The intellectual aszatat: the public sphere, the state, and the field of contentious politics in Morocco

Taking cue from Abdelahad Sebti's study of the social history of thezatat(& x632;& x637;& x64e;& x627; & x637;& x64e;) (the escort who in precolonial Morocco was hired to protect travellers from highway robbers and thieves), this paper attempts, in the words of Edward Said (1996.Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures. New York: Vintage Books, XV), a 'coherent description' of the vocation of the Moroccan intellectual in a public sphere characterised by a crisis in hegemony and public distrust of institutional politics. I argue that the Moroccan intellectual tends to avoid engagement with radical politics that aim to create social disorder (al-siba) or unrest (fitna), and embraces instead hybrid approaches that alternate resilience and resistance, dissent and compromise, critique of thea'mma(the general public) and state politics, and advocacy for endogenous 'reforms from within' over drastic social change. In this, the intellectual emulates the role of thezatatin that they see their function as a road architect, social navigation engineer, and a link in a plural and contesting social and political organisation. The paper uses thehirakmovement in northern Morocco as a case study to illustrate the role of the intellectual as a mediator of social contention. While there are different ways to 'speak the truth to power', confrontation has been the least favoured style of the Moroccan intellectual who has generally conceived of their role as a facilitator of social peace rather than an instigator of revolt.