The 1948 mallah of Casablanca: viewing Moroccan (trans)national sentiment through juvenile trauma

Abstract

Based on an unpublished memoir about the life of a seven-year-old Moroccan Jewish child in the 1940s in the mallah (Jewish quarter) of Casablanca, this article examines the traumatic dimension of a child’s memory vis-à -vis the precarious social milieu and the instability of the political street at the time. The article draws a parallel between the deterioration of the protagonist’s mental and physical health during 1948 and political and social events relating to the formation of Moroccan national sentiment in Casablanca. It details the contradiction between the official narrative and the ‘homey narrative’, the impact of news and rumours about the war in Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel, and how the formation of a (trans)national politico-religious sentiments among the Jews of Casablanca and Purim festivities coincided with all these events and reflected their uncertainty. The protagonist’s mental ‘crisis’ is analysed through concepts used in Deleuze and Guattari’s...