In the Shadow of the Eiffel Tower: Advocating for Moroccan Independence in Post-World War II France

Transnational topics have experienced a noticeable boom in Middle East and North African studies in recent years, but this trend has largely bypassed the study of nationalism in the region. My paper addresses this issue with regard to the Moroccan struggle for independence, which occurred in equal parts at home and abroad. Following the end of World War II, the activists of the Istiqlal (Independence) Party opened an official bureau in Paris, from which they organized a publicity campaign in order to influence French public opinion. Through newsletters, press conferences, and personal encounters, they convinced Nobel Laureate François Mauriac, academic Charles-André Julien, politician François Mitterrand, and many other influential public figures to support their demands for independence.

I argue that the Istiqlal’s propaganda campaign increased the public pressure on the French government to relinquish its Protectorate and thereby contributed to its decision to grant Morocco’s independence in 1956. Rather than limiting its anti-colonial struggle to North Africa, the Istiqlal understood the importance of reaching out across the Mediterranean in order combat the colonizers in the fields of ideas and arguments inside the metropole. The fact that several prominent nationalists regularly traveled to the French capital to support the staff of the Bureau du Parti de l’Istiqlal, further underlines the importance that the party leadership ascribed to the campaign in Paris. In conclusion, this project analyzes the complex interplay between the colony and metropole as sites of nationalist agitation, demonstrating how the Moroccans used the political freedoms available to them only inside Europe in order to challenge their status as colonial subjects abroad.