Over the last century, the Moroccan Government has confirmed the recovery of almost 4 million historical documents from the colonial era.
The Government indicated in its memorandum to the 2023 draft finance bill having restored more than 3 million and 952,000 documents from 2008 to late June, out of the 20 million documents abroad, dating back to the French and Spanish colonial period of the last century.
In the submitted memorandum, the Government said it would continue the national archives recovery plan from the colonial era, which was launched 12 years ago to “preserve the historical memory and glory of the national struggle and disseminate the values of patriotism.”
In the same context, the memorandum also highlighted that the Moroccan Government would contribute to constructing and equipping “cultural spaces of resistance,” the construction of memorial monuments, and the preparation of martyrs’ graves to publicize symbols of national resistance against colonialism.
The Government will also work on publishing literature and magazines related to the history of Morocco’s resistance, indicating that the number of literature and magazines that are already published or in the process of publication has reached 59.
Looking back at the beginning of this year, Morocco called on the French authorities to retrieve the archives of Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi, Moroccan’s most prominent resistant, through a written memorandum the National Council of Human Rights addressed to the French diplomatic archives of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
It should be noted that Morocco launched the “Morocco Archives” public institution in 2007, entrusted with the tasks of safeguarding the heritage of the national archives, collecting, processing, preserving, and facilitating access to sources of the archives related to Morocco located abroad.