Counter-Archives of the Rif: Contemporary Art, Memory, and Resistance between Morocco and the Netherlands

This paper examines artistic practices from and about Morocco’s northern Rif region that engage with its turbulent history, marked by colonial chemical warfare, post-independence repression, and massive emigration to Europe. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with Riffian Amazigh (Berber) artists in Morocco and the Netherlands, I argue that their art - particularly in the forms of painting, music, and film - serves not only as a means of nostalgic memory work, but also as a counter-archive (Brusius 2023) in the face of undisclosed historical documentation sitting in colonial archives. Using Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s critical work (1995), which posits that narratives of the past are often manipulated by those in power but still hold potential for resistance, I analyze these artistic expressions, alongside the more recent work of forensic architecture (Fuller & Weizman 2021), as alternative historical accounts that address the region's violent past and its lingering effects, challenging official narratives that seek to silence this history. At the same time, these artworks and their transnational circulation construct a distinct Riffian identity, that transcends the geographical boundaries of the region, with themes of marginalization, misrecognition, and resistance at the heart of these artworks, which can be adopted by Riffians living in different contexts.