Revue d'histoire contemporaine de l'Afrique

Special issue edited by Benjamin Badier (Université Bretagne-Sud), Yazid Benhadda (MECAM, Université de Tunis), Abdelmounaïm Fanidi (École des hautes études en sciences sociales), Othmane Mouyyah (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Soufiane Taïf (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne).

Editorial coordination within RHCA by Anaïs Angelo and Camille Evrard.

Morocco is still all too often considered a country unto itself, one that has managed to develop a distinctive identity by protecting itself from the outside world. This cliché of isolation, perpetuated by colonial and nationalist interpretations, continues to have a significant impact on the historiography of modern Morocco. This historiography is characterised by a certain isolation and is far removed from recent reflections on methodology within the discipline. This special issue aims to contribute to opening up Morocco's modern history by treating it as an open field of research. It brings together studies from Morocco and elsewhere that examine the various incoming and outgoing flows connecting the country to the rest of the world between the 19th and 21st centuries. Without exaggerating the importance of these connections, the articles question the primacy of the national framework as a scale of analysis. They demonstrate how people, ideas, and objects adapt to constraints, whether geographical, political, colonial, postcolonial, economic, or cultural, and how these exchanges contribute to the development of modern Morocco.

Image: An 18th-century Moroccan embroidery from the Azemmour region, whose stylistic motifs are very similar to those found in embroideries from Assisi (Italy) and Spain. Band (Morocco); linen and silk; H x W: 187 x 24 cm (6 ft. 1 5/8 in. x 9 7/16 in.); 1954-108-1. Collection Cooper Hewitt.