raise at least three points within it: first, its international political context and i internal motives; then, the impact of the industrial revolution upon the members of the embassy, as seen through the precious testimony of the narrator; and finally the means both linguistic and iconic used by the author to translate from the European mirror to the Moroccan reader the image of a modernity so far unimaginable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using enunciative polyphony as a methodological framework, this paper will focus on irony in the populist discourse in Morocco. This discourse presents itself as a language form with specific features: it is polemical, strewn with pathos, scandalous and violent. It deals with ridiculing the adversary, scrutinizing his faults, his imperfections and making him a subject of laughter. In the corpus that we have collected (a corpus made up of oral speeches by Moroccan political party leaders uttered in various contexts), we have come across several forms of aggressiveness: direct, explicit attacks, such as insults, and others more subtle, implicit, which can be guessed through implications and presuppositions like irony. In the analysis that we intend to present, irony will certainly be treated as a linguistic device consisting in saying the opposite of what one thinks or of what one wants to make think, as put forward: Fontanier 1977, Dumarsais, 1967, Henri Morier 1989, but moreover, it will be analyzed taking into account its polyphonic dimension as conceived by O. Ducrot. In his treatment of irony, Ducrot began by making a fundamental distinction between speaker and enunciator. Then, he focused his approach on the localization of linguistic processes manifesting the plurality of voices in the same utterance. In this sense, the single subject (in our case the populist speaker-enunciator) who says I may not be responsible for what he utters. It is a game of voice, which this work will reveal, which can be disputed, confronted, diverged and converged in the same statement. Moreover, the saying and the said indeed embodies this relationship between the saying referring to the enunciation by the speaker of a message for which he is responsible, and the said referring to what is not directly taken care of by the speaker, but only communicated through utterance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, Man has been looking for the exploitation of natural resources for daily purposes. Thus, the current scientific and technological development has facilitated and given him real opportunities for the overexploitation of these resources in general and the plant cover in particular. In order to show this exploitation, we want, in this article, to study the evolution of the vegetation cover of the forest of Ait Daoud or Ali, located in the Central High Atlas on an area of 30 860 ha, between 1972, 1999 and 2020, based on remote sensing and GIS tool. Regarding the methodology of work, the multi-chronic study of the dynamics of the vegetation cover of the study area, is based on the spatio-temporal analysis and processing of satellite images by remote sensing space. Indeed, in this paper we have opted for this approach which is based on the use of data from LandSat satellite images of three types; these are the images of type MSS, ETM and Oli, for three dates 1972, 1999 and 2020 (period of 48 years) to identify the spatial differences of the vegetation cover between the three selected dates. Indeed, the study of the dynamics of the vegetation cover of the forest of Ait Daoud or Ali between 1972, 1999 and 2020, showed a very important spatio- temporal variation, linked essentially to several factors (natural and human). The comparison of the results of the classification of Landsat images, showed a decline and a significant degradation of vegetation cover between 1972 and 1999 of 12% of the total area of the study area. This degradation is justified by the intervention of several factors, including climatic conditions and dry periods that Morocco has experienced in this period. For the second period (1999-2020), the treatment showed an increase in vegetation cover of about 10%. In this study, we have highlighted the impact of natural factors and especially anthropic actions on the dynamics of the forest of Ait Daoud or Ali located in the Central High Atlas, based on the use of geospatial techniques that have allowed us to have very precise information on the spatio- temporal dynamics of plant cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of the Hirak in 2016, land issues have emerged as a new framework for social mobilization, and this goes far beyond the city of Al Hoceima, the starting point of the Hirak. The land issue, in connection with the territory, is posed with acuteness in the territories of cannabis production, whether in Tlata de Ketama or in the commune of Raya Suahal. Thus, activists blocked the departure of a military helicopter in 2017 as a sign of protest against the annexation of agricultural lands used by cultivators of cannabis. With the legalization of cannabis, the land issue arises as a condition for legal production of therapeutic and industrial cannabis. This paper seeks to explore the triangular relationship between cannabis, territory and land in the central Rif: it analyzes the aspects of this triangulation which engage the success of the legalization of cannabis for both therapeutic and industrial purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the ethnographic observation of three singular spaces in northern Morocco – a morgue, a “forest” and a presbytery – the paper explores the interconnections between migration experience and border violence from the perspective of migrants themselves. It demonstrates that migrants face at least three forms of border violence, emerging all at once from state control, networks of irregular migration, and humanitarianism. However, rather than being articulated in a cumulative relationship, these different forms of violence converge and reinforce each other within a continuum which permeates the migration trajectory. Migrants, for their part, are not mere objects of this continuum. Not only do they define practices to counter its effects – even if it means generating violence against their peers – but they also reinterpret the experience of violence in moral narratives that value risks in migration, while not naturalizing their exposure to death at the border. Migrants are thus actors in their own right of the “manufacture” of both the border and its composing violence, whether they oppose, or appropriate its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) is an emblematic species of Morocco, classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the red list of endangered species. Determining its potential area under current climatic conditions is an essential step in planning and ensuring its conservation. In this paper, we applied the maximum-entropy algorithm (MaxEnt) to predict the current and potential distribution of the Atlas cedar in order to provide a basis for its conservation. The adjusted model had an excellent predictive quality (AUC = 0.967). The most significant variables influencing the distribution of Atlas cedar, under current climatic conditions, are the precipitation in the driest quarter, precipitation in the driest month, average annual temperature and relative humidity. The model developed made it possible to establish the first map of the suitable potential area of the Atlas cedar in Morocco. The results obtained will guide managers to identify favorable sites for the rehabilitation of the Atlas cedar threatened with extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the book Viagens em Marrocos by Ruy da Câmara, published in 1879. Less a travel diary than the draft of an essay on Morocco from a personal experience and a diversity of sources, this book is the oldest in Portugal on this topic and it is very little known. The general appreciation of the territory, its culture and its inhabitants is largely negative, because of a Eurocentric approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to establish a map of the flood risk of the coastal plain of Saïdia located on the Mediterranean coast of north-eastern Morocco. This plain is enclosed between rivers : the Moulouya in the West and the Kiss in the East. It is bordered to the south by the Ouled Mansour Mountains. These are sheared by very steep ravines that empty directly into the plain. The groundwater is very shallow. This background coupled with geomorphic coastal development promotes the current flood risk. In this paper, the methodology is based on the structuring in a geographic information system (GIS), remote sensing data, products derived from a digital elevation model (DEM) and external data (lithology, the groundwater level, etc.). The analytical approach consists of a digital processing of a GeoEye-1 satellite image and aerial photographs to map the surface states, an extraction phase of topographic attributes and geomorphology of the land, represented by the digital elevation model (DEM) and a phase of structuring information for spatial analysis in a GIS. These investigations allowed the construction of two maps : the map of vulnerability to flood and the map of hazards. The vulnerability map shows that very high vulnerability areas represent 57% of the site and correspond to areas of inter-dunes flat formed by deposits of fine clay, and characterized by lowland sector (0-4 m). The hazard map refers to the land cover. The superposition of these two maps helped to establish the map flood risk. This thematic map shows that approximately 43% of the territory considered is located in high to very high flood risk areas, and correspond to the banks of the Moulouya and the kiss rivers and to the marshes of the Moulouya River, and to the sector on which the new Saidia resort is built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A paleolimnological study can be particularly accurate in situations where the species found in the sediments have persisted in the same lake and can provide a direct modern analogue for interpretation. Lake Tigalmamine, thus, represents an exceptionally favourable context, compared to most paleolakes in North Africa, as this site allows comparing the fossil remains of the Characeae to those produced by the living plants. Tigalmamine is a hydrosystem composed of three karstic lakes located at 1626m above sea level in the Middle Atlas of Morocco. The site had been the subject of a 16m long core taken in the center of the central lake under 16m of water (core C 86 in Lamb and Kaars, 1995 [The Holocene 5 (1995) 400–408]). The section represents the total of the Holocene from 10,200 BP to Present (El Hamouti et al., 1991 [Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris 2 (1991) 259–265]; Lamb et al., 1995 [Nature 373 (1995) 134–137]). The latter published a synthesis of the pluridisciplinary studies conducted on this core. Also, the numerous gyrogonites isolated from that core had been determined as Chara hispida (Soulié-Märsche in Benkaddour, 1993 [Changements hydrologiques et climatiques dans le Moyen-Atlas marocain : chronologie, minéralogie, géochimie isotopique et élémentaire des sédiments lacustres de Tigalmamine. PhD thesis, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay (inédit)]). Further fieldwork at Tigalmamine by the authors of the present paper in year 2000 showed that Chara hispida is still present in the lake where it forms a belt of submerged vegetation restricted to the range of 2 to 9m water depth. This paper describes the morphological and ecological characteristics of the extant Chara hispida as a reference for the interpretation of the fossil remains. Based on these data, the frequency changes of the gyrogonites in the core sediments become significant in terms of bathymetry. The detailed analysis of the charophytes from the core, as a complement to the previous studies, confirms the existence of four Holocene phases with lake level low stand at Tigalmamine. The aim of the present study is to enhance the value of the charophytes as a useful complementary tool for paleolimnological reconstruction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We have been sometimes forced to notice that there are forgotten rupestral arts: until recently, they were only studied by explorers or informed travellers and are rarely reported in the scientific literature. This is in part the case of engravings in the Moroccan High Atlas to which I have devoted my research (Ezziani, 2002, 2004a, 2004b). J Malhomme is among the people who were most invested in their investigation. He spent ten years in noting and collecting a considerable number of engravings: more than one thousand figures dispersed on the sides of the Atlas in places of difficult access at more than 2000 masl. He published many papers about his discoveries, which led to the publication of a remarkable corpus in two parts (Malhomme, 1959–1961). However, this corpus is far from being exhaustive. Recently, A. Rodrigue carried out new and excellent drawings within his research activity (1996). He added to the corpus of Malhomme a large number of figures discovered by A. Simoneau (1967, 1968, 1970), A. Jodin (1964, 1966) (two other researchers who have been closely interested in the High Atlas engravings) and himself, but unfortunately some engravings were damaged: whole flagstones have disappeared, so that the original drawings from Malhomme still remain very useful. All these data constituted the documentation base of my own work. In this paper, first I review some classification methods, then I propose my own and point out the inherent difficulties in this task. I conclude with a proposal for an outline of the structure of the High Atlas engravings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It is conventionally stated that organized action is impossible in large-scale irrigation schemes in North Africa, at a time of profound changes in these schemes (decline of central coordination modes, appearance of new actors, diminishing role of the State), and of negative experiences with state-created cooperatives and water users' associations. We believe, on the contrary, that organized action plays a central role in these changes. We analyze the process by which formal and informal cooperative practices of irrigators are crafted, stabilized and coordinated in large-scale irrigation schemes in Morocco and Algeria. There exists a wide range of organized action, often informal but enabling farmers to adapt progressively to change. These practices concern land and water management, purchase of inputs and marketing, as well as local development. In agriculture and social development, these cooperative practices are increasingly institutionalized. The paper shows that organized action enables irrigators to reinforce their autonomy and to renegotiate their dependence with respect to the State. Given the vigour of organized action in irrigation schemes, we recommend that its contribution to the formulation of public policies be analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the work undertaken to study impacts of climatic changes on the groundwater recharge at the watershed N'Fis (Haouz Marrakech-Maroc). The data from 13 piezometric stations and 4 meteorological stations spanning from 16 to 37 year periods database with other spatial data (soil occupation, DEM etc.) were integrated in a user-friendly environment through GIS. The objective is to make a preliminary assessment of potential impacts of climate change on groundwater resources .The result shows that the piezometric fluctuations are not influenced by these variations, but they depend mainly on irrigation return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The El Harhoura 2 cave is situated in the commune of El Harhoura in the Temara region (Morocco). The entrance faces west, towards the ocean, around 200 m away from the current shoreline and about 16 m above sea level. The stratigraphy has currently 11 levels numbered from top to bottom. Level 1 is attributed to the early Neolithic. The archaeological material from level 2 places it within the Upper Palaeolithic (Iberomaurusian). Levels 3 to 11 are assigned to the Middle Palaeolithic (Aterian). Since 1977, a surface of 37 m2 has been excavated, yielding particularly abundant remains of a large mammal fauna study in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]