Note
Studied by 13 people
8 Notes on Tazmamart Prison and the Evolution of Historical Memory el gaubi
Cette asking for rehabillartaion
1999 already helped
for fiction
Ben Jelloun’s novel Cette aveuglante absence de lumière Inspired by Aziz Bine Bine Tahar.
still revevant today: By separating from specificity and entering abstraction it is more impactful. However, twenty years aft er its publication, Cette aveuglante has outlived many of those individual embodied other- archives, which are mostly out of print, and continues to renew relevance in a world where human rights violations are on the rise.
allows it to go beyond morroco, embodied other is other to other, affirming, fiction goes beyond, pentrating another genre that is global. translation into a more global semantics of memory.
how in penetrating a more global level of emotionality does it evoke emotionality in a way that does not lead to compassion fatigue.
taking a consequentialist point of view, whatever impacts the most people even if a few are harmed .
Similarly to Uḍmīn, Jeda mus renders the darkness of Tazmamart. Jedamus’s “Two Ghazals” depicts the same vicious circle of lack of light and eternal darkness:
Night everlasting, night unfallen:
You drew it round you, a river swollen.157
As these poetic examples reveal, Tazmamart has become a multi-
genre and multilingual other- archive that one can encounter anywhere and
in any form. All one needs to do is pay attention to the word Tazmamart.
Do they compete? “Th e two are coessential, rather than contradictory.”Guabli, other leads to fiction
who does it belong to? Tazmamart itself is alive. The place is alive:Although both the victims’ families and the state would have preferred to relocate the bodies, it seems as though,
ironically, the locale is jealously clinging to its own memory.
Ṭāʼir azraq summarizes 7 memoirs into a story of both civilians and soldiers in one detention center in southeast Morocco. As a result, the Aziz of Ṭāʼir azraq is not one person—he is multiple people. His composite character
reveals fi ctionalized other- archives’ unlimited potential to transform scandal-
ous and embodied other- archives into a generative history. diff erent social, political, and ethnic strataiverse tales of state violence during the repressive Years of Lea
“a coherent narrative about a dizzying hodgepodge of archival materials.”
the distinction between lived experience, which remains inherently unique and individual, and its fictionalization, which transforms the individual experience into public property—so long as the literary outcomes serve to archive and historicize violations of human rights. Tazmamart is therefore resignifi ed to be about the nation—not about individual prisoners—which is even more damning to the state’s masterminds of disappearance. fiction translates the invidual experience into public property, allow it to transcend assumed survivor to survivor talk. Penetrates another genre, “incorporated into a global semantics of memory.
In this fiction, fake Jad Jad (a.k.a. Ben Jelloun) the writer explains why he wants to write about fake Aziz’s lived experience. What relates to ethics is much graver than the political aspect. Th is tragedy requires a universal dimension. Limiting it to Moroccan borders only is, in my opinion, very reductive. Tazmamart is a crime against humanity.130
You know, it’s sometimes better to make good use of a lie than to badly use the truth. And, still you confuse, as do many Moroccans, reality and truth.
Analyzes the effects of demanding labor and jarring process required by both giving and receiving testimony—a process throughout which both the giver and the recipient may oft entimes incur deep personal damag
Marzouki’s testimonial, Tazmamart: Cellule 10, demonstrates that because such human abuse is impossible to understand, the reality is too horrific to comprehend; therefore the victim turns to the realm of the surreal as a means of survival.
are recollections not only stories we tell ourselves?
to decount fiction for lacking that stark objectivity would be turning away from the poetry, art, theatre it created, are these not also valid in their recounding
collective memory is a fiction in the way it does not represent one story but the template of many. is fiction not simply another variation of language, like how HR talk was used to bring hawaiian woemn justice transnationally?
Aziz remarks that he does not trust “those who reduce the testimonial to an artistic creation” (35)
It would only be the diary of a prisoner which would quickly become banal because you are not a writer, a novelist, a creator. On the contrary, if I write it, with my notoriety it will get better readership . . . let the whole world know what Tazmamart was!)(30–31)
against fiction
Tahar Ben Jelloun comfort of exile in France at a time when it was safe to do so after the Lead Years. Binebine eighteen years in a hole. Others, by the way, stayed forever) (22).
more effectively transmit the severity of the idea of human abuse because their very fictionality reveals universal maxims about human nature. These texts require readers to think about the overarching ideology behind the abuse of human rights.
Introduction to Tazmamart Prison
Denial of Existence: Moroccan official claims that Tazmamart prison is merely a fiction created by detractors of the government.
Survivors' Accounts: Despite denials, 28 survivors emerged in 1991, shedding light on the prison's history.
Cultural Reflection: The experiences of survivors transitioned Tazmamart from a suppressed reality to a focal point of Moroccan cultural and literary memory.
Key Concepts Surrounding Tazmamart
Other-Archives: Classified into three types:
Scandalous Other-Archives: Developed between 1973-1990, these archives aimed to provoke scandal and challenge governmental denial.
Embodied Other-Archives: Emerged post-1999, focused on survivors’ testimonies and their experiences of enforced disappearance.
Fictionalized Other-Archives: Contain literary interpretations of the scandalous and embodied accounts, promoting narratives of collective resistance.
Historical Context of Tazmamart
Failed Coups d'état: Resulted in the establishment of Tazmamart as a site for political repression following two failed attempts to oust King Hassan II in 1971 and 1972.
Legal repercussions: Military trials installed a culture of fear and repression; engaged dislocation of soldiers to Tazmamart, erasing their existence outside the laws.
The Role of Activists and Survivors
Key Activists: Individuals such as Christine Daure-Serfaty advocated for Tazmamart prisoners, mobilizing actions and disclosures against the state's denial.
Whistleblower Strategy: Smuggling letters and testimonies from prisoners contributed to unraveling the truth about Tazmamart.
The Impact of Scandalous Other-Archives
Public Awareness: Activists, through scandal-focused narratives, aimed to embarrass the Moroccan state, transforming Tazmamart into a known issue.
Media Influence: Publications, such as Gilles Perrault's Notre ami le roi, catalyzed international exposure of human rights violations.
Collective Memory: Survivors’ contributions unearth individual and collective trauma through written history.
Emergence of Embodied Other-Archives
Survivor Testimonies: Personal accounts and memoirs outlining direct experiences inform the narratives.
Examples of Texts: Raïss's Min Skhirāt ilā Tazmamart, Marzouki’s Tazmamart: Cellule 10, embody survivors' voices.
Fictionalized Other-Archives and Literary Responses
Literary Works: Include novels like Cette aveuglante absence de lumière by Tahar Ben Jelloun and Rapt de voix by Belkassem Belouchi.
Cultural Resonance: These works create a broader understanding of enforced disappearance, merging collective experiences into literary explorations.
Ethical Concerns: The appropriation of survivor stories raises questions regarding authenticity and representation in literature.
Interconnectedness and Transnational Relevance
Global Circulation: Fictionalized narratives extend beyond Moroccan borders, linking Tazmamart to wider discourses of human rights.
Poetic Expressions: Reflection in poetry by various authors also illustrates Tazmamart's profound impact on memory and identity.
Conclusion
Evolution of Historical Narrative: The transformation initiated by scandalous and embodied narratives culminates in an ongoing dialogue regarding Moroccan history, memory, and justice.
Continuing Legacy: The narrative of Tazmamart remains a crucial element of individuals' and Morocco’s collective consciousness as it embodies the struggle against enforced disappearances and state violence.
Essay Title: Bearing Witness and Reclaiming Memory: Tazmamart Prison through Scandal, Testimony, and Literary Resistance
Thesis Statement:
The narrative of Tazmamart Prison—once erased by the Moroccan state—is reclaimed through the acts of bearing witness by survivors, activists, and artists. Drawing from classroom discussion and ethnographic material, this essay explores how the scandalous, embodied, and fictionalized “other-archives” surrounding Tazmamart expose the mechanisms of denial, create collective memory, and raise ethical questions about representation in human rights discourse.
I. The Power of Denial and the Creation of Scandalous Archives
Key Argument:
State denial of Tazmamart's existence necessitated a strategy of public scandal to bring the prison into public consciousness.
As discussed in the lecture, visibility is the first battle in confronting state violence.
Moroccan officials’ denial that Tazmamart existed mirrors how survivors were rendered invisible—released prisoners were treated with suspicion rather than sympathy.
In class, the instructor emphasized how being a political prisoner was not publicly legible as victimhood until scandals and testimonies redefined their identities.
The scandalous other-archives (1973–1990)—letters, leaks, and activist efforts—created pressure points to crack open official silence.
Example: Whistleblowers smuggled letters and secret testimonies out of the prison to international audiences.
Christine Daure-Serfaty and Gilles Perrault’s book Notre ami le roi are key agents in transforming private suffering into global scandal.
II. Embodied Witnessing and the Rise of Survivor Testimony
Key Argument:
Survivor narratives form the embodied other-archives, making political violence both visible and personal, and constructing a new language of rights through memory.
The lecture emphasized the idea that bearing witness re-signifies the survivor, transforming them from forgotten or criminalized bodies into moral subjects.
testimony fosters collective memory, shifting the narrative from shame to shared resistance.
Memoirs like Marzouki’s Tazmamart: Cellule 10 and Raïss's Min Skhirāt ilā Tazmamart are not just autobiographical—they document the emotional, bodily experience of violence.
The instructor compared this to the public serialization of testimony in newspapers, which helped national audiences collectively process what had been silenced.
These accounts form the basis of what Stephen Hopgood calls “bearing witness”—a moral ethos central to human rights.
III. Literary Approaches and Fictionalized Other-Archives
Key Argument:
Fictional works inspired by Tazmamart expand the reach of testimony but also raise ethical concerns regarding authenticity and appropriation.
Lecture discussion affirmed that fictional narratives can act as collective witnessing, even if they are not strictly factual.
Works like Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Cette aveuglante absence de lumière and Belkassem Belouchi’s Rapt de voix fictionalize real events to reach broader audiences.
These fictionalized other-archives contribute to cultural memory and resistance, shaping national tropes around suffering and survival.
However, as discussed in class, these texts must navigate questions of representation, ownership, and trauma commodification.
Tazmamart is therefore resignified to be about the nation—not about individual prisoners—which is even more damning to the state’s masterminds of disappearance. 143
gametogenesis—a constant process ofprocreative multiplication, which transfers the genetic traits of the original fi rsthand accounts into stories that resignify a collective experience of stateViolence 149
Who gets to tell the story?
How is pain rendered meaningful in art without erasing its lived reality?
IV. From Local Trauma to Global Discourse: Transnational Implications
Key Argument:
The story of Tazmamart has transcended Moroccan borders, influencing international human rights narratives and linking to other global struggles against state violence.
As students noted, fictionalized accounts circulate globally, integrating Tazmamart into the wider landscape of human rights violations.
Instructor emphasized the necessity of an audience—without public reception, witnessing cannot enact change.
Tazmamart’s transformation from silence to scandal to symbol mirrors global patterns seen in Argentina’s desaparecidos, Syria, and U.S. detention practices.
Students related these lessons to their own activist experiences on campus—emphasizing media, storytelling, and digital anonymity as new forms of witnessing.
V. The Limits and Legacy of Witnessing
Key Argument:
While bearing witness is powerful, it is also fraught—its efficacy depends on reception, repetition, and risk. Still, it remains essential to justice.
Instructor and students questioned the limits of witnessing:
Can visibility alone ensure justice?
What about cases where suffering isn’t “visible” or documentable?
These concerns align with Hopgood’s critique: witnessing may be necessary, but not sufficient, for meaningful human rights change.
The ongoing relevance of Tazmamart lies not just in historical remembrance but in its warning: that state violence thrives on silence, and its exposure requires courage, repetition, and community.
Conclusion
The layered responses to Tazmamart—scandalous exposés, embodied testimonies, and literary reimaginings—highlight the evolving nature of human rights witnessing in Morocco. These archives challenge denial, reshape identities, and bridge personal pain with national and global memory. While not without ethical complexities, the act of witnessing remains a vital tool in the struggle against state violence, and Tazmamart stands as both a wound and a warning in the ongoing fight for justice.
State violence moroco
Segment 2: Human Rights Language as a Tool for Action
Thesis: Human rights discourse transforms private experiences of violence into public calls for justice and visibility.
One student explains that in "Embodied in Other Archives", the language of human rights is key in creating action. Violence becomes mobilized through being translated into legal and moral terms.
Human rights language gives legitimacy and urgency to individual and collective pain.
The act of using this discourse challenges the silence and invisibility imposed by state violence.
Another student adds: the goal is not just to recount trauma, but to make histories and people visible again — survivors, dissidents, and political prisoners who were previously erased.
Segment 3: Visibility, Memory, and Recognition
Thesis: The construction of visibility is not only about showing victims but re-narrating and reclaiming identities lost to state violence.
Instructor recalls conversations with Sahrawi prisoners. After release, many were seen as criminals or “strange,” even though they were victims of political repression.
There’s a clear distinction between being seen as formerly incarcerated versus survivors of state violence.
Reclaiming public visibility and legitimacy becomes part of political recovery.
This process of reclaiming history is not just remembering—it’s renaming, resignifying, and re-situating.
Segment 4: Collective Memory and National Narrative
Thesis: Through acts of storytelling and memorialization, personal trauma is collectivized, forming the basis for national consciousness and shared memory.
A student compares Morocco with Argentina’s memory politics, where testimony and narrative help build collective memory around “the disappeared.”
Human rights discourse becomes a mode of saying, “This is what happened—and this is who I am.”
These memory practices counter state embarrassment or denial of past atrocities.
Instructor affirms: the act of witnessing and recounting makes hidden histories visible again, often by creating collective subject positions.
Segment 5: The Role of Storytelling in Collective Witnessing
Thesis: Shared narratives, whether fictionalized or factual, form a tapestry of national identity, bearing witness to state violence from multiple angles.
Reference made to the beginning of “Making Tazmamart”, which describes how serialized stories of survivors in socialist newspapers awakened public memory around political disappearances.
Instructor notes how witnessing doesn't always mean seeing state violence directly; it often means recognizing its effects—disappearances, absences, and silences.
One student mentions that testimony often gives rise to more testimony—stories told in different forms create a generative archive.
Instructor adds that this aligns with El Guabli’s idea of “resignification” — the transformation of erasure into a visible, repeatable narrative act.
Segment 6: Fiction, Testimony, and Tropes
Thesis: Fictionalized forms like novels participate in witnessing by building national tropes that carry historical weight, even if not strictly factual.
Instructor emphasizes that Slyomovics and El Guabli are not just documenting facts, but showing how a shared public consciousness is formed.
National narratives arise not just from diaries and direct testimony but from fictionalized, composite stories.
These fictionalized narratives act as collective fables—they aren’t merely personal but emblematic of shared trauma.
The aim is not historical accuracy alone but resignification: turning fearful silence into empowered repetition.
Segment 7: Witnessing and the Construction of Violations
Thesis: Human rights violations are not discovered but constructed—through documentation, audience engagement, and public witnessing.
Painstaking documentation of “objective facts” (e.g., through Amnesty International) is foundational to human rights activism.
The legalistic model presumes that showing enough truth will compel the world to act—but this is also a performance.
Instructor shifts to ask: What is the object of witnessing? It’s not just violence, but also its absence, its aftermath, and its silences.
Human rights documentaries often center physical evidence—scars, torture marks—while still dealing with absence (e.g., destroyed homes, ghostly traces of repression).
Segment 8: Tensions Between Local and International Frameworks
Thesis: National memory projects often intersect with transnational human rights frameworks but retain culturally specific modes of remembering.
Instructor references Moroccan practices like the Houlka, vikira, and uhabin (local memorials) mixing with international human rights rituals.
A student asks how organizations like Amnesty International shape collective memory—what are they amplifying or filtering?
While the Moroccan context is heavily national, global human rights NGOs still affect how stories are told and which are deemed legitimate.
Segment 9: Human Rights, Culture, and the Need for Audience
Thesis: Human rights are not inherent—they are learned, cultural frameworks that require an audience to function meaningfully.
Instructor reflects that human rights operate like culture: learned, shared, constructed.
Violations are not found—they are made, through audience attention and media amplification.
Without an audience, human rights claims risk being ineffectual, no matter how well-documented.
Emphasis placed on publicity and storytelling as tools to create a human rights “culture.”
Segment 10: Application to Contemporary U.S. Political Climate
Thesis: The conversation shifts to ICE detentions, protest suppression, and erosion of civil liberties in the U.S., drawing parallels to earlier themes of erasure and silencing.
Students express concern over arbitrary ICE detentions of legal residents, including those with green cards.
Specific case raised: Mahmoud Khalil, detained and potentially deported under national security claims with no clear evidence.
Comparisons made to post-9/11 expansions of state power (e.g., Patriot Act, ICE formation).
A student draws connections between current U.S. policies and Hannah Arendt’s writings on statelessness and denaturalization.
Segment 11: Rights, Protest, and Tactics on Campus
Thesis: Students debate how to resist suppression of protest rights on campus, offering strategies for organizing in hostile environments.
Students discuss NYU's crackdown on protests and suspensions for Palestine-related demonstrations.
Advice shared on using personal emails instead of university accounts, creating media or art as protest.
Emphasis placed on “tactical awareness” rather than giving up—recognizing surveillance and responding creatively.
Segment 12: Firsthand Activist Testimonies
Thesis: Students working in legal and advocacy fields share their dual perspectives as both students and professionals under a repressive system.
A student from Youth Justice Network reports ICE presence at Rikers and youth detention centers.
Another shares concerns about undocumented clients at a legal aid clinic.
Fears raised about digital surveillance and eroding protections for activists.
Segment 13: Global Disillusionment and Hope
Thesis: International students reflect on how the U.S.'s withdrawal from human rights institutions marks a fall from grace, but still leaves room for resistance.
A student from Angola describes the disillusionment of seeing the U.S. act like a dictatorship from abroad.
Notes on how the U.S. once modeled democratic values but is now retreating from WHO, UN Human Rights Council, etc.
Instructor calls this a “post-human rights” moment—a collapse in global governance faith, yet not without opportunities for local mobilization.
ESSAY
In his ethnography of Amnesty International, Stephen Hopgood argues that “bearing witness” was central to the influential NGO’s ethos:
“Of the trajectories possible for the newly-formed Amnesty in 1961, it was the moral rather than the political that prevailed, the practical result of which was the ethos and an operational culture that embraced the idea of bearing witness.” (Hopgood 2006, 14)
Why is “witnessing” so important to human rights activism in Morocco? How do the studies concerning human rights activism in Morocco contribute to further understanding the practice and significance of “bearing witness”? Do you see any limitations to the act of witnessing serving an integral role in human rights practice?
Thesis:
In the Moroccan context, witnessing is essential to human rights activism because it enables the transformation of silenced suffering into collective memory, challenges state-imposed erasure, and facilitates the resignification of political identities. However, while bearing witness can be generative and empowering, it also faces limitations due to its reliance on visibility, audience reception, and legal frameworks that may not always serve justice.
I. Witnessing as a Moral Ethos and Cultural Practice
A. Hopgood’s argument:
Stephen Hopgood (2006) describes "bearing witness" as central to Amnesty International's moral orientation rather than political agenda.
It anchors human rights work in documentation, observation, and the public exposure of suffering.
B. Moroccan case as embodiment of this ethos:
Brahim El Guabli and Susan Slyomovics show how witnessing helps reclaim erased histories of political imprisonment and torture during the Years of Lead.
Serialization of testimonies (e.g., in Making Tazmamart) provided a cultural and political entry point for public engagement.
“Serialization of a Tazmamart survivor in a socialist daily newspaper created public curiosity and catalyzed collective memory.”
II. Witnessing as Visibility and Resignification
A. From disappearance to visibility:
Witnessing transforms the disappeared into recognized victims of state violence.
Slyomovics shows how formerly imprisoned individuals were perceived as “strange” or criminal until their experiences were publicly shared.
Public storytelling and memory work redefine these individuals not as criminals but as survivors and political subjects.
B. Creation of collective memory:
Repetition of testimonial forms (memoirs, diaries, novels) builds a national narrative.
Students in class compared this to Argentina’s Disappeared, showing the global relevance of collective memory formation.
Fictionalized accounts, while not literally factual, function as collective witnessing, producing “national tropes” of trauma and survival.
III. Witnessing Requires an Audience and Public Sphere
A. Visibility is necessary but insufficient:
Instructor notes that witnessing depends on an audience to be effective.
Without attention, documentation becomes inert — facts alone do not mobilize justice.
B. Public rituals and symbolic acts:
Moroccan traditions such as the houlka and vikira are localized forms of witnessing, blended with transnational human rights rituals.
These public forms of mourning help bridge personal grief and collective political consciousness.
IV. Witnessing as a Legal and Political Practice
A. Objective documentation:
Amnesty International’s strategy of collecting verified evidence mirrors legal processes, aimed at catalyzing international accountability.
This legalistic model relies on facts to provoke moral outrage and action.
B. Limitations of legal witnessing:
Legal objectivity can obscure structural or invisible violence.
Emphasis on physical injury (e.g., torture scars) privileges certain forms of suffering over others (e.g., psychological, social).
V. Limitations and Challenges of Witnessing
A. Selectivity and exclusion:
Only certain stories are circulated or deemed “credible” enough for the human rights stage.
Reliance on documentary or photographic evidence may marginalize experiences that cannot be easily visualized.
B. Witnessing under surveillance or repression:
Contemporary student accounts at NYU mirror themes from Morocco:
Surveillance, censorship, and the erosion of protest rights limit who can witness and how.
Organizers now rely on digital anonymity, art, or indirect tactics—highlighting that bearing witness can itself be dangerous.
C. The paradox of visibility:
Public exposure can empower, but also retraumatize or commodify suffering.
Witnessing depends on being seen—but also risks becoming spectacle or tokenization.
VI. Conclusion
Human rights activism in Morocco underscores the power of witnessing to transform silenced histories into public knowledge.
The act of bearing witness—through testimonies, storytelling, and cultural rituals—enables resignification and collective memory.
Yet, its impact depends on reception, context, and political conditions, reminding us that visibility alone is not liberation.
As both Morocco and the U.S. demonstrate, bearing witness must be accompanied by structural change and protection for those who dare to speak.